Nicholas Maw
Encyclopedia
John Nicholas Maw was a British
composer
.
, Lincolnshire
, Maw was the son of Clarence Frederick Maw and Hilda Ellen Chambers. He attended the Wennington School
, a boarding school, in Wetherby
in the West Riding of Yorkshire
. His mother died of tuberculosis
when he was 14. He attended the Royal Academy of Music
on Marylebone Road
in London where his teachers were Paul Steinitz
and Lennox Berkeley
. He then studied in Paris
with Nadia Boulanger
and Max Deutsch
.
From 1998 until 2008, Maw served on the faculty of the Peabody Institute
at Johns Hopkins University
, where he taught music composition. He had previously served on the faculties of Yale University
, Bard College
, Boston University
, the Royal Academy of Music, Cambridge University, and Exeter University.
On Sunday 6 November 2011, BBC Radio 3
broadcast a 2-hour tribute called, "Nicholas Maw: A Celebration". The program featured performances of Maw's Violin Concerto, an orchestral suite drawn from his opera, Sophie's Choice, and two choral works (One foot in Eden still, I stand and Hymnus)..
. His music has been described as neo-romantic
but also as modernist
and non-tonal (for instance Personæ, his ongoing cycle of piano pieces).
In 2002 an opera, Sophie's Choice (based on William Styron
's novel
), was commissioned
by BBC Radio 3
and the Royal Opera House
, Covent Garden
. It was premièred at the Royal Opera House under the direction
of Sir Simon Rattle
, and afterwards received a new production by stage director Markus Bothe at the Deutsche Oper Berlin
and the Volksoper Wien, which had its North America
n premiere by the Washington National Opera
in October 2006. Mezzo-soprano Angelika Kirchschlager
, who sang Sophie in London, reprised the title role at the National Opera, joined by American baritone Rod Gilfry
as Nathan Landau, the schizophrenic man who initially rescues Sophie and then persuades her to join him in a suicide pact
. Maw also prepared a concert suite for orchestra based on the music.
A performance of Odyssey took place in BBC's Maida Vale Studios
on 9 December 2005, and was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 two days later. Simon Rattle
has also conducted a recording of the work by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
.
1956-7 Requiem for voices & orchestra
1957 Flute Sonatina
1957 Nocturne for mezzo-soprano & chamber orchestra
1959 Six Chinese Songs for contralto & piano
1962 Chamber Music for oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon & piano
1962 rev 1966 Scenes & Arias, for orchestra & three female voices
1964 rev 1966 rev 1970 One Man Show, opera
1965 String Quartet 1
1966 Severn Bridge Variation for a composite work with Malcolm Arnold, Michael Tippett, Alun Hoddinott & Daniel Jones
1966 Sinfonia for chamber orchestra
1966 Six Interiors for tenor & guitar
1966 Sonata for Strings & Two Horns
1966 The Voice of Love, Eight Peter Porter songs for mezzo-soprano & piano
1967 Double Canon for Igor Stravinsky on his 85th Birthday
1967-70 The Rising of the Moon
, three act opera
1967-70 arr 1972 Concert Music from The Rising of the Moon for orchestra
1971 Epitaph, Canon in Memory of Igor Stravinsky for flute, clarinet & harp
1972-5 1979 1985-7 Odyssey for orchestra
1973 Personae I, II & III for piano
1973 rev 1977 Serenade for orchestra
1973-6 Eight Life Studies for fifteen strings
1975 Te Deum for voices & orchestra
1979 La Vita Nuova, five songs for soprano & ensemble
1980 The Ruin for solo horn & voices
1981 Flute Quartet
1981 Summer Dances for orchestra
1982 Night Thoughts for solo flute
1982 String Quartet 2
1982 The Old King's Lament for solo double-bass
1982-3 Spring Music for orchestra
1984 Little Suite for solo guitar
1985 Sonata Notturna for cello & strings
1985-6 Personae IV, V & VI for piano
1987 Little Concert for oboe, two horns & strings
1988 Ghost Dances, imaginary ballet for five players
1988 The World in the Evening for orchestra
1989 5 American Folksongs for voice & piano
1989 rev 1991 Roman Canticle for baritone, flute, viola & harp
1989-91 Music of Memory for solo guitar
1990-1 Piano Trio
1991 American Games for wind orchestra
1992 Shahnama for chamber orchestra
1992 The Head of Orpheus for soprano & two clarinets
1993 Violin Concerto
1994 String Quartet 3
1994-5 Dance Scenes for orchestra
1995 Voices of Memory for orchestra
1995-6 Hymnus for voices & orchestra
1996-7 Solo Violin Sonata
1997 Stanza for solo violin
1999-2002 Sophie's Choice, four act opera after William Styron's novel
2001 Intrada for string quartet
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
.
