Iacobus Leodiensis [Iacobus de Montibus, Iacobus de Oudenaerde]

Istomin, Eugene (George)

(b New York, 26 Nov 1925). American pianist. He first studied with Kiriena Siloti, and then at the Mannes College. When he was 12 he entered the Curtis Institute, where he studied with Rudolf Serkin and Mieczyslaw Horszowski. In 1943 he won the youth competition sponsored by the Philadelphia Orchestra, with which he made his orchestral début playing Chopin’s F minor Concerto the same year. That year he also won the Leventritt Award, which led to an appearance with the New York PO, playing Brahms’s Second Concerto (1943). Around this time he also played with the Busch Chamber Players; his first recording, which brought him considerable attention, was of Bach’s D minor Concerto with that ensemble. He then appeared regularly as a soloist with leading American orchestras, embarking on major tours abroad from 1956; he has been associated primarily with 19th-century works. In 1961 he formed a trio with Isaac Stern and Leonard Rose; his performances of chamber music represent the delicate end of the expressive spectrum. In 1975 he married Marta Casals, the widow of Pablo Casals; she became artistic director of the Kennedy Center in 1980.

MICHAEL STEINBERG/DENNIS K. McINTIRE

Istrate, Mircea

(b Cluj, 27 Sept 1929). Romanian composer. He began his studies at the Cluj Academy with Elisa Ciolan (piano, 1945–9) and Toduţa (composition, 1950–53), but was expelled on political grounds; he was able to transfer to the Bucharest Academy, where he studied composition with Andricu and the piano with Florica Musicescu (1954–7). He taught the piano in Music School no.3 in Bucharest from 1959 until his retirement. A non-conformist composer, Istrate respects tradition while remaining open to techniques ranging from modalism to serialism. The limited number of his works reveal a meticulous and rigorous approach to composition. Pe o plajă japoneză (‘On a Japanese Beach’, 1961) employs variation and phasing techniques within its integrated serial structure; Evenimente (‘Incidents’, 1966) displays his subtle use of timbre and sonic textures.

WORKS

(selective list)

Sonata, fl, pf, 1954; Burlesca, chbr conc., ob, cl, bn, vn, db, 1955; Muzică stereofonică, 2 orchs, 1957, rev. 1959; Pe o plajă japoneză [On a Japanese Beach], female chorus, orch, tape, 1961; Sonata, ob, pf, 1962; Algoritm, orch, 1964; Interferenţe, amp orch, 1965; Evenimente [Incidents], I–VII, dbn, hn, elec gui, vib, mar, prep pf, pf + perc, 6 tapes, 1966; Împliniri – Pulsatii [Fulfilment – Pulsation], I–II, 1973–4

Film scores, choral works, chbr pieces

BIBLIOGRAPHY

W.G. Berger: Ghid pentru muzica instrumentală de cameră [Guide to instrumental chamber music] (Bucharest, 1965)

V. Cosma: Muzicieni români (Bucharest, 1970)

OCTAVIAN COSMA

Ištvan, Miloslav

(b Olomouc, 2 Sept 1928; d Brno, 26 Jan 1990). Czech composer. He studied composition with Kvapil at the Brno Academy of Music (1948–52) and remained there as a postgraduate student (1953–6), assistant lecturer (1956–66) and lecturer (from 1966). He was also active in the Brno branch of the Czech Composers’ Union (1951–60), a member of the Tvůrčí Skupina A (Composer's Group A) from 1963, and an associate of the Brno electronic music studio from 1966.

The years of Ištvan's studies and first works were marked by an ideological prohibition of much important 20th-century music in Czechoslovakia. However, he quickly found his own direction, gaining stimulus from Moravian folksong and from the music and theory of Janáček. Robust, dramatic and unsentimental qualities, together with a persistent search for new forms of expression, are typical of his early years. The Piano Trio (1958) is the finest work of this period, which culminated in the three symphonic frescoes Balada o Jihu (‘Ballad of the South’, 1960), a protest against racialism and national injustice. Three other works of these years, the Second Piano Sonata, the Violin Concertino and the Rhapsody for cello and piano, show him taking up a Bartókian modal technique; in all of them the themes are elaborated very strictly and consistently. The String Quartet (1962–3) again shows Bartók's influence in the palindromic relation of its five movements, but Ištvan also continued to write works with a topical message: the piano piece Odyssea lidického dítěte (‘Odyssey of a Child of Lidice’, 1963) describes the fate of a child, dragged from his home by the Nazis and returning after years of hardship.

