- Jan Swafford
Jan Swafford (born
1946 ) is an Americancomposer and author who teaches composition, theory, andmusicology at theBoston Conservatory and writing atTufts University . He earned his B.A. from Harvard College and his M.M.A. and D.M.A. from theYale School of Music . He has written respected musical biographies ofCharles Ives andJohannes Brahms , as well as the introductory "Vintage Guide to Classical Music ", and is often heard as a musical commentator on NPR and in Slate.Swafford's own music, which is highly lyrical and moves freely between tonality and atonality, has been called New Romantic in style. There are equal if less overt contributions from
world music , especially Indian and Balinese, and fromjazz andblues . The titles of his works reveal a steady inspiration from nature and landscape. The composer views his own work as a kind of classicism: a concern with clarity, directness, and expression, or as he puts it, "music that sounds familiar though it is new, works that sound like they wrote themselves."Notable are his
orchestra l works Landscape with Traveler (1979-80), After Spring Rain (1981-82) and From the Shadow of the Mountain (2001), thepiano quintet Midsummer Variations (1985), thepiano quartet They Who Hunger (1989), and thepiano trio They That Mourn (2002), the last in memoriam 9/11. His music has won a number of awards including an NEA Composer Grant, twoMassachusetts Artists Foundation Fellowships, and aTanglewood Fellowship.Swafford is currently working on a piece for solo
cello and a biography of Beethoven.External links
* [http://ase.tufts.edu/faculty-guide/faculty.asp?id=jswaffor&index=S Profile from Tufts University]
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