Jan Swafford
Jan Swafford(born September 10, 1946) is an American author and composer. He earned hisBachelor of Artsmagna cum laudefromHarvard Collegeand hisM.M.A.andD.M.A.from theYale School of Music.His teachers includedEarl Kimat Harvard,Jacob Druckmanat Yale, andBetsy JolasatTanglewood.[1]He has written respected musical biographies ofCharles Ives,Johannes Brahms,Ludwig van Beethoven,andWolfgang Amadeus Mozartas well as theVintage Guide to Classical Music.He appeared in the award-winning 2018 German documentaryThe Unanswered Ives.
Works[edit]
Swafford has written columns on music and other subjects inSlate,and is heard as a commentator onNPRand theBBC.He is a regular program annotator for orchestras and venues including theBoston Symphony,Cleveland Orchestra,Chicago Symphony,San Francisco Symphony,the Metropolitan Opera, andCarnegie Hall.
His writing honors include a 2012 Deems Taylor Award for internet writing and a Mellon Fellowship at Harvard. His Brahms and Ives biographies were end-of-year Critics' Choices inThe New York Times.The Ives biography was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle award in biography and won the Pen-Winship prize for a book on a New England subject. His biographyBeethoven: Anguish and Triumphin its first week appeared on the New York Times bestseller list.
He has taught at schools includingBoston University,Amherst College,Tufts,andBoston Conservatory.
Swafford's music, which is highly lyrical and moves freely betweentonalityandatonality,has been calledNew Romanticin style.[by whom?]There are equal if less overt contributions fromworld music,especiallyIndianandBalinese,and fromjazzandblues.The titles of his works reveal a steady inspiration from nature and landscape. The composer views his own work as a kind ofclassicism:a concern with clarity, directness, and expression, or as he puts it, "music that sounds familiar though it is new, works that sound like they wrote themselves."[This quote needs a citation]
Notable are hisorchestralworksLandscape with Traveler(1979–80),After Spring Rain(1981–82) andFrom the Shadow of the Mountain(2001), thepiano quintetMidsummer Variations(1985), thepiano quartetThey Who Hunger(1989), and thepiano trioThey That Mourn(2002), the last in memoriam9/11.In 2012cellistRhonda Rider premiered his solo cello workThe Silence at Yuma Point,part of a commissioning project of pieces inspired by theGrand Canyon(where Swafford has been a frequent hiker). His compositional awards include aNational Endowment for the ArtsComposer Grant, two Massachusetts Artists Foundation Fellowships, and a Tanglewood Fellowship. His work is published byPeermusic ClassicalandMeridian Records.
Awards and honors[edit]
- 1997L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award,Charles Ives: A Life With Music
Bibliography[edit]
- Swafford, Jan (1992).The Vintage Guide to Classical Music.New York: Vintage Books.ISBN978-0-679-72805-4.
- Swafford, Jan (1998).Charles Ives: A Life with Music.New York: W. W. Norton & Company.ISBN978-0-393-31719-0.
- Swafford, Jan (1999).Johannes Brahms: A Biography.New York: Vintage Books.ISBN978-0-679-74582-2.
- Swafford, Jan (2014).Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph.Boston:Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.ISBN978-0-618-05474-9.
- Swafford, Jan (2017).Language of the Spirit: An Introduction to Classical Music.New York: Basic Books.ISBN978-0-465-09754-8.
- Swafford, Jan (2020).Mozart: The Reign of Love.New York:Harper.ISBN978-0-062-43357-2.
References[edit]
- ^Jan Swafford & Glann Gass: Chamber Works,The Scott Chamber Players (album notes),Database of Recorded American Music
External links[edit]
- Official website
- Profile from Tufts University
- "'Missa Solemnis', a Divine Bit of Beethoven",NPRcommentary by Swafford
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
- 1946 births
- Living people
- American male classical composers
- American classical composers
- 20th-century classical composers
- 21st-century classical composers
- American music critics
- Harvard University alumni
- Yale School of Music alumni
- Tufts University faculty
- Pupils of Earl Kim
- Pupils of Jacob Druckman
- 21st-century American composers
- 20th-century American composers
- 20th-century American male musicians
- 21st-century American male musicians
- American male biographers
- 20th-century American biographers
- 20th-century American male writers
- 20th-century American musicologists
- 21st-century American biographers
- 21st-century American male writers
- 21st-century American musicologists
- Brahms scholars
- Beethoven scholars
- Mozart scholars