Evans, Richard (Joseph) Bunger

Evans, Richard (Joseph) Bunger, American composer and pianist; b. Allentown, Pa., June 1, 1942. During the first phase of his career, Evans used his adopted surname Bunger. From 1982 he has used his birth surname, Evans. He studied at Oberlin (Ohio) Coll. Cons, of Music (B.Mus., 1964), where he began composing seriously, and at the Univ. of 111. (M.Mus., 1966). In 1968–69 he taught music theory at Oberlin Cons. He played jazz professionally in Los Angeles in 1969–70, and in 1970 was appointed to the faculty of Calif. State Univ., Dominguez Hills. From 1968 to 1982 he was the first concert pianist and lecturer to tour through the U.S. and Europe exclusively performing and advocating piano music by 20th century American composers. His interest in the new resources provided by the prepared piano especially led to his publ. of an illustrated vol., The Well-Prepared Piano (1973; rev. 1980), with a foreword by John Cage; it was also published in Japanese. Evans also evolved and published a comprehensive notational system called “Musicglyph,” which incorporates standard musical notation and musical graphics indicating special instrumental techniques. He is the inventor of the “Bungerack,” a flexible music holder for the piano, particularly convenient for pianists playing on the inside of the instrument with fingers, mallets, etc. His published compositions from this period include Three Bolts Out of the Blues, Money Music, and Pianography for Piano and Electronics, which he recorded for the BBC. He also unearthed, edited, and recorded numerous ’Tost” early works by Cage. In 1982 he was named “Outstanding Professor of the Year” by the State of Calif., and retired the same year from both music and teaching. For 10 years he worked as a real estate broker and developer in Calif., then returned to music full time in 1992. Since that time he has fulfilled numerous commissions for art songs with Irish and Italian texts, including ”Yeats Song and Canzoni d’, numerous choral works, including Music for a Medieval Christmas Feast and a setting for band and chorus of the Pledge of Allegiance, chamber music in the “Celtic” style, including his well-known Celtic Air (Kilmainham Goal), commissioned and recorded by the Irish government, The Rising, oratorio with texts from the Irish Celtic Renaissance, and several complete works for music theater, including Middas & Marigold, The Golden Touch, Tyburn Fair, and Treasure Island. He currently divides his time between the West Coast and N.Y. Evans has 3 musical children: Berklee, a dancer (b.1977), Blake (b.1981), and Beka (b.1984). His other compositions include Suite for Piano; 3 Songs on Poems of e.e. cummings; Three French Songs, after Hugo; Syzgy; Music for The Good Woman of Setzuan; Music for Love’s Labors Lost for Electronic Tape; Five for Two for Violin and Cello; Music for Oedipus Rex for Electronic Tape; Sherwood Estates (in collaboration with R. Dehmel); Adirondack Air for Violin and Piano or Orch.; songs with texts by R. Ruggiero and F. Pascale for 1 or 2 Voices and Piano or Orch., including Al Tramonto, Che Bella Sera, Fiamme Mattutine, and Onde d’Amore-, Musical Portraits, suite for 2 Violins and Piano or Orch., based on tunes by John Sheahan; The McDermott Roes, suite for Strings and Optional Solo Instruments, based on tunes by Turlough O’Carolan; Two Celtic Graces, after R. Burns; The Town Rat & The City Cat, after Maureen Charlton, for 2 Singers and Piano, 4-Hands; Moon on the Ruined Castle-, Three Moore Songs, after Thomas Moore; Two Burns Songs, after Robert Burns; Renunciation, after P. Pearse; The Funeral of O’Donovan Rossa, after P. Pearse; The Famine Queen, after Maude Gonne; Lament for Thomas MacDonagh, after F. Ledwidge; Two Wexford Carols; Songs for Fathers, after Christopher Weiss, including Daffodils Sometimes, Still, Mother Says a Glacier, and This Poem is for You; An Inventory, after John Winstanley; I’ll Always be Home on Christmas Morning, after Evans & Schwartz; Uber alien Gipfellen ist Ruh, after T. MacDonagh; Christmas is Begun!; Festival Anthem on a French Carol; numerous settings of poems by W.B. Yeats, including When You Are Old and Grey, Fiddler of Dooney, A Toast: To Love, Song of the Wandering Aengus, Ghost of Roger Casement, Cradle Song, and He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire