Richard Hundley
Encyclopedia
Richard Albert Hundley is an American pianist and composer of American art songs for voice and piano.
When Hundley was seven years old he moved to his paternal grandmother's home in Covington, Kentucky and began piano lessons. At the age of ten, he attended his first opera, Il trovatore
by Guiseppe Verdi.
Hundley began piano lessons at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music
with Madame Illona Voorm at the age of eleven. At age fourteen, Hundley performed a Mozart piano concerto with the Northern Kentucky Symphony Orchestra. Two years later he soloed with the Cincinnati Symphony.
but dropped out shortly after.
In 1960, Hundley was selected for the Metropolitan Opera Chorus. In preparation for this position Hundley learned to sing ten operas in four different languages.
Hundley shared his original songs with some of the singers at the Metropolitan. As a result, Anneliese Rothenberger
, Rosalind Elias
, Anna Moffo
, Teresa Stratas
, Lili Chookasian
, John Reardon and Betty Allen
began performing his songs on stage.
In 1962 when soprano Eileen DiTullio sang two of his songs, Softly the Summer and Spring, in a concert at Town Hall in New York City. Paul Kapp, Director of General Music Publishing Company was in attendance and he scheduled a meeting with Hundley to discuss publishing the two compositions. During the period of 1962-1964, General Music Publishing Company published seven of Hundley's songs.
The American art song specialist, Paul Sperry began performing and advocating Hundley's music in the late 1960s.
In 1982 the International American Music Competition included his "Eight Songs" set in its repertoire list. The 1983 and 1984 Newport Music Festivals also performed his work.
In 1987, Hundley was declared one of the standard American composers for vocalists by the International American Music Competition.
Early life
Hundley was born in Cincinnati, Ohio.When Hundley was seven years old he moved to his paternal grandmother's home in Covington, Kentucky and began piano lessons. At the age of ten, he attended his first opera, Il trovatore
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
by Guiseppe Verdi.
Hundley began piano lessons at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music
Cincinnati Conservatory of Music
The Cincinnati Conservatory of Music was a conservatory, part of a girls' finishing school, founded in 1867 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It merged with the College of Music of Cincinnati in 1955, forming the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, which is now part of the University of Cincinnati.The...
with Madame Illona Voorm at the age of eleven. At age fourteen, Hundley performed a Mozart piano concerto with the Northern Kentucky Symphony Orchestra. Two years later he soloed with the Cincinnati Symphony.
Career
Hundley moved to New York City in 1950 and enrolled in the Manhattan School of MusicManhattan School of Music
The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...
but dropped out shortly after.
In 1960, Hundley was selected for the Metropolitan Opera Chorus. In preparation for this position Hundley learned to sing ten operas in four different languages.
Hundley shared his original songs with some of the singers at the Metropolitan. As a result, Anneliese Rothenberger
Anneliese Rothenberger
Anneliese Rothenberger was a German operatic soprano who had an active international performance career which spanned from 1943 to 1983...
, Rosalind Elias
Rosalind Elias
Rosalind Elias is an American mezzo-soprano, a rich-voiced singer of fine musicianship who enjoyed a long and distinguished career at the Metropolitan Opera.-Life and career:...
, Anna Moffo
Anna Moffo
Anna Moffo was an Italian-American opera singer and one of the leading lyric-coloratura sopranos of her generation...
, Teresa Stratas
Teresa Stratas
Teresa Stratas, OC , is a retired Canadian operatic soprano. She is especially well-known for her award-winning recording of Alban Berg's Lulu.-Early life and career:...
, Lili Chookasian
Lili Chookasian
Lili Chookasian is an American contralto who has appeared with many of the world's major symphony orchestras and opera houses. She began her career in the 1940s as a concert singer but did not draw wider acclaim until she began singing opera in her late thirties...
, John Reardon and Betty Allen
Betty Allen
Betty Allen was a renowned American operatic mezzo-soprano who had an active international singing career during the 1950s through the 1970s...
began performing his songs on stage.
In 1962 when soprano Eileen DiTullio sang two of his songs, Softly the Summer and Spring, in a concert at Town Hall in New York City. Paul Kapp, Director of General Music Publishing Company was in attendance and he scheduled a meeting with Hundley to discuss publishing the two compositions. During the period of 1962-1964, General Music Publishing Company published seven of Hundley's songs.
The American art song specialist, Paul Sperry began performing and advocating Hundley's music in the late 1960s.
In 1982 the International American Music Competition included his "Eight Songs" set in its repertoire list. The 1983 and 1984 Newport Music Festivals also performed his work.
In 1987, Hundley was declared one of the standard American composers for vocalists by the International American Music Competition.
Solo Voice
- Softly the Summer (1957)
- Epitaph on a Wife (1957)
- The Astronomers (1959)
- Isaac Greentree (An Epitaph) (1960)
- Elizabeth Pitty (An Epitaph) (1960)
- Joseph Jones (An Epitaph) (1961)
- Wild Plum (1961)
- Ballad on Queen Anne's Death (1962)
- Spring (1962)
- For Your Delight (1962)
- I am not lonely (1963)
- Maiden Snow (1963)
- Daffodils (1963)
- My Master Hath a Garden (1963)
- Postcard from Spain (1964)
- Some Sheep are Loving (1964)
- Screw Spring (1968)
- Come Ready and See Me (1971)
- Lions Have Lain in Grasses Before (1971)
- Vocal Quartets on Poems by James Purdy (1971)
- Birds, U.S.A. (1972)
- I Do (1974)
- Are They Shadows that We See? (1974)
- Evening Hours (1975)
- Bartholomew Green (1978)
- Sweet Suffolk Owl (1979)
- When Orpheus Played (1979)
- Arise My Love (1981)
- The Girls of Golden Summers (1982)
- Will there really be a Morning?(1987)
- Moonlight's Watermelon (1989)
- Seashore Girls (1989)
- Straightway beauty on me waits (1989)
- Strings in the Earth and Air (1989)
- Well Welcome (1989)
- Awake the Sleeping Sun (1991)
- The Elephant is Slow to Mate (1992)
- White Fields (1995)
- The Whales of California (1996)
- O My Darling Troubles Heaven With Her Loveliness (1998)
- Heart, We Will Forget Him (2004)
Recordings
- Under the bluest sky...Songs of Richard Hundley David Parks (tenor) Read Gainsford (piano)
Reference and Further Reading
- American Art Song and American Poetry. by Ruth C. Friedberg ISBN 0810819201
- The solo vocal repertoire of Richard Hundley: A pedagogical and performance guide to the published works Dissertation by Esther Jane Hardenbergh
- Carol Kimball, Song: A Guide to Art Song Style and Literature (Wisconsin: Hal Leonard Corporation, 2006).
- Victoria Etnier Villamil, A Singer’s Guide to the American Art Song: 1870–1980 (Lanham, MD & London: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1993; 2004).
- Conversations with Writers II, Volume 1, eds. Stanley Ellin, John Baker (Michigan: Gale Research Co., 1978). See the entry on writer James Purdy, who discusses his collaboration with Hundley.
External links
- Homepage of "Life & Work of Richard Hundley
- Rainer J. Hanshe, "Ready All the Time Like Gunpowder: On Composing Songs with James Purdy--An Interview with Richard Hundley", Hyperion: On the Future of Aesthetics, Vol. VI, No. 1 (March 2011). This is a special issue devoted to writer James Purdy.