Frank Lewin

Frank Lewin (27 March 1925 – 18 January 2008) was an American composer and teacher.

Biography

Frank Lewin was born March 27, 1925, in Breslau, Germany. He and his family escaped from Germany in 1939, spent a year in Cuba, and came to the United States in 1940. Lewin studied composition with Felix Deyo at the Baldwin Conservatory (Long Island, New York); with Jack Frederick Kilpatrick and Hans David at Southern Methodist University; with Roy Harris in Logan, Utah; and with Richard Donovan and Paul Hindemith at the Yale University School of Music, where he received his Bachelor of Music degree in 1951.

Lewin composed and edited music for feature, documentary, and television films, including dozens of original scores for The Defenders and The Nurses. He wrote incidental music for plays from Shakespeare to Tennessee Williams, and composed scores for historical outdoor dramas by Paul Green and others, in various parts of the country. He also wrote a number of concert compositions including two operas, several orchestral works, concertos for viola and harmonica, song cycles, and choral music.

Lewin was a professor at the Yale School of Music from 1971 to 1992, teaching composition for film; and at the Columbia University School of the Arts from 1975 to 1989, where he taught the course "Music in Modern Media."

Works

Operas

*"Gulliver", an opera in two acts, with some sections composed by Easley Blackwood and Elliot Kaplan (1975)
*"Burning Bright", based on the novel and play by John Steinbeck (1993)

Orchestral

*"Evocation" (1960)
*"Concerto for Harmonica and Orchestra", (1960), revised and transcribed for viola in 2006 by violist Brett Deubner.
*"Concerto on Silesian Themes", viola concerto (1965).

Choral

*"Psalm 121" (1942)
*"Psalm 148" (1949)
*"Psalm 137" (1956)
*"Behold, How Good" (1959)
*"Seasons" (1962)
*"Music for the White House" (1965)
*"Requiem for Robert F. Kennedy (Mass for the Dead, in English)" (1969)

olo Vocal Music

*"Shall I Compare Thee" (1949)
*"A Dutch Lullaby" (1952)
*"Innocence and Experience" (1961)
*"Variations of Greek Themes" (1977)
*"A Musical Nashery" (1980)
*"Wedding Music" (1981)
*"Phoenix" (1993)
*"She Walks in Beauty" (1994)

Instrumental

*"Dunlap's Creek", for organ and English horn (1953)
*"Music for the New Family of Violins", for the eight instruments designed and built by Carleen M. Hutchins (1965)

Theater Music

*"The Trojan War Will Not Take Place" by Jean Girudoux (1952)
*"Theater of the Soul" by Nicolai Evreinov (1953)
*"Summer and Smoke" by Tennessee Williams (1954)
*"The Tempest" by William Shakespeare (1955)
*"Knight of the Burning Pestle" by Beaumont and Fletcher (1955)
*"Twelfth Night" by William Shakespeare (1956)
*"Taming of the Shrew" by William Shakespeare (1957)
*"Blood Wedding" by Federico García Lorca (1957)
*"A Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare (1958)
*"Thieves' Carnival" by Jean Anouilh (1958)
*"Leonce and Lena" by George Büchner (1958)
*"The Tempest" by William Shakespeare (1967)
*"Caesar at the Rubicon" by Theodore White (1971)
*"Streets of Gold" by Tom DeTitta (1992)

Historical Outdoor Dramas

*"Beyond the Sundown" by Kermit Hunter (1975)
*"The McIntosh Trail" by Kermit Hunter (1976)
*"Dust on her Petticoats" by Kermit Hunter (1976)
*"Hernando DeSoto, Conquistador" by Kermit Hunter (1976)
*"Blue Jacket" by W.L. Mundell (1982)
*"Trumpet in the Land" by Paul Green (1984)
*"The White Savage" by Joseph Bonamico and Mark Durbin (1997)

Film and Television

*"The Nurses", television series (1961-63)
*"The Defenders", television series (1962-65)
*"A Year Toward Tomorrow", documentary film (1967)
*"The Plot Against Harry", theatrical film (1989)

Writings

* The Soundtrack in Nontheatrical Motion Pictures. Society of Motion Picture Engineers, 1958.

* Man and His Sound--Expo 67. Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, 1968.

* Burning Bright, The Genesis of an Opera, Lyrica Society, 1985.

* The Music of Language in a Passage from Tannhäuser, Ars Lyrica, Journal of the Lyrica Society for Word-Music Relations, Volume XIII, 2003.

Awards

* Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and New Jersey State Council on the Arts
* Distinguished Artist Award from New Jersey State Council on the Arts

References

*cite book|last=Auld|first=Louis E.|title=Burning Bright, The Genesis of an Opera: an interview with Frank Lewin|year=1985|publisher=Lyrica Society|location=Guildford, CT|id=ISBN 0-937129-00-3

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0506816/ Frank Lewin at imdb.org]
* [http://members.aol.com/franklewin Frank Lewin's Official Website]