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Polish Music Center |
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ROMAN RYTERBAND
(b. 1914, Łodz d. 1979, Palm Springs) Roman Ryterband was born in Lódz,Poland, in 1914 and first studied at the State academy of Music in Lódz. His uncle, a first violinist with the Lódz Symphony, struggled to earn a decent living and this convinced Roman`s father that his son should study Law. He did so, and received a degree in Law from the University of Warsaw. However, he also played piano while attending the university. A famous symphony conductor, Alexander Glazunov, convinced him to continue his music studies. In 1939 while Roman Roterband was in France, as part of a young man`s tour of Europe, Poland was invaded and World War II began. The Consul General in Nice advise him to travel to Switzerland and he took the last train to before the borders were sealed. Here, he began composing while studying musicology for his Doctorate at the University at Berne. Here he married Clarissa, a lovely young woman from Venice. Their daughters, Astrid and diana where born in Switzerland. He also became a conductor. On the shore of Lake Thun in the concert bowl, he conducted concerts for audiences of up to 50,000. In 1955, the Ryterband family moved to Canada where Ryterband was appointed Director of music on CKVL, an AM/FM radio station and also lectured at McGill University in Montreal. He continued to conduct symphonies and devoted time to leading a Polish chorus. In 1960, the Ryterbands moved to Chicago where he joined the faculty of Chicago Conservatory College. In 1961, one of his work, Dialogue for Two Flutes won First Price. In 1965, the Citizen Council of Chicago named him the Outstanding New Citizen of the Year. In Chicago, Ryterbond conducted the Southside Symphony Orchestra for several years and also was involved with Polonia and Polish choruses. In addition, he served as chairman of the Composers` Society, International Society for Contemporary Music. In 1967 Roman Ryterband made his last move to Palm Springs, California. While residing in Palm Springs, he received a grant from National Endowment for the Humanities and wrote a composition entitled, Tunes of America for the U.S. Bicentennial Celebration. He also served as a founder and director of the Palm Springs Festival of Music and Art. In the late 1960`s, Ryterband taught at California State University in Los Angeles.During this time, he performed as a pianist, as a solo performer and accompanist for other soloists. He also continued to compose. His repertoire included compositions for chamber music, ballet scores, symphonic, choral works and works for organ, harp and piano. His Suite Polonaise for piano won a Kościuszko -Foundation grant. He expanded this work for a full orchestra in 1978 and dedicated it to His Holiness Pope John Paul II. His original manuscripts and other memorabilia are in the Harvard University Houghton Library in the company of manuscripts by Gershwin, Bernstein, Gould and Ives. Ryterband`s music is played far and wide and, given the lack of original compositions for harp, is especially treasured by harpists. A Polish pianist at palomar College in San Diego, Peter Gach has often played played his composition for piano, especially the Preludes , in California and Poland. Some musicians compare Ryterband with Debussy, Ravel and Britten. In 1993, in his honor, Dr. Francis D`Albert a world renowned violinist established the Roman Ryterband Academy and Institute in Chicago. Roman Ryterband died in Palm Springs in 1979, but his wife, Clarissa continues to promote his music and his legend.  The Sonata Breve, penned in 1961, is particulay concise in thematic material and development, intending to convey its message in the most direct manner. The first movement is virile and vehement, yet yielding to the true nature of both instruments. The second movement flows in to the third the latter a lively dialogu-, and by bringing back the subject of Adagio the composer con-joins both movements actually into one. Comments the composer: "The principle of contrast, innate law of nature, of life, and of arts, finds its expression bothin the structure of the work and the juxtaposition of serial elements and tonal gravitations. Aestheticaly, the emphasis is put on the rarely employed 'tough grip' of the traditionally serene, ephemeral or even morbid harp: it is written for violinists and harpists of our own day, aware of true unity can be achieved, as the violin and the harp cannot be entirely deprived of their sublety." "I love the flute," says the composer, concluding his own description of his I.S.C.M. competition First Prize Award winning PIÉCE SANS TITRE , a flute duet of disarming charm, written in 1952. "A faun resting on a cliff and flirting with a dancing goat against a pastoral landscape of the antique Hellas... The short composition can be seen as an amalgamation of Debussy`s L'après-midi d'un faune and Honegger`s Danse de la chèvr. But leavingthe platform of programatic description, it is rather a scherzo stereofonico, a stereophonic joke of chasing fugato motifs deriving from two different foci, and with a calming final accordance in a unison." For concert performances the composer composer suggests to place the flutist off stage, invisible to the audience. Due to the vavid attention the piece awoke in dancers, he provided a set of choreographic guidelines. At the time the composer lived in Montreal, he became attracted by the strong but highly refined writings of the prominent French Canadian poet, Robrt Choquette. The "Suite Mariane,"an apotheosis of the sea in fom of a modern "Divina Commedia" - witch brought the author the First Prize in Literature in France - offered Roman Ryterband enough rich material to choose from. The two exquisite sonnets, Eroica and La Perle, are excerpts from large volume. Musically, the set, conceived in 1955, sublimes the change in style which alredy at the end of Ryterband`s stay in Switzreland in the early fifties caused subconscious departure from a milder idiom. Fond of both the harp and the flute he created a tone combination which he cherished in some of his future works, here "coppered" by the timbre of mezzo-soprano or a contralto voice. "The music absolutely serves the poetry and pays homage to the Prometheaaspirations of man in the first chant, and lives trough the sufferances of the dolorous transformation of the oyster into a perl in the secound, implaying along with the poet the unique parallel with man, whose despaired, sobbing soul one day frees itself under the impact of spirit of creativity" - these are the composr words. Roman Ryterband`s interest in musical folklore, in that unspoiled and fascinating well of authentic freshness and beauty, found it`s expression in many pieces. The tragic chain of events during World War II moved the sensitive composer to relase his sentiments and the sorrowfulcrisis of humanity in music. The Trois Ballades HÊbraiques, Emotionally charged with a mystic aure of trance in Le RÊvenur, with a subdued - though tragiclly deceiving - humor in Le MaÎtre Joyeux, and the subtly eloquent but at times impassioned, anguished reverie in the Berceuse,make apparent an unmistakable sensibility and nobility of the composer`s soul. No wondeho chose the violin to shed the romantic glow upon the spiritual texture of his triptych. With the Suite Polonaise Roman Ryterband turned to the rich idiom of the Slavic nation, the Polish folk song, which h knew so well from his young years spent in that country. He is a specialist on Chopin, giving lecture-recitals dedicated to this great composer. He is acquainted with Artur Rubinstein, foremost interpreter of the Polish master. Ryterband was a colleague of the noted Polish-Belgian pianist and editor of the completworks of Chopin, Stefan Askenase. At the time of composing the Suite Polonaise Roman Ryterband was living in Brme, Switzerland. He had visited the Polish Museum of Rapperswill on the shores of Lake Zürich, where a collection of rare recordings made by indigenous bands from the various provinces of the country served him as a basis for the ten dances comprising the Suite. The Cyclical work encompasses a wide gamut of melodies, moods, modal reminiscences, and rythms, which make upthe imcomparable folklore of the Slavic nation. Some of the stylized movements employ authentic motifs, some use them in a mirror from and other contrapuntal attire, and some are orginal themes of the composer. The radiance of the three selected excerpts imparts new freshness and exitement in the folkloristic section of the album. Drobny, cultivated by the mountaineers of the northern slopes of the Tatras, manifests tracs of medieval modes with intriguing harmonic sequences, coupled with stunning 3-measure and 5-measure-units in the first half of the dance, all set upon the typical "empty" intervals of the basetla, the native bass viol. The melody which Ryterband selected for the Krakowiak,a dance from the regionof Cracow, is the best known Krakowiak in that part of Poland - and, for that matter, in the whole land - however, it has been thematicly inverted right from the begining of the piece; it develops in a burlesque fashion, but gently fades away at the end. Oberek, a strongly rhythmical dance in tripl meter, is a fast, rapi dMazurka, alsocoming from the central plains of the century, called "Mazowsze." There are not limits to the exuberance and propelling drive of an Oberek, which usualy starts _ as the Mazurka does - with those pace-setting, acerbic perfect fifths in the bass, and abounds with invigorating accents and syncopations. The pianistic qualities of the Suite Polonaise present a challange to the virtuoisy of performer, and it`s very contents examine his taste and understuding of the Polish musical heritage.
