Composer Elizabeth Raum started her musical life as an oboist — though to listen to her inform the story, the transition took place by the way moderately than deliberately.
“It’s form of attention-grabbing how that occurred,” she says. “I simply began out as an oboist, nothing else. However, I did prefer to compose.” On the time, nevertheless, to be a lady and a composer was kind of unthinkable.
“I’m simply turning 80,” she mentions. “They by no means performed any girls composers — perhaps Violet Archer,” she recollects of her scholar days. “We did a weekly broadcast, and it needed to be CanCon. Numerous Murray Schafer […] however no girls,” she says.
“I couldn’t think about a lady being composer.”
Raum is a local of Berlin, New Hampshire, and have become a Canadian citizen in 1985. Her music research started with oboe efficiency on the Eastman College, the place she graduated in 1966. She went on to earn a Masters in composition from the College of Regina.
In between, she carried out because the principal oboe of the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra (precursor of Symphony Nova Scotia) for seven years.
Ultimately, her performing days within the orchestra grew to become subsumed in her duties as a mother or father and spouse. Pursuing a performing profession grew to become tough with babies, and discovering babysitters and different points grew to become a sticking level.
“My husband acquired a job on Regina — I went alongside as a housewife,” she says. She started to carry out once more with the Regina Symphony Orchestra. “However I all the time wrote as properly.” Mentioned husband is Richard Raum, trombonist with the RSO, and professor on the College of Regina.
Making The Leap To Composer
Fellow composer Thomas Schudel, a professor of music on the College of Regina from 1964 till his retirement in 2003, and at one time head of the music division, grew to become a musical accomplice for a time. The duo started to write down songs along with the concept of promoting them to producers within the US. “However, it didn’t work,” Elizabeth says.
She wrote the libretto to an opera, with the intention that Schudel would write the music. When he bowed out of the mission, she determined to write down the music herself.
“I believed, is that this all there may be to composing? You simply write one thing you want to listen to?” she questioned. “There was no trying again.”
That’s what led to additional research on the U of Regina, and a grasp’s diploma in composition. She recollects assembly weekly with Schudel for espresso to debate music. “To start with, I wrote primarily for buddies.”
Regularly, although, her work garnered discover, together with her operas The Last Bid and The Backyard of Alice. The latter work, which premiered in 1985, was revived to develop into a pandemic period hit for Pacific Opera in a filmed model.
Younger coloratura soprano Tracy Dahl, who’d go on to a notable worldwide profession, carried out as Alice within the 1985 premiere. She got here again to sing the lead in a narrative that was reworked for a mature Alice.
“I believed, gee, it might be great if Tracy may sing it?” Elizabeth says. Nevertheless, after 35 years, she may clearly not play Alice as a younger lady. Pacific Opera requested Raum to rewrite it across the thought of Alice as an older girl in a hospital present process a drug induced hallucinatory expertise. “I needed to rewrite the ending, which was initially fairly darkish,” she provides. “It ended up a cheerful ending.”
To movie it, the digital camera follows the motion from room to room, by hallways. The music was carried out by a chamber orchestra located in the course of the motion. “It was actually fascinating.”
She studies that the opera shall be carried out in Victoria by a younger artist program later this yr.
“It’s had fairly quite a lot of performances.”
Composing
So far as her influences as a composer, they largely stem from her time as a performer. “I feel should you ask most composers, they’ll say Bach,” she says. It was taking part in in an orchestra that taught her find out how to write for one. “Actually, Brahms for orchestration.” Curiosity was one other driving power. “What would this sound like?” she questioned.
“I used to be largely writing at first as a result of I simply couldn’t cease myself,” she says. “I suppose my philosophy is, I write what comes out of me.”
Contemplating performers and viewers is usually the place she begins, moderately than with conceptual or philosophical points. “Generally, you’re pondering, is that this philosophy or music?”
Her eightieth birthday truly falls earlier within the yr (in January), however shall be formally celebrated on the Canadian Music Centre in Might, she studies. It is going to be a household affair.
Proper now, she’s engaged on adapting items for the event. “I’m together with my grandsons, who’re additionally musicians,” she explains. “I’m going to have the youngsters play with Erika,” she says. Naturally, daughter and violinist Erika Raum may even be performing.
Considered one of her grandsons attends the Taylor Academy, whereas the opposite is pursuing jazz guitar. “So, I’m combining one thing from my final opera […] with what the boys do.” It’ll veer between classical and jazz.
It’s only a continuation of her traditional observe. “I’ve experimented loads,” she says. That features the use graphic scores. “Notation applications are a nightmare.”
It wouldn’t be the primary time she’s composed in a jazz mode, both. “I’ve written some jazz stuff,” she says. Elizabeth says she writes jazz items for her husband. “Then I take down what he improvises,” she laughs.
She hasn’t stopped experimenting, or studying. “Just lately, I wrote a sequence of items for harp. Now, that was a chore,” she chuckles, detailing all of the points of harp efficiency she needed to keep in mind.
Spanish Impressed for Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra (February 8)
The subsequent live performance for the Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra is Spanish themed, and consists of Raum’s Flamenco Dance of 2009.
“It was a part of a ballet,” Raum says. The piece comes from her The Ardour of Carmen, a piece commissioned by The Royal Winnipeg Ballet. It’s drawn from the story of Carmen. “I needed to write an entire ballet,” she says. She researched each Spanish and Andalusian music to immerse herself within the fashion.
“One of many issues about this piece is the hand clapping.” It’s a facet of efficiency that mirrors the clapping of the dancers within the unique ballet.
The remainder of this system for the February 8 consists of:
- Chabrier: Espana
- Rimsky-Korsakov: Capriccio Espagnol
- De Falla: Alternatives from The Three-Cornered Hat
- Bizet: Alternatives from Carmen
- Marquez: Danzon No. 2
Spanish repertoire is a considerably uncared for nook of the classical music world, and it’s additionally music from a heat local weather for the useless of winter. As Cathedral Bluffs Music Director Martin MacDonald factors out, although, a lot of the Spanish repertoire is extra correctly described as Spanish-inspired. “It’s attention-grabbing as a result of so a lot of these composers […] have been so impressed by Spanish music,” he says. “It’s solely actually de Falla and Marquez, who’s a Mexican composer, who’re Spanish.”
Different European composers discovered distinctive points within the music. “The music has such — it’s so vivid and wild, so many nice colors,” he says. “There have been so many decisions to select from. These items actually appear to suit collectively properly.”
As he notes, the live performance is a showcase for the orchestra, with no particular friends as soloists. Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol, particularly, incorporates many solo spotlights. “You may simply put the orchestra on show, and take the total limelight.”
Spanish themed nonetheless permits for quite a lot of selection, Martin notes, mentioning Marquez’ Danzon No. 2, one of the often carried out orchestral items by a Mexican composer. “It’s actually attention-grabbing and enjoyable,” he says. “It’s form of a celebration piece in a whole lot of methods. It’s actually volcanic on the finish.”
De Falla’s The Three-Cornered Hat was impressed by flamenco, like Raum’s piece. “Elizabeth’s piece is absolutely, actually cool,” he says, “a beautiful orchestral dance.”
He provides, “It’s positively an enormous, enjoyable program. Very rhapsodic, numerous percussion, and it’s a reasonably large orchestra too.”
- Discover extra particulars concerning the Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra live performance on February 8 [HERE].
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Anya Wassenberg is a Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. She is an skilled freelance author, blogger and writing teacher.