Lee Hoiby, Composer For Many Voices, Dies At 85

by TOM HUIZENGA 

American composer Lee Hoiby, whose works were performed at New York City Opera and by such prominent performers as soprano Leontyne Price, died Monday at Montefiore Hospital in New York. He was 85 years old.

Hoiby was an unapologetic champion of lyricism at a time when hummable melodies were considered old-fashioned. In the face of modern musical styles such as atonalism and minimalism, Hoiby stuck to his gracefully flowing lines with only passing dissonances. His songs were perhaps not quite as well known as his contemporary Ned Rorem's, or his operas performed as often as Carlisle Floyd's. Yet Hoiby has had his champions, in particular Price, who often included songs by Hoiby in her recitals.

Hoiby's first opera, The Scarf (1958), was well-received at the Festival of the Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy. He followed it withNatalia Petrovna at the New York City Opera in 1964; later revised as A Month in the Country, this opeta was compared to Wagner's Die Meistersinger and Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier for its sumptuous lyricism.

Hoiby was born in Madison, Wis., Feb. 17, 1926. He began playing piano at age 5, focused on his musical studies in high school and later earned a master's degree at Mills College in California, where he studied composition with Darius Milhaud. His early pieces impressed composer Gian Carlo Menotti, who invited Hoiby to study with him at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute.

In 1971, Hoiby adapted the Tennessee Williams play Summer and Smoke. It was hailed as the "finest American opera to date" by Harriet Johnson of the New York Post. Ned Rorem thought otherwise: In his 1972 review of the opera, Rorem said, "no one today composes more graciously for the human voice," but he felt the work suffered from too much beauty or "smoke without fire."

Complete on :http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2011/03/29/134953693/lee-hoiby-composer-for-many-voices-dies-at-85?ft=1&f=1039