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Arthur Honegger Biography

arthur-honegger
  • Born: March 10, 1892 in Le Havre, France
  • Years Active: 1930s-1950s
  • Genre: Easy Listening

A Swiss composer of operas, chamber music, and orchestral music who was influenced in his early work by the impressionists and Stravinsky's modernism. Honegger used a personal style in his main work that is densely bitonal, classically polyphonic, and emotionally austere. This is especially apparent in the beautiful Symphony for String Orchestra No. 2, with a mysteriously emerging trumpet solo in the last movement -- a work written in occupied Paris of WWII. His oratorio Jeanne d'Arc au Bucher is a significant work told in a series of episodic "flashbacks," a form that fits well with the music. ~ Blue Gene Tyranny, Rovi

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