Irving Fine: Difference between revisions
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'''Irving Gifford Fine''' ([[December 3]] [[1914]]–[[August 23]] [[1962]]) was a [[United States|US]] [[composer]]. A member of a close-knit group of mid-twentieth century [[Boston]] composers, Fine's work assimilated [[Neoclassicism_%28music%29|neo-classical]], [[Romanticism#romanticism_and_music|romantic]], and, later, [[serial_music|serial]] elements. Composer [[Virgil Thompson]] described Fine's "unusual melodic grace"; [[Aaron Copland]] noted the "elegance, style, finish and...convincing continuity" of Fine's music. |
'''Irving Gifford Fine''' ([[December 3]] [[1914]]–[[August 23]] [[1962]]) was a [[United States|US]] [[composer]]. A member of a close-knit group of mid-twentieth century [[Boston]] composers, Fine's work assimilated [[Neoclassicism_%28music%29|neo-classical]], [[Romanticism#romanticism_and_music|romantic]], and, later, [[serial_music|serial]] elements. Composer [[Virgil Thompson]] described Fine's "unusual melodic grace"; [[Aaron Copland]] noted the "elegance, style, finish and...convincing continuity" of Fine's music. |
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Irving Gifford Fine (December 3 1914–August 23 1962) was a US composer. A member of a close-knit group of mid-twentieth century Boston composers, Fine's work assimilated neo-classical, romantic, and, later, serial elements. Composer Virgil Thompson described Fine's "unusual melodic grace"; Aaron Copland noted the "elegance, style, finish and...convincing continuity" of Fine's music.
Life and work
Fine was born in Boston, Massachusetts, where he studied piano, and received both Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Harvard University, where he was a pupil of Walter Piston. Fine was a conducting pupil of Serge Koussevitzky, served as pianist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and studied composition with Nadia Boulanger at the Fontainebleau School of Music in Paris and at Radcliffe College. From 1939 until 1950, he taught music theory at Harvard and conducted its Glee Club, becoming a close associate of Leonard Bernstein, Igor Stravinsky and Aaron Copland. From 1950, he taught at Brandeis University, where was Walter S. Naumburg Professor of Music and founded the School of Creative Arts. Between 1946 and 1957, he also taught composition at the Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood. He died in Natick, Massachusetts in August 1962.
Among Fine's compositions are a violin sonata; a string quartet; Fantasia for String Trio; Partita for Wind Quintet; Toccata Concertante for Orchestra; Notturno for Strings and Harp; Serious Song, subtitled a "lament for string orchestra"; Diversions for piano and orchestra; and the Symphony 1962, which premiered at Tanglewood less than two weeks before his untimely death from a heart attack (ironically, Fine conducted the premiere because Charles Munch, who was originally to have conducted, had himself fallen ill).
Fine's choral works, which are frequently performed, include two sets of choruses from Alice in Wonderland; "Childhood Fables for Grown-ups," settings of various poems about his composer friends, including Leonard Bernstein, Lukas Foss and Harold Shapero; The Choral New Yorker, The Hour-Glass, McCord's Menagerie, and Mutability song cycles; and others. He also created choral arrangements of his colleague and friend Aaron Copland's Old American Songs.
Notable composition students of Irving Fine include Richard Wernick, with whom Fine was collaborating on a musical, Maggie, based on the Stephen Crane novel, at the time of his death; and Halim El-Dabh. A Professorship of Music at Brandeis University is named in Fine's honor. The composer Arthur Berger served as Irving G. Fine Professor of Music from 1969 to 1980 (and as Emeritus Professor until his death in 2003). The current Irving G. Fine Professor of Music is Martin Boykan.
Fine's honors included two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Fulbright Research Fellowship, and awards from the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the New York Music Critics' Circle, among others, as well as numerous commissions. A biography, Irving Fine: An American Composer in His Time, by author, composer, and pianist Phillip Ramey, was published in 2005 by the Library of Congress and Pendragon Press, and received the 2006 Nicolas Slonimsky Award for Outstanding Musical Biography from ASCAP.
Fine was married to Verna Rudnick Fine and had three daughters: Claudia, Emily, and Joanna. His grandchildren are Isaac, Ezra, and Nina Hurwitz; Alison, Samuel, and Joseph Stein; and Alicia Gabrielle Fine-McCullough.
Works
- 1942 - Three Choruses from Alice in Wonderland (series one)
- 1944 - Choral New Yorker
- 1946 - Sonata for Violin and Piano
- 1947 - Music for Piano
- 1948 - Partita, Woodwind Quintet
- 1948 - Toccata Concertante
- 1949 - The Hour Glass (song cycle) for chorus
- 1951 - Notturno for Strings and Harp
- 1952 - String Quartet
- 1952 - Mutability (song cycle) for mezzo-soprano and piano
- 1953 - Alice in Wonderland (series two)
- 1954 - Childhood Fables for Grown-ups
- 1955 - Serious Song: Lament for String Orchestra
- 1956 - Fantasia for String Trio
- 1962 - Symphony
- 1962 - Romanza for Wind Quintet