Starer, Robert

(b Vienna, 8 Jan 1924). American composer of Austrian birth. Piano studies began when he was four and continued at the Vienna State Academy in 1937. After Germany invaded Austria, he was given a scholarship by Emil Hauser to the Jerusalem Conservatory from 1938 to 1943. He studied piano and composition with Josef Tal, as well as composition with Solomon Rosowsky and Oedeon Partos. From 1943 to 1946 he served in the British RAF, often touring as a pianist. In 1947 under a scholarship to the Juilliard School, he continued composition studies with Frederick Jacobi, and received a postgraduate diploma in 1949. In the summer of 1948 he was a pupil of Copland at the Berkshire Music Center. He became a US citizen in 1957. Her served on the faculty of Juilliard from 1949 to 1974. In 1963 he joined the staff of Brooklyn College CUNY, where he was promoted to full professor in 1966, distinguished professor in 1986, and retired in 1991. He received an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1979 and became a member in 1994. The Austrian Medal of Honour was awarded to him in 1995. Numerous commissions include four ballets for Martha Graham and a Violin Concerto by Itzhak Perlman, which Perlman premiered in 1981 and later recorded with Seiji Ozawa and the Boston SO. Another premiere of note was his Cello Concerto in 1988 by Janos Starker. Starer recorded it for CRI in 1991. Starer is the author of Rhythmic Training (New York, 1969), Basic Rhythmic Training (New York, 1986) and an autobiography, Continuo: a Life in Music (New York, 1987).

Starer's music is characterized by chromaticism, modality and driving rhythms. His style reflects his training at the Jerusalem Conservatory in the 20th-century Viennese tradition, the complex counterpoint of Taneyev, the Arabic scales and rhythms which he learned in the region, and later, jazz in the US. There are frequent quotations. Tertian harmonies of the 1950s gave way later to a preference for a more dissonant idiom, stressing 2nds and their inversions, as he was influenced by the avant-garde movement of the 1960s. He published four serial works from 1963 to 1967 (one, the Trio for piano, clarinet and cello) then abandoned this technique as too limiting. He retained certain note-row procedures, however, such as 'chromatic completion' which is a withholding of one or more notes of a chromatic scale to repeat them later, creating a dramatic resolution. His melodies frequently have a plaintive, poignant lyricism, with small intervals and motivic repetitions. At other times they are jagged and wedge-like. He is skilled at creating mood changes while using the same material. An early form of Starer's was the rondo; it became the basis for the collage-like structures he wrote later. These were inspired by the literary work of Gail Godwin, whom he met at Yaddo in 1972 and who became his frequent collaborator as lyricist-librettist. In the choral works, which are accessible to performers and listeners alike, he sometimes mingles song and speech. His settings of Hebrew texts (e.g. Psalms of Woe and Joy) have been highly acclaimed.

WORKS

stage
The Intruder (op, 1, M.A. Pryor), 1956, New York, 1956
Pantagleize (op, 3, Starer, after M. de Ghelderode), 1967, Brooklyn, NY, 1973
The Last Lover (musical morality play, 1, G. Godwin), 1974, Katonah, NY, 1975
Apollonia (op, 2, Godwin), 1978, St Paul, 1979
Ballets: The Story of Esther (A. Sokolow), 1960; The Dybbuk (H. Ross), 1960; Samson Agonistes (M. Graham), 1961; Phaedra (Graham), 1962; The Sense of Touch (J. Butler), 1967; The Lady of the House of Sleep (Graham), 1968; Holy Jungle (Graham), 1974

orchestral
Fantasy for Str, vn, va, vc, str, 1945; Pf Conc. no.1, 1947; Prelude and Dance, 1949; Sym. no.1, 1950; Sym. no.2, 1951; Pf Conc. no.2, 1953; Prelude and Rondo giocoso, 1953; Conc. a 3, cl, tpt, trbn, str, 1954; Ballade, vn, orch, 1955; Conc. for Va, Str and Perc, 1958; Samson Agonistes, sym. poem, 1963 [from ballet]; Mutabili (Variants for Orch), 1965
Conc. for Vn, Vc and Orch, 1967; 6 Variations with 12 Notes, 1967; Sym. no.3, 1969; Pf Conc. no.3, 1972; Journals of a Songmaker (W. Godwin), S, Bar, orch, 1975; Vn Conc., 1979--80, 1981; Conc. a 4, cl, ob, hn, bn, chbr orch, 1983; Hudson Valley Suite, 1984; Serenade, trbn, vib, str, 1984; Sym. Prelude, 1984; Vc Conc., 1988; Sym. Prelude, 1989; Nishmat Adam [The Soul of Man], nar, SATB, orch, 1990; 2-Pf Conc., 1996; educational pieces, 5 unpubd works