Sonata No.1 in D Souite Polonaise (10 regional dances) Suite Internationale 24 Variations on a Theme of a Folk Song Trois Preludes, Hommage à Serghei Rachmaninoff Suvenir d'un Bal (for the left hand) Dream of Granada Interlude at Sea Eucalyptus Giants on Catalina Street Piano Reducation on Ballet Vida Heroica Piano Reduction on Toccata for Harpsihord and Chamber Orchestra Under your Star "Zodiac Suite" Music for Two Pianos
Piano Reduction/Percussion, of Ballet Heracles and the Argonauts Alexander`s Ragtime Band for 2 pianos. Music for Piano and Orchestra Concerto for Piano, Strings and Harp
Musical Quiz (Guess The Composer) on Swiss Folk Melodies Song of the Plains of Poland Trois Ballades Hebraiques Phantasie on Polish Folk Melodies-for Three Violins Musical Quiz (Guess The Composer) on Swiss Folk Melodies
VIOLIN AND HARP Sonata Breve Trois Ballades Hébraiques Two Desert Scenes, with Pai-yil ad lib. FLUTE Dialogue (Piéce san sTitre) for two Flutes Double Flute Quintet /Viola, Violoncello/Cembalo Ballade "Castle Munchenwilr" Sop, 2 fl, 2 vln, piano FLUTE AND HARP Sonata for two Flutes and Harp Two Desert Scenes, with Pai-yil ad lib. HARP Deux Sonnets (Suite marine, Robert choquette) VIOLONCELLO AND PIANO Triptyque Contemporain GUITAR Sonatina TROMBONE AND PIANO Rapsodia Helvetica SAXOPHONE AND PIANO Capriccio Gavottuoso (Alto Eb) Chagrin d'amour (Alto Eb & Tenor Bb) Song of the Plains of Poland (Soprano Bb, Alto Eb & Tenor Bb) Valse de Berne (Tenor Bb)
VOCAL-INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC Deux Images CONTRALTO (or MEZZO-SOPRANO),FLUTE AND HARP Fünf Deutsche Lieder (German, English & French versions), high Three Negro Spirituals (Frank Dixon), low De Gospel`s Mah Religion, Spiritual (Roman Ryterband), low Spring of Love (Printemps d'amor), Concerto Waltz (Roman Ryterband), coloratura Three Hebrew Songs (Hebrew, English & German versions), high Mother of Our Lord (Bogurodzica), based on a medieval prayer, high Songs and Ballads of motion picture themes character Two American Songs (Lewis Palen), high
VOICE AND ORGAN Pry for the Piece of Jerusalem, Cantata (Psalm 122), Mezzo-Sopran Hu Yigal - Ve' Yimale arr R.Ryterband for Contralto and Organ VOICE, CHOIR AND ORGAN Yo' Serbant, Spiritual-Prayer (Frank Dixon) for Bass, Women`s voices and Organ, or Bass, Mixed Choir and Organ The Lord Reigneth,Cantata (Psalm 97, German, English, French & Hebrew versions) for Baritone, Boys` choir and Organor Women The Men of Delta U 3 Songs for various combinations of male voices Bouquet of Musical Flowers from Brodway to Hollywood, Phantasy for Vocal Men Quartet and Piano
SOLI, CHOIR AND PIANO The Old Mansion (W modrzewiowym dworku), Mazur for Soprano, Tenor, Mixed Choir and Piano May I Forget This Sorrow, Duet for Tenor and Soprano Róze i Sen, Song with Piano SOLI, TWO CHOIRS, ORCHESTRA AND ORGAN Jubilate Deo (Hallelujah), Cantata for soprano, Tenor & Baritone, Boys' Choir, Men`s Choir, Orchestra and Organ Trio "Jubilate Deo", Sop, Ten, Barit, Organ, Percussion. Organ Reduction on "Jubilate Deo"
CHOIR A CAPPELLA Pater Noster for 3-part Boys` Choir Unsere Seen for Women`s voices, or Men`s voices, or Mixed Choir Zuruf for Men`s voices Der Tod for Men`s voices Lob des Liedes for Men`s voices Der Baum for Men`s voices Drei Gesänge for Men`s voices Two Sonnets (Shakespeare) for Mixed Choir CHOIR AND PIANO OR ORGAN Raise Your Heads, O Gates (Psalm 27), Anthem for Mixed Choir with Piano or Organ accompaniment Thanksgiving Athems for Mixed Choir with Piano or Organ CHOIR AND INSTRUMENTS Christmas Processional for Mixed Choir, Brass Quartet and Organ Une poupée pour Noël (A Dolly for Christmas) for Women`s voices, Flute, Triangle and Piano CHRISTMAS I Wish you a Merry Christmas, A Carol Fantasy, for Piano Solo Kleines Weinachtspraludium, for Piano Kommet Ihr Hirten, Weinachtslieden for 4 hands, for Students Morgen Kommt Der Weihnachtsmann, Volksweise, for 4 hands, for Students
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