Janet Maguire

Biography

Janet Maguire (1927–2019) was an American composer who was born in Chicago and resided in Venice, Italy.

Biography

Maguire is known particularly for her arrangement of the finale of Giacomo Puccini's Turandot, in which she exclusively used the sketches Puccini left for it at his death. Maguire is also known for her dramatic contemporary opera in three acts, Hérésie, and has worked in a wide variety of musical expressions throughout some fifty orchestral, chamber, solo, vocal, choral and stage works.
Born in Chicago and raised in New Rochelle, New York, Janet Maguire began musical studies at the age of six: on piano, French horn, and cornet. She completed a BA degree in Piano at Colorado College, then went to Paris to study composition with René Leibowitz for five years. They co-authored the book Thinking for Orchestra: Practical Exercises in Orchestration (published by G. Schirmer), and a book about the orchestration of some of Jacques Offenbach's works, Nuits Parisiennes (RCA, Bote & Bock), as well as Carl Maria von Weber's opera Die Drei Pintos. Several summers spent at the Darmstadt Ferienkurse influenced Maguire's style, as did the music of György Ligeti, Luigi Nono, and Karlheinz Stockhausen.
Maguire continued to develop independent paths in musical thought with the help of several musicians specializing in experimental music.
Maguire was the recipient of the 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship as well as a residence at Copland House in 2006.
Maguire was music critic for the Paris Herald Tribune while she lived in Paris. After moving to Venice, she founded there the association "Musica in Divenire", of which she was elected president, and organized concerts of new music. Her compositions have been heard throughout Italy and Germany, and in France, Spain, Ireland, the UK, the US, Austria, Canada, Argentina, Australia, Latvia and Bulgaria. New World Records issued a CD with seven of her works, and Albany Records released a CD with ten of her works in 2009.
Maguire died in 2019.

Orchestral

Shuffle (1991)
La Mia Serra (poem by Luisa Milos) with mezzo-soprano solo and chorus (1992)
Hark (1995)
Glass (1997)
Le Jardin de Versailles (1998)
Fantasia with piano solo (1990)
Etude Osmotique with chorus SATB (2000)

Piano with chamber ensemble

Treize A Table for piano and 12 percussionists
Quest for piano and 2 percussions
L'Intervista for piano, soprano, flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, trumpet, violin, viola, cello and percussion
Tragedy for piano with string quartet

Vocal with ensemble

Canzone D'Amore for tenor and 20 strings
Un Momento for speaker, 2 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos, 2 percussionists
Wisp for soprano, 2 flutes, clarinet, bass clarinet, alto sax, horn, piano, violin, viola, cello, double bass
Five Chinese Poems (poems by Joseph A. Precker) for bass voice, cello, clarinet, zheng, 3 percussionists
Lace Knots for string quartet and soprano
L'Intervista for soprano
La Mia Serra (poem by Luisa Milos) for orchestra, chorus, contralto
Gone, (poem by Carl Sandburg) for mezzo-soprano, flute, viola, harp

Vocal with piano

Cosi (poem by Paola Bozzini) for soprano
Cummings Lieder (poems by e.e. Cummings) for soprano
Three Love Songs (poems by Joseph A. Precker) for tenor

Chorus

Southern Trees (poem by Lewis Allan) for 2 sopranos, mezzo-soprano, alto, with chimes
Il Fiume Tchirek (poem by Altun the Tartar) for 2 sopranos, mezzo-soprano, alto, 2 tenors, 2 baritones and bass
Lightly for women's chorus with 2 sopranos, mezzo-soprano, alto, with tamburello, crotales, guiro, rainstick
Inno A Dio for SATB chorus
Per Acqua (poem by Luisa Milos) for two SATB choruses

Piano and voice

Cosi (poem by Paola Bozzini) soprano and piano
Cummings Lieder (poems by e.e. cummings) soprano and piano
Three Love Songs (poems by Joseph A. Precker) piano and tenor

Percussion

Treize A Table for 13 percussionists with piano
Quest for piano and 2 percussionists
Five Chinese Poems, for 3 percussionists, clarinet, cello, zheng, bass voice
Moondust, for zheng and 4 percussionists
Wisp, for soprano, two flutes, clarinet, bass clarinet, soprano sax, horn, piano, violin, viola, cello, double bass, 2 percussionists
Hier Bin Bin Ich, Wo Bist Du? for two flutes, oboe, 2 clarinets, bassoon, double bassoon, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, trombone, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass, 4 percussionists
Un Momento, for two percussions, 2 violins, 2 viola, 2 cellos, speaker 5'
L'Intervista, for soprano, flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, trumpet, violin, viola, cello, piano, percussion

Quartets

Invenzione
L'Altro Quartetto with crotales and bongo
Lace Knots with soprano
Fumees d'Ivresse for four cellos

Duos

Variations for violin and viola
Scontri for violin and double bass
Fingers for harp and percussion
Discussion for harp and oboe

Solos

Tango for solo violin
Sketch for solo violin
Vagheggiando for solo cello
A Question for solo viola

In ensemble

Canzone d'Amore for 20 strings with tenor voice
Un Momento for 2 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos, 2 percussionists, speaker
Danza for 4 violins, 4 violas, 4 cellos, double bass, oboe, clarinet
2 Chinese poems, (Joseph A. Precker poems) for cello, clarinet, zheng, 3 percussionists, bass voice
Hier bin Ich, Wo bist Du? (Konrad Lorenz gewidmet) for large ensemble
A Trois - flute, clarinet, violin
L'Intervista for soprano, violin, viola, cello, flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, timpani, xylophone, percussion, piano
Moondustfor Zheng and 4 percussionists

Theatrical

Envoys, an opera-ballet based on a haiku-play by Richard France
Taiga, ballet by Paola Bozzini
Heresie - opera in 3 acts, libretto by Gabrielle Zimmermann in French

Chamber music

Scontri for violin and double bass
Invenzione for string quartet
Miniotto for 3 B♭ clarinets
Discussion for oboe and harp
Fumees d'Ivresse for four cellos
Peacock for mezzo-soprano, violin, viola, cello, flute, clarinet, saxophone
L'Altro Quartetto for string quartet with bongo and crotales
L'Intervista for soprano, flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, trumpet, violin, viola, cello, xylophone, percussion, piano
Danza for oboe, clarinet, four violins, four violas, four cellos, double bass, tamtam
A Trois for flute, clarinet, violin
Schizzi for film, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, two trombones, timpani, percussion, harp and strings