Ronald Stevenson
Encyclopedia
Ronald Stevenson is a British composer
, pianist
, and writer about music
.
), studying composition with Richard Hall
and piano with Iso Elinson, graduating with distinction in 1948. He moved to Scotland in the mid-1950s. As author and performer he was instrumental in reviving the works of Ferruccio Busoni
, and corresponded with Percy Grainger
.
Among his many compositions, the largest (in terms of duration) and most famous is his Passacaglia on DSCH for solo piano, written between 1960 and 1962, based on a 13-note ground bass derived from the musical motif D, E-flat, C, B: the German transliteration of Dmitri Shostakovich
's initials ("D. Sch."). (Shostakovich used these four notes as a musical 'signature', for example in his Eighth String Quartet
.) Stevenson's work takes more than an hour and a quarter to perform and is the longest well known unbroken single movement composed for piano, though Kaikhosru Sorabji's
Symphonic Nocturne for Piano Alone probably exceeds it by some 45 minutes.
Stevenson's other works include two piano concerto
s, the second of which was first performed at a Prom
in 1972, a violin concerto
commissioned by Yehudi Menuhin
, and a cello concerto in memoriam Jacqueline du Pré
. He has also written several chamber works including a String Quartet
and Piano Quartet
, numerous songs (among these, many settings of Hugh MacDiarmid
, William Soutar
and James Joyce
) and works for solo piano. In 2007 he completed a choral
symphony
, Ben Dorain, on Hugh MacDiarmid
's translation of the poem of that name by Duncan Ban MacIntyre
. This work, for full chorus and chamber choir with chamber orchestra and symphony orchestra, was begun in the 1960s and laid aside for many years. The world premiere was given in City Halls, Glasgow
on 19 January 2008 by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (Chamber Choir--Glasgow University Chapel Choir, Chorus--Scottish Opera Chorus and the Edinburgh Singers) conducted by James Grossmith.
Stevenson has been very active as a transcriber of other music than his own, chiefly for the piano, in the tradition of Busoni, Grainger and Leopold Godowsky
. He has made dozens if not hundreds of transcriptions of composers as diverse as Henry Purcell
and Frederick Delius
. Notable examples include piano solo versions of Grainger's Hill Song No.1 (originally for wind orchestra), the first movement of Gustav Mahler
's Tenth Symphony
, and of the six unaccompanied violin sonatas of Eugène Ysaÿe
as piano sonatas. There is also a collection of piano solos based songs from the 19th and 20th centuries entitled L'art nouveau de chant appliqué au piano, a title that recalls deliberately the collection of song-transcriptions by Sigismond Thalberg
. In addition Stevenson has made many arrangements of folk music from countries as far apart as Scotland and China, while many of his own works exist in several different instrumentations.
Stevenson is noted as a teacher. He was senior lecturer in composition at the University of Cape Town
in the mid 1960s, delivered seminars at the Juilliard School
in New York, and was responsible for a course entitled The Political Piano at the University of York
in the early 1980s. His daughter Savourna Stevenson
(born 1961) has recorded many works on the Scottish harp. His granddaughter Anna Wendy Stevenson is a noted Scots folk fiddler. His daughter Gerda Stevenson
is an accomplished film and theatre actress.
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...
, pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
, and writer about music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
.
Biography
The son of a Scottish father and English mother, Stevenson studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music (now incorporated in the Royal Northern College of MusicRoyal Northern College of Music
The Royal Northern College of Music is a music school in Manchester, England. It is located on Oxford Road in Chorlton on Medlock, at the western edge of the campus of the University of Manchester and is one of four conservatories associated with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music...
), studying composition with Richard Hall
Richard Hall (composer)
Richard Hall was an English musician and composer who became professor of composition at the Royal Manchester College of Music, a position he held from 1938 until 1956, when he became director of music at Dartington College of Arts...
and piano with Iso Elinson, graduating with distinction in 1948. He moved to Scotland in the mid-1950s. As author and performer he was instrumental in reviving the works of Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, editor, writer, piano and composition teacher, and conductor.-Biography:...
