BARBARA HARBACH

• Arnold Rosner: Musique de Clavecin - Rondeau

FANFARE 2013 WANT LIST [Carson Cooman]
“[Rosner’s] harpsichord writing shows a deep knowledge of the harpsichord literature. I enjoyed the textures he creates in the ‘Noel’ movement.… Rosner’s Sonatine D’Amour (1987) is lovely… Pinkham’s Partita for Harpsichord (1964) is conceived on a grand scale... Pinkham was fond of counterpoint, and several movements offer his take on classic polyphonic techniques like canon and fugue. Other movements are lyrical. The Andante, with its syncopations and melancholy minor seconds, is almost bluesy. The second-to-last movement, a Scherzo and Trio, shows the harpsichord at its most sparkly. Pinkham wrote excellently for the harpsichord—which he played. Harbach plays with great conviction. People interested in 20th century harpsichord music will be overjoyed to hear this superb release.”
Katz, American Record Guide [May/June 2103]
Arnold Rosner has composed more than 120 musical works over a 50-year period. The style has a certain unity, but the various works are diverse. Atonality and post avant-garde trends rarely enter the picture. However, the very recent ultra-conservative style one finds in music written by some  composers since the year 2000 is equally absent. Minimalism makes rare decorative effects, but emotional and technical richness pre-dominate through mixed modes, major-minor effects and sometimes cathartic cross-rhythm All this is part of a large, if misunderstood, community of “middle-way” compositional effort to which Daniel Pinkham and Barbara Harbach’s own compositions may loosely also belong, each in its own individual articulation. One may observe the entirely coincidental fact that Rosner received his doctorate from State University of New at Buffalo in 1972, and Harbach taught as director of keyboard studies there in the 1980s. Recordings of Rosner’s music are numerous and well-received. He has taught at Kinsgsborough Community College of the City University of New York since 1983, during which period he achieved some notoriety in the field of tournament contract bridge. Within a strangely idiosyncractic personal style, cross-influences come and go – the polychoral, harmonically roaming grammar of Henrich Schutz here, the melodic/rhythmic spinning out of Indian music there. [ www.arnoldrosner.com ]

Daniel Pinkham was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, and attended Harvard where he studied composition with Walter Piston and Aaron Copland. At Tanglewood, he studied with Arthur Honegger and Samuel Barber and subsequently with Nadia Boulanger. In addition to his work in composition, Pinkham was an active keyboard performer, particularly in the field of early music, having studied
organ with E. Power Biggs and harpsichord with Wanda Landowska. He taught at Boston University, Harvard University, Dartington Hall in Great Britain, and at the New England Conservatory. In 1958, Pinkham was appointed Director of Music at Boston’s historic King’s Chapel. He was the recipient of three honorary degrees: Litt D. from Nebraska Wesleyan University, Mus. D. from Adrian College and Mus. D. from Westminster Choir College. A prolific composer, Pinkham’s catalog includes four symphonies and other works for large ensembles, cantatas and oratorios, concertos, theater works and chamber operas, chamber music, electronic music and 20 documentary film scores. He received numerous awards and commissions and was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences. [ www.danielpinkham.net ]

Barbara Harbach has toured extensively as both concert organist and harpsichordist throughout the United States and Canada, and internationally in Bosnia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Korea, Romania, Serbia and Siberia. Harbach’s lively performances and recordings have captured the imagination of many American composers, and the body of work written for and dedicated to her is substantial. She is involved in the research, editing, publication and recording of manuscripts of 18th century keyboard composers, as well as of historical and contemporary women composers. As an accomplished and prolific composer herself, Harbach has a large catalog of works, including symphonies, operas and ballets; works for chamber and string ensemble; musicals and film scores; works for organ, harpsichord and piano; choral anthems; and arrangements for brass and organ of Baroque music. Harbach initiated Women in the Arts−St. Louis, which through more than 800 events by various cultural organizations provided audiences with new and historical examples of the achievements of women writers, composers and artists. For her efforts in this regard, she received the Arts Education Award from the Missouri Arts Council, the Missouri Citizen for the Arts Award, the Yellow Rose Award from the Zonta International Club of St. Louis and the Faculty Excellence Award from the College of Fine Arts and Communication at the University of Missouri−St. Louis. Harbach has also received the Hellenic Spirit Foundation Award,
Grand Center Visionary Award for “Successful Working Artist,” Argus Foundation Award, and YWCA Leader of Distinction Award in the Arts. She has hosted the weekly television music series Palouse Performance, seen throughout the Inland Northwest, and serves as Editor of the WomenArts Quarterly Journal. Currently professor of music at the University of Missouri−St. Louis, Harbach holds academic degrees from Pennsylvania State University (BA), Yale University (MMA), Musikhochschule (Konzertdiplom) in Frankfurt, Germany and the Eastman School of Music (DMA). In 2002, she received an honorary doctorate in music, Honoris Causa, from Wilmington College in Ohio for her lifetime achievement as a composer, performer, editor and publisher. Barbara Harbach’s work is available in both recorded and published form through MSR Classics, Naxos Records, Gasparo Records, Kingdom Records, Albany Records, Northeastern Records, Hester Park, Robert King Music, Elkan-Vogel, Augsburg Fortress, Agape Music and Vivace Press. [ www.barbaraharbach.com ]

  ARNOLD ROSNER (b.1945)
MUSIQUE DE CLAVECIN, OP.61 (1974)
Rondeau: La Dame du Seigneur (Adagio serioso)
Danse: La Walewska (Allegro non troppo)
Fantaisie: La Celeste (Largo misterioso)
Noel: Les Suzannes (Allegretto grazioso)
Passacaille: La douleureuse (Adagio)

SONATINE D’AMOUR, OP.83 (1987)
Le Troubador
La Dame

DANIEL PINKHAM (1923-2006)
PARTITA FOR HARPSICHORD (1964)
Toccata, Andante and Fugue
3 Inventions
Canon by Contrary Motion and Augmentation
Canon by Augmentation
Canon at the Octave
Interlude and Rondo
Fantasia
Scherzo and Trio
Envoi



MSR Classics