In the 17th c. St. Clairs (or Sinclairs) emigrated from the British Isles to New England as part of the early colonization of North America. Richard St. Clair's maternal ancestors emigrated from Norway and Sweden to the American Upper Midwest (in particular, Minnesota) in the latter part of the 19th century along with hundreds of thousands of other Scandinavians who settled there at that time. So many Norwegian immigrants settled in the Upper Midwest that it is locally referred to as "Little Norway." His paternal ancestors hailed from England and Scotland and were both riders on the Mayflower as well as military men in the American War of Independence.
Richard St. Clair was born in Jamestown, North Dakota. The following year his family moved to Grand Forks, North Dakota, a larger city with much greater musical and cultural opportunities than his birthplace. The musical environs of Grand Forks served as the foundation for his life in music. The city boasted its own symphony orchestra, a major university with an active music department, a concert series featuring prominent soloists, and a school system that emphasized music education. For years he sang in both the Centralian concert chorus of his high school (Grand Forks Central High School) and the sanctuary choir of the church (First Presbyterian) which he attended as a child and adolescent. He also sang in the Choral Union, a collaboration between the University of North Dakota and the Grand Forks community. It was these singing experiences that imbued him with a love of choral music which has carried him throughout his musical life, with dozens of choral compositions to his credit.
Music ran through his family. His maternal great-grandfather Ludvig Svendsen Bogen played in the Norwegian King's Band and his grandfather Sven Fredrik Bogen was a band conductor who played and taught many different instruments; his maternal grandmother was a piano teacher who was reputed for being able to transpose any song into any key. His paternal grandmother was a gifted pianist. His father, Foster York St. Clair (1905–1994) – a Harvard-educated English literature scholar, university professor and poet – and his mother, Elna Ruth Bogen St. Clair (1912–1974) – a business college teacher – were both amateur musicians and classical music-lovers. St. Clair from a very early age fell in love with the music of Mozart, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky, which were played in his home on fragile 78-rpm records. At age 4 he began taking piano lessons. By age 16 he was starting to write music, mainly for chorus and organ, inspired by Gustav Holst, Flor Peeters and Paul Hindemith.
A turning point in his musical life came in 1963 when he attended on scholarship the International Music Camp in the International Peace Garden on the North Dakota-Canada border. Amidst the intense musical environment, his performances at the piano, together with his then piano teacher Paul Lundquist, were noticed by Professor Earnest Harris, head of the piano department at Moorhead State College (later renamed Minnesota State University Moorhead). Harris, steeped in the pedagogic tradition of Theodor Leschetizky and Carl Czerny and a former pupil of Leonard Shure, gave him a full scholarship to study piano, culminating in his brilliant senior solo recital in Grand Forks the following spring, playing the music of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms.
Early in his music education, St. Clair was enamored of the music of Edvard Grieg, from whose music he acquired a love for miniaturism and compact musical invention. He was also deeply moved by the music of Robert Schumann, especially the great C Major Fantasia, opus 17. In college, he became engrossed in the piano music of Mozart, Schubert, Schumann and Bartok, playing and absorbing their music over and over again on his Poole upright piano (which he tuned himself since he could not afford a professional piano tuner) in his dingy second-storey Cambridge apartment. This way he acquired a deep love for classical-romantic music, which is strongly present in his own compositions.
In 1970 St. Clair made a solo piano appearance in a recital of his own music in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Reviewer Ned Brown made the following prophetic observations:
We admired St. Cair's expansive genius, his dynamic keyboard skill and his personal modesty. At 24, Richard St. Clair is firmly launched on a musical career which offers great possibilities.[1]
St. Clair's music and the music of his fellow classmate, John Adams, both reacted against the then prevailing academic emphasis on writing music after the manner of twelve-tone and avant-garde composers, most often meaning the music of Arnold Schoenberg and that of Anton Webern, the latter who set the stage for the academic avant-garde that was to emerge in Europe (Boulez, Stockhausen) and America (Carter, Babbitt) in the 1940s into the 1960s and prevails in many quarters even today. Both St. Clair and Adams rejected that school of thought, Adams turning to minimalism (e.g. "Short Ride in a Fast Machine") and St. Clair turning to neo-classicism (e.g. Piano Sonata no. 1). Both St. Clair and Adams have evolved considerably since they first emerged in the 1960s.
