Norma Beecroft

Norma Marian Beecroft (* April 11, 1934 in Oshawa, Ontario ) is a Canadian composer.

Life

The daughter of Julian Balfour Beecroft, a pioneer of tape music, and Eleanor Beecroft, a trained in music and dance actress had first piano lessons with Aladar Ecsedy they continued from 1952 to 1958 at the Royal Conservatory of Music with Gordon Hallett and Weldon Kilburn. At the same time she studied composition with John Weinzweig and 1957-1958 flute lessons with Keith Girard.

Your composition lessons she sat with summer courses in 1958 at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood with Aaron Copland and Lukas Foss and from 1959 to 1961 at the Accademia Santa Cecilia in Rome with Goffredo Petrass continued. She also took in Rome private flute lessons with Severino Gazzelloni and was at the Darmstadt Summer Courses 1960 and 1961 student of Bruno Maderna. 1962 to 1963 she attended the class for electronic music of Myron Schaeffer at the University of Toronto. In 1964 she worked with Mario Davidovsky on the Columbia - Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York.

From 1954 to 1959 Beecroft worked as an assistant for the music program of the CBC television. Upon her return from Europe she came again to the CBC, where she worked most recently as a producer of radio shows such as Music of Today, Organists in Recital and From the Age of Elegance. After her resignation as a producer In 1969, she hosted the radio series Music of Today. As a freelance producer, she published in 1976, the documentary The computer in Music, as well as portraits of John Weinzweig, Barbara Pentland, Harry Somers, Jean Coulthard, Bruce Mather, Harry Freedman, Gilles Tremblay, Murray Adaskin and Violet Archer.

1956-1957 Beecroft was president of the Canadian Music Associates. In 1961 she was next to Robert Aitken founder of the New Music Concerts, its president and manager, she was until 1989. At York University, she taught from 1984 to 1987 electronic music and composition. At the University of Montreal and York University, she gives guest lectures on new music.

Beecroft composed mainly chamber music, often using tape or electro- acoustic instruments. In several of her works her sister, the poet and painter Jane Beecroft, was involved as a text writer or translator.

Works

  • The Hollow Men, 1956
  • Fantasy for Strings, 1958
  • Two Movements, 1958
  • Improvvisazioni Concertanti No. 1 for Flute and Orchestra, 1961
  • From Dreams of Brass for soprano, narrator, mixed chorus, orchestra and tape, (Text: Jane Beecroft ), 1963-1964
  • Pièce Concertante No.. 1, 1966
  • Improvvisazioni Concertanti No. 2, 1971
  • Improvvisazioni Concertanti No. 3 for Flute and Orchestra, 1973
  • Jeu de Bach for oboe, piccolo, trumpet, strings and tape, 1985
  • Esprit Eternel for drums, piano, Harde, strings and tape, 1994
  • Tre Pezzi Brevi for Harde, guitar or piano, 1960-1961
  • Contrasts for Six Performers for Oboe, Viola, xylorimba, vibraphone, percussion and harp, 1962
  • Elegy and Two Went to Sleep for soprano, percussion and tape, 1967
  • Undersea Fantasy, puppetry, for tape, 1967
  • Rasas I for flute, harp, string trio, percussion and piano 1968
  • The Living Flame of Love for mixed choir, 1968
  • Rasas II and III Rasas for soloist, chamber ensemble and tape, 1973
  • Three Impressions, 1973
  • 11 and 7 for 5 for wind quintet and tape, 1975
  • Piece for Bob for flute and tape, 1975
  • Collage '76 for flute, oboe, horn, cello, double bass, three percussion, harp, piano and tape, 1976
  • Consequences for Five for piano, synthesizers and live electronics 1977
  • Collage '78 for bassoon, two percussion and tape, 1978
  • Quaprice for horn, percussion and tape, 1980
  • Cantorum Vitae for flute, cello, two pianos, percussion and tape 1981
  • Troissonts for viola and two drums, 1981
  • Hedda ballet for orchestra and tape, 1982
  • Jeu II for flute, viola and tape, 1985
  • Images for wind quintet, 1986
  • Jeu III for viola and tape, 1987
  • The dissipation of Purely sound, radio opera for tape, 1988
  • Accordion Play for accordion and two drums, 1989
  • Hemispherics for trumpet, trombone, piano or synthesizer, guitar, two percussion, viola, cello and double bass, 1990
  • Jeu IV (Mozart ) for piano, flute, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, horn, string quartet and tape, 1991
  • Evocations: Images of Canada for electro-acoustic instruments, 1991
  • Amplified String Quartet for string quartet and tape, 1992
  • Face à Face for two amplified bass flute and percussion, 1994
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Robert Aitken (composer) Integrated Authority File
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