Composer Elizabeth Raum began her musical life as an oboist — although to hear her tell the story, the transition came about incidentally rather than intentionally.
“It’s kind of interesting how that happened,” she says. “I just started out as an oboist, nothing else. But, I did like to compose.” At the time, however, to be a woman and a composer was more or less unthinkable.
“I’m just turning 80,” she mentions. “They never played any women composers — maybe Violet Archer,” she recalls of her student days. “We did a weekly broadcast, and it had to be CanCon. Lots of Murray Schafer […] but no women,” she says.
“I couldn’t imagine a woman being composer.”
Raum is a native of Berlin, New Hampshire, and became a Canadian citizen in 1985. Her music studies began with oboe performance at the Eastman School, where she graduated in 1966. She went on to earn a Masters in composition from the University of Regina.
In between, she performed as the principal oboe of the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra (precursor of Symphony Nova Scotia) for seven years.
Eventually, her performing days in the orchestra became subsumed in her duties as a parent and wife. Pursuing a performing career became difficult with small children, and finding babysitters and other issues became a sticking point.
“My husband got a job on Regina — I went along as a housewife,” she says. She began to perform again with the Regina Symphony Orchestra. “But I always wrote as well.” Said husband is Richard Raum, trombonist with the RSO, and professor at the University of Regina.
Making The Leap To Composer
Fellow composer Thomas Schudel, a professor of music at the University of Regina from 1964 until his retirement in 2003, and at one time head of the music department, became a musical partner for a time. The duo began to write songs together with the idea of selling them to producers in the US. “But, it didn’t work,” Elizabeth says.
She wrote the libretto to an opera, with the intention that Schudel would write the music. When he bowed out of the project, she decided to write the music herself.
“I thought, is this all there is to composing? You just write something you like to hear?” she wondered. “There was no looking back.”
That’s what led to further studies at the U of Regina, and a master’s degree in composition. She recalls meeting weekly with Schudel for coffee to discuss music. “In the beginning, I wrote mainly for friends.”
Gradually, though, her work garnered notice, including her operas The Final Bid and The Garden of Alice. The latter work, which premiered in 1985, was revived to become a pandemic era hit for Pacific Opera in a filmed version.
Young coloratura soprano Tracy Dahl, who’d go on to a notable international career, performed as Alice in the 1985 premiere. She came back to sing the lead in a story that was reworked for a mature Alice.
“I thought, gee, it would be wonderful if Tracy could sing it?” Elizabeth says. However, after 35 years, she could clearly no longer play Alice as a young girl. Pacific Opera asked Raum to rewrite it around the idea of Alice as an older woman in a hospital undergoing a drug induced hallucinatory experience. “I had to rewrite the ending, which was originally quite dark,” she adds. “It ended up a happy ending.”
To film it, the camera follows the action from room to room, through hallways. The music was performed by a chamber orchestra situated in the middle of the action. “It was really fascinating.”
She reports that the opera will be performed in Victoria through a young artist program later this year.
“It’s had quite a number of performances.”
Composing
As far as her influences as a composer, they largely stem from her time as a performer. “I think if you ask most composers, they’ll say Bach,” she says. It was playing in an orchestra that taught her how to write for one. “Certainly, Brahms for orchestration.” Curiosity was another driving force. “What would this sound like?” she wondered.
“I was mostly writing in the beginning because I just couldn’t stop myself,” she says. “I guess my philosophy is, I write what comes out of me.”
Considering performers and audience is typically where she begins, rather than with conceptual or philosophical issues. “Sometimes, you’re thinking, is this philosophy or music?”
Her 80th birthday actually falls earlier in the year (in January), but will be formally celebrated at the Canadian Music Centre in May, she reports. It will be a family affair.
Right now, she’s working on adapting pieces for the occasion. “I’m including my grandsons, who are also musicians,” she explains. “I’m going to have the kids play with Erika,” she says. Naturally, daughter and violinist Erika Raum will also be performing.
One of her grandsons attends the Taylor Academy, while the other is pursuing jazz guitar. “So, I’m combining something from my last opera […] with what the boys do.” It will veer between classical and jazz.
It’s just a continuation of her usual practice. “I’ve experimented a lot,” she says. That includes the use graphic scores. “Notation programs are a nightmare.”
It wouldn’t be the first time she’s composed in a jazz mode, either. “I have written some jazz stuff,” she says. Elizabeth says she writes jazz pieces for her husband. “Then I take down what he improvises,” she laughs.
She hasn’t stopped experimenting, or learning. “Recently, I wrote a series of pieces for harp. Now, that was a chore,” she chuckles, detailing all the aspects of harp performance she had to take into account.
Spanish Inspired for Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra (February 8)
The next concert for the Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra is Spanish themed, and includes Raum’s Flamenco Dance of 2009.
“It was part of a ballet,” Raum says. The piece comes from her The Passion of Carmen, a work commissioned by The Royal Winnipeg Ballet. It’s drawn from the story of Carmen. “I had to write a whole ballet,” she says. She researched both Spanish and Andalusian music to immerse herself in the style.
“One of the things about this piece is the hand clapping.” It’s an aspect of performance that mirrors the clapping of the dancers in the original ballet.
The rest of the program for the February 8 includes:
- Chabrier: Espana
- Rimsky-Korsakov: Capriccio Espagnol
- De Falla: Selections from The Three-Cornered Hat
- Bizet: Selections from Carmen
- Marquez: Danzon No. 2
Spanish repertoire is a somewhat neglected corner of the classical music world, and it’s also music from a warm climate for the dead of winter. As Cathedral Bluffs Music Director Martin MacDonald points out, though, much of the Spanish repertoire is more properly described as Spanish-inspired. “It’s interesting because so many of those composers […] were so inspired by Spanish music,” he says. “It’s only really de Falla and Marquez, who is a Mexican composer, who are Spanish.”
Other European composers found unique aspects in the music. “The music has such — it’s so vivid and wild, so many great colours,” he says. “There were so many choices to choose from. These pieces really seem to fit together well.”
As he notes, the concert is a showcase for the orchestra, with no special guests as soloists. Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol, in particular, incorporates many solo spotlights. “You can just put the orchestra on display, and take the full limelight.”
Spanish themed still allows for a great deal of variety, Martin notes, mentioning Marquez’ Danzon No. 2, one of the most frequently performed orchestral pieces by a Mexican composer. “It’s really interesting and fun,” he says. “It’s kind of a party piece in a lot of ways. It’s really volcanic at the end.”
De Falla’s The Three-Cornered Hat was inspired by flamenco, like Raum’s piece. “Elizabeth’s piece is really, really cool,” he says, “a wonderful orchestral dance.”
He adds, “It’s definitely a big, fun program. Very rhapsodic, lots of percussion, and it’s a fairly big orchestra too.”
- Find more details about the Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra concert on February 8 [HERE].
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