In graduate school at Harvard he went on to earn his Master of Arts (A.M.) in 1973 and his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in 1978, both degrees in music composition. During his student years he was awarded several prizes for his compositions. At Harvard he studied composition with Roger Sessions, Leon Kirchner, Earl Kim, and David Del Tredici. He studied piano privately with Paul Lundquist, Earnest Harris, and Leonard Shure. As a graduate student he was persuaded by a fellow student at Harvard to study piano with Margaret Chaloff in Boston. After a few lessons it became evident to him that she was grooming him for a career as a concert pianist, against which St. Clair rebelled and decided to continue his aspirations as a composer. He made his debut as a composer with his performance of his avant-garde Piano Piece no. 1 at the Marlboro Music Festival in 1967 as an invitee of his teacher, Leon Kirchner; there he was encouraged by Director Rudolf Serkin to continue to pursue a career in composition. Serkin's laconic comment on St. Clair's Piano Piece No. 1, "It has line." Both Shure and Serkin discouraged St. Clair from pursuing a career as a concert pianist, though St. Clair occasionally performed his own piano compositions in concert. Although his student years were turbulent, he emerged as a successful composer of broad stylistic tastes.
His Missa Syllabica for SATB chorus performed by Boston's Coro Allegro drew the praise of Boston Globe critic Susan Larson for its 'lush, soft-edged harmonic vocabulary...[and] burst of melismatic ecstasy.'
Of his 1994 freely atonal cycle Moon Flowers: Album of 50 Haiku-Moments for Solo Piano on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the death of the great haiku poet, Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), noted haiku poet Dee Evetts wrote
Richard St. Clair performed his Moon Flowers: Album of Haiku-Moments for Solo Piano. This hypnotic string of phrases was reminiscent (for this listener) of the shakuhachi tradition, 'beads threaded on silence.'[2]
St. Clair's music has been heard far and wide from South America to Europe to Asia and across the United States and Canada. Difficult to describe but generally in the broad category of Neoromanticism (music), his music runs the gamut of pure tonality to avant-garde atonality.
Of his extended motet, Today's Lord's Prayer, noted organist and choir director Joanne Vollendorf Rickards wrote
Our choir was honored...to perform the premiere of Today's Lord's Prayer, ... [a] spine tingling anthem. It was truly spectacular.[3]
His Piano Pieces no. 1 and no.2 composed in his college years are intensely atonal and show the influence of Karlheinz Stockhausen. Since then, however, he has turned to a more approachable style following the tradition of 20th-century masters including Igor Stravinsky, Dmitri Shostakovich, Béla Bartók and Arnold Schoenberg, the latter who taught his teachers Earl Kim and Leon Kirchner. His Love-Canzonettes and other works for chorus and his many ragtime works for piano are completely tonal and classically conceived, as is his Lyric Symphony and his chamber opera, Taema. His string quartets and much of his other music including his Concertino for Wind Band are tonally more challenging and structurally freer. For instance, his First String Quartet is structured freely around the octatonic scale, as is the second movement of his Symphony for String Orchestra, while his Second String Quartet employs a twelve-tone row.
Of St. Clair's The Lamentations of Shinran for Soprano, Tenor and String Quartet, Boston Phoenix music reviewer Lloyd Schwartz wrote in February 2000:
St. Clair has created a fascinating sound world, both charged and atmospheric. His is a stirring and original voice.[4]
Composer David Cleary, writing of the same work in 21st Century Music said,
This nearly half-hour long setting of 13th-century Buddhist poems proves fascinating from start to finish, exhibiting numerous deeply-felt variants on oriental sensitivity and exquisite melancholy.[5]
Writing in New Music Connoisseur (2005), Cleary commented as follows on St. Clair's 2005 cycle, "Songs from the Chinese":
Asian verse has inspired some of Richard St. Clair's most ambitious efforts. Thus it's no surprise that his "Songs from the Chinese", a setting of ten Yuan dynasty poems scored for voice, flute, contrabass, and piano, is satisfying to hear. One encounters pentatonic touches sprinkled throughout its mildly spiced tonal language, but never to the point of parody. And the wide-ranging textual tone elicits comparably varied approaches to vocal and instrumental writing. Yet there's a charming and heartfelt overall ethos to the cycle that ably binds disparate moods.
