Stefan Wolpe

Stefan Wolpe(25 August 1902, Berlin – 4 April 1972, New York City) was a German-born American composer. He was associated with interdisciplinary modernism, with affiliations ranging from the Bauhaus, Berlin agitprop theater and the kibbutz movement to the Eighth Street Artists' Club,Black Mountain College,and theDarmstadt Summer Coursesfor New Music. He lived and worked in Berlin (1902–1933) until the Nazi seizure of power forced him to move first to Vienna (1933–34) and Jerusalem (1934–38) before settling in New York City (1938–72). In works such asBattle Piece(1942/1947) and "In a State of Flight" inEnactments for Three Pianos(1953), he responded self-consciously to the circumstances of his uprooted life, a theme he also explored extensively in voluminous diaries, correspondence, and lectures. His densely eclectic music absorbed ideas and idioms from diverse artistic milieus, including post-tonality, bebop, and Arab classical musics.^[1]

Life

Wolpe was born in Berlin to Jewish parents. He attended theKlindworth-Scharwenka Conservatoryfrom the age of fourteen, and for one semester the State Academic College of Music in Berlin (currently:Berlin University of the Arts).^[2]He studied composition underFranz Schrekerand was also a pupil ofFerruccio Busoni.He also studied at theBauhauscirca 1923,^[3]and met some of thedadaists,settingKurt Schwitters's poemAn Anna Blumeto music.

Stefan and Ola Wolpe in 1927

In 1928, Wolpe's first opera,Zeus und Elida,premiered in Berlin. This soon was followed by two more operas in 1929,Schöne GeschichtenandAnna Blume.^[4]In 1927, he married the artist Ola Okuniewska fromCzechoslovakiaand their daughter,Katharina Wolpewas born in 1931 but the couple had separated. His wife escaped to London in 1938, but his daughter was a de facto orphan in Berne during the war.^[5]

The music Wolpe was writing between 1929 and 1933 was dissonant, usingArnold Schoenberg'stwelve-tone technique.However, possibly influenced byPaul Hindemith's concept ofGebrauchsmusik(music that serves a social function), and as an avidsocialist,he wrote a number of pieces for workers' unions andcommunisttheatre groups. For these, he made his style more accessible, incorporating elements ofjazzandpopular music.

When theNaziscame to power in Germany, Wolpe, a Jew and acommunist,fled the country, first to his sister in Czechoslovakia, and then to Zurich. After a brief visit to the Soviet Union, Wolpfe continued for a shot stay in Vienna to in 1933, where he met and studied withAnton Webern.With his partner,Irma Schoenberghe then moved to Romania and shortly afterwards toPalestine,where he wrote simple songs for thekibbutzim,and sought to create an amalgam of Western, Mizarhi and Arab influences.^[6]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.^[7]

In 1938, Wolpe moved to New York City.^[8]In 1945 he became an American citizen and started teaching at the Brooklyn School of Music.^[2]He briefly met his daughter in London in 1946.^[5]There, during the fifties, he associated with theabstract expressionistpainters. He was introduced to them by his third wife, the poetHilda Morley.From 1952 to 1956 he was director of music atBlack Mountain College.Some of his most important compositions were written here, including “Symphony for Twenty Four Instruments” and “Enactments for Three Pianos”.

In 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 inDarmstadtin Germany. His pupils includedJack Behrens,Herbert Brün,Morton Feldman,David Tudor,Matthew Greenbaum,John Carisi,M. William Karlins,Gil Evans,George Russell,Robert D. Levin,Boyd McDonald,Ralph Shapey,Ursula Mamlok,Netty Simons,andBeatrice Witkin.

His works from this time sometimes used the twelve-tone technique, were sometimesdiatonic,were sometimes based on the Arabic scales (such asmaqam saba) he had heard in Palestine and sometimes employed some other method of tonal organisation.^[9]

In 1971, Wolpe completed his last composition, "Piece for Trumpet and Seven Instruments" for the trumpeter Ronald Anderson. Wolpe developedParkinson's diseasein 1964, and died in New York City in 1972.

