Leon Kirchner 1919-2009 RIP

[pjme]

Leon Kirchner (1919-2009)  
Published: September 17, 2009  



Photo by Lisa Kirchner Courtesy G. Schirmer/AMP

September 17, 2009 – Composer Leon Kirchner died today after a long illness. Among the most honored American composers, Kirchner has been the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize (for his third string quartet), the Naumburg Award (for his first piano concerto), the Friedheim Award (for Music for Cello and Orchestra), and two New York Music Critics' Circle Awards (for his first two string quartets). A student of Ernest Bloch, Roger Sessions, and Arnold Schoenberg, Kirchner was a fiercely independent composer who never adopted the twelve-tone technique although his music was rigorously chromatic and atonal. His compositions include the opera Lily (for which he wrote his own libretto based on Saul Bellow's novel Henderson the Rain King), two piano concertos, concertante works for flute and cello, four string quartets, and two piano trios. A formidable pianist, he also composed numerous works for solo piano including three sonatas. Although not frequently associated with electronic music, his String Quartet No. 3, which includes passages for electronic tape, was the first composition involving electronics to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music. Among the many performers who have championed his music are James Levine and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Yo-Yo Ma, the Orion String Quartet (who have recorded his complete quartets), and the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. Kirchner taught composition for many years at Harvard University where his students included John Adams, David Borden, Curt Cacioppo, Lawrence Moss, Stanley Silverman, Richard Wernick, and the late Jonathan Kramer.—FJO

[bhodges]

Thanks for posting this, Peter.  I came to Kirchner very late--in October of last year, when I heard James Levine and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a new piece, The Forbidden.  (I wrote it up here.)

Then in January, I went to a 90th birthday tribute at Miller Theatre, with some of his chamber works--all very interesting, especially a trio for violin, cello and piano from 1954 (NY Times review here).  At that time, while he didn't appear in the peak of health, he certainly gave no indication of being at all ill.

--Bruce

[snyprrr]

Why Kirchner's '60s SQ No.3 w/tape won the Pulitz???...oh, right...

Honestly, that is some cheezzzeee music, all art house expressionism meets bleep/bloop!...haha... 1967?...

[Cato]

Why Kirchner's '60s SQ No.3 w/tape won the Pulitz???...oh, right...

Honestly, that is some cheezzzeee music, all art house expressionism meets bleep/bloop!...haha... 1967?...

Parallel with the "modern architecture" at the time: it just does not age well!  I heard some of the his works decades ago, but was not very enthused.  I recall giving every avant-garde composer a chance, whose records showed up in the New bin at the library.  Many were of Kirchner's generation.

Andrew Imbrie anyone?  David Van Vactor anyone? Robert Helps?  Anyone?  The latter I recall very well for some reason: the record jacket showed him standing in a very New-York looking street.  He had a goatee and an insouciant glare, the kind found on a beatnik whose  poetry-and-bongo session did not elicit one finger snap down at the coffee-house.  

I believe the record contained one of those 15-minute symphonies which professors cranked out by the dozens after WWII.  

Perhaps I am being too harsh, and should re-listen sometime!   0:)

[Guido]

I'm a real fan of the Triptych for violin and cello (80s) and think the cello concerto for Yo-Yo Ma (mid-90s) is also quite fine. He had a good innings.