Music of Cecil Effinger
From the collection of Karl Miller
WorksSymphony No. 3 Denver Symphony Orchestra
Composer, Conductor
Date, venue unknownSymphony No. 4 for Chorus and Orchestra (1952)Crane School of Music Chorus and Orchestra
Helen Hosmer, Conductor(?)
May 14, 1954Symphony No. 5 "The Iceland" (1958)Denver Symphony Orchestra
Jan 5, 1960
Symphonic Prelude in D Major(For Boy's Chorus and Orch)
Denver Symphony Orchestra
Saul Castron, COnductor
Feb 24, 1959The Invisible FireMembers of the Kansas City Conference Choir
Kansas City Philharmonic
Thor Johnson, Conductor
Dec. 31, 1957
If you are at all interested in Effinger, please read the interview at:
http://www.bruceduffie.com/effinger.html. Not only is it insightful, but offers more details on Effinger's Inventions -- the MusicWriter and Tempo Watch.
The "Musical Typewriter" from
www.bruceduffie.com.
Cecil Effinger
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cecil Effinger (July 22, 1914 – December 22, 1990) was an American composer, oboist, and inventor.
Effinger was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and resided in that state for most of his life. Reversing the usual cliché, he was the son of musicians and teachers, but initially studied mathematics at Colorado College, receiving a BA in 1935, before deciding to follow in his parents' footsteps (Bono 2008, 6). In the meantime, he had studied harmony and counterpoint with Frederick Boothroyd in 1934–36, and went to Paris in 1939 to study composition with Nadia Boulanger. He was first oboe in the orchestras of Colorado Springs (1934–41) and Denver (1937–41) and taught at the Colorado College before the Second World War (1936–41). A lifelong friendship with Roy Harris began in 1941 (Worster 2001). During the Second World War he served as conductor of the 506th US Army Band in Fort Logan (Bono 2008, 6). After the war, he resumed his position at the Colorado College from 1946 to 1948, when he was appointed professor of composition at the University of Colorado in Boulder. He remained in that position, becoming the head of the composition department until 1981, and was composer-in-residence there until his retirement in 1984 (Worster 2001).
In 1945 in Paris, Effinger conceived the idea of a music typewriter, and by 1947 had developed a rough prototype. In March 1954 he patented his machine as the "Musicwriter", and exhibited his first production model in July 1955, in Denver. It was simple and robust in construction and was a commercial success throughout the world for more than thirty years (Boorman and Selfridge-Field 2001, §5 (iv)). He also invented a device to accurately determine the tempo of music as it is being performed, which he called the Tempowatch (Worster 2001).
Compositions
Effinger was a prolific composer, with 168 works in his catalog, including five numbered symphonies, two Little Symphonies, and five String Quartets. Choral works figure among his most popular compositions, several of which are large scale and based on sacred subjects, including especially Four Pastorales for oboe and chorus (Worster 2001). Effinger never embraced experimentalism, and settled on an idiom he described as "atonal tonality". He never achieved a national reputation, but was esteemed as a regional composer of high standing (Bono 2008, 6).
