Paul Moravec (born November 2, 1957) is an Americancomposer and a university professor atAdelphi University onLong Island, New York and also a member of the composition department of theMannes School of Music. Already a prolific composer, he has been described as a "new tonalist."[1] He is best known for his workTempest Fantasy, which received the 2004Pulitzer Prize for Music. Amonghis compositions are two operas:The Letter (2009) andThe Shining (2016).
Moravec was born inBuffalo, New York, and subsequently attended theLawrenceville School, graduating in 1975.[2] He received hisB.A. in composition from Harvard University in 1980; while there, he performed with theHarvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, one of theHolden Choirs. He won the Prix de Rome and studied at the American Academy in Rome after graduating. He then received the Master of Music (1982) andDoctor of Musical Arts (1987) in composition, both fromColumbia University.[3]
Moravec has taught atDartmouth College (1987–96) andHunter College (1997–98). He suffered from clinically diagnosed depression that worsened during the time immediately surrounding his departure fromDartmouth College, and underwentelectroshock therapy.[4] He is currently a university professor in the music department atAdelphi University, He also teaches composition at theMannes School of Music, contributing to whatThe New York Times has called a "renaissance" in a college that went through academic and financial difficulties in the 1990s.[5]
In 2004, Moravec received thePulitzer Prize for Music for his workTempest Fantasy.[6][7][8][9] This prestigious award raised Moravec's profile significantly, and he was appointed to several residencies. He was named the new honorary composer-member of the New York Composers Circle in September, 2006.[10] He was also appointed the composer in residence for the 2007-2008 academic year at theInstitute for Advanced Study inPrinceton, New Jersey.[4][11]
In addition to his Pulitzer Prize, Moravec has received a Composer Fellowship from theNational Endowment for the Arts, aRockefeller Foundation fellowship, and theCharles Ives Prize andGoddard Lieberson Awards in American Composition.[3] He was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society in 2010.[12]
He has been commissioned by such ensembles as the Dessoff Choirs, theAlbany Symphony Orchestra, and theHarvard Glee Club.[13]
Moravec has been placed into a group called "new tonalists" by the criticTerry Teachout, who describes them as composers who are "neither embarrassed nor paralyzed by tradition. Rather they accept it as a given."[1] Thus, according to this analysis, his style is primarily tonal and neo-romantic. However, Moravec himself asserts:
The term ‘new tonalist’ is a little outdated simply because of the passage of time[.] It had more relevance a few decades ago, when late modernism was dying or even dead. For my work, I regard the term only as a point of departure before considering each composition on a case-by-case basis. As a composer, I try always to make beautiful things, and I use whatever techniques and materials are useful for the particular composition at hand[.] Some of those materials are atonal or nontonal, but the overall harmonic context of my music derives from the tonal tradition, which after all is the lingua franca of Western music — essentially, Monteverdi to the Beatles and beyond.[4]
CriticJens F. Laurson described Moravec'sPulitzer Prize-winningTempest Fantasy as "remarkably accessible music. Picturesque, conventionally beautiful at times, but without pandering to the ears’ lowest harmonic expectations. [It is] music that works with all the traditional tools from the composer’s workshop[,] which have changed surprisingly little since Bach - but Moravec uses them to create music anew." He namedFederico Mompou,Claude Debussy,Paul Hindemith,Francis Poulenc, andElliott Carter as clear musical influences in Moravec's music. He also noted a clear disparity between Moravec's music and that ofminimalist composersSteve Reich,Philip Glass, andJohn Adams.[14]
Critic Victor Carr Jr. characterizes Moravec's musical language as "generally tonal--and although it's not consistently melodic, it's always accessible. More than that, it's highly engrossing[.]"[15]
His best-known pieces include the Pulitzer-winning,Shakespeare-inspiredTempest Fantasy, a 30-minute chamber work scored forclarinet,violin,cello, andpiano, which was premiered on May 2, 2003, at theMorgan Library inNew York City byDavid Krakauer and Trio Solisti, for whom it was written;[16]Northern Lights Electric, a 1994 work that combines a musical illustration of the Northern Lights with a musical depiction of electric light; and the 1998 cantataFire/Ice/Air, which contrasts the journeys of CaptainRobert Falcon Scott, on his expedition to the Antarctic, andCharles Lindbergh, on his trans-Atlantic flight.[1] An oratorio,Blizzard Voices, about theSchoolhouse Blizzard of 1888, was commissioned byOpera Omaha and was premiered there in September 2008. He collaborated withTerry Teachout onThe Letter, an opera based onthe 1927 play byW. Somerset Maugham that was premiered in 2009 by theSanta Fe Opera.[17]
| Operas |
|
|---|---|
| Other works |
|
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
