Richard Hervig, 1960Join the Center for New Music at the University of IOWA School of Music as they pay tribute to their beloved founder and respected composer Richard Hervig. Concert this Sunday, March 27 at 2pm at Riverside Recital Hall, with David Gompper, pianist, and other performers.
American composer and educator, Richard Hervig (1917-2010) studied
English at Augustana College, Sioux Falls, South Dakota (BA 1939), and
after teaching for a time in the public schools, studied composition
with Philip Greeley Clapp at the University of Iowa (MA 1942, PhD 1947).
He joined the UI faculty in 1955 and became the founding director of
the Center for New Music in 1966. Upon his retirement in 1988, he was
appointed to a post at the Juilliard School. His pupils have included
Charles Dodge and William Hibbard, among others. He has received
commissions from the National Music Council, the National Federation of
Music Clubs, and numerous performers.
Hervig's compositions, most of which are instrumental and tonal, show a
disciplined approach to standard forms and an exploration of timbral
possibilities. In two early works, the Clarinet Sonata no.1 and the
String Quartet, he casts sections in conflicting rhythms, exploiting the
resulting tensions. In the Chamber Music for Six Players, he
continued his concern for establishing relationships between the parts
while maintaining a separate musical personality for each instrument; in
this way, his compositional approach takes on concerns more readily
associated with the theatre.