Re: Piano Transcriptions for two hands
Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2013 8:24 pm
Hadley, Henry (Kimball)
(b Somerville, MA, 20 Dec 1871; d New York, 6 Sept 1937).
American composer and conductor. His father taught him the piano, the violin and conducting, and he studied harmony with Emery and counterpoint and composition with Chadwick in Somerville and at the New England Conservatory (to 1894). He also studied counterpoint with Mandyczewski in Vienna (1894–5) and composition with Thuille in Munich (1905–7). Hadley was especially influenced by Chadwick, who was a good friend and mentor, and by Richard Strauss, whom he met in London in 1905. Hadley taught at St Paul’s School in Garden City, New York (1895–1902, succeeding Horatio Parker), and he pursued a highly successful conducting career in the USA and, from 1904, in Europe. He was conductor of the Mainz Stadttheater (1907–9) and of the Seattle SO (1909–11), and he formed and conducted the San Francisco SO (1911–15). He was associate conductor of the New York PO (1920–27) and founder and conductor of the semi-educational Manhattan SO (1929–32), an orchestra formed to promote the works of American composers. He also conducted in Japan and South America. Hadley was a tireless and effective advocate of American music, both in performance and as a lecturer. In 1933 he founded the National Association for American Composers and Conductors, which endowed the Henry Hadley Memorial Library (the Americana Collection), now housed at the New York Public Library. He also founded the Berkshire Music Festival (1934) and conducted the orchestra there for the first two seasons. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1924. Hadley's abundant compositions were written in a conventional, late Romantic and expressive style; they were popular in his lifetime, and received repeated performances but mixed critical reaction, though their fluency and technical excellence was universally praised. He was awarded the Paderewski Prize in 1901 for his Second Symphony. Hadley wrote several works for his brother Arthur (1874–1936), a cellist, including the Konzertstück op.61. His opera Cleopatra's Night was given by the Metropolitan Opera and was the first work to be conducted there by its composer (though not in its first performances). Hadley was commissioned by the Vitaphone Company to compose and conduct what may have been ‘the first musical score to be recorded and played in synchronism with an entire motion picture’ (Canfield) for When a Man Loves (released November 1926).
In 1933 the Musical Courier could call Hadley ‘probably the most important composer in the contemporary American musical scene’, but his standing as a composer has since declined and it is perhaps first as a conductor and promoter of American music that he deserves recognition. The Henry Hadley Foundation was established in 1938 in New York to promote cooperation among American musicians and to provide scholarships and financial aid for the training and encouragement of American composers.
Bibliography
EwenD
H. Boardman: Henry Hadley, Ambassador of Harmony (Atlanta, GA, 1932)
P. Berthoud, ed.: The Musical Works of Dr. Henry Hadley (New York, 1942)
J. Canfield: Henry Kimball Hadley (1871–1937): his Life and Works (diss., Florida State U., 1960)
S. Feder: ‘Making American Music: Henry Hadley and the Manhattan Symphony Orchestra’, A Celebration of American Music: Works and Music in Honor of H. Wiley Hitchcock, ed. R.A. Crawford, R.A. Lott and C.J. Oja (Ann Arbor, 1990), 356–82
N.E. Tawa: Mainstream Music of Early Twentieth-Century America (Westport, CT, 1992)
Richard Jackson/R
Hadley, Henry Kimball. Alma Mater. Overture. Piano Reduction ... for Orchestra,etc. [Boston]: C. C. Birchard & Co, 1932.
"Alma Mater (Overture for Orchestra or Band). Henry
Hadley. THe Alma Mater is a concert number
that partakes of the characteristics of the medley,
the tone poem, and the fantasia.
Several well-known songs are oven and interwoven
throughout the seven minutes (approximately) of
playing time. The number reminds one in a slight
way of the Academic Festival Overture of Brahms or the
Children's Overture of Quilter. It is not as difficult
as either of these, however and by no means as long.
