The Internet's Premier Classical Music Source
Related Links
- Latest Reviews
- More Reviews
-
By Composer
-
Collections
DVD & Blu-ray
Books
Concert Reviews
Articles/Interviews
Software
Audio
Search Amazon
Recommended Links
Site News
Site Search
Follow us on
Affiliates
CD Review
Steve Schwartz
- Born:
- Cleveland, OH, November, 1946.
- Education:
- Oberlin, AB (1968);
- University of Michigan, MA (1969);
- University of Michigan, Ph.D. (1974); all degrees in English Literature.
- University of New Orleans, B.S. (1981) in computer science.
- Jobs:
- Taught university English for 12 years before I burned out.
- Drifted into the Bermuda Triangle of computer programming.
Married since 1972 to a woman far too good for me. Why she hasn't thrown me out of the house by now, I'll never know. She thinks I'm a god, with messy personal habits.
My musical life: Started composing at 5 and listening to all sorts of music. My mother was a concert pianist and my father an amateur violinist.
Taught myself sight-reading and the rudiments of theory. Really hit the Cleveland Public Library's record collection, heard a lot of music, and read a lot of liner notes. This seems to me a good way to learn music. As a kid, I had 6 months of piano lessons, but got very bored, since the music I wrote interested me far more than the pieces I had to study. To this day, I play written piano music like a klutz, though I can play pretty well by ear. I am trying to buckle down and work through piano finger exercises, but I always seem to find an excuse not to practice. I had a beautiful boy soprano voice. After it broke, I was, I believed, the best bass since Pinza. Then I heard myself on tape. What a shock. It was only OK. I started singing in choirs in fifth grade and continued until about 10 years ago, when the dismal choral situation in New Orleans made me say the hell with it. I was in the Oberlin College Choir conducted by the legendary (to me, anyway) Robert Fountain, the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus conducted by Shaw and Krehbiel, the University of Michigan Chamber Choir conducted by Hilbish, and formed and led several small vocal ensembles.
I continued to compose through high school. While at Oberlin, I took several theory, counterpoint, and composition courses. At that time, post-Webernian serialism was all the rage and that's what I learned. I can turn out reams of the stuff quite quickly (homework was never a problem), but I have no more emotional connection to it than I do to working crossword puzzles – interesting while I'm doing it, but nothing much when I'm done. I saved none of it. My creative heart belongs to tonality, although I listen to and love the Second Viennese School and its followers. My music lacks originality, except that which comes from unsuccessful imitation of my models: Stravinsky, Martinů, and Vaughan Williams (for the lyric bits). I have had performances at Oberlin and the University of Michigan, mostly theater pieces, and although I liked them at the time, I find them very hard to listen to now. I am always looking to write a perfect song. Currently, I am working on several things at once: a string quartet (which I may finish in my lifetime, just as soon as I learn how to write for strings), a chacony for string quartet, a setting of Jared Carter's "After the Rain" for string trio and voice, arrangements of two Scott Joplin songs for male quartet, and a project that's taken me years with no end in sight – a setting of Wordsworth's "Intimations of Immortality" ode.
I've been collecting records – all kinds of music – since 1960. My collection concentrates on the Renaissance and the 20th century. Since 1980, I've begun to fill in the years between. The introduction of CDs caused me trauma, since I wanted to continue to buy works I hadn't heard and also to replace my current collection. I'm not nearly rich enough.
Copyright © 1995-2000, Steve Schwartz