vocal
5 Proverbs on Love, unacc. chorus, 1950; Kohelet (Bible: Ecclesiastes), S, Bar, mixed chorus, orch, 1952; Come, Sleep (J. Fletcher), SSA, 1958; Never Seek to Tell thy Love (W. Blake), TTBB, 1958; Ariel: Visions of Isaiah (Bible), S, Bar, SATB, orch/(pf, org), 1959; 2 Songs from Honey and Salt (C. Sandburg), SATB, (2 tpt, 2 trbn)/pf, 1964; Joseph and his Brothers (cant., Bible), nar, S, T, Bar, SATB, orch, 1966; Sabbath Eve Service, S, A, Bar/T, chorus, org, 1967
On the Nature of Things (Bible, E. Dickinson, and others), SATB, 1968; Images of Man (Blake), S, Mez, T, Bar, SATB, fl, hn, vc, hp, perc, 1973; Psalms of Woe and Joy (Heb.), SATB, pf, 1975; The People, Yes (Sandburg), chorus, orch, 1976; Anna Margarita's Will (Godwin), dramatic monologue, S, fl, hn, vc, pf, 1979; Transformations (S.F. Shaeffer, J.C. Oates, Godwin): The Widow, The Ideal Self, Turning into another Person, S, fl/cl, pf, 1980
Voices of Brooklyn (N. Rosten, Shaeffer, W. Whitman and others): 1 Brooklyn Bridge, 2 There was a time, 3 Of good and evil, 4 Only the dead know Brooklyn, 5 Aspirations and Reflections, 6 But what is time anyway, 7 Poets to Come, solo vv, chorus, band, 1980--84; Music Vibrates (P.B. Shelley), SATB, fl, gui/kbd, 1990; Night Thoughts, SATB, synth/pf 4 hands, 1990; Proverbs for a Son, SATB, 1991; Letter to a Composer (G. Godwin), S, chbr orch, 1994
Other choral works; several songs

chamber and solo instrumental
Str Qt, 1947; Concertino, 2 vv/2 insts, vn, pf, 1948; 5 Miniatures, brass, 1948; Prelude, hp, 1948; Pf Sonata no.1, 1949; Sonata, vc, pf, 1951; Dirge, brass qt, 1956; Serenade, brass, 1956; Fantasia concertante, pf, 1959; Dialogues, cl, pf, 1961; Sketches in Color I, pf, 1963; Variants, vn, pf, 1963; Trio, cl, vc, pf, 1964; Pf Sonata no.2, 1965; Heptahedron, hpd, 1968; Ww Qt, 1970; Sketches in Color II, pf, 1973; Colloquies, fl, pf, 1974; Mandala, str qt, 1974; Profiles in Brass, 1974; Evanescents, pf, 1975; Annapolis Suite, hp, brass qnt, 1982; 6 Preludes, gui, 1984; The Ideal Self, pf, 1985; 4 Seasonal Pieces, pf, 1985; Duo, vn, pf, 1988; Angelvoices, brass, timp, perc, org, 1989; Elegy for a Woman who Died too Young, vn, vc, 1990; Cl Qnt, 1992; Electric Church and Walls of Jerusalem, pf, 1992; Pf Sonata no.3, 1994; Str Qt no.2, 1995; 3 Gregorian Preludes, org, 1996; Str Qt no.3, 1996; Pf Qnt, 1997
c40 others incl. several pf pieces; many band works
 
MSS in US-NYp, Pc, Wc; recorded interviews in US-NHoh
Principal publishers: Alfred, Israeli Music, MCA, HAL Leonard, Mercury, Southern, T. Presser, Vivace

BIBLIOGRAPHY
EwenD
GroveO (D. Lewis-Griffith)
Compositores de America/Composers of the Americas, ed. Organizacion de los Estados Americanos, xviii (Washington DC, 1972)
Y.W. Cohen: Die Musik Israels (Kassel, 1976)
D.E. Lewis: The Major Piano Solo Works of Robert Starer; a Style Analysis (diss., Peabody Institute, John Hopkins U., 1978)
D. Ewen: Composers since 1900: a Biographical and Critical Guide, 1st suppl. (New York, 1981)
R. Starer: 'Composing with the Soloist in Mind', New York Times (14 May 1988)
K.B. Ayshe: The Solo Piano Music of Robert Starer (diss., U. of Maryland, 1991)
K. Wendland: The Major Choral Works of Robert Starer and their Place in American Music (diss., CUNY, 1994)
 

DOROTHY LEWIS-GRIFFITH (with BRUCE ARCHIBALD)