As I look down the margins of the full scores provided
for band and for orchestra, I find that both
have parts for very large units. For instance, harp
parts are included in both arrangements--Lee M. Lock-Hart."
American composer and conductor. His father taught him the piano, the violin and conducting, and he studied harmony with Emery and counterpoint and composition with Chadwick in Somerville and at the New England Conservatory (to 1894). He also studied counterpoint with Mandyczewski in Vienna (1894–5) and composition with Thuille in Munich (1905–7). Hadley was especially influenced by Chadwick, who was a good friend and mentor, and by Richard Strauss, whom he met in London in 1905. Hadley taught at St Paul’s School in Garden City, New York (1895–1902, succeeding Horatio Parker), and he pursued a highly successful conducting career in the USA and, from 1904, in Europe. He was conductor of the Mainz Stadttheater (1907–9) and of the Seattle SO (1909–11), and he formed and conducted the San Francisco SO (1911–15). He was associate conductor of the New York PO (1920–27) and founder and conductor of the semi-educational Manhattan SO (1929–32), an orchestra formed to promote the works of American composers. He also conducted in Japan and South America. Hadley was a tireless and effective advocate of American music, both in performance and as a lecturer. In 1933 he founded the National Association for American Composers and Conductors, which endowed the Henry Hadley Memorial Library (the Americana Collection), now housed at the New York Public Library. He also founded the Berkshire Music Festival (1934) and conducted the orchestra there for the first two seasons. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1924. Hadley's abundant compositions were written in a conventional, late Romantic and expressive style; they were popular in his lifetime, and received repeated performances but mixed critical reaction, though their fluency and technical excellence was universally praised. He was awarded the Paderewski Prize in 1901 for his Second Symphony. Hadley wrote several works for his brother Arthur (1874–1936), a cellist, including the Konzertstück op.61. His opera Cleopatra's Night was given by the Metropolitan Opera and was the first work to be conducted there by its composer (though not in its first performances). Hadley was commissioned by the Vitaphone Company to compose and conduct what may have been ‘the first musical score to be recorded and played in synchronism with an entire motion picture’ (Canfield) for When a Man Loves (released November 1926).
In 1933 the Musical Courier could call Hadley ‘probably the most important composer in the contemporary American musical scene’, but his standing as a composer has since declined and it is perhaps first as a conductor and promoter of American music that he deserves recognition. The Henry Hadley Foundation was established in 1938 in New York to promote cooperation among American musicians and to provide scholarships and financial aid for the training and encouragement of American composers.
Bibliography
EwenD
H. Boardman: Henry Hadley, Ambassador of Harmony (Atlanta, GA, 1932)
P. Berthoud, ed.: The Musical Works of Dr. Henry Hadley (New York, 1942)
J. Canfield: Henry Kimball Hadley (1871–1937): his Life and Works (diss., Florida State U., 1960)
S. Feder: ‘Making American Music: Henry Hadley and the Manhattan Symphony Orchestra’, A Celebration of American Music: Works and Music in Honor of H. Wiley Hitchcock, ed. R.A. Crawford, R.A. Lott and C.J. Oja (Ann Arbor, 1990), 356–82
N.E. Tawa: Mainstream Music of Early Twentieth-Century America (Westport, CT, 1992)
Richard Jackson/R
Hadley, Henry Kimball. Alma Mater. Overture. Piano Reduction ... for Orchestra,etc. [Boston]: C. C. Birchard & Co, 1932.
"Alma Mater (Overture for Orchestra or Band). Henry
Hadley. THe Alma Mater is a concert number
that partakes of the characteristics of the medley,
the tone poem, and the fantasia.
Several well-known songs are oven and interwoven
throughout the seven minutes (approximately) of
playing time. The number reminds one in a slight
way of the Academic Festival Overture of Brahms or the
Children's Overture of Quilter. It is not as difficult
as either of these, however and by no means as long.
As I look down the margins of the full scores provided
for band and for orchestra, I find that both
have parts for very large units. For instance, harp
parts are included in both arrangements--Lee M. Lock-Hart."