Iacobus Leodiensis [Iacobus de Montibus, Iacobus de Oudenaerde]

IAWM.

See International Alliance for Women in Music.

Ibach.

German firm of piano and organ makers. In 1794 Johannes Adolph Ibach (b Klausen bei Lüttringhausen, nr Barmen, 1766; d 1848) founded the firm in Beyenburg and built his first square piano. At about the same time he restored the organ of the monastery at Beyenburg.

In the Westphälischen Anzeiger of 14 October 1800 Ibach advertised ‘all kinds of fortepianos, including grand pianos of the highest quality and in the finest taste, as well as large and small pipe-organs’. The firm grew and by 1816 he had a workshop in the Alleestrasse, Unterbarmen, producing 40 to 50 instruments annually. Ibach's sons, Carl Rudolph Ibach (1804–63) and Richard Ibach (1813–89), joined the firm in 1834 and 1839 respectively; it subsequently became known as ‘Adolph Ibach Söhne, Orgelbauanstalt und Pianofortefabrik’. Richard took over the organ building part of the firm in 1869, and Carl's son P.A. Rudolf Ibach (1843–92) was left to run the piano department as ‘Rud. Ibach Sohn’, the title under which the firm has continued. In 1885, after ten years of study abroad, the founder's grandson, Walter Ibach, opened a factory solely for the production of modern uprights. Output was rapidly increased, averaging about 2000 instruments a year by 1900.

The firm developed a reputation for building both high-quality and good medium-class instruments. Tributes to the Ibach piano have come from such composers as Bartók, Schoenberg, Webern and Richard Strauss; the grand played by Wagner right up to the evening before his death is in the Richard-Wagner-Museum, Bayreuth. More than 120,000 pianos had been made by 1972. The firm has worked with more than 65 architects on the design of its instruments; Peter Behrens and Bruno Paul designed upright pianos for their bicentenary, and the American Richard Meier designed a new grand piano which was introduced in 1996–7. That year Christian Ibach (b 1938) left the company and Thomas Henke, a technician who had been instrumental in introducing an improved soundboard construction in both upright and grand pianos, joined the management. The firm claims to be the oldest surviving independent piano manufacturer in the world.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MGG1 (H. Neupert)

J.A. Ibach: ‘175 Jahre Firma Ibach’, Beiträge zur Heimatkunde der Stadt Schwelm und ihrer Umgebung, xix (1969), 40–48

G. Beer: Orgelbau Ibach Barmen, 1794–1904 (Cologne, 1975)

MARGARET CRANMER

Ibarra (Groth), Federico

(b Mexico City, 25 July 1946). Mexican composer. He began his career as a pianist and later studied at the Escuela Nacional de Música, graduating in composition in 1978. He also took classes with Marie (1968), Stockhausen (1971), Schaeffer (1971) and Halffter (1975). As a pianist, Ibarra has given the Mexican premières of a number of works (Cage, Cowell, De Castro, Crumb). His own music has been performed internationally, as well as in Mexico, where his prizes include the Medalla Mozart (1991). He has also worked as a choir conductor and repetiteur.

Ibarra’s sizeable output is characterized by the use of powerful, dramatic contrasts within carefully balanced forms. Many of his earlier works (notably the Cinco estudios premonitorios and the Cinco manuscritos pnakótikos) incorporate highly varied textures, colours and contemporary effects, including clusters, microintervals, and percussive taps on non-percussion instruments. His Concerto for prepared piano and orchestra (1970, rev. 1980) – in which the soloist unfolds a series of non-melodic textures juxtaposed with dense, sonorous masses in the orchestra – is typical. A number of compositions – the piano sonatas, symphonies and the Cello Concerto – do retain the principal thematic and developmental elements of Classical form; but traditional schemata are supplanted by diverse, dramatic structures. Ibarra has written more operas than any other 20th-century Mexican composer. In these, the musical language employed reflects the libretto; in Leoncio y Lena the music closely follows the tragicomic narration of the characters, whilst in Orestes parte the discourse becomes so dense that the character of Clitemnestra is shared between four sopranos.

