Froom, David
(b Petaluma, CA, 14 Dec 1951). American composer. He studied at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Southern California (1976–9) and Columbia University (DMA 1984). His principal teachers included Humphrey Searle, William Kraft, Chou Wen-chung and Mario Davidovsky. A Fulbright grant enabled him to pursue further studies with Alexander Goehr in Cambridge. He has taught at the University of Utah and St Mary's College, Maryland (from 1989). His honours include awards from the Fromm and Koussevitsky foundations and the Kennedy Center.
Froom's best-known early work, the Piano Sonata (1980), exemplifies his youthful, neo-Expressionistic style. Demanding virtuosity from the performer, it is a steely, dissonant and driving composition, peppered with jazzy syncopations and angular, athletic lines. Beginning in 1991 with the harmonically voluptuous Chamber Concerto, he has steadily broadened his harmonic palette towards a greater use of consonance. Although the Oboe Quintet (1994) and Going to Town (1997) include triads, tertian structures do not create functional tonality in these works; gestural diversity is, however, anchored in traditional forms.
WORKS -
Orch: Pf Conc., 1984; Down to a Sunless Sea, str, 1988 [arr. chbr ens]; Festive Sounds, 1992; Serenade, tpt, str, 1994; Going to Town, 1997
|
Vocal: 2 Songs with Interlude (G. Brooks), S, fl, cl, vc, perc, 1982; Tidewater Songs (L. Clifton), Bar, bn, tpt, pf, 1990; 4 Songs (S. Standing), S, pf, 1992; Emerson Songs (R.W. Emerson), S, fl, ob, cl, bn, pf qt, 1996
|
Chbr and solo inst: Fantasy, vn, pf, 1976; Concertante, 6 vc, perc, 1979; Music for 13 Insts, ww, brass, pf, pf, 1981; Impromptu, ob, vc, pf, 1984, rev. 1991; Pf Qt, 1985; Rhapsody, 6 ondes martenot, 1985; Duo, 2 vn, 1987; Str Qt, 1990; Chbr Conc., fl, cl, bn, vc, pf, perc, 1991; To Dance to the Whistling Wind, fl, 1993; Ob Qnt, ob, pf qt, 1994; Serenade, tpt, str qt, db, 1994
|
Kbd (pf, unless otherwise stated): 5 Little Themes with Variation, 1976; Ballade, pf + Fender Rhodes, 1978; Sonata, 1980; Second Ballade, pf + DX-7 synth, 1986; 3 Etudes, lh, 1987; Suite, 1995
|
|
Principal publisher: MMB Music, Inc.
|
PERRY GOLDSTEIN
Frosch
(Ger.).
See Frog.
Frosch [Froschius, Batrachus], Johannes
(b ?Herxheim, c1470; d after 1532). German music theorist and composer. He is not to be identified with the theologian Johannes Frosch, also called Rana. He probably studied in Heidelberg where he gained the BA in 1489 and the MA in 1493. He had close ties to Count Georg I (1498–1558) and Duke Ulrich IV of Württemberg (1487–1550), to whom he dedicated his treatise Rerum musicarum opusculum rarum ac insigne. It was first published in Strasbourg in 1532, although most modern reference works list only the edition of 1535 which has been published in facsimile. Although the treatise was pedagogical in purpose, the scope of its 41 folios was unusually broad. In addition to a detailed study of the elements of music and the mensural system, he discussed Greek music and cited many ancient writers, including Aristotle, Plutarch and Pliny. It is one of the few theoretical works of the century to be a valuable source for the parody technique of composition. This procedure is clearly demonstrated in Qui de terra (for four voices) and Nesciens mater (for six voices), which conclude the work. As a composer Frosch displayed a fine talent and excellent training. Among his compositions, which include German psalm motets, lieder and Latin motets, are cantus-firmus settings as well as pieces in the more contemporary imitative style. The songs are printed in collections of Schöffer (RISM 15132), Forster (153927, 154937) and Kriesstein (15407); three Latin works remain in manuscript (one in D-Kl 24 and two in Rp B211–15). Frosch also wrote an astronomical treatise, De origine et principiis naturalibus impressionum in singulis aeris regionibus nascentium (1532). He was well known and admired by musicians. Sixt Dietrich considered him a friend and Glarean called him a distinguished musician.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
EitnerQ
H.C. Wolff: ‘Die ästhetische Auffassung der Parodiemesse’, Miscelánea en homenaje a Monseñor Higinio Anglés (Barcelona, 1958–61), 1011–17, esp. 1015
M. Jenny: Geschichte des deutschschweizerischen evangelischen Gesangbuches im 16. Jahrhundert (Basle, 1962)
W. Buszin: ‘Frosch (or Forschinus), Johannes’, The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, 1965)
C.A. Miller, ed. and trans.: Heinrich Glarean: Dodecachordon, MSD, vi (1965), 86
G. Franz: ‘Johannes Frosch, Theologe und Musiker in einer Person?’ Mf, xxviii (1975), 71–5
F. Körndle: ‘Untersuchungen zu Leonhard Lechners Missa secunda, Non fu mai cervo’, Augsburger Jb für Musikwissenschaft, iii (1986), 93–159
CLEMENT A. MILLER/ANNA MARIA BUSSE BERGER
Frost, Robert (Lee)
(b San Francisco, 26 March 1874; d Boston, 29 Jan 1963). American poet. He attended Dartmouth College (1892) and Harvard University (1897–9), and then worked as a teacher and farmer in New Hampshire. From 1912 to 1915 he lived in England, where his first two books were published. He was poet-in-residence at Amherst (Massachusetts) College from 1916 to 1920. Over 30 composers have set his work, but Frost took little interest in their settings. He seemed to agree with W.B. Yeats's notion that poetry suffered from its association with music and rebelled against the assumption that the music of words was ‘a matter of harmonized vowels and consonants’. He wanted to make music out of what he called ‘the sound of sense’, which he later described as being like the sound of voices ‘behind a door that cuts off the words’.
Of those composers who have set Frost's poetry to music, Randall Thompson is one of the best known. It was suggested that he set Frost's The Gift Outright for the town of Amherst's 200th anniversary, but he chose instead seven other poems, published collectively as Frostiana. Other composers who have set poems by Frost include William T. Ames, David Blake, Elliott Carter, Cowell, John Duke, Gruenberg, and Otto Mortensen. The most frequently set poems are Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, The Pasture and Fire and Ice.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
J. Gould: Robert Frost: the Aim was Song (New York, 1964)
L. Thompson and R.H. Winnick: Robert Frost: a Biography (New York, 1981)
M.A. Hovland: Musical Settings of American Poetry: a Bibliography (Westport, CT, 1986) [incl. list of settings]
JOHN McLAUGHLIN
Share with your friends: |