Haufrecht, Herbert, 1909-1998

Composed for dedication ceremonies of the murals at Station WNYC. First performance under the title, Overture for an abstract mural, in a broadcast by WNYC Concert Orchestra, 2 August 1939, the composer conducting.--Cf. Fleisher Collection.

From the description of Overture for an American mural / by Herbert Haufrecht. [19--] (Franklin & Marshall College). WorldCat record id: 52206065

Composed 1934. First performance New York, 27 April 1934, the Juilliard Graduate School String Orchestra, Edgar Schenkman conductor.--Cf. Fleisher Collection.

From the description of Suite for string orchestra / Herbert Haufrecht. [19--] (Franklin & Marshall College). WorldCat record id: 52206093

Herbert Haufrecht (1909-1998) was a composer, pianist, folklorist and music editor. He was born in New York City and studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where his teachers included the composers Herbert Elwell and Quincy Porter, and at the Juilliard School, where he studied composition with Rubin Goldmark. He also studied piano with Severin Eisenberger and chamber music with Arthur Loesser.

Soon after he completed his studies, he was hired as a field representative in West Virginia for the Resettlement Administration of the Federal Department of Agriculture. During his four years there, he collected folk songs and stories, organized square dances, and began an oral history project that occupied him for nearly four decades.

When he returned to New York in 1939, Haufrecht became a staff composer and arranger for the Federal Theater and composed incidental scores for several plays. In 1940, he organized the annual Folk Festival of the Catskills, in Phoenicia, New York, and composed several stage works for it, including a musical theater work, We've Come From the City, and a folk opera, Boney Quillen. He worked with several folk singers, including Pete Seeger, Burl Ives, the Weavers, and Judy Collins.

Haufrecht developed educational materials based on folk music and wrote several publications, including Folk Songs in Settings by Master Composers (Funk and Wagnalls, 1970) and Folk Songs of the Catskills (State University of New York Press, 1982), a three-volume work, on which he collaborated with Norman Cazden and Norman Studer.

Haufrecht's symphonic music reflected his interests in folk music and jazz. Among his works are Fantastic Marches, which was given its premiere by Leopold Stokowski on an NBC Symphony broadcast in 1939; Symphony for Brass and Timpani; Blues and Fugue for viola; two string quartets, and several works for children. His final work was a setting of Mark Twain's War Prayer, which had its premiere in Kingston, New York, in 1995.

Source: Kozinn, Allan. "Herbert Haufrecht, 88, Pianist, Composer, Folklorist and Editor." New York Times, June 3, 1998.

From the guide to the Herbert Haufrecht collection, 1930-2000, (The New York Public Library. Music Division.)