After twenty-five years of study and practice in Buddhism, St. Clair returned to his Christian roots, exploring and adopting traditional (but non-sectarian) Christianity. His latest works for solo voice and for chorus and orchestra express his new-found spiritual home.
In 1969 and 1970 he taught piano at the New England Conservatory in Boston (Massachusetts), and from 1973 to 1977 he taught music history and composition at his alma mater, Harvard University. He also served on the music faculty of Phillips Exeter Academy and Phillips Academy (Andover). Attempting to live the frugal life of a typical composer, he supported himself by taking day jobs at Harvard and MIT. He retired from MIT in 2015. His second symphony, entitled "Hallelujah Choruses" with SATB choir and orchestra, is a bold, if radical, expression of praise unto God, the sole lyrics for the entire 50-minute neo-classic work is the word, "Hallelujah" = Praise God.
Compositions
Works for theatre
2013–2014 Taema: A Noh Opera, Chamber opera in two acts for small orchestra, SATB chorus and soli; libretto, 15th century Noh play by Zeami
1991-2018 Little Ida's Flowers: A Mini-Opera for Children for Chamber Group, based on the story by Hans Christian Andersen
1990-2019 Beowulf: A Classical Melodrama in Four Scenes for Chorus, Soloists, and Piano (Libretto adapted from the verse translation by H. W. Lumsden, 1881)
Works for orchestra
1969–1970 Concerto no. 1 for Piano and Orchestra, for Piano and Orchestra, opus 16 (new version: 2018)
2001-2015 Song of Sorrow: In Memoriam 9/11 for Solo Violin and Orchestra, orchestration of chamber version
1972-2018 Double Concerto for Two Pianos and Symphony Orchestra (re-orchestration of concert band version)
1996-2018 Clarinet Concerto for B-flat Clarinet and Orchestra
1989-2019 Symphony for String Orchestra
2014-2019 Symphony no. 1 in A ("Lyric Symphony") for Orchestra
1994-2023 Concerto no. 2 for Piano and Orchestra
1989-2020 Symphonic Declamations for Orchestra
1992–2024 Contrasts for Symphony Orchestra
1994-2024 Hallelujah Choruses ("Symphony no. 2") for Chorus and Orchestra
Works for concert band
1971–1972 Double Concerto "Amen Concerto", for Two Pianos and Wind Orchestra, opus 31 (Re-arranged for symphony orchestra, 2018)
2014-2020 Wind Symphony for Large Concert Band
Masses and sacred music
1963–1964 Prophecy of Micah, for Chorus SATB and organ (or piano), opus 1
1963–1964 Lamb of God, for Chorus SATB a capella, opus 1A
1990–1991 Missa Syllabica, for Chorus SATB a capella, opus 51 – text: Latin Mass Ordinary
1990 Lord, Make Me An Instrument of Thy Peace, for Chorus SATB a capella, opus 52 – text: Francis of Assisi
1990 Heaven, Dialogue for Chorus SATB and Echo Chorus SATB, opus 52a – text: George Herbert
1990 Magnificat, for Female Chorus SSAA, opus 56
1997 Today's Lord's Prayer, for Chorus SATB a capella, opus 96
2009/2021 There Is A Spirit, for Chorus SATB a capella – text: James Nayler (1660)
2020 Usquequo, Domine ["How Long, O Lord, Wilt Thou Forget Me?"] for Chorus SATB a Capella (Latin text: Psalm 12, Vulgate)
2020 The Beatitudes for SATB Choir a Capella (Gospel of Matthew 5:1-10)
2021 The Twenty-Third Psalm of David: A Requiem in These Times of Pandemic Loss for Chorus SAATB, Oboe, Trumpet and French Horn
2021 The Lord Bless You and Keep You for Mixed Voices, Accompanied (piano or organ) (Text: Numbers 6:24-26)
2021 The Song of Simeon for High Voice and Piano (Gospel of Luke 2:25-32)
2021 Serenity - A Prayer for SATB Chorus a Capella; Lyrics: Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr
2021 Christ My Refuge for High Voice and Piano; Lyrics: Poem by Mary Baker Eddy
