Orbón (de Soto), Julián
(b Avilés, 7 Aug 1925; d Miami Beach, 20 May 1991). Cuban composer of Spanish birth. He studied at the Conservatory of Oviedo (1935) and then moved to Havana, where he began composing at an early age and had lessons from José Ardévol. From 1942 to 1949 he was a member of the Grupo de Renovación Musical, and he was active as a music critic, essayist and pianist at concerts of contemporary Cuban music. In 1946 he studied with Copland at Tanglewood. During the 1940s and 1950s he was closely associated with the literary group Orígenes, and wrote several essays for their review. He was director of the Orbón Conservatory, Havana (1946–60), founded by his father Benjamín, and taught composition at the National Conservatory in Mexico City (1960–63). In 1964 he settled in New York; he taught at Lenox College, Washington University, St Louis, Barnard College and the Hispanic Institute of Columbia University. He received two Guggenheim fellowships (1959, 1969) and an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1967). His Spanish-Cuban music has been influenced by a wide range of musical and literary interests, including Catholic liturgy, Gregorian chant, the music of Falla and the Halffters, and contemporary poetry; moreover, his close friendships with Chávez and Villa-Lobos have had their effect. Whether in the formal neo-classicism of his early works or the more expansive, vigorous and romantic traits of his later style, his music has always been marked by strict structural design. Occasionally he used ‘white’ Cuban and Afro-Cuban rhythms, as in Pregón and the Danzas sinfónicas.
WORKS
(selective list)
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Orch: Sym., C, 1945; Homenaje a la tonadilla, 1947; 3 versiones sinfónicas, 1953; Danzas sinfónicas, 1955–6; Conc. grosso, 1958; Partite no.3, 1965–6; Partite no.4, pf, orch, 1982–5
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Choral: Crucifixus, 1953; Introito, vv, orch, 1967–8; 2 canciones folklóricas, vv, orch, 1970–72; Liturgia de tres días, vv, orch, 1975
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Solo vocal: Pregón, 1v, fl, ob, hn, bn, pf, 1943; Himnus ad galli cantum, S, fl, ob, cl, hp, str qt, 1956; 3 cantigas del rey, S, hpd, perc, str qt, 1960; Monte Gelboé, T, orch, 1962–4; Libro de cantares, 1v, pf, 1987
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Chbr and solo inst: Sonata ‘Homaje a Padre Soler’, pf, 1942; Toccata, pf, 1943; Cl Qnt, 1944; Prelude y danza, gui, 1950–51; Str Qt, 1951; Partita no.1, hpd, 1963; Partita no.2, hpd, vib, cel, hmn, str qt, 1964; Preudio y fantasía tiento, org, 1974
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Principal publishers: Boosey & Hawkes, Broude, Instituto Interamericano de Musicología, Presser, Southern
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R. Parmenter: ‘Find from Cuba: J. Orbón Scores at Composer Forum’, New York Times (7 March 1955)
J. Lezama Lima: ‘Julián Orbón’, Tratados en La Habana (Havana, 1958/R), 367
Compositores de América Composers of the Americas, ed. Pan American Union, vi (Washington DC, 1960), 83–7 [incl. list of works]
R. Fernandez Bonilla: ‘Diálogo con Julián Orbón’, Exilio, iii/2 (1969), 5–13
G. Béhague: Music in Latin America (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1979), 260–61
E. Mata: Tres conferencias sobre la música de Orbón (Mexico City, 1986)
V. Yedra: Julían Orbón (Miami, 1990)
AURELIO DE LA VEGA
Orchard, (William) Arundel
(b London, 13 April 1867; d at sea, 7 April 1961). Australian music educationist, conductor and composer of English birth. After abandoning plans for a career in architecture, he studied the piano, the organ, the viola and singing, taking the BMus at Durham in 1893. After teaching at St Paul's School, London, he travelled in 1896 to Australia, where he was director of music first at St George's Cathedral, Perth, then at St David's Cathedral, Hobart. In 1903, after further school-teaching in England and New Zealand, he moved to Sydney, where he became conductor of the Sydney Liedertafel, the Sydney Madrigal Society and the choir of the Great Synagogue. In 1908 he conducted the inaugural concerts of the Sydney SO, and in 1912 co-founded (with George de Cairos Rego) the Musical Association of NSW. Having in 1914 successfully lobbied for the establishment of the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music, he was appointed to its Advisory Council, and succeeded Henri Verbrugger as director in 1923. During his tenure Orchard managed, through his strong links with the Sydney establishment, to solicit private money for students' scholarships and to raise the calibre of the Conservatorium orchestra, which he conducted in Australia's first broadcast classical concert in 1929. Nevertheless, he remained a controversial figure in the city's musical life. After his compulsory retirement from the Conservatorium in 1934, he established a BMus course at the University of Tasmania, but it did not survive his departure in 1938. He lived in Sydney, active as a music examiner for Trinity College, London, until his death at sea, en route to England.
