Ernst Bacon

Ernst Lecher Bacon (May 26, 1898 – March 16, 1990) was an American composer, pianist, and conductor. A prolific author, Bacon composed over 250 songs over his career. He was awarded three Guggenheim Fellowships and a Pulitzer Scholarship in 1932 for his Second Symphony.

Biography

Ernst Bacon was born in Chicago, Illinois, on May 26, 1898 to Maria von Rosthorn Bacon (sister of Alfons von Rosthorn and Arthur von Rosthorn) and Dr. Charles S. Bacon. At the age of 19, he enrolled at Northwestern University where he pursued a degree in mathematics. After three years of study, he moved to the University of Chicago. Bacon finished his education at the University of California at Berkeley, where he received a master's degree for the composition of The Song of the Preacher in 1935.

At the age of 19, Bacon wrote a complex treatise entitled "Our Musical Idiom," which explored all possible harmonies. However, when he began to compose music in his 20s, he rejected a purely cerebral approach. He took the position that music is an art, not a science, and that its source should be human and imaginative, rather than abstract and analytical. Bacon was self-taught in composition, except for two years of study with Karl Weigl in Vienna, Austria. Experiencing the depression of post-war Europe first hand, he understood that the avant-garde movement reflected the pessimism of its origins. Bacon set out instead to write music that expressed the vitality and affirmation of his own country.

He created more than 250 art songs, including chamber, orchestral, and choral works. Aside from his musical and literary composition, Bacon held a number of positions that took him across the country. From 1925-28, Bacon was an opera coach at the Eastman School of Music. In 1928 Bacon traveled from New York to California to take up a position at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where he served until 1930. In 1935, Bacon was the guest conductor at the first Carmel Bach Festival in California. A year later he was supervising the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Music Project and conducting the San Francisco Symphony.

From 1938-45, he was dean and professor of piano at Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. From 1945-47 he was director of the school of music, then from 1947-63 he was professor and composer in residence at Syracuse University. He was Professor Emeritus from 1964. He continued to work until shortly before his death in 1990 at age 91 in Orinda, California.

Settings

Bacon composed settings to the works by the following: Matthew Arnold, William Blake, Emily Bronte, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Witter Bynner, Robert Burns, Helena Carus, Emily Dickinson, Benjamin Franklin, Goethe, Heinrich Heine, Paul Horgan, A. E. Houseman, Nicolaus Lenau, Cornel Lengyel, Herman Melville, Carl Sandberg, William Shakespeare, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sara Teasdale, Walt Whitman.

Discography

ERNST BACON THE COMPLETE WORKS FOR SOLO GUITAR Azica Records, ACD-71294, Bradley Colten, Guitar.

FORGOTTEN AMERICANS, Arabesque Recordings Z6823, Includes: "A Life," Joel Krosnick, cello and Gilbert Kalish, piano.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN PORTRAITS, Naxos 8.559373-74, Nashville Symphony, Leonard Slatkin, conductor, Includes: "Ford’s Theatre: A Few Glimpses of Easter Week, 1865."

THE BACK OF BEYOND, Music for Flute and Piano, Lea Kibler, Flute; Irina Viritch, Piano, Includes: "Buncombe County, N.C.," "Burnt Cabin Branch," "Holbert's Cove."

FOND AFFECTION, CRI CD 890 (now at New World Records), 25 Bacon settings: Janet Brown, soprano; Herbert Burtis piano, Willam Sharp, baritone; John Musto, piano, Amy Burton, soprano; John Musto, piano, Sonata for Violin and Piano (1983) - Ronald Copes, violin; Alan Feinberg, piano.

REMEMBERING ANSEL ADAMS AND OTHER WORKS, CRI CD 779 (now at New World Records), Remembering Ansel Adams (1985) - Richard Stoltzman, clarinet; Warsaw Philharmonic, Jerzy Swoboda, conductor, Sonata for Cello and Piano (1948) - Bernard Greenhouse, cello; Menahem Pressler, piano, Collected Short Piano Works (1950 -1965) - Emily Corbato, piano, Tumbleweeds (1979) Dorothy Bales, violin; Allan Sly, piano.

SONGS OF CHARLES IVES AND ERNST BACON, CRI CD 675 (now at New World Records), Contains 21 Bacon settings, Recorded in 1954 and 1964 with Helen Boatwright, soprano and Ernst Bacon at the piano for his own songs.

ROSI & TONI GRUNSCHLAG PIANO DUO, CRI CD 606 (now at New World Records), Includes: "Coal-Scuttle Blues," (by Bacon and Otto Lueining).

THE LISTENERS, New World Records, William Parker, baritone, Includes: "Billy in the Darbies."

SHAKESPEARE AND THE MODERN COMPOSER, Soundmark, The Louisville Orchestra, Robert Whitney, Jorge Mester, "The Enchanted Isle/The Tempest."

References

• Library of Congress. (2006). "Ernst Bacon, 1898-1990 biography". Retrieved December 6, 2006
• A Bibliography of the Works of Ernst Bacon. Dale Vargason, Jr. (Thesis for MA at Department of Music, SUNY Buffalo).

Research resources

• Bacon's Songs The Lied and Art Songs Texts page created and maintained from Emily Ezust
• Ernst Bacon Papers, 1933-1990 (1.25 linear ft.) at the Department of Special Collections and University Archives at Stanford University Libraries
• Ernst Bacon Papers at the Special Collections Research Center at Syracuse University
• Ernst Bacon Society
• Ernst Bacon Collection at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University

External links

• Interview with Ernst Bacon by Bruce Duffie, December 13, 1986