Ralph Shapey 1921–2002

Over the years the term ‘campus composer’ has come to denote a mild form of abuse, but Ralph Shapey, who served the University of Chicago’s music department with distinction for nearly thirty years, rose above such petty epithets by writing the kind of bold, dramatic and searingly dissonant music which tore from critics and fellow composers the kind of superlatives that are difficult to understand this side of the Atlantic, where his music has yet to be given a proper airing.

'Radical traditionalist' or romantic radical': Ralph Shapey (Photo: University of Chicago)

In a career lasting more than fifty years, he produced more than 200 works in all the standard genres except opera, which in their fierce integrity and singularity of purpose have been compared to those of Ives, Varèse, Beethoven and Messiaen. Its composer has been variously described as a ‘radical traditionalist’, a ‘romantic radical’, and an ‘American original’. Shapey thought of himself as ‘a classicist structurally, a romantic emotionally and a modernist harmonically’. But whatever label he was given, he transcended them, by writing pieces that, in one sense or another, serve the human spirit, in all its sorrows, struggles, and occasional joys.

Shapey was born in Philadelphia and began violin lessons at the age of seven and composition at nine. More formal study in both disciplines followed: in 1937, in violin, with Emmanuel Zeitlin, and, a year later, with Stefan Wolpe, whose Expressionist free atonality provided the catalyst which helped the teenage composer to find his own voice. At the same time, he was gaining conducting experience — as youth conductor of the Philadelphia National Youth Administration Symphony Orchestra, and as guest conductor with the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra.

After the Second World War and service in the US army, he moved to New York, working as a freelance violinist, composer, conductor and teacher, and falling under the spell of the New York Abstract Expressionist painters. He soon felt confident enough to write his first big orchestral work, Challenge — the family of man (1955), to a commission by Dimitri Mitropoulos.

A period at the MacDowell Colony from 1956 to 1959 resulted in further orchestral works — Ontogeny (1958), Invocation (1959), and Rituals (1959) — although it was not until he had settled in Chicago, in 1964, that they received their first performances, often with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the composer’s baton. A little later came Incantations, for soprano and ten instruments, described by the New York Times critic as ‘one of the most searing, terrifying, and altogether extraordinary compositions this listener has ever heard’.

He made his final move in 1964, to Chicago, where he immediately founded the university’s Contemporary Chamber Players, which he directed for twenty-seven years; it soon became noted for its high performance standards and catholic repertoire. His rigorous course of instruction in composition was later set down as A basic course in music composition and published by Presser earlier this year

Meanwhile, Shapey continued to compose as prolifically as ever. Two large-scale works from this period, which address the contemporary crisis of faith, stand out: Praise, an hour-long oratorio for bass-baritone solo, double chorus and chamber group, premiered in 1976, and The covenant, for soprano and sixteen players, dedicated to the thirtieth anniversary of the state of Israel and premiered in 1978 with the composer’s wife, Elsa Charlston.

Shapey, naturally, received many awards, though the Pulitzer Prize, for his orchestral summa, Concerto Fantastique (1989), commissioned in honour of the joint centenaries of the University of Chicago and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, famously eluded him when it was withdrawn at the last moment.

Ralph Shapey: born Philadelphia, 12 March 1921; died Chicago, 13 June 2002.