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Nicholas Maw

 
Music Encyclopedia: (John) Nicholas Maw
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(b Grantham, 5 Nov 1935). English composer. He studied with Berkeley at the RAM (1955-8) and Boulanger and Deutsch in Paris (1958-9). He has taught in England and the USA. His music represents the extension of a solid tonal tradition, traceable back through Britten, Tippett, Bartók and Strauss, all influences on a style of fresh vigour. Among his works are two comic operas, One Man Show (1964) and The Rising of the Moon (1970), orchestral pieces and chamber music. His monumental orchestral work Odyssey was given in1987.


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Artist: Nicholas Maw
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Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Classical Artists
  • Period: Contemporary (1950- )
  • Born: November 05, 1935 in Grantham, Lincolnshire, England
  • Died: May 19, 2009 in Washington DC
  • Genres: Chamber Music, Concerto, Vocal Music

Biography

Nicholas Maw, one of the most highly regarded British composers of his generation, has written music in a language greatly influenced by the expressionistic style closely associated with Arnold Schoenberg. Still, it is misleading as well as unduly dismissive of Maw's singular mode of expression to categorize him simply as Schoenbergian, or even as expressionistic. Maw's music, with its opposition and blending of 12-tone and tonal principles, is better regarded as the multiply influenced but cohesive creation of a wholly original creative voice.

Maw, born in Grantham, Lincolnshire, England on November 5, 1935, received his early formal training at the Royal Academy of Music in London (1955-1958). There he studied composition with Lennox Berkeley and harmony and counterpoint with Paul Steinitz. With financial help from the French government and the Lili Boulanger Prize, Maw pursued further studies in Paris with famed pedagogue Nadia Boulanger, with whom Berkeley had also studied. It was during his time in Paris that Maw studied under former Schoenberg pupil Max Deutsch, who influenced his exploration of 12-tone techniques.

In 1962, at the age of 26, Maw wrote Scenes and Arias for orchestra and three women's voices, the work that established him as a composer of some consequence. Since then, he has composed operas, sonatas, and chamber, vocal, and choral works, but remains best known for his orchestral music. From 1973 to 1987 he worked on the immense symphonic poem Odyssey, generally regarded as his greatest creative achievement. Maw's other orchestral music includes popular works like Spring Music (1983), The World in the Evening (1988), Shahnama (1992), and the Violin Concerto (1993).

The composer's smaller works include three string quartets (1965, 1982, and 1993-1994), Life Studies (1973) for chamber ensemble, and Personae IV, V, VI (1985-1986) for piano. His first two operas, One Man Show (1964) and The Rising of the Moon (1970), use comedy to convey underlying social and political commentary.

Maw's academic career began with a post as resident composer at Trinity College, Cambridge (1966-1970). In 1972, he served briefly as a visiting lecturer in composition at Exeter University and later held positions at Yale University and Bard College in New York. He has achieved considerable popularity in both his native country and his adopted U.S. home. He has been a particular favorite of the British Broadcasting Company, which has commissioned music from him on several occasions; other commissions include works for the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Royal Opera House, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. A recording of Odyssey by Simon Rattle and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra was nominated for a Grammy award in 1992. In 1993, his Violin Concerto for Joshua Bell was well received, and Maw's final triumph was the opera Sophie's Choice, premiered at Covent Garden in 2002. ~ Bruce Lundgren, All Music Guide
Wikipedia: Nicholas Maw
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John Nicholas Maw (5 November 1935 – 19 May 2009) was a British composer.

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Biography

Born in Grantham, 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.[1]

In 1960, he married Karen Graham. They had a son and daughter. The marriage was dissolved in 1976. For the past 24 years he lived in Washington, DC with his companion Maija Hay, a ceramic artist.[1]

From 1998 until 2008, Maw served on the faculty of the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University, where he taught music composition.[2] He had previously served on the faculties of Yale University, Bard College, Boston University, the Royal Academy of Music, Cambridge University, and Exeter University. He had been a resident of Washington, DC since 1984, and died at his home there on May 19, 2009 at age 73 due to heart failure with complications from diabetes.[1]

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 Bell. His music has been described as neo-romantic but also as modernist and non-tonal (for instance Personæ, his ongoing cycle of piano pieces).[1]

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 American 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.[1]

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.[1]

Chronological list of compositions

1956 Eight Chinese Lyrics for mezzo-soprano

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

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Allan Kozinn (May 19, 2009). "Nicholas Maw, British Composer, Is Dead at 73s". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/arts/music/20maw.htm?_r=1. Retrieved May 19, 2009. 
  2. ^ "Obituaries: Composer Nicholas Maw dies at seventy-three; voice teacher Richard Miller; scholar William Ashbrook; veteran singers Eric Garrett and Robert Nagy.". Opera News. August 2009, vol 74, no. 2. http://www.metoperafamily.org/operanews/issue/article.aspx?id=5286&issueID=336. Retrieved July 30, 2009. 

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