Harold Shapero

Harold Shapero (born 29 April 1920) is an American composer.

Analysis

Browsing through the score of Shapero's Symphony for Classical Orchestra, one doesn't see too many modern notational quirks. The scoring is pretty much for a "classical Orchestra": regular woodwinds in pairs, plus a piccolo and a contrabassoon, pairs of horns and trumpets, three trombones, three timpani tuned to expected triad positions, and the standard complement of strings. This Symphony is in B-flat major. The use of accidentals is much lighter than say, in a work of Anton Bruckner.

Related Topics:
B-flat major - Anton Bruckner

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While Shapero uses some modern notation in his scores, he uses it in a clear way, employing procedures that have already been established by other modern composers or creating his own notation from traditional notation in a sensible way. For example, David Cope's handbook on modern music notation credits Shapero with the creation of the divisi bowing notation (simply the old bowing symbols combined), a notation which Cope recommends other composers should use.

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Shapero addressed the issue of "hero-worship" and musical inspiration in a series of essays in the 1940s entitled The Musical Mind.

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