Neuwirth, Olga
(b Graz, 4 Aug 1968). Austrian composer. Some of her early compositions were performed at the Styrian Autumn Festival in 1985. She studied at the San Francisco Conservatory (1986–7) with Elinor Armer, among others, and took courses in painting and the cinema at the San Francisco Art College. She continued her studies at the Vienna Hochschule für Musik (1987–93), where her teachers included Erich Urbanner, Dieter Kaufmann and Wilhelm Zobl, and in Paris with Tristan Murail and the Stage d'Informatique Musicale at IRCAM (1993–4). She has also been influenced by Adriana Hölsky and Luigi Nono.
Neuwirth's compositions reflect her interests in literature, the cinema (she often employs the compositional equivalents of film clips and montages) and painting (Hooloomooloo, 1996–7, for example, paraphrases a painting by Frank Stella), resulting in a style rich with tonal, formal and media-related diversity. Her sound installations and use of video (as in the opera Bählamms Fest, 1997–9) illustrate her propensity for multimedia. In her instrumental music electronics alienate or extend sonorities and create what she has described as ‘androgynous sounds’. Quasi-organic development and restless fragmentation overlap in large ensemble works. Extreme contrasts, a wide variety of quotations, and an alternation between ironic distance and direct expressivity are also characteristic.
WORKS
(selective list)
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Dramatic: 5 Stücke Filmmusik (film score, Brothers Quai), gui, b gui, hpd, 1989, London, 1990; Der Wald (Ein tönendes Fastfoodgericht) (mini-op, E. Jelinek), 1989–90, Vienna, 1991; Körperliche Veränderungen (Musiktheater, Jelinek), 1990–91, Vienna, 1991 [after radio play, Ballade von drei wichtigen Männern sowie dem Personenkreis um sie herum]; Die Schamlosen, oder Ein Spektakel (Kurzoper, 1, D. Charms, S. Plath and U. Zürn), 1990, Vienna, 1992; Zwischenmusik, 1991–2 [for perf. between Körperliche Veränderungen and Der Wald]; Punch and Judy (Hörspiel, H.C. Artmann), 1993–4, Graz, 1994; Todesraten (Hörspiel, Jelinek), 1997, broadcast, 1997; Bählamms Fest (Musiktheater, 13 scenes, L. Carrington and Jelinek), 1997–9, Vienna, 1999; Todesraten (Hörspiel, Jelinek), 1997, broadcast, 1997; the long rain (film score, M. Kreitise)
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Inst: Der rosarote Zwerg auf dem Weg nach Garanas (Die gelbe Kuh tanzt Ragtime), chbr orch, 1985; Bagatellen, vc, 1988; Cthulhu-Ludium (Vor der Dunkelheit), orch, 1991–2; Let's play, play, play, cl, 2 tpt, perc, 1992; Duplus-Duplex, fl, trbn, 1992–3; Quingelquingelquis Weg durchs Orch, youth orch, 1992; Spleen, b cl, 1994; Akroate Hadal, str qt, 1995; Vampyrotheone, 3 solo insts, 3 ens, 1995; Quasare/Pulsare, vn, pf, 1996; … ?risonanze? …, va d'amore, 1996; Ondate, 4 sax, 1997; Photophorus, 2 elec gui, orch, 1997; Hommage à Klaus Nomi, tpt, b cl, vc, db, synth, perc, 1998; Ondate II, 2 bcl, 1988; … ad auras … in memoriam H., 2 vl, perc, 1999; Chinamen/Nodus; str orch, perc, cel, 1999; Suite für Theremusik und Orchester, 1999; Anaptyxis, orch, 1999–2000
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Vocal: Cigarren (elementar) (K. Schwitters), S, str trio, 1989–90; Die neugierigen alten Frauen (D. Charms), S, prep pf, 1990; Worddust of Minraud (W.S. Burroughs), 16vv, 1992; 5 Daily Miniatures (G. Stein), T, b cl, vn, vc, prep pf, 1994; La vie – … ulcérant(e) (G. Perec), 2 T, b cl, va d'amore, vc, db, elec gui, 1995; Nova/Minraud, ens, 1998; Clinamen/Nodus, 1999