, and corresponded with Percy Grainger
Percy Grainger
George Percy Aldridge Grainger , known as Percy Grainger, was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist. In the course of a long and innovative career he played a prominent role in the revival of interest in British folk music in the early years of the 20th century. He also made many...
.
Among his many compositions, the largest (in terms of duration) and most famous is his Passacaglia on DSCH for solo piano, written between 1960 and 1962, based on a 13-note ground bass derived from the musical motif D, E-flat, C, B: the German transliteration of Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
's initials ("D. Sch."). (Shostakovich used these four notes as a musical 'signature', for example in his Eighth String Quartet
String Quartet No. 8 (Shostakovich)
Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8 in C minor was written in three days . It was premiered that year in Leningrad by the Beethoven Quartet....
.) Stevenson's work takes more than an hour and a quarter to perform and is the longest well known unbroken single movement composed for piano, though Kaikhosru Sorabji's
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji was an English composer, music critic, pianist, and writer.-Biography:...
Symphonic Nocturne for Piano Alone probably exceeds it by some 45 minutes.
Stevenson's other works include two piano concerto
Piano concerto
A piano concerto is a concerto written for piano and orchestra.See also harpsichord concerto; some of these works are occasionally played on piano...
s, the second of which was first performed at a Prom
The Proms
The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London...
in 1972, a violin concerto
Violin concerto
A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin and instrumental ensemble, customarily orchestra. Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up through the present day...
commissioned by Yehudi Menuhin
Yehudi Menuhin
Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, OM, KBE was a Russian Jewish American violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in the United Kingdom. He was born to Russian Jewish parents in the United States, but became a citizen of Switzerland in 1970, and of the United Kingdom in 1985...
, and a cello concerto in memoriam Jacqueline du Pré
Jacqueline du Pré
Jacqueline Mary du Pré OBE was a British cellist. She is particularly associated with Elgar's Cello Concerto in E Minor; her interpretation has been described as "definitive" and "legendary." Her career was cut short by multiple sclerosis, which forced her to stop performing at 28 and led to her...
. He has also written several chamber works including a String Quartet
String quartet
A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...
and Piano Quartet
Piano quartet
In European classical music, piano quartet denotes a chamber music composition for piano and three other instruments, or a musical ensemble comprising such instruments...
, numerous songs (among these, many settings of Hugh MacDiarmid
Hugh MacDiarmid
Hugh MacDiarmid is the pen name of Christopher Murray Grieve , a significant Scottish poet of the 20th century. He was instrumental in creating a Scottish version of modernism and was a leading light in the Scottish Renaissance of the 20th century...
, William Soutar
William Soutar
William Soutar was a Scottish poet, born 1898. He served in the navy in World War I, and afterwards studied at the University of Edinburgh, where he encountered the work of Hugh MacDiarmid. This led to a radical alteration in his work, and he became a leading poet of the Scottish Literary...
and James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
) and works for solo piano. In 2007 he completed a choral
Choral symphony
A choral symphony is a musical composition for orchestra, choir, sometimes with solo vocalists, which in its internal workings and overall musical architecture adheres broadly to symphonic musical form. The term "choral symphony" in this context was coined by Hector Berlioz when describing his...
symphony
Symphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...
, Ben Dorain, on Hugh MacDiarmid
Hugh MacDiarmid
Hugh MacDiarmid is the pen name of Christopher Murray Grieve , a significant Scottish poet of the 20th century. He was instrumental in creating a Scottish version of modernism and was a leading light in the Scottish Renaissance of the 20th century...
's translation of the poem of that name by Duncan Ban MacIntyre
Duncan Bàn MacIntyre
Donnchadh Bàn Mac an t-Saoir is one of the most renowned of Scottish Gaelic poets and formed an integral part of one of the golden ages of Gaelic poetry in Scotland during the 18th century...
. This work, for full chorus and chamber choir with chamber orchestra and symphony orchestra, was begun in the 1960s and laid aside for many years. The world premiere was given in City Halls, Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
on 19 January 2008 by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (Chamber Choir--Glasgow University Chapel Choir, Chorus--Scottish Opera Chorus and the Edinburgh Singers) conducted by James Grossmith.