2021 Prayer on the Third Step for Chorus SATB a Capella (Anonymous text)
2021 The Highest Glory: A Lesson for a Capella Chorus SATB (KJV John VII:18)
2021 MISSA DE ANGELIS (Mass of the Angels) for SATB Choir a Capella (Kyrie - Gloria - Credo - Sanctus - Agnus Dei) Based on Mass VIII in the Kyriale
2021 Ministering Angels for Soprano and Keyboard (on the poem of that title by Adelaide Procter)
2021 OUR FATHER, ADORABLE ONE for Double Chorus and Organ (The Lord's Prayer with the Spiritual Sense by Mary Baker Eddy)
2022 Thine, O Lord, Is the Greatness for SATB Chorus and Organ (Text: I Chronicles 29:11-13)
2022 A Short Requiem for SATB Chorus a Capella; text in Latin
2022 Great Is the Lord A Psalm of David for Soprano and Piano (Psalm 40, excerpts, ESV)
2022 MISA ESPAÑOLA A Symphonic Mass in Spanish for SATB Chorus and Orchestra
2022 The Lord Is My Shepherd (Psalm 23) for Solo Voice or Unison SATB Choir
1994–1995 Evening Anthem, for Chorus SATB a capella, opus 85 – text: by the Composer
1995–1996 In Praise of Our Loves, for Chorus SATB and Orchestra, opus 90 [Revised, 2020]
1996 Three Short Sandburg Choruses, for Unison Choir (SA) and (TB), opus 91 – text: from Carl Sandburg's "Chicago Poems"
Fog
Nocturne in a Deserted Brickyard
Grass
1996 High Flight for Chorus SATB a capella with discant high soprano on the poem by John Gillespie Magee, in memory of the Space Shuttle Challenger astronauts
1997 Flower of the Dharma, for Chorus SATB, Piano, and Percussion (or Chorus SATB and Orchestra), opus 93 – text: Lotus Sutra excerpts (withdrawn)
1997 Two Songs of Innocence, for Chorus SATB a capella, opus 99 – text: William Blake's "Songs of Innocence." No. 1: On the Ecchoing Green; no. 2: Night
1993–1997 Ascent, for Small Chorus of High Voices (or for two sopranos and one alto), opus 100 – text: Anne Morrow Lindbergh
2008 Madrigals for Spring, for Chorus SATB a capella, opus 61 (Original version 1990) – text: Poetic Fragments by Percy Bysshe Shelley
2018 Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor for SATB Chorus a Capella: Lyrics by Emma Lazarus, "The New Colossus"
2019 The Dharma of Ecclesiastes on selections from the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Jewish Bible; for SATB chorus, a Capella
2019 An Autumn Stroll for SATB Choir, String Quartet and Piano; text, original poems by the composer
2020 Hope, My Closest Companion for SATB Chorus a Capella, text: Affirmations found on the Internet
2020 THESEUS: A Dramatic Cantata after Bacchylides for SATB Chorus, Soli, Flute, Cello and Percussion [Text: Ode 17 by Bacchylides, c. 518 – c. 451 BCE, Translation by William Mullen]
Vocal music
1964 To Hear an Oriole Sing for Soprano and Piano; Poem by Emily Dickinson
1966 From Mozart for Baritone and Piano, text: William C. Mullen
1968 She Weeps over Rahoon, for Contralto and Piano, opus 5 – text: James Joyce
1969 Night-Leaves, for Baritone and Piano, text: William C. Mullen
1970–1971 Six Songs, for Soprano and Piano, opus 28 – text: Kenneth Patchen
1975/1989 A Round for Machaut, repeating canon in 4 keys for solo SATB voices or small SATB a capella Chorus, opus 40
1990 Moabit Liederbuch, for Soprano and Piano, opus 66 – text: Sonnets by Albrecht Haushofer (New Edition, 2020)
1993 Equinox, for Tenor and Piano, opus 88 – text: William C. Mullen
1994–1995 Desert Hallucinations, for Baritone and Cello, opus 78 – text: Donald Rubinstein
1990–1995 High Flight – In memory of the crew of the space shuttle, USS Challenger, which was destroyed in 1986 after launch, for Solo Soprano and Chorus SATB a capella, opus 81 – text: John G. Magee Jr.
