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• BELGIAN TUNESMITH JACQUES SERIES

In the Appendix the authors have included a selected list of Tansman’s compositions, an index of names, and a bibliography.Īlexandre Tansman’s life began in Poland and his ethnic roots were to become an important element in his compositional style throughout his lifetime. Part II is devoted to his own commentary on his life, career, and well-known contemporaries. Part I presents a brief account of Alexandre Tansman’s life and his musical achievements.

BELGIAN TUNESMITH JACQUES SERIES

The selection and compilation was made from a series of live broadcasts by Radio France in 19. Instead, the authors chose those interviews that dealt with his life and his illustrious contemporaries. A translation of the complete interviews, however, would be beyond the scope of this essay.

This study provides the first English translation of his most important interviews. What better source for this research than the composer himself? Fortunately, Tansman was not parsimonious about being interviewed or about writing extensively on the music and musicians of his time. The purpose of this essay is to fill in this gap and to lay the groundwork for a comprehensive study of Tansman’s life and works, yet to be published in English, by enlarging the scope of English-language materials available for researchers. Few sources, however, are available in English. Materials that might be used to study Tansman’s biography and music include primary sources such as interviews, letters and reviews reposited in the Tansman Archives in Paris as well as a large volume of periodical articles dating back to the 1920s available in Polish and French. Indeed, most of the currently available information about Alexandre Tansman originates from reference sources such as The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians David Ewen’s Composers Since 1900 and Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Studies devoted to Tansman and written outside Poland include the 1931 biography by Irving Schwerke and two American doctoral dissertations: one by Susan Marie Tusing and the other by Lorraine Butterfield. It is in Polish, however, and until a translation is made or a new study written, no comprehensive biography will be available in English. The second volume of Janusz Cegiella’s groundbreaking biography of Tansman has just been published. When one comes to understand Tansman’s music and his life story, it becomes evident that he was a witness to, as well as a participant in, the course of musical history throughout most of the twentieth century. One such composer is Alexandre Tansman (1897-1986). There are, however, many composers from this century who have fallen into relative obscurity and yet have created a wealth of exceptional music.

By now, the lives and music of such well-known and influential composers as Schoenberg, Ravel, Bartók, Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Bernstein have been extensively researched. Introduction: A Case For Alexandre TansmanĪs the twentieth century comes to a close, it is now possible to assess with some distance the events of the past hundred years and to evaluate the achievements of those individuals who helped shape musical history. Recollections: Illustrious Contemporaries Return to France: Creative Maturity (1946-1986)ĩ. Years of Exile in Los Angeles (1941-1946)Ĩ. Early Childhood and Youth in Poland (1897-1919)ħ. Part II: Alexandre Tansman In His Own WordsĤ. Compiled, Translated and Introduced by Jill Timmons and Sylvain Frémaux