Alice Esty
Encyclopedia
Alice Theresa Hildagard Swanson Esty (8 November 1904 – July 21, 2000) was an American actress, soprano
and arts patron
who commissioned works by members of Les Six
and other French composers, and American composers such as Ned Rorem
, Virgil Thomson
and Marc Blitzstein
, among others.
in 1925. She then moved to New York City to study singing and acting. She was hired as an actress with the Group Theater, which was directed by Lee Strasberg
and Harold Clurman
, and with the Provincetown Players
, an avant-garde theater. Her Broadway
credits include Come of Age, with Judith Anderson
, and L'Aiglon
, with Ethel Barrymore
.
She married William C. Esty, founder of the William Esty Advertising Agency in the 1930s.
Esty continued her interest in the arts, and she began to commission works by many noted composers, poets, and visual artists. In the late 1950s and early 1960s she spent considerable time in Paris, where she befriended many important composers and artists. Between 1955 and 1969 she regularly commissioned musical compositions, and then performed them in major recital halls, including The Town Hall
and Carnegie Recital Hall. If Mrs. Esty's talent as a singer was not perhaps perfect (Ned Rorem
referred to her as "a soprano of style and means if not especially of temperament..."), her importance as an arts patron is certainly notable.
Esty lived in Paris frequently in the 1950s and the 1960s and between 1955-1969 she commissioned musical compositions from many French composers including Germaine Tailleferre
, Darius Milhaud
, Francis Poulenc
, Henri Sauguet
and others which she performed in her Town Hall and Carnegie Recital Hall concerts. In addition, she also commissioned Poulenc's Sonata for Two Pianos for the American piano duo Gold and Fizdale
. In 1964, she commissioned works by French and American composers for a special memorial concert for the recently deceased Francis Poulenc, which she performed in Carnegie Recital Hall.
In 1994 and 1995, Mrs. Esty donated the manuscripts for many of her commissioned works to the Library of Bates College where they are located today. Esty died of cancer
in New York. The Esty Professorship of Music at Bates was endowed by her.
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
and arts patron
Patrón
Patrón is a luxury brand of tequila produced in Mexico and sold in hand-blown, individually numbered bottles.Made entirely from Blue Agave "piñas" , Patrón comes in five varieties: Silver, Añejo, Reposado, Gran Patrón Platinum and Gran Patrón Burdeos. Patrón also sells a tequila-coffee blend known...
who commissioned works by members of Les Six
Les Six
Les six is a name, inspired by The Five, given in 1920 by critic Henri Collet in an article titled "" to a group of six composers working in Montparnasse whose music is often seen as a reaction against the musical style of Richard Wagner and impressionist music.-Members:Formally, the Groupe des...
and other French composers, and American composers such as Ned Rorem
Ned Rorem
Ned Rorem is a Pulitzer prize-winning American composer and diarist. He is best known and most praised for his song settings.-Life:...
, Virgil Thomson
Virgil Thomson
Virgil Thomson was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music...
and Marc Blitzstein
Marc Blitzstein
Marcus Samuel Blitzstein, better known as Marc Blitzstein , was an American composer. He won national attention in 1937 when his pro-union musical The Cradle Will Rock, directed by Orson Welles, was shut down by the Works Progress Administration...
, among others.
Biography
She earned an A.B. degree from Bates CollegeBates College
Bates College is a highly selective, private liberal arts college located in Lewiston, Maine, in the United States. and was most recently ranked 21st in the nation in the 2011 US News Best Liberal Arts Colleges rankings. The college was founded in 1855 by abolitionists...
in 1925. She then moved to New York City to study singing and acting. She was hired as an actress with the Group Theater, which was directed by Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg was an American actor, director and acting teacher. He cofounded, with directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed as "America's first true theatrical collective"...
and Harold Clurman
Harold Clurman
Harold Edgar Clurman was a visionary American theatre director and drama critic, "one of the most influential in the United States". He was most notable as one of the three founders of the New York City's Group Theatre...
, and with the Provincetown Players
Provincetown Players
The Provincetown Players was an amateur group of writers and artists who, at the early part of the 20th Century, wanted to see a change in American theatre and created a company committed to producing new plays by exclusively American playwrights...