1997 Songs of the Pure Land, for Mezzo-soprano and Piano, opus 101 – text: Japanese poems by Honen Shonin (Japan, 1133–1212)
1998 The Lamentations of Shinran, for Soprano, Tenor, and String Quartet, opus 104 – text: from Shozomatsu Wasan, by Shinran Shonin (Japan, 1173–1262) (2020 Edition)
1998 (2019 ed.)Two Life-Spring Songs for Coloratura Soprano and Piano, on poems by Aureet Bar-Yam
1999 Songlets, for Mezzo-soprano, Clarinet and Piano, opus 106 – text: Haiku by Issa Kobayashi
2000 Owl Night, for Soprano and Piano, opus 112 – text: Susan Spilecki, "Owl Night"
2005 Songs from the Chinese, 10 Songs for Soprano, Flute, Double Bass, and Piano – text: Chinese San Chu poems of the Yuan dynasty
2013 Others for Baritone, Violin and Piano – text: Jun Fujita
2014 A Night-Piece for Mezzo-Soprano and Piano - text: William Wordsworth
2014 Songs of the Buddha's Stone Footprints for Bass-Baritone, Percussion, Flute, Oboe and String Quartet, Text: from "A Waka Anthology, Vol. 1"
2013-16 Three Songs from Walt Whitman for Mezzo-Soprano, Flute and Piano
2017 Through the Seasons with Haiku Master Buson for Flute, Double Bass, Piano and Reciter, 38 newly discovered poems by Yosa Buson translated by Chris Drake
2017 In a Daffodil Valley for Soprano and Piano, 18 haiku by Eiko Yachimoto
2018 Songs of the Winter Sea, 11 songs for Soprano and Piano on tanka by an'ya
2018 The First Bird's Song for Soprano, Flute and Harp, 23 songs on haiku by Koko Kato
2018 Songs of Joy for Soprano, Flute, Violin and Cello; on three pentaptychs (groups of 5) of tanka by Joy McCall
2018 Remembrance: 10 Cherita for Soprano and Piano on Cherita Poems by Poet ai li
2018 Songs of a Waking Cosmos for Soprano and Piano on 10 Cherita Poems by the Composer
2019 Evocations of Spring and Autumn for Soprano and Piano (on 14 tanka by an'ya)
2016/2020 Return to Our Original Home: A Pure Land Buddhist Song for Soprano and Piano; text: Shandao
2015/2020 Birds: Four Songs for Soprano and Piano on poems by William Wordsworth
2021 Sorrow and Hope: A Prayer to Kuan Yin for Soprano and Piano
Chamber music
1967–1968 Dreamscapes, for Violin and Piano, opus 6
1968 Three Movements, for Violin and Piano, opus 7
1970 Duo-Sonata, for Two Violins, opus 20
1970 Christmas Trio, for Flute, Cello and Piano, opus 25
1972 Color Studies "Transfiguration", for Violin, Viola and Cello, opus 33
1975 Canzona, for String Quartet, opus 36
1978 Sonata for Solo Flute (withdrawn)
1989 Ragtime Caprice for Violin and Piano (2018 ed.)
1990 String Quartet no. 1, opus 59 [Revised, 2020]
1991 Sonata for Solo Violin [Revised, 2021]
1990–1996 Eucaphonies, for Brass Quintet, opus 89
1991–1993 String Quartet no. 2, opus 71
1994 rev.1996 Fantastic Rhapsody, for Trumpet, Violin and Piano, opus 76
Wolfgang Suppan, Armin Suppan: Das Neue Lexikon des Blasmusikwesens, 4. Auflage, Freiburg-Tiengen, Blasmusikverlag Schulz GmbH, 1994, ISBN3-923058-07-1
Paul E. Bierley, William H. Rehrig: The heritage encyclopedia of band music : composers and their music, Westerville, Ohio: Integrity Press, 1991, ISBN0-918048-08-7
E. Ruth Anderson: Contemporary American composers – A biographical dictionary, Second edition, Boston: G. K. Hall, 1982, 578 p., ISBN978-0-8161-8223-7
E. Ruth Anderson: Contemporary American composers – A biographical dictionary, 1st ed., Boston: G. K. Hall, 1976, 513 p., ISBN0-8161-1117-0
[1] Richard St. Clair, Today's Lord's Prayer world premiere recording 1997
[2] CD of from 'Children of the Sparrow' - Recorded by Row Twelve, 2006
[3] Part One [4] Part Two [5] Part 3 - Richard St. Clair: Dharma Chant, A Buddhist Oratorio in Three Parts, Recorded by the Commonwealth Chorale, Newton Massachusetts, in May, 2016