All his life Orchard composed in a dated English style; his comparable conservatism as an educator and public figure, delayed the development of modernist trends in Sydney. His writings include an autobiography, The Distant View (Sydney, 1943), and Music in Australia (Melbourne, 1952). He was awarded the OBE in 1936.
WORKS
(selective list)
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Ops: The Coquette, or A Suicidal Policy (comic op, W.J. Curtis), 1905, Palace, Sydney, 28 Aug 1905; The Clever Gilbertian (comic op, Curtis); The Emperor (comic op, Curtis), 1906; Dorian Gray (music drama, Curtis, after O. Wilde), 1915–17, concert perf. of Act 2, Sydney, New South Wales State Conservatorium, 11 Sept 1919
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Orch: Reverie, str, 1894; Ov., 1894; Scherzo, wind, str, 1898, inc.; A Woodland Phantasy, 1922; Orch Variations [on Morley's Now is the Month of Maying], ?1923, rev. ?1956; Prelude and Fugue, sketched 1928, orchd 1943; Fanfare, brass, 1938; The Silent Land, band parts only extant; Vn Conc., vn solo part only extant; The North Wind
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Choral: Easter Morn, orat., chorus, c1892; The Wreck of the Hesperus (H.W. Longfellow), chorus, orch, 1897; Kyrie Eleison, chorus, 1898; The Silent Land (Longfellow), TTBarB, pf, 1902; An Idyll (E. L. Sabin), mixed vv (Sydney, 1910); God of our Fathers (R. Kipling), TTBB, 1911; Here awa', there awa' (after R. Burns), SATB, 1912; Uller, the Bowman (dramatic poem, Curtis) S, Bar, male chorus, orch (London, 1912); Voices of Women (F. Prewett), SATB (Sydney, 1923); Hark, hark, the lark, chorus, by 1934 (Sydney, 1956); Sweet and Low, (Prewett), chorus (Sydney, 1934), version for SA, pf (Sydney, 1943); When passion's trance is overpast (P.B. Shelley), SSATB (London, 1940); Stay, stay, sweet time, chorus, 1947; Doth not wisdom cry? (Bible), S, women's vv/boy's vv, org (London, 1949); Madrigal (E. Spencer), SSATB, 1950; I'll bid my heart be still (trad.), SATB; All the Blue Bonnets, chorus; To Blossoms (R. Herrick), SSATBB (London, 1956); Madrigal, SATB; Duncan Gray (folksong arr.), SATB; Stay, stay, sweet time (M. Drayton), SATB
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Songs, incl. An Idle Quest, 1894; Sleep, 1894; Invocation to Sleep (J. Keats), S, 1913–14; 3 Troubadour Songs (12th-Century texts, trans. J. Bithell) T/S, pf (London, 1929); 2 Elizabethan Songs (Sydney, 1939); Love’s Philosophy (Shelley), no date
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Chbr: Trio, d, vn, vc, pf, 1894; Trio, pf, vn, hn, 1901; Intermezzo, 6 vc, 1932, perf. 1933; Caprice, vn, pf, 1936; Trio, e, vn, va, pf, 1939; Threnody/Elegy, str qt; Str Qt, f
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Pf: Scherzo, pf (London, 1891); Serenade, pf, 1894; Summerland, pf, 1895; Rhapsody, a, pf (London, 1939); Ariel, pf, (Melbourne, 1943); Toccata, pf (Sydney, 1943); Concert Study, pf, c1943; Humoresque, pf, c1943; Toccata in the Early Manner, a, pf
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MSS in AUS-CAnl, Scm, Ssl
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JOHN CARMODY
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