Article

Alan Heard

Published Online February 7, 2006

Last Edited June 14, 2024

Alan Heard, composer, teacher (born 7 February 1942 in Halifax, NS; died 24 July 2022). B MUS (McGill) 1962, MFA (Princeton) 1964.

Alan Heard studied composition with István Anhalt at McGill University, Roger Sessions and Earl Kim at Princeton U, and Boris Blacher at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin. He taught 1967-71 at McGill University and at Kirkland College in Clinton, NY, before joining the faculty of music at the University of Western Ontario in 1976. In his early compositions Heard used serial techniques and aleatoric procedures, but in 1977 he began writing tonally, e.g., in his Sinfonia nello Stile Antico. Of the earlier works, Voices (1969), a setting of Japanese poetry for soprano and five instruments, was a Canadian entry in the 1972 ISCM competition and was performed and recorded by the SMCQ, and Prelude was commissioned by the CBC and premiered by the Orford String Quartet. A notable exception to the tonal orientation of his works after 1977 is the Symphonic Étude for Small Orchestra (1989) which is based on a hexachord manipulated with serial techniques. Heard was an associate of the Canadian Music Centre.

Selected Compositions

Orchestra

  • Symphonic Variations. 1964. Ms
  • Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra. 1966. Ms
  • Sinfonia nello Stile Antico. 1977. Ms
  • Variations for Orchestra. 1979. Ber 1979
  • Concerto Grosso. 1984. Str quartet, string orch. Ms
  • Symphony No. 2. 1984. Ms
  • Symphonic Étude for Small Orchestra. 1989. Ms

Chamber

  • String Quartet. 1963. Ms
  • String Trio. 1965. Ms
  • Three Comings, song cycle (e e cummings). 1965. Sop, fl, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, viola, piano. Ms
  • Rondos. 1967. Fl, harp. Ms
  • Voices (Japanese, transl K. Rexroth). 1969. Sop, piccolo (fl), piano, violoncello, percussion. Ms. RCI 358 (SMCQ)
  • Timai'A Cosmic March for Ten Instrumentalists'. 1973. Chamb ensemble. Ms
  • Prelude. 1974 (rev 1978). Str quartet. Ms
  • Double. 1976. Hp, string quartet. Ms
  • Variations for String Quartet. 1978. Ber 1979
  • Variations for Winds. 1978. 2 fl, 2 horn. Ber 1979
  • Music for Brass. 1979. 4 horn, 3 trumpet, 2 trombone, bass trombone, bass tuba, timpani. Ms
  • Fantasia Contrapuntistica. 1980. 4 fl, 4 horn. Ms
  • Partita Barocca. 1981. Hpd (violin or guitar or orch). Ms
  • Quintet for Horn and String Quartet. 1982. Ms
  • Trio. 1983. Vn, clarinet, piano. Ms
  • Also a piano sonata (1966) and a choral work, Old Seawoman (1959, rev 1978). Both manuscript