Ištvan's subsequent adoption of serialism is documented in Dodekameron (1964), a composition for 12 instruments in 12 movements, some modal, some 12-note. Derived from his incidental music for Büchner's Woyzeck, the score catches the main phases of the dramatic action in its brief sections. Ištvan then began to show an increased interest in rhythm, notably in Ritmi ed antiritmi for two pianos and percussion (1966), where African patterns in the percussion are confronted by vague, aleatory material in the pianos. The final development of his collage technique came in the first vocal works, Zaklínaní času (‘The Exorcism of Time’, 1967) and Já, Jákob (‘I, Jacob’, 1968). The first is a meditation on the meaning of human existence scored for two speakers and orchestra, the montage of three texts being allied with a musical juxtaposition of archaic and contemporary materials. All this is achieved with Baroque tightness, but Já Jákob is much more free-ranging and colourful in its multiplicity of levels. Ištvan had now established his pluralist technique, and his creative potency increased greatly despite the fact that his works were receiving few performances as he was no longer a member of the Composers' Union. The compositions that followed include the electronic Ostrov hraček (‘Island of Toys’, 1967–8), based on the sounds of toys, Ommagio a J.S. Bach for wind quintet (1971), in which Bach motifs are transformed in a pseudo-electronic manner and through serial progressions, and Psalmus niger for percussion ensemble (1972), an extreme product of his preoccupation with elemental rhythm.

During the second half of the 1970s Ištvan approached the peak of his compositional designs. Not hiding his disagreement with the social and political developments in Czechoslovakia, he withdrew from public life and concentrated exclusively on composition and on teaching at the Academy. In Shakespearovské variace (‘Shakespeare Variations’, 1975) for wind and percussion and in the orchestral Hry (‘Games’, 1977) he was inspired by medieval and Renaissance approaches, the forms of the madrigal and the partita determined the shape of his choruses Horlivá toužení (‘Ardent Longings’, 1974), Cor mio (1979) and Partita (1980) for 16 strings. At the same time, however, he rethought his use of the jazz, pop and minimal music, which he realized in an original way in the diptych Mikrosvěty (‘Microworlds’, 1977), in the chamber cantata Hard Blues (1980) and in the Concertino for Baroque Jazz Quintet (1982). His discontent and anger at social events are encrypted in his string quartet Zatemněná krajina (‘The Darkened Landscape’, 1975) and in the single-movement symphonic piece Tempus irae (1983), the provocative titles of which had to compensate for the missing textual hints (a dedication to the victims of war in the first piece, a reference to John Steinbeck's novel in the second) so that the works could be publicly performed. With its simplified expression and large-scale conception the extensive Vokální symfonie (‘Vocal Symphony’, 1986) bore witness to the composer's love of heterophony.

The last two years of Ištvan's life were marked by the death of his wife Věra (1988). An elegiac tone is heard in the Variace na renesanční téma (‘Variations on a Renaissance Theme’, 1988), in the chamber trio Rotace a návraty (‘Rotations and Returns’, 1988) and especially in Solitudo (1989) for 11 string instruments, which he completed in the disturbed atmosphere of November 1989. The resulting political changes brought him to the fore in the revival of activities by Brno artists; involvement cut short by his sudden death soon after completing Makrosvěty (‘Macroworlds’, 1990).

WORKS

(selective list)

Vocal: Zaklínaní času [The Exorcism of Time] (O. Mikulášek, Baroque, Bible), 2 spkrs, orch, 1967; Já, Jákob [I, Jacob] (chbr cant., Bible), spkr, coloratura S, pop T, 8 insts, tape, 1968; Hlasová vernisáž [Vocal Vernissage], S, B–Bar, 2 spkrs, 6 insts, tape, 1969, collab. J. Berg, A. Parsch, A. Piňos, R. Růžička, M. Štědroň; Smuténka (J. Skácel), song cycle, A, pf, tape, 1970; Horácké balady [Ballads from the Highlands], children's vv, 1971; Horlivá toužení [Ardent Longing] (Cz. Baroque verse), madrigal cycle, chorus, 1974; Kráska a zvíře [Beauty and the Beast] (F. Hrubín), chbr orat, 1974; Jakha kale (Roma love songs), 2 ballads, T, pf, 1976; Cor mio, mixed chorus, 1979; Hard Blues (chbr cant., black poetry), spkr, S, pop Bar, chbr orch, 1980; Uspávanky [Lullabies] (J. Skácel), children's choir, 1980; V rozbřesku přijd' [Come at Daybreak] (Fr. and Sp. folk poetry), Mez, cl, opt. early wind inst, 1982; Láska, vzdor a smrt [Love, Defiance and Death] (after A. and V. Mrstík: Maryša), Mez, chbr ens, 1984; Vokální symfonie [Vocal Symphony], spkr, S, B, orch, 1986