, an avant-garde theater. Her Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
credits include Come of Age, with Judith Anderson
Judith Anderson
Dame Judith Anderson, AC, DBE was an Australian-born American-based actress of stage, film and television. She won two Emmy Awards and a Tony Award and was also nominated for a Grammy Award and an Academy Award.-Early life:...
, and L'Aiglon
L'Aiglon
L'Aiglon is a play in six acts by Edmond Rostand based on the life of Napoleon's son, Napoleon II of France, Duke of Reichstadt. The title comes from a nickname for Napoleon II, the French word for "eaglet" . The title role was created by Sarah Bernhardt in the play's premiere on 15 March 1900 at...
, with Ethel Barrymore
Ethel Barrymore
Ethel Barrymore was an American actress and a member of the Barrymore family of actors.-Early life:Ethel Barrymore was born Ethel Mae Blythe in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the second child of the actors Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Drew...
.
She married William C. Esty, founder of the William Esty Advertising Agency in the 1930s.
Esty continued her interest in the arts, and she began to commission works by many noted composers, poets, and visual artists. In the late 1950s and early 1960s she spent considerable time in Paris, where she befriended many important composers and artists. Between 1955 and 1969 she regularly commissioned musical compositions, and then performed them in major recital halls, including The Town Hall
The Town Hall
The Town Hall is a performance space, located at 123 West 43rd Street, between Sixth Avenue and Broadway, in New York City. It seats approximately 1,500 people.-History:...
and Carnegie Recital Hall. If Mrs. Esty's talent as a singer was not perhaps perfect (Ned Rorem
Ned Rorem
Ned Rorem is a Pulitzer prize-winning American composer and diarist. He is best known and most praised for his song settings.-Life:...
referred to her as "a soprano of style and means if not especially of temperament..."), her importance as an arts patron is certainly notable.
Esty lived in Paris frequently in the 1950s and the 1960s and between 1955-1969 she commissioned musical compositions from many French composers including Germaine Tailleferre
Germaine Tailleferre
Germaine Tailleferre was a French composer and the only female member of the famous composers' group Les Six.-Biography:...
, Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as The Group of Six—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions are influenced by jazz and make use of polytonality...
, Francis Poulenc
Francis Poulenc
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and a member of the French group Les six. He composed solo piano music, chamber music, oratorio, choral music, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music...
, Henri Sauguet
Henri Sauguet
Henri Sauguet , was a French composer. Born in Bordeaux as Henri-Pierre Poupard, he adopted his mother's maiden name as his pseudonym. His output includes operas, ballets, four symphonies , concertos, chamber and choral music and numerous songs, as well as film music...
and others which she performed in her Town Hall and Carnegie Recital Hall concerts. In addition, she also commissioned Poulenc's Sonata for Two Pianos for the American piano duo Gold and Fizdale
Gold and Fizdale
Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale were an American two-piano ensemble; they were also authors and television cooking show hosts....
. In 1964, she commissioned works by French and American composers for a special memorial concert for the recently deceased Francis Poulenc, which she performed in Carnegie Recital Hall.
In 1994 and 1995, Mrs. Esty donated the manuscripts for many of her commissioned works to the Library of Bates College where they are located today. Esty died of cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
in New York. The Esty Professorship of Music at Bates was endowed by her.
Partial list of works commissioned by Alice Esty
-
- Arrieu, ClaudeClaude ArrieuClaude Arrieu was a prolific French composer.-Biography:Claude Arrieu was a classically trained musician from an early age. She became particularly interested in works by Bach and Mozart, and later, Igor Stravinsky...
, 1903- - Le Sable du Sablier: Melodies pour chant et piano
- Text: Louise de Vilmorin
- Composed: Undated
- Arrieu, Claude
- Berkeley, LennoxLennox BerkeleySir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley was an English composer.- Biography :He was born in Oxford, England, and educated at the Dragon School, Gresham's School and Merton College, Oxford...
, Sir, 1903-- Automne
- Text: Guillaume ApollinaireGuillaume ApollinaireWilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki, known as Guillaume Apollinaire was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic born in Italy to a Polish mother....
- Composed: August 1963
- Soprano and piano
- Berkeley, LennoxLennox BerkeleySir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley was an English composer.- Biography :He was born in Oxford, England, and educated at the Dragon School, Gresham's School and Merton College, Oxford...
, Sir, 1903-- Five Poems by W. H. Auden
- Text: W. H. AudenW. H. AudenWystan Hugh Auden , who published as W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet,The first definition of "Anglo-American" in the OED is: "Of, belonging to, or involving both England and America." See also the definition "English in origin or birth, American by settlement or citizenship" in See also...
- Composed: 1958
- Soprano and piano
- Bowles, PaulPaul BowlesPaul Frederic Bowles was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator.Following a cultured middle-class upbringing in New York City, during which he displayed a talent for music and writing, Bowles pursued his education at the University of Virginia before making various trips to Paris...
, 1910-- Roman Suite
- Text: Tennessee WilliamsTennessee WilliamsThomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
- Composed: 1960
- Soprano and piano
- Bucht, GunnarGunnar BuchtGunnar Henrik Bucht , a Swedish composer and musicologist. Studied composition with Karl-Birger Blomdahl, Carl Orff, Max Deutsch among others.-External links:*...
, 1927-- Sex Arstidssanger
- Text: Gunnar Bjorling
- Composed: 1965
- Mezzosoprano and piano
- Delannoy, MarcelMarcel DelannoyMarcel Delannoy was a French composer and critic. He wrote operas, ballets, orchestral works, vocal and chamber works, and film scores.-Life and career:...
- La Voix du Silence
- Text: Maurice CarêmeMaurice CarêmeMaurice Carême was a Belgian francophone poet, best known for his simple writing style and children's poetry.-Biography:Carême was born in Wavre , then a rural part of Belgium...
- Composed: 1958
- Soprano and piano
- Dutilleux, HenriHenri DutilleuxHenri Dutilleux is one of the most important French composers of the second half of the 20th century, producing work in the tradition of Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, and Albert Roussel, but in a style distinctly his own...
, 1916-- San Francisco Night
- Text: Paul Gibson
- Composed: 1963
- Soprano and piano
- published by Éditions Alphonse LeducÉditions Alphonse LeducThe Éditions Alphonse Leduc company is a prominent French music publishing house specializing in classical music. It was created in Paris in 1841.-History:...
, Paris
- Goehr, AlexanderAlexander GoehrAlexander Goehr is an English composer and academic.Goehr was born in Berlin in 1932, the son of the conductor and Schoenberg pupil Walter Goehr. In his early twenties he emerged as a central figure in the Manchester School of post-war British composers. In 1955–56 he joined Oliver Messiaen's...
, 1932-- Warngedichte, op. 22
- Text: Erich FriedErich FriedErich Fried , an Austrian poet who settled in England, was known for his political-minded poetry. He was also a broadcaster, translator and essayist....
- Composed: 1966-1967
- Soprano and piano
- Jones, CharlesCharles Jones-Arts, architecture, scholarship:* Charles Jones , Ealing's first architect, engineer and surveyor* Charles Jones , gardener and photographer* Chuck Jones , American animator, director, and producer...
, 1910-- Anima
- Text: William LanglandWilliam LanglandWilliam Langland is the conjectured author of the 14th-century English dream-vision Piers Plowman.- Life :The attribution of Piers to Langland rests principally on the evidence of a manuscript held at Trinity College, Dublin...
- Composed: 1967-1968
- Soprano, viola, and piano
- Martin, FrankFrank Martin (composer)Frank Martin was a Swiss composer, who lived a large part of his life in the Netherlands.-Childhood and youth:...
, 1890–1974- Dedicace
- Text: Robert du la Haye
- Composed: 1945
- Soprano and piano
- Milhaud, DariusDarius MilhaudDarius Milhaud was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as The Group of Six—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions are influenced by jazz and make use of polytonality...
, 1892–1974- L'Amour Chante
- Text: Joachim du BellayJoachim du BellayJoachim du Bellay was a French poet, critic, and a member of the Pléiade.-Biography:He was born at the Château of La Turmelière, not far from Liré, near Angers, being the son of Jean du Bellay, Lord of Gonnor, first cousin of the cardinal Jean du Bellay and of Guillaume du Bellay.Both his parents...
, Marie de FranceMarie de FranceMarie de France was a medieval poet who was probably born in France and lived in England during the late 12th century. She lived and wrote at an undisclosed court, but was almost certainly at least known about at the royal court of King Henry II of England...
, Alfred de MussetAlfred de MussetAlfred Louis Charles de Musset-Pathay was a French dramatist, poet, and novelist.Along with his poetry, he is known for writing La Confession d'un enfant du siècle from 1836.-Biography:Musset was born on 11 December 1810 in Paris...
, Louise LabeLouise LabéLouise Labé, , also identified as La Belle Cordière, , was a female French poet of the Renaissance, born at Lyon, the daughter of a rich ropemaker, Pierre Charly, and his second wife, Etiennette Roybet...
, Arthur RimbaudArthur RimbaudJean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet. Born in Charleville, Ardennes, he produced his best known works while still in his late teens—Victor Hugo described him at the time as "an infant Shakespeare"—and he gave up creative writing altogether before the age of 21. As part of the decadent...
, Pierre de RonsardPierre de RonsardPierre de Ronsard was a French poet and "prince of poets" .-Early life:...
, Maurice SceveMaurice ScèveMaurice Scève , French poet, was born at Lyon, where his father practised law.He was the centre of the Lyonnese côterie that elaborated the theory of spiritual love, derived partly from Plato and partly from Petrarch...
, and Paul VerlainePaul VerlainePaul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.-Early life:... - Composed: 1964
- Soprano and piano
- Milhaud, DariusDarius MilhaudDarius Milhaud was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as The Group of Six—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions are influenced by jazz and make use of polytonality...
, 1892–1974- Preparatif a la Mort en Allegorique Maritime
- Text: grippa d'Aubigne
- Composed: 1963
- Soprano and piano
- Pinkham, DanielDaniel PinkhamDaniel Rogers Pinkham, Jr. was an American composer, organist, and harpsichordist. Pinkham was one of America's most active composers during his lifetime...
- The Song of Jeptha's Daughter
- Text: Robert HillyerRobert HillyerRobert Silliman Hillyer was an American poet.-Life:He was born in East Orange, New Jersey. He attended Kent School in Kent, Connecticut and graduated from Harvard in 1917, after which he went to France and volunteered with the S.S.U. 60 of the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps serving the Allied...
- Composed: 1963
- Soprano and piano
- Porter, QuincyQuincy PorterQuincy Porter was an American composer and teacher of classical music.Born in New Haven, Connecticut, he went to Yale University where his teachers included Horatio Parker and David Stanley Smith. Porter received two awards while studying music at Yale: the Osborne Prize for Fugue, and the...
, 1897–1966- Seven Songs of Love
- Text: Robert GravesRobert GravesRobert von Ranke Graves 24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985 was an English poet, translator and novelist. During his long life he produced more than 140 works...
- Composed: Undated
- Soprano and piano
- Poulenc, FrancisFrancis PoulencFrancis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and a member of the French group Les six. He composed solo piano music, chamber music, oratorio, choral music, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music...
, 1899–1963- Le Travail du Peintre
- Text: Paul ÉluardPaul ÉluardPaul Éluard, born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel , was a French poet who was one of the founders of the surrealist movement.-Biography:...
- Composed: Undated
- Soprano and piano
- Rieti, VittorioVittorio RietiVittorio Rieti was an Jewish-Italian composer. Born in Alexandria, Egypt, Rieti moved to Milan to study economics. He subsequently studied in Rome under Respighi and Casella, and lived there until 1940....
, 1898-- Plus ne Suis
- Text: Clement MarotClément MarotClément Marot was a French poet of the Renaissance period.-Youth:Marot was born at Cahors, the capital of the province of Quercy, some time during the winter of 1496-1497. His father, Jean Marot , whose more correct name appears to have been des Mares, Marais or Marets, was a Norman from the Caen...
- Composed: 1963
- Soprano and piano
- Rorem, NedNed RoremNed Rorem is a Pulitzer prize-winning American composer and diarist. He is best known and most praised for his song settings.-Life:...
1923-- Poulenc
- Text: Frank O'HaraFrank O'HaraFrancis Russell "Frank" O'Hara was an American writer, poet and art critic. He was a member of the New York School of poetry.-Life:...
- Composed: 1963
- Soprano and piano
- Rorem, NedNed RoremNed Rorem is a Pulitzer prize-winning American composer and diarist. He is best known and most praised for his song settings.-Life:...