Stevenson has been very active as a transcriber of other music than his own, chiefly for the piano, in the tradition of Busoni, Grainger and Leopold Godowsky
Leopold Godowsky
Leopold Godowsky was a famed Polish American pianist, composer, and teacher. One of the most highly regarded performers of his time, he became known for his theories concerning the application of relaxed weight and economy of motion in piano playing, principles later propagated by Godowsky's...
. He has made dozens if not hundreds of transcriptions of composers as diverse as Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...
and Frederick Delius
Frederick Delius
Frederick Theodore Albert Delius, CH was an English composer. Born in the north of England to a prosperous mercantile family of German extraction, he resisted attempts to recruit him to commerce...
. Notable examples include piano solo versions of Grainger's Hill Song No.1 (originally for wind orchestra), the first movement of Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
's Tenth Symphony
Symphony No. 10 (Mahler)
The Symphony No. 10 by Gustav Mahler was written in the summer of 1910, and was his final composition. At the time of Mahler's death the composition was substantially complete in the form of a continuous draft; but not being fully elaborated at every point, and mostly not orchestrated, it was not...
, and of the six unaccompanied violin sonatas of Eugène Ysaÿe
Eugène Ysaÿe
Eugène Ysaÿe was a Belgian violinist, composer and conductor born in Liège. He was regarded as "The King of the Violin", or, as Nathan Milstein put it, the "tzar"...
as piano sonatas. There is also a collection of piano solos based songs from the 19th and 20th centuries entitled L'art nouveau de chant appliqué au piano, a title that recalls deliberately the collection of song-transcriptions by Sigismond Thalberg
Sigismond Thalberg
Sigismond Thalberg was a composer and one of the most distinguished virtuoso pianists of the 19th century.- Descent and family background :...
. In addition Stevenson has made many arrangements of folk music from countries as far apart as Scotland and China, while many of his own works exist in several different instrumentations.
Stevenson is noted as a teacher. He was senior lecturer in composition at the University of Cape Town
University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town is a public research university located in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. UCT was founded in 1829 as the South African College, and is the oldest university in South Africa and the second oldest extant university in Africa.-History:The roots of...
in the mid 1960s, delivered seminars at the Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
in New York, and was responsible for a course entitled The Political Piano at the University of York
University of York
The University of York , is an academic institution located in the city of York, England. Established in 1963, the campus university has expanded to more than thirty departments and centres, covering a wide range of subjects...
in the early 1980s. His daughter Savourna Stevenson
Savourna Stevenson
Savourna Stevenson is a Scottish clarsach player and composer. While she is identified as an interpreter of Scottish traditional music, she has also made inroads into world music, blues and jazz....
(born 1961) has recorded many works on the Scottish harp. His granddaughter Anna Wendy Stevenson is a noted Scots folk fiddler. His daughter Gerda Stevenson
Gerda Stevenson
Gerda Stevenson is a Scottish actress, director and writer, described by The Scotsman in 1999 as "Scotland's finest actress". She has played a vast range of parts in the theatre, including both Desdemona and Lady MacBeth, and has appeared in many television dramas...
is an accomplished film and theatre actress.