Orch: Conc., hn, pf, str, 1949; Československá suita, orch, 1951; Zimní suita [Winter Suite], str, pf, perc, 1956; Conc.-sym., pf, orch, 1958; Balada o Jihu [Ballad of the South], 3 sym. frescoes after L. Allan, 1960; Concertino, vn, chbr orch, 1961; 6 studies, chbr orch, 1964; In memoriam Josef Berg, 1972 [arr. from Avete morituri]; Shakespearovské variace [Shakespeare Variations], wind, perc, 1975; Hry [Games], 7 pictures, 1977; Partita, 16 str, 1980; Tempus irae, 1983 [after J. Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath]: Rytmy a tance pro BBB [Rhythms and Dances for the BBB), brass ens, perc, 1984; Variace na renesanční téma [Variations on a Renaissance Theme], 2 spkrs, chbr orch, 1988

Chbr: 3 rondos, va, pf, 1950; Sonata, cl, pf, 1954; Suite, hn, pf, 1955; Sonata, vn, pf, 1956; Partita, fl, cl, bn, 1957; Pf Trio, 1958; Rhapsody, vc, pf, 1961; Str Qt no.1, 1962–3; Dodekameron, 12 insts, 1964; Refrény [Refrains], str trio, 1965; Ritmi ed antiritmi, 2 pf, perc, 1966; Sonata, vc, pf, 1970; Sonata, vn, ens, 1970; Ommagio a J.S. Bach, wind qnt, 1971; Psalmus niger, perc ens, 1972; Duo, db, perc, 1975; Zatemněná krajina [Darkened Landscape], str qt, 1975; Mikrosvěty [Microworlds], 1977: Letnî mikrosvěty [Summer Microworlds], fl, hp, hpd; Mikrosvěty mého města [Microworlds of my Town], 2 va, ob, cl; Capriccio, vib, mar, perc, 1978; Canti, I–IV, 1979–83: I va, II female v, va, tape, III fl, IV sax, perc; Concertino pro Barock Jazz Quintet, ob, b cl, sax, db, perc, 1982; Canzona, a fl, eng hn, vc, pf, 1985; Str Qt no.2, 1986; Trio, cl, pf, perc, 1987; Rotace a návraty [Rotations and Returns], eng hn, va, vc, 1988; Solitudo, 11 str, 1989; Makrosvěty, ‘4 ročhních’] [Macroworlds ‘4 seasons’], perc, 1990

Kbd: Sonata no.1, pf, 1954; Impromptus, pf, 1956; Sonata no.2, pf, 1959; Odyssea lidického dítěte [Odyssey of a Child of Lidice], pf, 1963; Musica aspera, org, 1964; Variace, d, 2 pf, 1972; Sonata no.3, pf, 1978

Tape: Ostrov hraček [Island of Toys], 1967–8; Avete morituri, 1970 [arr. as In memoriam Josef Berg]; Modravá Země [A bluish Landscape] (S. Yesenin), spkr, tape, 1982; Canto V, 1990

Principal publishers: Český hudební fond, panton, Státní hudební vydavatelství, Státní nakladatelstvi krásné literatury, Hudby a umění, Supraphon

WRITINGS

Metoda montáže izolovaných prvků v hudbě [The method of montage of isolated elements in music] (Prague, 1973)

Poznámky k soudobé hudební formě a rytmu [Comments on contemporary musical form and rhythm] (Brno, 1978)

Struktura a tvar hudebního objektu [The structure and form of a musical object] (Prague, 1978)

Jednohlas v soudobé hudbě [Monophony in contemporary music] (Brno, 1989) Articles in HRo

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Grove6 (A. Němcová) [incl. further bibliography]

KdG (J. Bártova and J. Fukač)

V. Holzknecht: ‘Ištvan-Sokola-Bořkovec’, HRo, xiii (1960), 861 only

J. Beneš: ‘Slibný nástup Miloše Ištvana’ [Ištvan's promising start], HRo, xiv (1961), 677–80

D. Pandula: ‘Tvůrčí východiska Miloše Ištvana’ [Ištvan's creative starting-point], HRo, xx (1967), 260–64

O. Setari: ‘Letní mikrosvěty Miloslava Ištvana’ [Ištvan's summer microworlds], OM xiv (1982), 47–9

A. Němcová: ‘Kompoziční styl Miloslava Ištvana’ [Ištvan's compositional style], OM, xvi (1984), 45–7

J. Bártová: ‘Miloslav Ištvan’, HRo, xxxvii (1985), 321–3

L. Faltus, M. Štědroň: Miloslav Ištvan a jeho komorní oratoria (Ištvan and his chamber oratorios], HV, xxii (1985), 3–33, 155–74

J. Bártová: Miloslav Ištvan (Brno, 1997 [incl. work-list, bibliography, Eng. summary])

ALENA NĚMCOVÁ