István Anhalt (1919-2012) was a Hungarian-Canadian composer and teacher.
Anhalt served as a professor of music at McGill University and founded the McGill University Electronic Music Studio. He also served as head of music at Queen's University, Kingston. His works earned him recognition as one of the pioneers of electroacoustic music in Canada. In 2007, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Early life and education
Childhood
István Anhalt was born in Budapest, Hungary to a Jewish family on April 12, 1919. He was the son of Arnold Anhalt and Katalin Anhalt (née Herzfeld), When he was still an infant, Anhalt's parents separated; he lived with his mother until age twelve, attending elementary school from 1925 to 1929. Although she had some interest in music and opera, his mother was not especially musical. However, there was a piano in the home and Anhalt began taking piano lessons at age six with a teacher who lived in his neighborhood and later from a family friend until he was twelve. He also learned to speak four languages: Hungarian, German, French, and English.
His father's financial troubles, his half-sister's birth in 1935, and tension between him and his stepmother led Anhalt to move again a few years later to stay with his maternal grandparents. At about that time, Anhalt overheard László Gyopár, a peer from a neighboring school, play a piano piece that he had composed himself. Anhalt recognized the influence of Bach and, admiring Gyopár's compositional achievement, decided to learn how to write music and compose on his own. Anhalt and Gyopár became friends and, soon after, Anhalt began to receive private harmony lessons with Géza Falk. Gyopár was attending the Academy of Music at the time, where Anhalt audited Zoltán Kodály's class in 1936-37 before passing the entrance exam and joining his friend at the academy.
World War II and aftermath
Anhalt was drafted into the forced labour service of the Hungarian Army in 1940 during World War II.
In 1942, Anhalt and his best friend at the academy were both forced to enter a forced-labour brigade for Jewish men. Anhalt's friend was killed by a soldier in the unit. Anhalt escaped from the brigade, disguised himself as a seminarian, and hid until the war was over.
In the late 1940s, he studied under Louis Fourestier, Nadia Boulanger and Soulima Stravinsky before emigrating to Canada in 1949.
Career
Emigration to Canada and academic position
Anhalt emigrated to Canada as a recipient of a Lady Davis Fellowship. He settled in Montreal, and soon met Beate Frankenberg, a biochemist.
From 1949-71 Anhalt taught analysis and composition at McGill University's Faculty of Music, where he established the theory and composition departments, Like Anhalt, Rochberg, who was born in New Jersey, came from a Jewish background.
1971–1984, move to Kingston
In 1971, Anhalt moved to Kingston, Ontario where he became the head of the music department at Queen's University. and soon after he began to work on what became his second opera, Winthrop. He also worked on the scholarly monograph, Alternative Voices. He mentored a number of students, many of whom stayed in touch with him after his retirement.
He died on February 24, 2012, at St. Mary's of the Lake Hospital in Kingston.
Compositional periods
Anhalt was one of the early composers of electronic music. Anhalt was a librettist for his dramatic works, beginning in 1969 with Foci, and ending in 1999 with Millennial Mall.
1919–1958
Anhalt wrote a variety of works for chorus, solo voice, ensembles, and instrumental soloists. This period ended with the completion of his First Symphony, which won Anhalt both national and international recognition.
1971–2012
La Tourangelle is the first of three large-scale works created by Anhalt after 1971. It is an hour-long piece that premiered in 1975 in a performance broadcast by CBC Radio. This "musical tableau" was composed for an orchestra of 16 players, five singer-narrators, and pre-recorded tapes for five operators. Its theme is the pursuit of God and meaning,
Winthrop is a complementary piece to La Tourangelle, but focused on English Canada.
In Alternative Voices, Anhalt makes recurrent references to Canadian composers and their music. He discusses the role of Canadian music and composers in the context of current thought in Western art, music, and philosophy.