Biography
Born in GranthamGrantham
Grantham is a market town within the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It bestrides the East Coast Main Line railway , the historic A1 main north-south road, and the River Witham. Grantham is located approximately south of the city of Lincoln, and approximately east of Nottingham...
, Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
, Maw was the son of Clarence Frederick Maw and Hilda Ellen Chambers. He attended the Wennington School
Wennington School
Wennington School, founded by the Quaker educationalist Kenneth C. Barnes, was a co-educational and ultimately progressive boarding school.It was originally founded in 1940 in Lunesdale, Lancashire. Early governors included Alfred Schweitzer and John Macmurray...
, a boarding school, in Wetherby
Wetherby
Wetherby is a market town and civil parish within the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, in West Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Wharfe, and has been for centuries a crossing place and staging post on the Great North Road, being mid-way between London and Edinburgh...
in the West Riding of Yorkshire
West Riding of Yorkshire
The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of the three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county, County of York, West Riding , was based closely on the historic boundaries...
. His mother died of tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
when he was 14. He attended the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
on Marylebone Road
Marylebone Road
Marylebone Road is an important thoroughfare in central London, within the City of Westminster. It runs east-west from the Euston Road at Regent's Park to the A40 Westway at Paddington...
in London where his teachers were Paul Steinitz
Paul Steinitz
Paul Steinitz OBE was a pioneer in the post-war interpretation of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. He founded the London Bach Society and Steinitz Bach Players in order to put his scholarship into practice, performing all Bach’s cantatas in mainly London venues over the space of 29...
and Lennox Berkeley
Lennox Berkeley
Sir 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...
. He then studied in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
with Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger was a French composer, conductor and teacher who taught many composers and performers of the 20th century.From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, but believing that her talent as a composer was inferior to that of her younger...
and Max Deutsch
Max Deutsch
Max Deutsch was an Austrian-French musical composer, conductor, and teacher.He was a pupil of Arnold Schoenberg and founded the theater Der Jüdische Spiegel in Paris. Here, many works of composers like Schoenberg, Anton Webern, or Alban Berg were debuted in France...
.
From 1998 until 2008, Maw served on the faculty of the Peabody Institute
Peabody Institute
The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University is a renowned conservatory and preparatory school located in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland at the corner of Charles and Monument Streets at Mount Vernon Place.-History:...
at Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
, where he taught music composition. He had previously served on the faculties of Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, Bard College
Bard College
Bard College, founded in 1860 as "St. Stephen's College", is a small four-year liberal arts college located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.-Location:...
, Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
, the Royal Academy of Music, Cambridge University, and Exeter University.
Personal life
In 1960, Maw married Karen Graham, and they had a son and a daughter. Their marriage was dissolved in 1976. He took up residence in Washington, DC in 1984, living there with his companion Maija Hay, a ceramic artist, until his death in 2009. He died at home on May 19, 2009, at age 73, as a result of heart failure with complications from diabetes.On Sunday 6 November 2011, BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
broadcast a 2-hour tribute called, "Nicholas Maw: A Celebration". The program featured performances of Maw's Violin Concerto, an orchestral suite drawn from his opera, Sophie's Choice, and two choral works (One foot in Eden still, I stand and Hymnus)..
