Music of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich & Eleanor Cory
Liner Notes   Cat. No. NWCR621     Release Date: 2007-01-01

Boston Musica Viva; Richard Pittman, Conductor

New York String Quartet: William Fitzpatrick, violin; Paul Kanto, violin; Brian Dembow, viola; Stephen Erdody, cello; Joseph Zwilich, violin; James Gemmell, piano; Christopher Finckel, cello; Allen Blustine, clarinet; Aleck Karis, piano

Arioso Trio: Benjamin Hudson, violin; Judith Davidoff, cello; Harold Lewin, piano

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (b Miami, Florida, 1939) won the Pulitzer Prize in music for her Symphony No. 1 (Three Movements for Orchestra), a work commissioned and premiered by the American Composers Orchestra under the direction of Gunther Schuller. She was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in music.

Her life in music began with studies of the piano, the trumpet, and violin. For a number of years, Zwilich was an active violinist in the New York free-lance scene, and she was a member of the American Symphony Orchestra during the music directorship of Leopold Stokowski. She began composing at age ten, and later she wrote music for her high school band to play. She studied at Florida State University, where she came into contact with Ernst von Dohnányi, and later she studied at Juilliard where her principal teachers of composition were Elliott Carter and Roger Sessions. Pierre Boulez introduced her Symposium (1973) with the Juilliard Orchestra, and her String Quartet (1974) consolidated her reputation when it had its premiere during the ISCM World Music Days in Boston.

Eleanor Cory studied composition with Meyer Kupferman at Sarah Lawrence College; Charles Wuorinen at the New England Conservatory; and Chou Wen-Chung and Bülent Arel at Columbia University. She received her DMA from Columbia. She has taught at Yale University, Baruch College- CUNY , Manhattan College, Brooklyn College-CUNY , the New School for Social Research, and Kingsborough Community College-CUNY.

Her work has been recognized by awards from the National Endowment for the Arts; New York State Council on the Arts; New York Foundation for the Arts; Yale University; MacDowell Colony; and Meet the Composer. She has receiv- ed an American Composers Alliance Recording Award as well as prizes from the Hollybush and Kucyna International Composition competitions; the Music of Changes, International New Music, Davenport, and New Jersey Guild of Composers competitions.

This title, originally issued on the CRI label, is now available as a burn-on-demand CD (CD-R) or download in MP3/320, FLAC or WAV formats. CD-Rs come in a protective sleeve; no print booklet or jewel case included. Liner notes are accessible via the link above.

Various Artists

Music of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich & Eleanor Cory

MP3/320 $16.00
FLAC $16.00
WAV $16.00
CD-R $16.00
CD-Rs come in a protective sleeve; no print material or jewel case included.
A *.pdf of the notes may be accessed here free of charge.
   Liner Notes



Track Listing

Chamber Symphony
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich
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String Quartet: I
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich
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String Quartet: II
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich
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String Quartet: III
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich
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String Quartet: IV
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich
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Sonata in Three Movements: I. Liberamente
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich
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Sonata in Three Movements: II. Lento e molto espressivo
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich
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Sonata in Three Movements: III. Allegro vivo e con brio
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich
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Profiles: I. Quarter Note = 66
Eleanor Cory
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Profiles: II. Adagio; piu mosso
Eleanor Cory
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Profiles: III. Eighth note = 160
Eleanor Cory
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Apertures
Eleanor Cory
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Designs
Eleanor Cory
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