Robert Gerhard facts for kids
Robert Gerhard (born September 25, 1896, died January 5, 1970) was a famous Spanish and Catalan composer. He also studied and wrote about music. Outside of his home region, Catalonia, he was often called Roberto Gerhard.
Robert Gerhard's Life Story
Gerhard was born in Valls, a town near Tarragona, Spain. His father was from Germany and Switzerland, and his mother was from Alsace. This mix of backgrounds gave him a wide view of the world.
He started learning piano with Enrique Granados. Later, he studied how to compose music with Felip Pedrell. Pedrell was a very important teacher who also taught famous composers like Isaac Albéniz and Manuel de Falla.
After Pedrell passed away in 1922, Gerhard wanted to learn from Falla. When that didn't work out, he decided to study with Arnold Schoenberg. Schoenberg was a very important composer. Gerhard became Schoenberg's only Spanish student and spent several years learning from him in Vienna and Berlin.
Returning to Barcelona
In 1928, Gerhard came back to Barcelona. He worked hard to promote new music. He organized concerts and wrote articles about music. He became friends with famous artists like Joan Miró and Pablo Casals. He even brought Schoenberg and another composer, Anton Webern, to Barcelona. Gerhard helped organize a big music festival there in 1936.
He also loved old Spanish music and folk songs. He collected, edited, and performed music from the Renaissance period up to the 1700s.
Moving to England
During the Spanish Civil War, Gerhard supported the Republican side. Because of this, he had to leave Spain in 1939. He moved to Cambridge, England, and lived there for the rest of his life. He could not return to Spain, except for holidays, until after Francisco Franco died.
In England, Gerhard worked a lot for the BBC (a British broadcasting company). He also wrote music for plays. Many of his works from the 1940s were inspired by Spanish and Catalan culture. For example, he wrote a symphony in memory of his teacher Pedrell in 1940. He also created the ballet Don Quixote.
One of his greatest works was The Duenna. This was a Spanish opera based on an English play. His ballet Don Quixote was performed at the Royal Opera House. The BBC also broadcast The Duenna. These performances made Gerhard well-known in the UK.
Later Years and Legacy
In the 1950s, Gerhard started to use a more modern way of composing music. This style was influenced by Schoenberg's "serialism" (a way of organizing notes). By the 1960s, he was seen as a leading composer in the "avant-garde," which means he was creating very new and experimental music.
From the early 1950s, Gerhard had heart problems. He passed away in Cambridge in 1970. He is buried there with his wife, Leopoldina 'Poldi' Feichtegger Gerhard.
His important papers and musical works are kept at Cambridge University Library. Other personal papers are in the Biblioteca de Catalunya in Spain.
Robert Gerhard's Music
How His Music Changed
For twenty years, Gerhard created music that mixed modern sounds with Spanish folk music. He was inspired by his teachers and other composers like Béla Bartók and Igor Stravinsky. Some of his important works from this time include the ballets Soirées de Barcelone and Don Quixote. He also wrote the Violin Concerto and the opera The Duenna.
Gerhard believed that "the sense is in the sound" of his music. His later works sound amazing. They are also very carefully put together. He used a special way of composing called "serialism." This involved organizing both the notes and the timing of the music in a structured way.
Main Types of Works
Gerhard wrote many different kinds of music. He composed four symphonies. His Third Symphony, Collages, even used tape recordings with the orchestra. He also wrote concertos for violin, piano, and harpsichord. A concerto is a piece for a solo instrument with an orchestra.
He wrote a cantata (a type of vocal piece) called The Plague, based on a book by Albert Camus. He also created ballets like Pandora and Ariel. Gerhard wrote music for many different groups of instruments. This included Sardanas for a special Catalan street band called the cobla.
Gerhard was one of the first important composers of electronic music in Britain. He created the first electronic music for a British play. This was for a 1955 production of King Lear by William Shakespeare.
Symphonies
- Symphony Homenaje a Pedrell (1941)
- Symphony No. 1 (1952–53)
- Symphony No. 2 (1957–59)
- Symphony No. 3 Collages (for orchestra and tape) (1960)
- Symphony No. 4 New York (1967)
Stage Works
- Ariel, ballet (1934)
- Soirées de Barcelone, ballet (1937–39)
- Don Quixote, ballet (1940–41, revised 1947–49)
- Alegrias, a flamenco dance piece (1942)
- Pandora, ballet (1943–44)
- The Duenna, an English opera (1947–49). It was first heard on the BBC in 1949. Its first stage performance was in 1992 in Spain.
Concertos
- Concertino for string orchestra (1929)
- Violin Concerto (1942–43)
- Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra (1951)
- Concerto for Harpsichord, String Orchestra and Percussion (1955–56)
- Concerto for Orchestra (1965)
Orchestral Works
- Albada, Interludi i Dansa (1936)
- Epithalamion (1966)
- Suites from his ballets like Soirées de Barcelone and Don Quixote.
Chamber and Instrumental Music
- Sonatine a Carlos, for piano (1914)
- Trio in B major for violin, cello, and piano (1918)
- Wind Quintet (1928)
- String Quartet No. 1 (1950–55)
- Fantasia, for guitar (1957)
- String Quartet No. 2 (1961–62)
- Leo, Chamber Symphony (1969)
Vocal Works
- L'infantament meravellós de Shahrazada (Song-cycle for voice and piano) (1916–18)
- 14 Cançons populars catalanes (14 Catalan Folk Songs) for voice and piano (1928–29)
- The Akond of Swat for voice and percussion (1954)
- Cantares for voice and guitar (1962)
- The Plague, cantata for narrator, chorus, and orchestra (1963–64)
Electronic Music
- Audiomobiles I-IV (1958–59)
- Lament for the death of Bullfighter for speaker and tape (1959)
- Caligula (1960–61)
- Sculptures I-V (1963)
- DNA in Reflection (1963)
- Anger of Achilles (1964) with Delia Derbyshire
Film Music
- Secret People (1952)
- This Sporting Life (1963)
Images for kids
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Robert Gerhard
See also
In Spanish: Roberto Gerhard para niños
