Dominick Argento, composer

Dominick Argento, considered to be America’s pre-eminent composer of lyric opera, was born in York, Pennsylvania in 1927. At Peabody Conservatory, where he earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, his teachers included Nicholas Nabokov, Henry Cowell, and Hugo Weisgall. Argento received his Ph.D. from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Alan Hovhaness and Howard Hanson. Fulbright and Guggenheim Fellowships allowed him to study in Italy with Luigi Dallapiccola and to complete his first opera, Colonel Jonathan the Saint. In 1958, he joined the faculty of the Regents School of Music at the University of Minnesota, where he taught until 1997. He now holds the rank of Professor Emeritus.

Following his arrival in Minnesota, the composer accepted a number of commissions from significant organizations in his adopted state. Among these were the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, who commissioned his suite Royal Invitation (1964); and the Civic Orchestra of Minneapolis, who commissioned Variations for Orchestra [The Mask of Night] (1965). Argento’s close association with Sir Tyrone Guthrie and Douglas Campbell, directors of the Minnesota Theatre Company, led to his composing incidental music for several Guthrie productions, as well as a ballad opera, The Shoemaker’s Holiday (1967).

Dominick Argento’s long association with Philip Brunelle and VocalEssence (then known as the Plymouth Music Series) began with the organization’s very first commission, Jonah and the Whale, an oratorio accompanied by a trio of trios — three trombones, three percussionists, and three extended-range instruments (piano, organ, harp). Bass LeRoy Lehr sang on the 1973 world premiere and the work was recorded and released on vinyl LP.

The 1970s and 1980s saw the composer working increasingly in the song cycle form, while still writing operas and orchestral music. Among his major song cycles are Letters from Composers (1968); To Be Sung Upon the Water (1973); From the Diary of Virginia Woolf (1975); the choral I Hate and I Love (1982); The Andree Expedition (1983); and Casa Guidi (1983). More recent song cycles, both premiered in 1996, are A Few Words About Chekhov (mezzo-soprano, baritone, and piano), Walden Pond (mixed chorus, harp, and three cellos), and Miss Manners on Music, to texts by the noted advice columnist.

Since the early 1970s the composer’s operas, which have always found success in the U.S., have been heard with increasing frequency abroad. Nearly all of them, beginning with Postcard from Morocco (1971), have had at least one European production. Among these are The Voyage of Edgar Allan Poe (1976), Miss Havisham’s Wedding Night (1981), Casanova’s Homecoming (1984), The Aspern Papers (1988) and The Dream of Valentino (1994).

Recent works include Four Seascapes for chorus and orchestra (2004), Three Sonnets of Petrarch for baritone and piano (2007), and Cenotaph (2009) for chorus and orchestra, commissioned by the American Choral Directors Association for their 50th anniversary.

Composed in honor of his late wife Carolyn Bailey, Evensong: Of Love and Angels for solo treble voice, solo soprano, reader, mixed chorus and orchestra (2007) was premiered to great acclaim by the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. for the cathedral’s 100th Anniversary.  The Washington Post said of the performance, “It’s hard to imagine a lovelier or more heartfelt memorial.”  

In May 2009, VocalEssence concluded its 2008-2009 40th Anniversary season with the world premiere of “The Choirmaster’s Burial” composed for 500 voices and performed at Orchestra Hall by the massed choirs of Kantorei, Magnum Chorum, Minnesota Chorale, National Lutheran Choir, The Singers, Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus and the VocalEssence Chorus & Ensemble Singers.

Among other honors and awards, Dominick Argento has received the Pulitzer Prize for Music, given in 1975 for his song cycle From the Diary of Virginia Woolf. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1979. In 1991 his composition Te Deum, recorded by Philip Brunelle and VocalEssence (then the Plymouth Music Series) was nominated for a Grammy award. He received the 2004 Grammy Award for “Best Classical Contemporary Composition,” awarded for Frederica von Stade’s recording of Casa Guidi.

A volume of Argento’s collected writings about his works entitled Catalog Raisonné as Memoir was published by the University of Minnesota Press in 2005.