Christopher Rouse (composer)

Christopher Rouse (born February 15, 1949) is an American composer.

Biography

Rouse was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and studied with Richard Hoffmann at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, graduating in 1971. He later completed graduate degrees under Karel Husa at Cornell University in 1977. In between, Rouse studied privately with George Crumb. Early recognition came from the BMI Foundation's BMI Student Composer Awards in 1972 and 1973. Rouse taught at the University of Michigan from 1978 to 1981, where he was also a Junior Fellow in the University's Society of Fellows, and at the Eastman School of Music from 1981 to 2002. Since 1997 he has taught at the Juilliard School. Rouse's Symphony No. 1 was awarded the Kennedy Center's Friedheim Award in 1998, and his Trombone Concerto was awarded the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Music. In 2002, Rouse was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Also in that year he won a Grammy for best contemporary composition for his Concert de Gaudi. He was named Musical America's Composer of the Year in 2009 and the New York Philharmonic's Composer-in-Residence in 2012. Rouse has also served as Composer-in-Residence with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (1985-88), the Tanglewood Music Festival (1997), the Helsinki Biennale (1997), the Pacific Music Festival (1998), and the Aspen Music Festival (annually since 2000).

Rouse's music has been recorded by numerous major classical music labels, including Telarc, Koch, Sony, RCA Victor, Nonesuch, Teldec, BIS and Ondine.

His notable students include Michael Torke, Nico Muhly, Kamran Ince, Marc Mellits, Robert Paterson, Jude Vaclavik, Kevin Puts, D. J. Sparr, and Joseph Lukasik.

Rouse has four children: Angela, Jillian, Alexandra, and Adrian.

Music

Rouse is commonly described as a neoromantic composer. Some of his works are predominantly atonal (e.g., "Gorgon", Concerto for Orchestra) while others are clearly tonal ("Karolju", "Rapture"). Most often he seeks to integrate tonal and non-tonal harmonic worlds, as in his concerti for flute, oboe, and guitar. Rouse has been praised for his orchestration, particularly with percussion. He often quotes other composers' works (e.g., his Symphony No. 1, composed in 1986, incorporates quotations of Bruckner and Shostakovich), and his music also sometimes shows the influence of rock. In general his work is notable for the intensity of its expression.

Rouse's oldest extant works are two brief pieces for percussion ensemble, both inspired by mythological subjects: "Ogoun Badagris" (1976, Haitian) and "Ku-Ka-Ilimoku" (1978, Polynesian); a later percussion score inspired by rock drumming, "Bonham", was composed in 1988. The early 1980s found him creating a harrowing series of compositions in fast tempi and an often astringent harmonic language, all in the service musical savagery and brutality. Rouse described these pieces as an attempt "to bring back the allegro", having come to feel that the composition of extended music in fast tempi was becoming a lost art. Works such as his String Quartet No. 1 of 1982 (five connected movements, all fast) and his 1984 orchestral piece Gorgon typify this style. After composing Phaethon in 1986, Rouse moved in the opposite direction, creating his Symphony No. 1, a one-movement composition entirely in slow tempo. This ushered in a series of works that explored the darker aspects of the human condition. Although his harmonic language now had more recourse to the use of tonality, the expressive intent was often a tragic one.^{[citation needed]}

The death of Leonard Bernstein in 1990 was the first in a series of deaths that made a profound impression on Rouse, and his Trombone Concerto (1991) became the first score of his so-called "Death Cycle", a group of pieces that all served as reactions to these deaths. Subsequent scores memorialized William Schuman (Violoncello Concerto - 1992), James Bulger, the two-year-old English boy abducted from a mall and subsequently murdered by two ten-year-old boys (Flute Concerto - 1993), the composer Stephen Albert (Symphony No. 2 - 1994), and Rouse's mother ("Envoi" - 1995). His pieces from the second half of the 1990s represented a conscious effort "to look towards the light", in the composer's words. These more optimistic and life-affirming works include Compline (1996), Kabir Padavali (1997), the Concert de Gaudi (1998), and Rapture (2000).

