Lourié, Arthur Vincent (real name, Artur Sergeievich Lure)

Lourié, Arthur Vincent (real name, Artur Sergeievich Lure), Russian-born American composer; b. St. Petersburg, May 14, 1892; d. Princeton, N.J., Oct. 13,1966). He studied at the St. Petersburg Cons, but gave up formal training after becoming active in various modernistic groups, including the futurists. With the coming of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, he was made chief of the music dept. of the Commisarit for Public Instruction in 1918. In 1921 he went to Berlin, where he met Busoni. In 1924 he proceeded to Paris, where he was befriended by Stravinsky. In 1941 he emigrated to the U.S. and in 1947 became a naturalized American citizen. He was the author of the vol. Profanation et sanctification du temps (Paris, 1966). As early as 1915, Lourié experimented with 12-tone techniques in his piano music. He later pursued the practice of stylizing early forms à la Stravinsky.

Works

dramatic: The Feast During the Plague, opera-ballet (1935; arranged for Soprano, Chorus, and Orch., Boston, Jan. 5, 1945); The Blackamoor of Peter the Great, opera (1961). orch.:Sonata liturgica for Piano, Chorus, and Orch. (1928); Concerto spirituale for Piano, Chorus, and Double Basses (N.Y., March 26, 1930); 2 syms.: No. 1, Sinfonia dialéctica (1930; Philadelphia, April 17, 1931) and No. 2, Kormtschaya (1939; Boston, Nov. 7, 1941); Concerto da camera for Violin and Strings (1957). chamber:Dithyrambes for Flute (1923); The Mime for Clarinet (1956); piano pieces. vocal: Sacred and secular choral pieces; songs.

Bibliography

D. Gojowy, A. L. und der Russische Futurismus (Laaber, 1993).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire