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Monday, October 26, 2015
Esther Geller
Esther Geller, artist, known to me better as the wife, and then widow, of Harold Shapero, has died at 93. Condolences to Hannah Shapero, daughter of Harold and Esther.
By odd coincidence, I have recently been messing around a bit with the first movement of Shapero's big and impressive F minor piano sonata (not that I ever expect to be able to play it - it's considerably beyond my level).
Although I have seen references to a late piano work of his, a set of 24 Bagatelles, they don't appear to have been published yet. Do you, with your connections to him, know if they will be? Or if they will be recorded by anyone? I'm curious how his style might have evolved over the course of many years of not producing any piano music, at least not publicly.
I'd think anything by a composer of his stature would somehow automatically get published, or at least have the manuscript be digitally available. But, these days...
Shapero didn't compose anything for decades - when I was at Brandeis, it was 12 or 15 years since he'd written anything. He might not have had a publisher for new works.
You are right that making the ms. available digitally the right solution; surely one of his students would be happy to take any existing mss. and prepare them for publication.
(Got an error and can't tell if my post made it through, so here's another try)
Thanks much. I really appreciate you effort.
The list of works is great. There are many things in it I had no idea existed, like the many occasional pieces. Waltzes!! There is no description of what the electronic files in the Finale notation format might contain, but it looks like a lot of stuff. Could be most of those bagatelles are there, more or less ready for publication. Hmmm...
8 comments:
RIP
Her husband also died at the same age, in 2013.
By odd coincidence, I have recently been messing around a bit with the first movement of Shapero's big and impressive F minor piano sonata (not that I ever expect to be able to play it - it's considerably beyond my level).
Although I have seen references to a late piano work of his, a set of 24 Bagatelles, they don't appear to have been published yet. Do you, with your connections to him, know if they will be? Or if they will be recorded by anyone? I'm curious how his style might have evolved over the course of many years of not producing any piano music, at least not publicly.
Wow, I have no idea, but yes, I can and will ask around about that set.
And I have emailed the Brandeis Music Dept. If the person answering those emails doesn't know, I expect my email will get circulated appropriately.
Thanks.
I'd think anything by a composer of his stature would somehow automatically get published, or at least have the manuscript be digitally available. But, these days...
Shapero didn't compose anything for decades - when I was at Brandeis, it was 12 or 15 years since he'd written anything. He might not have had a publisher for new works.
You are right that making the ms. available digitally the right solution; surely one of his students would be happy to take any existing mss. and prepare them for publication.
Here is what I have found out: Brandeis has something called Bagatelle in Harold Shapero's papers. I can't go by to check it out, but I would if I were visiting Boston. So if you find yourself in the area....
(Got an error and can't tell if my post made it through, so here's another try)
Thanks much. I really appreciate you effort.
The list of works is great. There are many things in it I had no idea existed, like the many occasional pieces. Waltzes!! There is no description of what the electronic files in the Finale notation format might contain, but it looks like a lot of stuff. Could be most of those bagatelles are there, more or less ready for publication. Hmmm...
You're very welcome, and yeah!
Also, librarians are the best.
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