Captain Noah and His Floating Zoo

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Miller, Dr Malcolm. 'From Noah to Ninotchka via Samson and psalms', in Jewish Renaissance, July 2006, p 31 Snowman, Daniel. "The Hitler Emigrés". www.penguin.co.uk. Archived from the original on 22 February 2020 . Retrieved 23 February 2020. With the death of Joseph Horovitz, an important link with music making in pre-War Europe disappears," says Howard Friend, Managing Editor, Novello 1998-2019. "Though only 12 when his family had to leave the country of his birth for Britain, his upbringing in the heart of Vienna, the son of a distinguished publisher, never seemed far away in either his intellect or undoubted charm and sense of humour. With a formidable memory for names, faces and works even to the end of his life and clear explanation and delivery in teaching, he attracted enormous affection from his students at the RCM as well as us whose privilege it was to publish many of his practical and finely crafted works. Goldenes Verdienstzeichen 1995., in Handbuch der Stadt Wien 1995/96., p. II/226. Retrieved 16 February 2022. The work encompasses a number of musical styles including hymnal, samba, jazz and square dance. Keep an ear out for the Edgar Allan Poe reference rapping on the door!

Born in Vienna, Joseph was the son of Béla Horovitz, a publisher and co-founder of Phaidon Press, and his wife, Lotte (nee Beller). He had two younger sisters: Elly, later Miller, became an art publisher, and Hannah a concert promoter. Escaping from the city just days after the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938, Joseph and one of his sisters travelled unaccompanied to Antwerp, where the family were reunited, reaching London soon afterwards. They spent the war years in Bath and Oxford. Gentleman's Island (libretto by Gordon Snell) in English or German for tenor, baritone and chamber orchestra Horrortorio (words by Alistair Sampson from a scenario by Maurice Richardson) for soloists, chorus and orchestra. It was performed at the Hoffnung Astronautical Musical Festival This 15-minute work takes the listener from melodies of prewar Vienna, which the composer, dedicatee and performers would have known, to a distorted version of Horst Wessel Lied, the Nazi anthem that ended their childhoods. The composer once said that if all his works were thrown in a river, this was the one he would retrieve. They settled briefly in London, where he attended Regents Park School for refugee children, but moved to Oxford during the Blitz, which he recalled in Ad Astra (1990), a march for concert band. He was educated at City of Oxford High School, dreamt of being an artist and took lessons at the Ashmolean, which had become home to the evacuated Slade School of Art.

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Noah’s Notes’ began as a handwritten draft, using couplets and longish lines. And this form didn’t change (though a poem’s form often does change as I re-write). When I’d typed up my first version I began adding creature after creature, writing directly on to the screen. Sometimes a poem must be hunted down and/or coaxed into being, but this poem arrived in a rush, as if eager to be made. Poets will know the rare exhilaration of this. The first three string quartets were student works (the third accepted as the final part of his Oxford Bachelor of Music degree in 1948). The fourth, described by the composer as "dark and disturbing", was composed in 1953 following four years of work on mostly light-hearted music for ballet and opera. [16] His fifth string quartet, [17] which according to Daniel Snowman is "probably his most profound work", was first performed to honour the 60th birthday of Ernst Gombrich at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1969 by the Amadeus Quartet. [18] [16] This is the story of a composer of the kind of music that just fits so beautifully, that you hardly notice yourself humming along. Feel the Spirit, written in 2016, is a cycle of seven familiar spirituals expertly arranged by John Rutter. These vivid and expressive arrangements can be performed individually, or as a complete cycle that showcases the rich heritage of the spiritual. The work brings new life to such well-loved titles as Steal Away, His more serious religious vocal works included the psalm setting Sing unto the Lord a New Song (1971), which was the first work commissioned from a Jewish composer for the choir of St Paul's Cathedral. The oratorio Samson for voices and brass band followed in 1977, a commission from the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain.

Horovitz's story begins with his escape from the Nazis as they entered Vienna in 1938, to then include giving wartime musical appreciation lectures to the forces, being awarded two Ivor Novello awards for later compositions, and working with such comic legends as Gerard Hoffnung and Michael Flanders. This year we reprised the wonderful cantata Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo, which we performed alongside a number of songs of the sea.Joseph Horovitz, composer who brought humour to classical music and was best known for his cantata Captain Noah and His Floating Zoo – obituary". The Telegraph. 11 February 2022. (subscription required) My poem, ‘Noah’s Notes (Preliminary)’, imagines Noah on duty by the Ark’s door as the animals enter. He makes notes about each of the creatures. His notes are preliminary, however. How much more time will he spend, I wonder, studying (like a biblical David Attenborough) the lifestyle of the creatures penned in the Ark as it sails along the flood?

The Jubilee Toy Symphony (1977), deploying toy instruments, bird sounds and percussion, was another popular success. Commissioned for the Queen’s silver jubilee, it was given its premiere by a stellar lineup of soloists under Colin Davis at a musical party in aid of the Musicians Benevolent Fund (now Help Musicians) at St James’s Palace, in the presence of the Queen Mother.

After reading music and modern languages at Oxford he studied with Gordon Jacob at the Royal College of Music and for a year with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. He spent a year in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, who not only “hoovered my music of redundant notes” but also influenced the searching lines of his 1950 Violin Concerto. “She taught me to admire, to emulate, sometimes even to imitate the procedures of Stravinsky in his neoclassic manner,” he added. The concert was conducted by Philip Scriven and accompanied by a jazz trio consisting of Mark Austin (piano), Dan Swana (bass), Matthew Green (percussion).