Joyce Music: Stephen Albert

I used “Finnegans Wake” more or less as a reference work, the way other composers might use the Bible, finding certain passages in it that lend to musical treatment of a direct sort, such as actual song settings, or a more indirect sort, such as my symphony.
—Stephen Albert

Stephen Albert
(1941-1992)

Until his tragic death in 1992, Stephen Joel Albert was one of America’s most promising composers, a leading voice “New Romanticism,” a movement that combined musical lyricism with a robust energy recalling composers such as Sibelius and Stravinsky.

Born in New York City, Albert studied music with Darius Milhaud at the Eastman School of Music, and George Rochberg at the University of Pennsylvania. He began his compositional career in electronic music, but abandoned that path before producing any mature works. Rejecting the 12-tone serialism popular in contemporary academia and finding little solace in minimalism, Albert sought to continue the tonal and harmonic languages of the classical and romantic periods; yet remained wary of embracing “exhausting” excesses and sentimentality. He often cited Bartók, Mahler, Strauss, and Sibelius as inspirations. Wanting to remain free from academic entanglements and having no interest in composing soundtracks, Albert financed his early career by transforming his childhood hobby of stamp collecting into a viable business dealing in rare postal stamps.

In the late 1970s, Albert became interested in James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. The first product of this fascination was To Wake the Dead, a song cycle for soprano and chamber orchestra. The work was premiered in New York on 21 March 1979, appropriately on the spring equinox. Charles Fussell conducted, with Sheila Marie Allen singing. Two years later, the work was recorded by Christopher Kendall and Lucy Shelton, establishing a relationship with Shelton that would last the entirety of Albert’s career.

To Wake the Dead was followed by two more Wake-inspired pieces: a song cycle called TreeStone and Albert’s first symphony, Symphony RiverRun. In 1985 Albert won the Pulitzer Prize for Symphony RiverRun. This led to a three-year stint as composer-in-residence for the Seattle Symphony. More commissions came pouring in, and Albert accepted a position teaching composition at Juilliard in 1988. In 1987 Albert’s Flower of the Mountain was honored as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. A sixteen-minute song based on Molly Bloom’s soliloquy in Ulysses, it was soon joined by another Joycean companion, Sun’s Heat. Together they form the two-movement work entitled Distant Hills. In 1990 Yo-Yo Ma premièred Albert’s Cello Concerto, the recording of which won a Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition.

On 27 December 1992, Albert was killed in a car crash on Cape Cod. He left behind the unfinished Symphony No. 2, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for their 150th anniversary. The piece was completed by the composer Sebastien Currier and first performed in 1994.

Joyce-Related Works

To Wake the Dead (1978)
This remarkable song cycle is subtitled, “Six Sentimental Songs and an Interlude after Finnegans Wake.”

TreeStone (1983)
Albert’s second song cycle inspired by Finnegans Wake, TreeStone is loosely based on the legend of Tristan and Iseult.

Symphony RiverRun (1983)
The gloriously dramatic Symphony RiverRun expands on Albert’s previous Wake-inspired material. It won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize in music.

Flower of the Mountain/Sun’s Heat/Distant Hills (1985-1989)
Flower of the Mountain is based on Molly’s soliloquy in Ulysses. In 1989 Albert paired it with another Ulysses-inspired song, Sun’s Heat. Together they form a two-movement piece called Distant Hills.

Ecce Puer (1992)
A setting of Joyce’s final poem for soprano.

Additional Information

Wikipedia Albert Page
Wikipedia’s page on Stephen Albert.

Stephen Albert “Overtones” Interview
Overtones, 1988. A very engaging and informative interview with Stephen Albert, who discusses his relationship to James Joyce, his compositional process, and his thoughts on modern music.

Stephen Albert Interview with Bruce Duffie
WNIB, 9 December 1990. The transcript of a telephone interview conducted with Stephen Albert.

Stephen Albert: Composer
The soprano Alissa Grimaldi maintains a lovely tribute page to Stephen Albert, with news of upcoming performances of his music.

Naxos Albert Bio
Naxos offers a brief but informative biography of Albert.

“When a Composer Breaks the Cocoon”
Christian Science Monitor, 6 June 1984. David Owens dislikes To Wake the Dead, but offers praise for TreeStone.

“Toward Epiphany”
Crisis Magazine, 1 January 1997. Robert R. Reilly remembers his friend Stephen Albert. This article would later be expanded into a chapter about Stephen Albert in Reilly’s book, Surprised by Beauty:  Listener’s Guide to the Recovery of Modern Music.

NYT Albert Obituary
New York Times, 29 December 1992. Allan Kozinn’s obituary discusses Albert’s passion for Joyce.

Seattle Times Obituary
Seattle Times, 29 December 1992. Melinda Barren writes movingly about Albert’s tragic death.

Stephen Albert Collection
The University of Maryland holds an archive of Albert-related materials.

Author: Allen B. Ruch
Last Modified: 16 June 2024
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