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El-ac and multimedia: Canon of Funny Phases, 6 pfmrs, 16 video monitors, 1992; !?dialogues suffisants!? (Portrait einer Komposition als junger Affe I), vc, perc, tape, video, 1992; Schlagschatten, bn, tape, elecs, 1992; Aufenthalt (Jelinek), 2 spkrs, S, T, b cl, bar sax, t trbn, perc, cel, 2 vc, tape, video, elecs, 1992–3; Lonicera caprifolium, ens, tape, 1993; Jardin désert (Portrait einer Komposition als junger Affe II), fl, b cl, bar sax, trbn, tape, video, elecs, 1994; San soleil, 2 ondes martenot, orch, live elecs, 1994; Vexierbilder, fl, b cl, bar sax, trbn, live elecs, 1994; Metal/Pallas, tape, 1996; Pallas/Construction, 3 perc, live elecs, 1996; talking houses, installation, 1996; Hooloomooloo, 3 ens, CD, 1996–7; Elfi und Andi (Sportstück, Jelinek), spkr, b cl, t sax, elec gui, db, CD, 1997; Nova Mob (Burroughs), 2 S, 2 Mez, 2 A, 6 tape recs, 1997; Fondamenta, cl, sax, vc, tape, 1998
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Principal publisher: Ricordi
| BIBLIOGRAPHY
LZMÖ [incl. further bibliography]
U. Schalz-Laurenze: ‘Sog aus Bestürzung und Faszination’, Annäherung an sieben Komponistinnen: mit Berichten, Interview und Selbstdarstellungen, ed. B. Sonntag and R. Matthei (Kassel, 1995), 49–58 [interview]
U. Mosch: ‘Jelangerjelieber: Annäherung an Olga Neuwirths Lonicera Caprifolium für Ensemble’, Nähe und Distanz: Nachgedachte Musik der Gegenwart, i, ed. W. Gratzer (Hofheim, 1996)
R. Kager: ‘Feuerzungen zwischen spitzen Zähnen: zur Musik der Komponistin Olga Neuwirth’, NZM, Jg.159, no.1 (1998), 31–3
BERNHARD GÜNTHER
Nevada [Wixom], Emma
(b Alpha, nr Nevada City, CA, 7 Feb 1859; d Liverpool, 20 Jan 1940). American soprano, mother of Mignon Nevada. A pupil of Marchesi, she made her opera début in 1880 at Her Majesty’s Theatre, London, in La sonnambula, an opera that brought some of her greatest successes (her medallion was later placed with those of Pasta and Malibran on Bellini’s statue at Naples). She appeared to great acclaim in Italy and Paris, where her roles included Lucia and Mignon. Returning to the USA in 1884 she appeared at the New York Academy of Music, and, the following year, on alternate nights with Patti. She made several further tours of the USA and Europe, but sang at Covent Garden only in 1887, as Amina and Gounod’s Mireille, her intonation and flexibility being admired but not her free treatment of Gounod’s score. In England she frequently sang in oratorio, including the first performance of Mackenzie’s Rose of Sharon (1884), the soprano part of which had been written for her. A noted feature of her concerts were her many changes of dress, culminating in the appearance of her wedding dress, in which she was said almost to ‘defy description’. Among her pupils was her daughter Mignon.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
W. Armstrong, ed.: ‘Reminiscences of Emma Nevada’, New-York Tribune Sunday Magazine (28 Oct 1906)
O. Thompson: The American Singer (New York, 1937/R), 190ff
P. Davis: The American Opera Singer (New York, 1997), 192–94
J.B. STEANE
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