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 reasonably than deliberately.
“It’s type 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 girl and a composer was roughly unthinkable.
“I’m simply turning 80,” she mentions. “They by no means performed any ladies composers — perhaps Violet Archer,” she remembers of her scholar days. “We did a weekly broadcast, and it needed to be CanCon. A number of Murray Schafer […] however no ladies,” she says.
“I couldn’t think about a girl 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.
Finally, her performing days within the orchestra grew to become subsumed in her duties as a guardian and spouse. Pursuing a performing profession grew to become troublesome with babies, and discovering babysitters and different points grew to become a sticking level.
“My husband obtained 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 nicely.” 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 associate for a time. The duo started to put in writing songs along with the thought 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 challenge, she determined to put in writing the music herself.
“I believed, is that this all there’s to composing? You simply write one thing you want to listen to?” she puzzled. “There was no wanting again.”
That’s what led to additional research on the U of Regina, and a grasp’s diploma in composition. She remembers assembly weekly with Schudel for espresso to debate music. “At first, I wrote primarily for buddies.”
Step by step, although, her work garnered discover, together with her operas The Remaining Bid and The Backyard of Alice. The latter work, which premiered in 1985, was revived to grow to be 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 might sing it?” Elizabeth says. Nevertheless, after 35 years, she might clearly not play Alice as a younger woman. 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 contented ending.”
To movie it, the digital camera follows the motion from room to room, by means of 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 might be carried out in Victoria by means of a younger artist program later this yr.
“It’s had fairly plenty of performances.”
Composing
So far as her influences as a composer, they largely stem from her time as a performer. “I feel in the event you ask most composers, they’ll say Bach,” she says. It was enjoying in an orchestra that taught her how one can write for one. “Actually, Brahms for orchestration.” Curiosity was one other driving pressure. “What would this sound like?” she puzzled.
“I used to be principally 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 often the place she begins, reasonably than with conceptual or philosophical points. “Generally, you’re considering, is that this philosophy or music?”
Her eightieth birthday truly falls earlier within the yr (in January), however might be formally celebrated on the Canadian Music Centre in Might, she studies. It will likely 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 children play with Erika,” she says. Naturally, daughter and violinist Erika Raum may even be performing.
One in every 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 ordinary apply. “I’ve experimented lots,” 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 collection of items for harp. Now, that was a chore,” she chuckles, detailing all of the elements of harp efficiency she needed to have in mind.
Spanish Impressed for Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra (February 8)
The following live performance for the Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra is Spanish themed, and contains 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 a complete 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 side of efficiency that mirrors the clapping of the dancers within the authentic ballet.
The remainder of this system for the February 8 contains:
- Chabrier: Espana
- Rimsky-Korsakov: Capriccio Espagnol
- De Falla: Picks from The Three-Cornered Hat
- Bizet: Picks 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 elements within the music. “The music has such — it’s so vivid and wild, so many nice colors,” he says. “There have been so many selections to select from. These items actually appear to suit collectively nicely.”
As he notes, the live performance is a showcase for the orchestra, with no particular company as soloists. Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol, particularly, incorporates many solo spotlights. “You possibly can simply put the orchestra on show, and take the complete limelight.”
Spanish themed nonetheless permits for a substantial amount of selection, Martin notes, mentioning Marquez’ Danzon No. 2, some of the steadily carried out orchestral items by a Mexican composer. “It’s actually attention-grabbing and enjoyable,” he says. “It’s type 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 admittedly, actually cool,” he says, “a beautiful orchestral dance.”
He provides, “It’s positively an enormous, enjoyable program. Very rhapsodic, a lot of percussion, and it’s a reasonably large orchestra too.”
- Discover extra particulars in regards to 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.