Compositions
Maw is best known for the orchestral pieces Odyssey (1987) and The World in the Evening (1988), the guitar work Music of Memory (1989) and a violin concerto (1993) written for Joshua BellJoshua Bell
Joshua David Bell is an American Grammy Award-winning violinist.-Childhood:Bell was born in Bloomington, Indiana, United States, the son of a psychologist and a therapist. Bell's father is the late Alan P...
. His music has been described as neo-romantic
Neoromanticism (music)
Neoromanticism in music is a return to the emotional expression associated with nineteenth-century Romanticism. Since the mid-1970s the term has come to be identified with neoconservative postmodernism, especially in Germany, Austria, and the United States, with composers such as Wolfgang Rihm and...
but also as modernist
Modernism (music)
Modernism in music is characterized by a desire for or belief in progress and science, surrealism, anti-romanticism, political advocacy, general intellectualism, and/or a breaking with the past or common practice.- Defining musical modernism :...
and non-tonal (for instance Personæ, his ongoing cycle of piano pieces).
In 2002 an opera, Sophie's Choice (based on William Styron
William Styron
William Clark Styron, Jr. was an American novelist and essayist who won major literary awards for his work.For much of his career, Styron was best known for his novels, which included...
's novel
Sophie's Choice (novel)
Sophie's Choice is a novel by William Styron published in 1979. It concerns a young American Southerner, an aspiring writer, who befriends the Jewish Nathan Landau and his beautiful lover Sophie, a Polish survivor of the Nazi concentration camps...
), was commissioned
Contract
A contract is an agreement entered into by two parties or more with the intention of creating a legal obligation, which may have elements in writing. Contracts can be made orally. The remedy for breach of contract can be "damages" or compensation of money. In equity, the remedy can be specific...
by BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
and the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
. It was premièred at the Royal Opera House under the direction
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
of Sir Simon Rattle
Simon Rattle
Sir Simon Denis Rattle, CBE is an English conductor. He rose to international prominence as conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and since 2002 has been principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic ....
, and afterwards received a new production by stage director Markus Bothe at the Deutsche Oper Berlin
Deutsche Oper Berlin
The Deutsche Oper Berlin is an opera company located in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin, Germany. The resident building is also home to the Berlin State Ballet.-History:...
and the Volksoper Wien, which had its North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n premiere by the Washington National Opera
Washington National Opera
The Washington National Opera is an opera company in Washington, D.C., USA. Formerly the Opera Society of Washington and the Washington Opera, the company received Congressional designation as the National Opera Company in 2000. Performances are now given in the Opera House of the John F...
in October 2006. Mezzo-soprano Angelika Kirchschlager
Angelika Kirchschlager
Angelika Kirchschlager is an Austrian mezzo-soprano opera and lieder singer.-Career:Kirchschlager began her musical training at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, where she studied percussion and piano. In 1984, she went to the Vienna Music Academy, where she studied with Gerhard Kahry and Walter Berry...
, who sang Sophie in London, reprised the title role at the National Opera, joined by American baritone Rod Gilfry
Rod Gilfry
Rodney Gilfry is a leading American opera baritone. After launching his career at Frankfurt Opera in 1987, Gilfry quickly established a reputation for stylish singing and acting...
as Nathan Landau, the schizophrenic man who initially rescues Sophie and then persuades her to join him in a suicide pact
Suicide pact
A suicide pact is an agreed plan between two or more individuals to commit suicide. The plan may be to die together, or separately and closely timed. Suicide pacts are important concepts in the study of suicide, and have occurred throughout history, as well as in fiction.Suicide pacts are generally...
. Maw also prepared a concert suite for orchestra based on the music.
A performance of Odyssey took place in BBC's Maida Vale Studios
Maida Vale Studios
Maida Vale Studios is a complex of seven BBC studios on Delaware Road, Maida Vale, London.It has been used to record thousands of classical music, popular music and drama sessions for BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4 from 1946 to the present...
on 9 December 2005, and was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 two days later. Simon Rattle
Simon Rattle
Sir Simon Denis Rattle, CBE is an English conductor. He rose to international prominence as conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and since 2002 has been principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic ....
has also conducted a recording of the work by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is a British orchestra based in Birmingham, England. The Orchestra's current chief executive, appointed in 1999, is Stephen Maddock...
.
Chronological list of compositions
1956 Eight Chinese Lyrics for mezzo-soprano1956-7 Requiem for voices & orchestra
1957 Flute Sonatina
1957 Nocturne for mezzo-soprano & chamber orchestra
1959 Six Chinese Songs for contralto & piano
1962 Chamber Music for oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon & piano
1962 rev 1966 Scenes & Arias, for orchestra & three female voices
1964 rev 1966 rev 1970 One Man Show, opera
1965 String Quartet 1
1966 Severn Bridge Variation for a composite work with Malcolm Arnold, Michael Tippett, Alun Hoddinott & Daniel Jones
1966 Sinfonia for chamber orchestra
1966 Six Interiors for tenor & guitar
1966 Sonata for Strings & Two Horns
1966 The Voice of Love, Eight Peter Porter songs for mezzo-soprano & piano
1967 Double Canon for Igor Stravinsky on his 85th Birthday
1967-70 The Rising of the Moon
The Rising of the Moon (opera)
The Rising of the Moon is an operatic comedy in three acts composed by Nicholas Maw to a libretto by Beverley Cross. It premiered on 19 July 1970 at the Glyndebourne Festival conducted by Raymond Leppard and directed by Colin Graham...
, three act opera
1967-70 arr 1972 Concert Music from The Rising of the Moon for orchestra
1971 Epitaph, Canon in Memory of Igor Stravinsky for flute, clarinet & harp
1972-5 1979 1985-7 Odyssey for orchestra
1973 Personae I, II & III for piano
1973 rev 1977 Serenade for orchestra
1973-6 Eight Life Studies for fifteen strings
1975 Te Deum for voices & orchestra
1979 La Vita Nuova, five songs for soprano & ensemble
1980 The Ruin for solo horn & voices
1981 Flute Quartet
1981 Summer Dances for orchestra
1982 Night Thoughts for solo flute
1982 String Quartet 2
1982 The Old King's Lament for solo double-bass
1982-3 Spring Music for orchestra
1984 Little Suite for solo guitar
1985 Sonata Notturna for cello & strings
1985-6 Personae IV, V & VI for piano
1987 Little Concert for oboe, two horns & strings
1988 Ghost Dances, imaginary ballet for five players
1988 The World in the Evening for orchestra
1989 5 American Folksongs for voice & piano
1989 rev 1991 Roman Canticle for baritone, flute, viola & harp
1989-91 Music of Memory for solo guitar
1990-1 Piano Trio
1991 American Games for wind orchestra
1992 Shahnama for chamber orchestra
1992 The Head of Orpheus for soprano & two clarinets
1993 Violin Concerto
1994 String Quartet 3
1994-5 Dance Scenes for orchestra
1995 Voices of Memory for orchestra
1995-6 Hymnus for voices & orchestra
1996-7 Solo Violin Sonata
1997 Stanza for solo violin
1999-2002 Sophie's Choice, four act opera after William Styron's novel
2001 Intrada for string quartet
External links
- Extended biography
- Nicholas Maw: A Recent Discography and Music Review
- Guardian December 2002 article
- Nicholas Maw - Daily Telegraph obituary
- "British Composer Brought 'Sophie's Choice' to Opera Stage", The Washington PostThe Washington PostThe Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, May 20, 2009