vinyl LP front cover detail
sketch by Rodolfo Dei
detail photo by Styrous®
Yesterday was the birthday of the Polish composer, Roman Ryterband who was born in Łódź, Poland on 2 August, 1914, to a well to do family of lawyers and musicians. By the age of 12, he was composing music and was encouraged by Alexander Glazunov to pursue a musical career; he performed as a pianist in Łódź and Warsaw during the mid-1930s.
vinyl LP front cover
sketch by Rodolfo Dei
sketch by Rodolfo Dei
photo by Styrous®
Touring Western Europe on the eve of World War II, Ryterband was able to
board the last train to Switzerland, where he took refuge and worked as a manual laborer alongside other wartime
foreigners interned on Swiss territory until the
mid-1950s. Except for his sister and her son, his entire family perished
in the Holocaust.
He completed his PhD studies of musicology at the University of Berne, indulging his passion for studying different languages and
cultures, and conducting an extensive research of Slavic, Swiss,
Italian, Brazilian, Indian, and Negro folk music traditions. They
inspired Ryterband to write a number of works utilizing various native
idioms as well as author and deliver numerous lectures and articles on
indigenous music traditions throughout his life.
His music represents a cross-pollination of early twentieth century modernists like Debussy and Britten with folk elements present in the works of Bartok, Copland, or Kodaly. Although his career as a composer began with a few short piano works and some popular songs in Poland in the late 1930s, Ryterband came into his own during the World War II years spent in Switzerland. There he completed several large-scale solo piano cycles (24 Variations on a Folk Song, Suite Polonaise, and Three Preludes) and a number of solo and chamber works for harp (Two Images, Sonata for Harp and Two Flutes, Sonata breve and Trois Ballades Hébraïques), as well as many vocal works, choral cantatas and compositions for saxophone and piano.
Almost forty years after his death, Ryterband’s music remains largely unknown, especially in his native Poland, perhaps because he spent most of his creative life abroad.
Although most of his catalog is represented by chamber music (often in interesting combinations of instruments), Ryterband also penned a few large-scale orchestral works, including Jubilate Deo for soloists, orchestra, organ and men’s and boys’ choirs (1949), symphonic poems Vida Heroica (1953) and Russian Rhapsody (1962), as well as orchestral ballet music Tableaux of Laguna (1976) and Heracles and the Argonauts (1978).
Folk and religious music add further diversity to Roman Ryterband’s opus with such entries as Three Hebrew Songs for voice and piano (1938), Song of the Slavonic Plains for violin and piano (1944), Rhapsodia helvetica for trombone and piano (1948), and several songs based on Negro spirituals (The Gospel’s Mah Religion, Yo’ Serbant, So Sing—So Play, Trusty Jim), as well as a number of psalm settings (Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem, Raise Your Heads, O Gates) and settings of traditional texts and poetry in Hebrew, Polish, French and German.
The winner of several awards, including the First Prize at ISCM Chicago in 1961 for Piece sans titre for two flutes, Ryterband also received the Kosciuszko Foundation 1977 Award and a grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities for a work celebrating American Bicentennial celebrations in 1976.
vinyl LP back cover
photo by Styrous®
His music represents a cross-pollination of early twentieth century modernists like Debussy and Britten with folk elements present in the works of Bartok, Copland, or Kodaly. Although his career as a composer began with a few short piano works and some popular songs in Poland in the late 1930s, Ryterband came into his own during the World War II years spent in Switzerland. There he completed several large-scale solo piano cycles (24 Variations on a Folk Song, Suite Polonaise, and Three Preludes) and a number of solo and chamber works for harp (Two Images, Sonata for Harp and Two Flutes, Sonata breve and Trois Ballades Hébraïques), as well as many vocal works, choral cantatas and compositions for saxophone and piano.
Trois Ballades Hébraïques sheet music
Almost forty years after his death, Ryterband’s music remains largely unknown, especially in his native Poland, perhaps because he spent most of his creative life abroad.
Although most of his catalog is represented by chamber music (often in interesting combinations of instruments), Ryterband also penned a few large-scale orchestral works, including Jubilate Deo for soloists, orchestra, organ and men’s and boys’ choirs (1949), symphonic poems Vida Heroica (1953) and Russian Rhapsody (1962), as well as orchestral ballet music Tableaux of Laguna (1976) and Heracles and the Argonauts (1978).
vinyl LP back cover detail
detail photo by Styrous®
The winner of several awards, including the First Prize at ISCM Chicago in 1961 for Piece sans titre for two flutes, Ryterband also received the Kosciuszko Foundation 1977 Award and a grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities for a work celebrating American Bicentennial celebrations in 1976.
vinyl LP label, side 1
photo by Styrous®
vinyl LP label, side 2
photo by Styrous®
Tracklist:
Side 1: 23:16
Sonata Breve for vionlin & harp - 10:02
1 - Allegro agitato 3:03
2 - Adagio pastorale, poi passionato - 3:20
Vivo e scherzoso - Adagio - 3:39
Elemér Glanz - Violin, Eva Kauffungen - Harp
3 - Pièce sans Titre for Two Flutes alone - 3:56
Alexander Magnin, Geoges Guéneux - flutes
Deux Sonnets for Contralto, Flute & Harp - 9:18
4 - Eroica - 4:43
5 - La Perle 4:45
Lyn Vernon - Mezzo-Soprano, Alexandre Magnin - Flute, Eva Kauffungen - Harp
Side 2: 20:11
Trois Ballades Hébraïques for Violin & Piano - 11:56
1 - Le Rêveur - 4:19
2 - La Maître Joyeus - 2:35
3 - Berceuse - 5:02
Elemér Glanz - Violin, Boris Mersson - Piano
Suite Polonaise for Piano (Three excerpts) - 8:55
4 - Drobny - 3:07
5 - Krakowiak - 2:35
6 - Oberek 3:13
Boris Mersson - Piano
Roman Ryterband ~ Chamber Music
Label: Orion Sound, ORS 74167 Stereo
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: US
Viewfinder links:
Béla Bartók
Benjamin Britten
Claude Debussy
Alexander Glazunov
Net links:
Polish Music Center ~ Roman Ryterband
UCR ~ Talents Revealed in Composer's Concert
YouTube links:
Roman Ryterband ~
3 Ballades hébraïques: No. 1. Le Reveur
3 Ballades hébraïques: No. 2. Le Maitre Joyeux
3 Ballades hébraïques: No. 3. Berceuse
Le Maître Joyeux for violin & harp
Sonata breve: I. Allegro agitato
Sonata breve: II. Adagio Pastorale - Poi Passionato
Styrous® ~ Saturday, August 3, 2019
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