Since 2000 Rouse has followed an unpredictable path. His thorny Clarinet Concerto (2001) contrasts markedly with the pop-inflected humor of The Nevill Feast (2003). Lush neoromantic works like the Oboe Concerto of 2004 stand alongside twelve-tone experiments (Concerto for Orchestra, 2008). The most significant work of these years is his 90-minute Requiem (2002), a piece Rouse considers his valediction and one that evidences his music's wide stylistic variety. Recent years have seen him embrace a personal system of translating alphabetical letters into musical pitches, thereby allowing him to musically "spell" various names, events, or other words and phrases. The most thoroughgoing use of this system can be found in his 2009 composition Odna Zhizn.^{[citation needed]}

Commercial Use

Rouse's Flute Concerto was used in a 2010 UK television advertisement for the Canadian beer brand Carling.

Complete works

Orchestra

• Gorgon (1984)
  • commissioned by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, who premièred the work under David Zinman (to whom the work is dedicated) on 15 November 1984.
• Phantasmata (1981/85)
  • commissioned by the Saint Louis Symphony with the assistance of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts; premièred by the Saint Louis Symphony under Leonard Slatkin at Powell Symphony Hall, St. Louis, Missouri, on 25 October 1986.
• Phaethon (1986)
  • commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra, who premièred the work under Riccardo Muti at the Philadelphia Academy of Music, Pennsylvania on 98th January 1987.
• Symphony No. 1 (1986, awarded the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award in 1988)
  • commissioned by the Baltimore Symphony (for whom Rouse served as composer-in-residence 1986-88), who gave the work's première under David Zinman at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, Baltimore, Maryland on 21 January 1988.
• Iscariot (chamber orchestra, 1989)
  • co-commissioned by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the New Jersey Symphony. Premièred by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra under John Adams at the Ordway Theater, Saint Paul, Minnesota on 27 October 1989.
• Concerto per Corde (string orchestra, 1990)
  • commissioned by Absolut Vodka; premièred by the American Symphony Orchestra under Catherine Comet at Avery Fisher Hall, New York on 28 November 1990.
• Symphony No. 2 (1994)
  • commissioned by the Houston Symphony, who premièred the work under Christoph Eschenbach (to whom the work is dedicated) at Jones Hall, Houston, Texas on 4 March 1995.
• Envoi (1995)
  • dedicated to the memory of Rouse's mother. Commissioned by the Atlanta Symphony, who premièred the work under Yoel Levi at Atlanta Symphony Hall on 9 May 1996.
• Rapture (2000)
  • commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony, who premièred the work under Mariss Jansons (to whom the work is dedicated) at Heinz Hall, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on 5 May 2000.
• The Nevill Feast (2003)
  • commissioned by the Boston Pops Orchestra, who premièred the work under Keith Lockhart on 7 May 2003.
• Friandises (ballet, 2005)
  • jointly commissioned by New York City Ballet and the Juilliard School. Premièred by the New York City Ballet at the New York State Theater in Lincoln Center, NY on 10 February 2006.
• Concerto for Orchestra (2007–08)
  • commissioned by the Cabrillo Music Festival; premièred by the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra under Marin Alsop (to whom the work is dedicated) at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium in Santa Cruz, California on 1 August 2008.
• Odna Zhizn (2008–09)
  • commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, who premièred the work under Alan Gilbert at Avery Fisher Hall, New York on 10 February 2010.
• Symphony No. 3 (2010-11)
  • commissioned by the Saint Louis Symphony, who gave the work's world première under David Robertson at Powell Symphony Hall, St. Louis, Missouri, on 5 May 2011.
• Prospero's Rooms (2012)
  • commissioned by the New York Philharmonic
• Symphony No. 4 (2013)
  • commissioned by the New York Philharmonic