List of works (selection only)
(Full list to 2005 in Symposium ed. Scott-Sutherland listed in References)Orchestra
- Berceuse Symphonique (1951)
- Jamboree for Grainger (1960-61)
- Scots Dance Toccata (1965)
- Young Scotland Suite (1976)
- Strathclyde’s Salute to MandelaNelson MandelaNelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
for brass band (1990-91)
Solo instrument and orchestra
- Piano Concerto No.1, A Faust Triptych (1959-60; reworking of Prelude, Fugue and Fantasy for solo piano)
- Simple Variations of Purcell’s 'New Scotch Tune' for clarinet and strings (1967 reworking of 1964 piano variations)
- Piano Concerto No. 2, The Continents (1970-72)
- Violin Concerto, The Gypsy (1977-79)
- Corroborree for Grainger for piano and wind band (1989 recomposition of Jamboree for Grainger)
- Cello Concerto, The Solitary Singer (1968-94)
Solo voice and orchestra
- Variations Vocalises sur deux themes de 'Les Troyens' de Berlioz for mezzo-soprano and orchestra (1969)
- St Mary's May Songs for soprano and string orchestra (1988-89)
Choral music
- The Weyvers o' Blegburn for chamber choir, texts in Lancashire dialect (1962)
- A Medieval Scottish Triptych for a cappella chorus, medieval Scottish texts (1967)
- Anns an Airde, as an Doumhne for a cappella chorus, poems by Sorley MacLeanSorley MacLeanSorley MacLean was one of the most significant Scottish poets of the 20th century.-Early life:He was born at Osgaig on the island of Raasay on 26 October 1911, where Scottish Gaelic was the first language. He attended the University of Edinburgh and was an avid shinty player playing for the...
(1968) - 4 Peace Motets, Biblical texts (1976)
- Domino Roberto Carwor: 12-part Motet in memoriam Robert Carver, text by James Reid-Baxter (1987)
- In praise of Ben DorainBeinn DorainBeinn Dorain , is a mountain located in the Bridge of Orchy hills of Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It is one of the most recognisable mountains in Scotland, as it curves gracefully up from the West Highland Way...
: Symphony for full chorus, chamber chorus, symphony orchestra and chamber orchestra, Gaelic text by Duncan Ban MacIntyre and translation by Hugh MacDiarmid (1962–2007)
Chamber music
- Sonata for violin and piano (1947)
- Variations on a Theme of PizzettiIldebrando PizzettiIldebrando Pizzetti was an Italian composer of classical music.- Biography :Pizzetti was born in Parma in 1880. He was part of the "Generation of 1880" along with Ottorino Respighi and Gian Francesco Malipiero. They were among the first Italian composers in some time whose primary contributions...
for unaccompanied violin (1961; NB unrelated to piano variations, though same theme) - 4 Meditations for string quartet (1964 arrangements of movements from A 20th-Century Music Diary for piano)
- Variations and Theme ('The Bonnie Earl o' Moray') for cello and piano (1974)
- Recitative and Air: In Memoriam Shostakovich for violin and piano (1976 arrangement of piano original; also for cello & piano, bassoon & piano, viola & piano, string quartet and string orchestra)
- Don Quixote and Sancho Panza: Duo for 2 guitars (1982-83)
- Scots Suite for unaccompanied violin (1984)
- Fantasy Quartet, Alma Alba for piano, violin, viola and cello (1985)
- Bergstimmung for horn and piano (1986)
- The Harlot's House – Dance Poem after Oscar WildeOscar WildeOscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
for free-bass accordion, timpani and percussion (1988) - String Quartet, Voces Vagabundae (1990)
- Pan-Celtic Wind Quintet (2000)
Piano and harp
- Duo Sonata (1970-71)
- Chiaroscuro: Homage to Rembrandt and his Biographer Van Loon (1987)
Solo piano
- Sonatina No.1 (1945)
- 18 Variations on a Bach Chorale (1946)
- Sonatina No.2 (1947)
- Vox Stellarum (1947)
- Sonatina No.3 (1948)
- Chorale Prelude for Jean Sibelius (1948)
- Fugue on a Fragment of Chopin (1948; also version for 2 pianos)
- 3 Nativity Pieces (1949)
- Andante Sereno (1950)
- Variations on a Theme of Pizzetti (1955; NB unrelated to violin variations, though same theme)
- A 20th-Century Music Diary (1953-59)
- 6 Pensées sur des Préludes de Chopin (1959)
- Prelude, Fugue and Fantasy on Busoni's Faust (1949-59)
- Passacaglia on DSCHPassacaglia on DSCHThe Passacaglia on DSCH is a large-scale composition for solo piano by the British composer Ronald Stevenson. It was composed between 24 December 1960 and 18 May 1962, except for two sections added on the day of the first performance on 10 December 1963...
