~
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
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.
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).
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.
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