Orchestra with soloist

• Violin Concerto (1991)
  • commissioned by the Aspen Music Festival for violinist Cho-Liang Lin (to whom the work is dedicated), who premièred the work with the Aspen Festival Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin in Aspen, Colorado on 12 July 1992.
• Trombone Concerto (1991, awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1993)
  • commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for its then principal trombonist Joseph Alessi; the work was premièred by those forces under Leonard Slatkin at Avery Fisher Hall, New York on 30 December 1992.
• Violoncello Concerto (1992–93)
  • commissioned by Betty Freeman; premièred by Yo-Yo Ma with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under David Zinman at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles, CA on 26 January 1994.
• Flute Concerto (1993)
  • premièred by Carol Wincenc and the Detroit Symphony under Hans Vonk at Detroit Orchestra Hall, Michigan on 27 October 1994.
• Der gerettete Alberich (Percussion Concerto, 1997)
  • co-commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Baltimore Symphony; premièred by Evelyn Glennie (to whom the work is dedicated) with the Cleveland Orchestra under Christoph von Dohnanyi
• Seeing (Piano Concerto, 1998)
  • commissioned by Lillian Barbash for Emanuel Ax and the New York Philharmonic, who gave the work's première under Leonard Slatkin at Avery Fisher Hall, New York on 6 May 1999.
• Concert de Gaudí (Guitar Concerto, 1999)
  • co-commissioned by the Norddeutscher Rundfunk Orchester and the Dallas Symphony; written for guitarist Sharon Isbin, who gave the work's première with the Norddeutscher Rundfunk Orchester under Christoph Eschenbach in Hamburg on 2 January 2000.
• Clarinet Concerto (2001)
  • commissioned by the Chicago Symphony with funding provided by the American Institute for Music; premièred by Larry Combs with the Chicago Symphony under Christoph Eschenbach at Symphony Center, Chicago, Illinois on 17 May 2001. The work is dedicated to fellow composer Augusta Read Thomas.
• Oboe Concerto (2004)
  • commissioned by the Minnesota Orchestra in 2004; premièred by Basil Reeve with the Minnesota Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä at Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis, Minnesota on 5 February 2009.
• Heimdall's Trumpet (Trumpet Concerto, 2012)
  • commissioned by the Chicago Symphony; world première to be given by Christopher Martin and the Chicago Symphony under Jaap van Zweden at Symphony Center, Chicago on 20 December 2012.

Voice and orchestra

• Karolju (1990), for S.A.T.B. chorus & orchestra
  • commissioned by the Baltimore Symphony with support from the Barlow Endowment and the Guggenheim Foundation; premièred by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra & Chorus conducted by David Zinman on 7th November 1991. The work is dedicated to the composer's daughter, Alexandra.
• Kabir Padavali ("Kabir Songbook", 1997–98), for soprano solo & orchestra
  • 28-minute work, written for soprano Dawn Upshaw and commissioned by the Minnesota Orchestra, who premièred the work with Upshaw under David Zinman in Minneapolis on 6th January 1999. The piece is dedicated to the composer's son, Adrian.
• Requiem (2001–02), for baritone solo, children's choir, S.A.T.B. chorus & large orchestra
  • 90-minute work, commissioned by Soli Deo Gloria; premièred by the Los Angeles Master Chorale & Orchestra with the Los Angeles Children's Chorus and baritone soloist Sanford Sylvan under Grant Gershon at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, California on 25th March 2007.

Wind Ensemble

• Wolf Rounds (2007)
  • commissioned by the Frost Wind Ensemble of the University of Miami, who gave the work's première conducted by Gary Green (to whom the work is dedicated) at Carnegie Hall, New York on 29th March 2007.

Chamber music

• Ogoun Badagris (percussion ensemble, 1976)
• Quattro Madrigali (eight-voice choir, 1976)
• Ku-Ka-Ilimoku (percussion ensemble, 1978)
• Rotae Passionis (mixed ensemble, 1982)
• String Quartet No. 1 (1982)
• Lares Hercii (violin and harpsichord, 1983)
• Artemis (brass quintet, 1988)
• Bonham (percussion ensemble, 1988)
• String Quartet No. 2 (1988)
• Compline (flute, clarinet, harp and string quartet, 1996)
• Rapturedux (cello ensemble, 2001)
• String Quartet No. 3 (2009)

Solo works

• Little Gorgon (piano, 1986)
• Ricordanza (cello, 1995)
• Valentine (flute, 1996)

External links

• Christopher Rouse - Composer (official site)
• Art of the States: Christopher Rouse three works by the composer
• Interview with Christopher Rouse by Bruce Duffie April 29, 1994

Bibliography

• Shulman, Laurie. 1997. "Christopher Rouse: An Overview" Tempo, new series, no. 199:2–8
• Shulman, Laurie. 2001. "Rouse, Christopher (Chapman)". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan.