Edward Laufer

Laufer, Edward

Edward (Constantin) Laufer. Theorist, composer, teacher, b Zurich 25 Nov 1938, naturalized Canadian 1953; B MUS (Toronto) 1957, M MUS (Toronto) 1960, MFA (Princeton) 1964. He was raised in Halifax, where his family settled in 1939. He studied composition with John Weinzweig, John Beckwith, Oskar Morawetz, and Talivaldis Kenins at the University of Toronto, with Vincent Persichetti at the Juilliard School, and with Milton Babbitt, Earl Kim, and Roger Sessions at Princeton U. He was a piano pupil of Eduard Steuermann at the Juilliard School and studied Schenkerian analysis privately with Ernst Oster in New York. He taught at Smith College 1969-71, the State U of New York at Purchase 1972-4, the Mannes College of Music, New York 1973-4, and was composer-in-residence 1974-5, and then became a member of the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto. His works, such as Variations for Orchestra Part I (1967; commissioned by the Halifax Symphony Orchestra) and Nostos (1965, rev 1967) for soprano and chamber ensemble are atonal. Other compositions include Symphony in One Movement (1982) for chamber orchestra, Variations for Seven Instruments (1967, New Valley 1972), and Études for piano (1985-). Concertino (1978, rev 1979) was a commission from Robert Aitken. He has lectured on Schenkerian analysis at universities and scholarly meetings in Canada, the USA, Finland, and England. He has written articles for Perspectives of New Music, Journal of Music Theory, Music Theory Spectrum, and Intégral. He is an associate of the Canadian Music Centre.