Alexandre Tansman (12 June 1897, Łódź
–15 November 1986, Paris
) was
Polish
-born composer and virtuoso pianist.
He spent
his early years in his native Poland, but lived in France
for most of
his life. His music is primarily
neoclassical, drawing on his Polish
and Jewish heritage as well as his French musical influences.
Early life and heritage
Tansman
was born and raised in the Polish city of Łódź during the era when Poland did not exist as an
independent state, being part of Tsarist Russia
.
The composer wrote the following about his childhood and heritage
in a 1980 letter to an American researcher:
- "...
my father's family came from Pinsk
and I knew
of a famous rabbi related to him. My father died very young,
and there were certainly two, or more branches of the family, as
ours was quite wealthy: we had in Lodz several domestics, two
governesses (French and German) living with us etc. My father had a
sister who settled in Israel and married there. I met her family on
my [concert] tours in Israel. ... My family was, as far as religion
is concerned, quite liberal, not practicing. My mother was the
daughter of Prof. Leon Gourvitch, quite famous man."
Career
Though he
began his musical studies at the Łódź Conservatory, his
doctoral study was in law at the University of Warsaw
. Shortly after completing his studies, Tansman
moved to Paris, where his
musical ideas were accepted and encouraged by mentors and musical
influences Igor Stravinsky and
Maurice Ravel, as opposed to the more
conservative musical climate in his native Poland. While in
Paris, Tansman associated with a crowd of foreign-born musicians
known as the
École de
Paris; though
Honegger and
Milhaud tried to persuade him to join
Les Six, he declined, stating a
need for creative independence. (Tansman later wrote a biography of
Stravinsky that was extremely well-received.)
Tansman always described himself as a Polish composer, though he
spoke French at home and married a French pianist, Colette Cras.
In 1941,
fleeing Europe as his Jewish background put him in danger with
Hitler's rise to power, he moved to
Los
Angeles
(thanks to the efforts of his friend Charlie Chaplin in getting him a visa), where he made the acquaintance of
Arnold Schoenberg. Tansman
composed the score for at least two Hollywood movies -
Flesh and Fantasy, starring
Barbara Stanwyck; and a biopic of the
Australian medical researcher Sister
Elizabeth Kenny, starring
Rosalind Russell. He scored six films in
all. He was nominated for an
Academy
Award in 1946 for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy
Picture, for
Paris Underground (there was a huge field of
21 nominations, and the winner was
Miklós Rózsa for
Spellbound).
Though Alexandre Tansman returned to Paris after the war, his
disappearance from the European musical scene left him behind the
musical currents of the time, and no longer fresh in the minds of
the public, which slowed his previously fast-rising career.
No longer in tune with the French fashions, which had moved on to
the
avant-garde style, Tansman returned
to his musical roots, drawing on his Jewish and Polish background
to create some of his greatest works. During this time he began to
reestablish connections to Poland, though his career and family
kept him in France, where he lived until his death in 1986.
According to the Paris-based Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs,
Tansman used the name "Stan Alson" when he composed jazz
music.
Today the Alexandre Tansman Competition for promising musicians is
held in his honor every other year in his birthplace of Łódź, in
order to promote his music and the local culture.
Music
Tansman was not only an internationally recognized composer, but
was also a virtuoso pianist. From 1932-33 Tansman performed
worldwide for audiences including
Emperor
Hirohito of Japan and
Mahatma Gandhi; he was regarded
as one of the greatest Polish musicians. Later he performed five
concert tours in the United States, including as a soloist under
Serge Koussevitsky with the
Boston Symphony Orchestra,
as well as having a thriving career in France as a concert
performer.
Tansman's music is written in the French
neoclassical style of his adopted
home, and the Polish styles of his birthplace, drawing on his
Jewish heritage. Already on the edge of musical thought when he
left Poland (critics questioned his
chromatic and sometimes
polytonal writing), he adopted the extended
harmonies of Ravel in his work and later was compared to
Alexander Scriabin in his departure from
conventional tonality.
One of Tansman's letters states that "it is obvious that I owe much
to France, but anyone who has ever heard my compositions cannot
have doubt that I have been, am and forever will be a Polish
composer." After
Chopin,
Tansman may be the leading proponent of traditional Polish forms
such as the
polonaise and the
mazurka; they were inspired by and often written in
homage to Chopin. For these pieces, which ranged from lighthearted
miniatures to virtuoso showpieces, Tansman drew on traditional
Polish folk themes and adapted them to his distinctive neoclassical
style. However, he did not write straight settings of the folk
songs themselves, as he states in a radio interview: "I have never
used an actual Polish folk song in its original form, nor have I
tried to reharmonize one. I find that modernizing a popular song
spoils it. It must be preserved in its original
harmonization."
He is perhaps best known for his guitar pieces, mostly written for
Andrés Segovia—in particular the
Suite in modo polonico (1962), a collection of Polish
dances. Segovia frequently performed the work in recordings and on
tour; it is today part of the standard repertoire. Tansman's music
has been performed by musicians such as Segovia,
Walter Gieseking,
José Iturbi,
Jane
Bathori,
Joseph Szigeti,
Pablo Casals,
Gregor Piatigorsky, and
Igor Zubkovsky and most recently
Chandos Records has increased his profile,
with the start of a series of his orchestral works, recorded by the
Melbourne Symphony
Orchestra, conducted by
Oleg
Caetani.
Selected works
Tansman's many hundreds of compositions include:
- 8 mélodies japonaises, voice and orchestra (1918)
- Le jardin du paradis, ballet, (1922)
- Légende, orchestra (1923)
- La nuit kurde, opera (1927)
- Piano Concerto no.2 (1927)
- Rapsodie hébraïque, orchestra (1933)
- Orchestration of Federico
Mompou's piano suite Scènes d'enfants (1936)
- Violin Concerto (1937)
- Rapsodie polonaise, orchestra (1940)
- The Genesis, narrator and orchestra, collaboration
with Schoenberg, Milhaud, Stravinsky,
Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Toch, Shilkret, after
Genesis (1944)
- Isaïe le prophète, choir and orchestra (1950)
- Cavatine, guitar (1951)
- Concerto for Orchestra (1954)
- 4 mouvements symphoniques, orchestra (1956)
- Sabbataï Zévi, le faux messie, opera, (1957–8)
- Psaumes, tenor solo, choir, and orchestra
(1960–61)
- Suite in modo polonico, guitar (1962)
- Cello Concerto (1963)
- Fantaisie pour Cello & Orchestre ou Piano
- Hommage à Chopin, guitar (1966)
- Stèle in memoriam Igor Stravinsky, orchestra
(1972)
- Les dix Commandements, orchestra (1978–9)
- Hommage à Lech
Walesa, guitar (1982)
- film music: Poil de Carotte (1932), Flesh and
Fantasy (1942), Paris Underground (1945),
Destiny (1945), Sister Kenny (1946), The
Bargee (1964)
- 9 symphonies (1917, 1926, "Symphonie concertante" 1931, 1939,
1942, "In memoriam" 1944, "Lyrique" 1944,"Musique pour orchestre"
1948, 1957–8)
- 8 string quartets (1917, 1922, 1925, 1935, 1940, 1944, 1947,
1956)
- 7 Novelettes, piano
and his 2 works for solo bassoon and piano:
References
Bibliography
External links
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