WORKS

(selective list)

dramatic

Ops: Leoncio y Lena (2, J.R. Enríquez after G. Büchner), 1981; Orestes parte (9 scenes, Enríquez), 1981; Madre Juana (2, Enríquez), 1986; El pequeño príncipe (1, L. de Tavira after A. de Saint-Exupéry), 1988; Alicia (2, Enríquez after L. Carroll), 1990; Despertar al sueño (1, D. Olguín), 1994

Ballet: Imágenes del quinto sol, 1980; incid music

vocal

Cants: no.1 Paseo sin pie (C. Pellicer), solo vv, spkr, SATB, pf, cel, hmn, perc, 1967; no.2 Nocturno sueño (X. Villaurrutia), T, TB, fl, pf, 1969; no.3 Nocturno de la estatua, spkr, double chorus, 2 tpt, trbn, pf 4 hands, perc, elec generator, 1969; no.4 Dada (T. Tzará), SATB, wind qnt, 1971; no.5 De la naturaleza corporal, SATB, 1971; no.6 Del unicornio (C. Baudelaire, P. Verlaine), 1972; no.7 Nocturno muerto (Enríquez, Villaurrutia), SATB, orch, 1973; Loa para la ciudad que espera (Enríquez), S, A, SATB, perc ens, org, hp, 2 tpt, actors, 1986–7: Las fundaciones, Entrada triunfal, Lamentaciones

Other choral: Juguete (villancico, J.I. de la Cruz), SATB, 2 rec, hp, perc, 1970; A una dama que iba cubierta (Gómez Manrique), 1980; Romancillo (L. de Góngora), 1980

Solo vocal (1v, pf, unless otherwise stated): La ermita (anon. 15th century), 1965; El proceso de la metamorfosis (A. Breton, F. Kafka), spkr, orch, 1970; Suite del insomnio (Villaurrutia), A, pf, cel, hmn, 1973; Rito del reencuentro (Enríquez), spkr, str orch, 2 pf, 1974; Canciones de la noche (Villaurrutia), 1976; Canción arcaica, 1979; 2 canciones (F. García Lorca), 1979; 3 canciones del amor (Villaurrutia, S. Novo, Enríquez), 1980; Navega la ciudad en plena noche (O. Paz), 1985; Los caminos que existen (Enríquez), S, str orch, (1986); Décima muerte, S, 2 cl, va, vc, db, 1992

instrumental

Orch: Prep Pf Conc., 1970, rev. 1980; 5 misterios eléusicos, 1979; Vc Conc., 1989; Sym. no.1, 1990; Obertura para un encuentro fantástico, 1993; Obertura para un nuevo milenio, 1993; Sym. no.2 ‘Las antesalas del sueño’, 1993; Balada, str orch, 1995

Chbr: Invierno, str qt, 1963; Suite efébica, vn, fl, bn, cel, 1965; Del trasmundo (Str Qt no.1), 1975; 5 estudios premonitorios, ens, pf, 1976; 5 manuscritos pnakótikos, vn, pf, 1977; Música para teatro I, fl, ob, vc, pf, 1982; La chûte des anges, perc orch, 1983; Interludio y escenas, wind ens, perc, hp, 1984 [from op Orestes parte]; Sexteto, fl, ob, cl, vn, vc, pf, 1985; Música para teatro III, vc, pf, 1987; Sonata breve, vn, pf, 1991; Órfico (Str Qt no.2), 1992; Sonata, vc, pf, 1992; 3 piezas, bn, pf, 1993; El viaje imaginario, vn, vc, cl, pf, 1994; Juegos nocturnos, wind qnt, 1995

Pf Sonatas: no.1, 1976; no.2, 1982; no.3 ‘Madre Juana’, 1988; no.4, 1990; no.5, 1996

Other kbd: 3 preludios monocromáticos, pf 4 hands, 1964; 2 meditaciones acromáticas, 1966; Galopa de la mosca trapecista, hpd, 1969; Tocata, pf 4 hands, 1971; Los soles negros, pf 4 hands, 1975; Intrata, org, 1985, Música para teatro II, hpd, 1986

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Y. Moreno: La composición en México en el siglo XX (México, 1994)

RICARDO MIRANDA-PÉREZ