Music

Elliott Cartersaid of Wolpe's music that, "he does everything wrong and it comes out right."^[10]

References

^Cohen, Brigid (2012).Stefan Wolpe and the Avant-Garde Diaspora.Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-1-107-00300-2.
^^a ^b"Stefan Wolpe, at the Lexicon of Persecuted Musicians of the Nazi Period, hosted by the University of Hamburg".lexm.uni-hamburg.de.Retrieved2024-01-25.
^Hayward, James (liner notes):Bauhaus Reviewed, 1919–1933(Norfolk, UK: LTM [Les Temps Modernes] Recordings, 2007.) LTM-CD 2472.ISBN 978-0-9554335-4-2.
^"Opera Composers: W"Opera Glass.
^^a ^b"Katharina Wolpe obituary".The Guardian.2013-02-22.Retrieved2020-06-19.
^Brigid Cohen, ' "Amalgamted' Musics and National Visions in 1930s Palestine", inStefan Wolpe and the Avant-Garde Diaspora(Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp. 140-201. See also Ronit Seter, "Israelism: Nationalism, Orientalism, and the Israeli Five",The Musical Quarterly97/2 (Summer 2014), p. 243.
^Cohen, Brigid (2012).Stefan Wolpe and the Avant-Garde Diaspora.Cambridge University Press. pp. 183–186.
^Bianchi, Carlo (2015)."The Meaning(s) of Chaos a Semiosis of Stefan Wolpe's Battlepiece".Philomusica On-Line.1(14): 309–377.
^"Classical Net - Basic Repertoire List - Wolpe".Classical Net.Retrieved2024-06-21.
^Schiff, David (1998).The Music of Elliott Carter,p.146.ISBN 978-0-8014-3612-3.

External links

The Stefan Wolpe Society
Peermusic Classical: Stefan WolpeComposer's Publisher and Biography
Discography
Thomas Phleps: Stefan Wolpe – Eine Einführung
Thomas Phleps: Stefan Wolpes politische Musik
Thomas Phleps:Schöne GeschichtenundZeus und Elida– Zwei Opern von Stefan Wolpe
Literature by and about Stefan Wolpein theGerman National Librarycatalogue
Stefan Wolpe
Recollections of Stefan Wolpe by former students and friends, Edited by Austin Clarkson Archived2012-01-23 at theWayback Machine
Carol Baron research files on Stefan Wolpe, 1933–1976, 2009Music Division, The New York Public Library.
Recollections of Stefan Wolpe by M. William Karlins,August 17, 1992

Listening

Starr Auditorium, Tate Modern: The Music of Stefan Wolpe(The evening's performers were pianist Nicolas Hodges and violinistMieko Kanno.Leading Wolpe scholar Austin Clarkson and concert pianistKatharina Wolpe,the composer's daughter, took part in the discussion)
Art of the States: Stefan Wolpethree works by the composer

[1] Cohen, Brigid (2012).Stefan Wolpe and the Avant-Garde Diaspora.Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-1-107-00300-2.

[:1-2] "Stefan Wolpe, at the Lexicon of Persecuted Musicians of the Nazi Period, hosted by the University of Hamburg".lexm.uni-hamburg.de.Retrieved2024-01-25.

[3] Hayward, James (liner notes):Bauhaus Reviewed, 1919–1933(Norfolk, UK: LTM [Les Temps Modernes] Recordings, 2007.) LTM-CD 2472.ISBN 978-0-9554335-4-2.

[4] "Opera Composers: W"Opera Glass.

[:0-5] "Katharina Wolpe obituary".The Guardian.2013-02-22.Retrieved2020-06-19.

[6] Brigid Cohen, ' "Amalgamted' Musics and National Visions in 1930s Palestine", inStefan Wolpe and the Avant-Garde Diaspora(Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp. 140-201. See also Ronit Seter, "Israelism: Nationalism, Orientalism, and the Israeli Five",The Musical Quarterly97/2 (Summer 2014), p. 243.

[7] Cohen, Brigid (2012).Stefan Wolpe and the Avant-Garde Diaspora.Cambridge University Press. pp. 183–186.

[8] Bianchi, Carlo (2015)."The Meaning(s) of Chaos a Semiosis of Stefan Wolpe's Battlepiece".Philomusica On-Line.1(14): 309–377.

[9] "Classical Net - Basic Repertoire List - Wolpe".Classical Net.Retrieved2024-06-21.

[10] Schiff, David (1998).The Music of Elliott Carter,p.146.ISBN 978-0-8014-3612-3.

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