Gábor Darvas


Gábor Darvas was a Hungarian composer and musicologist. He was one of the first Hungarian composers to work in the field of electronic music. As a musicologist, his interest was primarily in music of the 15th and 16th centuries.

Biography

He was born at Szatmárnémeti in 1911. His family moved to Budapest in 1918, where he finished his high school studies.
He studied piano from the age of nine, from 1926 until 1932 he attended the Academy of Music in Budapest as an instrumentalists and later studied composition under Zoltán Kodály. His orchestral compositions of the thirties were performed in concerts and in the Hungarian Radio. In 1939 he left the country. During the World War II, he lived in Chile, working as a conductor and a musicologist. He was a direct assistant of Erich Kleiber, In 1948 he returned to Hungary, where he has continued his composer activity in 1951, commencing an active career as a composer, writing film scores as well as pieces using tape. He was musical expert of various cultural institutions until 1972. In addition to composing, he explored, orchestrated, published values of European music history, and wrote several musicological books.
He died in 1985 in Budapest.

Compositions

  • Improvisations symphoniques for piano and orchestra
  • Sectio aurea for orchestra
  • Medália on a poem by Attila József for soprano, keyboard instruments, percussion and loudspeaker
  • Rotation for 5 for vibraphone, marimba, guitarre, cimbalom and piano
  • A torony for voices and instruments
  • Magánzárka for percussion and tape
  • Preludium for tape
  • Passiózene for voices and tape
  • Bánat on a poem by Gábor Karinthy for baritone, orchestra and tape
  • Reminiszcenciák for tape
  • Poèmes électroniques for tape
  • Fantázia for piano and chamber ensemble
  • Etudes symphoniques for orchestra

Recording

  • 1982 Gábor Darvas : Prelude - Medal - Solitary Confinement - Grief - Reminiscences – Hungaroton Classics SLPX 12365

Books

  • A szimfonikus zenekar
  • A zenekari muzsika műhelytitkai
  • Évezredek hangszerei
  • Zenei ABC
  • Bevezető a zene világába
  • A zene anatómiája
  • Zenei minilexikon
  • A totem-zenétől a hegedűversenyig
  • Zenei zseblexikon
  • Zene Bachtól napjainkig

Awards

  • Erkel Prize in 1955