(1960-62) - Simple Variations on Purcell's 'New Scotch Tune' (1964; rev and enlarged 1975 as Little Jazz Variations on Purcell's 'New Scotch Tune)
- Scottish Folk Music Settings (c. 1959-65)
- A Scottish Triptych (1959-67) (originally A Modern Scottish Triptych: consists of Keening Sang for a Makar (in memoriam Francis George ScottFrancis George ScottFrancis George Scott was a Scottish composer.Born in Hawick, Roxburghshire, he was the son of a supplier of mill-engineering parts. Educated at Hawick, and at the universities of Edinburgh and Durham, he studied composition under Jean Roger-Ducasse...
, Heroic Song for Hugh MacDiarmid and Chorale-Pibroch for Sorley MacLean) - South Uist Folksong Suite (1969)
- Peter Grimes Fantasy on themes from the opera by Benjamin BrittenBenjamin BrittenEdward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
(1971) - 3 Scottish Ballads (1973)
- Recitative and Air (1974) (published 1976 as Recitative and Air: In Memoriam Shostakovich)
- Sonatina Serenissima (In Memoriam Benjamin Britten) (Sonatina No.4) (1973-77)
- Norse Elegy for Ella Nygard (1976-79)
- Barra Flyting Toccata (1980)
- A Rosary of Variations on Seán Ó’Riada’s Irish Folk Mass (1980)
- Symphonic Elegy for Liszt (1986)
- A Threepenny Sonatina: Homage to Kurt Weill (Sonatina No.5) (1987-88)
- Motus Perpetuus (?) Temporibus Fatalibus (1987-88)
- Beltane Bonfire (1989)
- A Carlyle Suite (1995)
- Le Festin d’Alkan: Concerto for solo piano without orchestra (1988-97)
- Fugue, Variations and Epilogue on a Theme of Bax (1982-83; 2003)
Song cycles
- 19 Songs of Innocence for four solo voices and piano with a cappella chorale, texts by William BlakeWilliam BlakeWilliam Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
(1947-8, rev. 1965) - Four Vietnamese Miniatures for high voice and harp (or piano), texts by Ho Chi MinhHo Chi MinhHồ Chí Minh , born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc, was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader who was prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam...
(1965) - Border Boyhood for tenor and piano, text by Hugh MacDiarmid (1970)
- The Infernal City for tenor and piano, texts by Hugh MacDiarmid and Sorley MacLean (1970-71)
- 9 Haiku for high voice and harp or piano, texts from Japanese poets (School of BashōBashoBasho may refer to:*Bashō, Edo-period Japanese haiku poet*Basho , a crater on Mercury*Bashō, a Noh play by Komparu Zenchiku* Basho, a concept in Kitaro Nishida's philosophy* Basho, a contest in sumo wrestling, especially one of the honbasho...
) translated by Keith BosleyKeith BosleyKeith Bosley is a British poet and language expert.Bosley was born in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, grew up in Maidenhead, Berkshire...
plus one poem by Keith Bosley (1971) - Songs of Quest for baritone and piano, texts by John DavidsonJohn Davidson (poet)John Davidson was a Scottish poet, playwright and novelist, best known for his ballads. He also did translations from French and German...
(1974) - Hills of Home for baritone and piano, texts by R. L. StevensonRobert Louis StevensonRobert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
(1974) - Songs from Factories and Fields for bass-baritone and piano, texts by Hugh MacDiarmid (1977)
- Lieder ohne Buchstaben (Unspelt Songs) for tenor and piano, texts by A. D. HopeA. D. HopeAlec Derwent Hope AC OBE was an Australian poet and essayist known for his satirical slant. He was also a critic, teacher and academic.-Life:...
(1982) - A Child’s Garden of Verses for soprano or tenor and piano with optional treble or young soprano, texts by R. L. Stevenson (1985)
External links
- The Ronald Stevenson Society
- Ronald Stevenson at the Scottish Music Centre
- Ates Orga Ronald Stevenson Composer-Pianist: A Memoir (June 1999)
- Digitised scores of Stevenson's compositions can be viewed through the Five Centuries of Scottish Music collection hosted by AHDS Performing Arts