1923-- A Journey
- Text: Andrew GlazeAndrew GlazeAndrew Glaze is an American poet, playwright, and novelist. About him, Robert Frost wrote, “I have high hopes for Mr. Glaze”. Although much of Glaze's poetry reflects his coming of age in the South, and eventual return there, he also lived in New York City for 31 years...
- Composed: 1976
- Soprano and piano
- Rosenthal, ManuelManuel RosenthalManuel Rosenthal was a French composer and conductor who held leading positions with musical organizations in France and America...
- Le Jour d'un Mort
- Text: Paul Gibson
- Composed: 1963
- Soprano and piano
- Sauguet, HenriHenri SauguetHenri Sauguet , was a French composer. Born in Bordeaux as Henri-Pierre Poupard, he adopted his mother's maiden name as his pseudonym. His output includes operas, ballets, four symphonies , concertos, chamber and choral music and numerous songs, as well as film music...
- Celui Qui Dort
- Text: Paul ÉluardPaul ÉluardPaul Éluard, born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel , was a French poet who was one of the founders of the surrealist movement.-Biography:...
- Composed: 1963
- Soprano and piano
- Sauget, Henri
- Les Images (from Vie de Campagnes)
- Text: [no information available]
- Composed: Undated
- Soprano and piano
- Sauguet, HenriHenri SauguetHenri Sauguet , was a French composer. Born in Bordeaux as Henri-Pierre Poupard, he adopted his mother's maiden name as his pseudonym. His output includes operas, ballets, four symphonies , concertos, chamber and choral music and numerous songs, as well as film music...
- Vie des Campagnes
- Text: Jean FollainJean FollainJean Follain, was a French author, poet and corporate lawyer. In the early days of his career he was a member of the "Sagesse" group. Follain was a friend of Max Jacob, André Salmon, Jean Paulhan, Pierre Pussy, Armen Lubin, and Pierre Reverdy...
- Composed: 1961
- Soprano and piano
- Tailleferre, GermaineGermaine TailleferreGermaine Tailleferre was a French composer and the only female member of the famous composers' group Les Six.-Biography:...
, 1892–1983- L'Adieu du CavalierL'Adieu du Cavalier (Tailleferre)"L'adieu du cavalier" is a song for voice and piano written by Germaine Tailleferre in 1963 on a poem of the same title by Guillaume Apollinaire...
- Text: Guillaume ApollinaireGuillaume ApollinaireWilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki, known as Guillaume Apollinaire was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic born in Italy to a Polish mother....
- Composed: 1963
- Soprano and piano
- Published by Musik Fabrik, France
- L'Adieu du Cavalier
- Tailleferre, GermaineGermaine TailleferreGermaine Tailleferre was a French composer and the only female member of the famous composers' group Les Six.-Biography:...
, 1892–1983- Pancarte pour une Porte D'EntreePancarte pour une porte d'entrée (Tailleferre)"Pancarte pour une porte d'entrée" is a cycle of eleven songs composed by Germaine Tailleferre to the poems of the novelist and poet Robert Pinget written in 1959...
- Text: Robert PingetRobert PingetRobert Pinget was a major avant-garde French writer, born in Switzerland, who wrote several novels and other prose pieces that drew comparison to Beckett and other major Modernist writers...
- Composed: 1959
- Soprano and piano
- Published by Musik Fabrik, France
- Pancarte pour une Porte D'Entree
- Thomson, VirgilVirgil ThomsonVirgil Thomson was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music...
, 1896-- Songs for Alice Esty
- Text: Kenneth KochKenneth KochKenneth Koch was an American poet, playwright, and professor, active from the 1950s until his death at age 77...
- Composed: 1959
- Soprano and piano
- Thomson, VirgilVirgil ThomsonVirgil Thomson was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music...
, 1896-- Two by Marianne MooreMarianne MooreMarianne Moore was an American Modernist poet and writer noted for her irony and wit.- Life :Moore was born in Kirkwood, Missouri, in the manse of the Presbyterian church where her maternal grandfather, John Riddle Warner, served as pastor. She was the daughter of mechanical engineer and inventor...
- Text: Marianne Moore
- Composed: 1963
- Soprano and piano
- Two by Marianne Moore
- Weber, Ben, 1916-
- A Bird Came Down the Walk, op. 57
- Text: Emily DickinsonEmily DickinsonEmily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life...
- Composed: 1963
- Soprano and piano