Wolpe Stefan Wolpe

Stefan Wolpe (August 25, 1902 – April 4, 1972) was a German-born composer.

Life

Wolpe was born in Berlin. He attended the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory from the age of fourteen, and the Berlin Hochschule für Musik in 1920–21. He studied composition under Franz Schreker and was also a pupil of Ferruccio Busoni. He also studied at the Bauhaus and met some of the dadaists, setting Kurt Schwitters's poem An Anna Blume to music.

In 1928, Wolpe's first opera, Zeus und Elida, premiered in Berlin. This soon was followed by two more operas in 1929, Schöne Geschichten and Anna Blume. The music Wolpe was writing between 1929 and 1933 was dissonant, using Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique. However, possibly influenced by Paul Hindemith's concept of Gebrauchsmusik (music that serves a social function), and as an avid socialist, he wrote a number of pieces for workers' unions and communist theatre groups. For these, he made his style more accessible, incorporating elements of jazz and popular music. His songs became popular, rivaling those of Hanns Eisler.

When the Nazis came to power in Germany, Wolpe, a Jew and a convinced communist, fled the country, passing through Romania and Russia en route to Austria in 1933–34, where he met and studied with Anton Webern. He later moved to Palestine in 1934–38, where he wrote simple songs for the kibbutzim. The music he was writing for concert performance, however, remained complex and atonal. Partly because of this, his teaching contract with the Palestine Conservatoire was not renewed for the 1938–39 school year.

In 1938, Wolpe moved to New York City in the United States of America. There, during the fifties, he associated with the abstract expressionist painters. He was introduced to them by his wife, the poet Hilda Morley. From 1952 to 1956 he was director of music at Black Mountain College. On January 24, 1956, he was appointed to the faculty at the C.W. Post College of Long Island University in Brookville, New York. He also lectured at the summer schools in Darmstadt in Germany. His pupils included Jack Behrens, Herbert Brün, Morton Feldman, Matthew Greenbaum, John Carisi, M. William Karlins, Gil Evans, George Russell, Robert D. Levin, Boyd McDonald, Ralph Shapey, Netty Simons, and David Tudor.

His works from this time sometimes used the twelve-tone technique, were sometimes diatonic, were sometimes based on the Arabic scales (such as maqam saba) he had heard in Palestine and sometimes employed some other method of tonal organisation. His work was radical, but avoided the punctualism of composers such as Pierre Boulez (in his works of 1951–53), instead employing more conventionally expressive gestures.

Wolpe developed Parkinson's disease in 1964, and died in New York City in 1972. Elliott Carter commemorated Wolpe with the following comment: "Comet-like radiance, conviction, fervent intensity, penetrating thought on many levels of seriousness and humor, combined with breathtaking adventurousness and originality, marked the inner and outer life of Stefan Wolpe, as they do his compositions."

Music

Elliott Carter has said of Wolpe's music that, "he does everything wrong and it comes out right."

For a complete list of works, see Wolpe.org Works List.

Chamber Works

• Blues, large mixed ensemble
• Chamber Piece No. 1, chamber orchestra
• Chamber Piece No. 2, chamber orchestra
• Duo fur Zwei Geigen, violin duo
• From Here On Farther, mixed quartet
• Musik zu Hamlet, flute, clarinet and violoncello
• Piece For Oboe, Cello, Percussion, and Piano
• Piece for Two Instrumental Units, large mixed ensemble
• Piece in Three Parts for Piano and Sixteen Instruments
• Quartet for Trumpet, Tenor Saxophone, Percussion and Piano
• Seven Pieces for Three Pianos
• String Quartet
• Three Short Canons, viola and violoncello
• Three Studies from Music for Any Instruments, large mixed ensemble
• Trio in Two Parts, flute, violoncello and piano

Orchestral Works

• Passacaglia for Large Orchestra
• Symphony No. 1
• Zwei Studien fur Grosses Orchester

Vocal Works

• An Anna Blume von Kurt Schwitters for piano and musical clown, high voice
• Cantata, medium voice and ensemble
• Decret No. 2 'An die Armee der Kunstler' , high voice
• Drei Lieder nach Bertolt Brecht, medium voice
• Drei Lieder nach Heinrich von Kleist, high voice
• Four Pieces for Mixed Chorus
• Fünf Lieder nach Friedrich Holderlin, medium or low voice
• Fünf Vertonungen aus "Gitanjali" von Rabindranath Tagore, medium voice
• Lieder mit Klavierbegleitung, various vocal ranges in one collection
• Music for the Theater, medium voice
• Psalm 64 and Isaiah Chapter 35, high voice
• Quintet with Voice, low voice
• Songs (1955–61), medium voice
• Street Music, low voice and ensemble
• Two Chinese Epitaphs, op. 25, mixed chorus
• Yigdal Cantata, low voice/mixed chorus and ensemble
• Zwei Lieder aus Gedichte von Berthold Viertel, medium voice

Piano Works

• Battle Piece (1942–1943, 1947)
• Enactments for Three Pianos
• Form (1959)
• Klaviermusik 1920-1929
• Leichte Klaviermusik aus Aller Welt: Israel
• March and Variations for Two Pianos
• Music for a Dancer
• Music for Any Instruments, Vol. I
• Piano Music 1939 - 1942
• Sechs Klavierstucke (1920-1929), Vol. 1
• Sechs Marche
• Sonate Nr. 1 "Stehende Musik"
• Toccata in Three Parts for Piano
• Waltz for Merle

Opera

• Schoene Geschichten
• Zeus und Elida: A Musical Grotesque