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United States Music

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thehappyforest
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« Reply #135 on: October 27, 2013, 01:15:26 am »

Thank you for the Gillis!
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Dundonnell
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« Reply #136 on: October 28, 2013, 12:31:06 am »

I welcome all uploads from our generous members ;D I download 99% of them. I shall even download the orchestral Gillis ;D

I do happen to think-as Kyle has said-that the decision by Albany(probably externally financed I am guessing) to record all the Gillis symphonies when what would be infinitely more memorable and worthy would be complete modern recordings of the Piston and Mennin symphonies or recording the remaining Diamond and Creston(not to mention composers like George Rochberg) was a strange sense of priorities. There IS an appeal to Gillis's music. It IS recognisibly "Americana". I just don't happen to think that it demonstrates any deep musicianship.........but then the same could be said for lots of "lighter" music. But....if you will call a piece of music a "symphony" you will get judged on your symphonic credentials ;D
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« Reply #137 on: January 05, 2014, 12:57:32 pm »

Music of William Latham



From the collection of Karl Miller.

Recordings are from radio broadcasts or personnal recordings-- to my knowledge, none of these have been released commercially in digital form.

Passacaglia and Fugue for Band (1958)
University of Illinois Band/Mark Hinsley

Suite for Trumpet and Band(1958)
John Haynie, trumpet
University of Illinois Band/Mark Hinsley

Five Sketches for String Quartet(1938)
Cincinnati String Quartet

String Trio #2 (1938)
James Werner, violin; Walter Werner, viola; Aurther Knecht, cello [22 February 1939]

String Quartet #3(1940)
James R. Lerch, Alice Oglesby, violin; George Papich, viola, Charles Baker, cello [24 April 1969]

Sonata for Violin and Piano (1949)
Norman Paulu, volin; Claire Von Ausdall, piano
[31 May 1950]

Intro
Concerto Grosso for 2 Saxophones and Chamber Orchestra
(1962)
Sigurd and Karen Rascher, saxophone
Dutch Radio Orchestra/Hank Spruit
[30 October 1962]

Concertino for E-Flat Saxophone and Wind Ensemble (1968)
John Giordano, saxophone
San Diego State Band/Karl Holvig

Sisyphus for Alto Saxophone and Piano (1971)
Francois Daneels, Saxophone
C. Cappel, piano

American Youth Performs(1969)
Youth Orchestra of Greater Fort Worth/John Giordano

Concert March #5 for Band(1969)
Richardson HS Band/Robert M Blanton

Three Choral Predules for Band(1956--Two Movements only)
University of Michigan Symphony Band/William Revelli
[20 March 1957]

Swingin' Reel for Band (1956)
Chicago Symphonic Band/Herman Chebanoff

Court Festival for Band(1957)
NTSU Band/Maurice McAdow






Bio from the University of North Texas Website:


William P. Latham

    (1917-2004)
    Appointment: 1965-1984
    Archive of Works (UNT library)

William Peters Latham was born in Shreveport, Louisiana on 4 January 1917. He was educated in Kentucky, Ohio and New York, completing degrees in composition and theory at the Cincinnati College of Music in Cincinnati, Ohio. Later, he was awarded a PhD in composition at the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York (1951). His principal composition teachers were Eugene Goossens and Howard Hanson.

Latham taught theory and composition at the University of Northern Iowa from 1946 to 1965, attaining the rank of Professor of Music in 1959. In 1965 he joined the faculty of the College of Music at the University of North Texas (North Texas State University) as Professor of Music and Coordinator of Composition. He was appointed Director of Graduate Studies in Music in 1969. In 1978 he was promoted to the rank of Distinguished Professor of Music, the University's highest rank. Only seven other faculty members of the University had been so honored at that time. He retired from active service at UNT in June, 1984, and he was formally designated Professor Emeritus by the Board of Regents in November 1984.

Dr. Latham has composed 118 works; 62 have been published, 56 remain in manuscript, but all have been performed — many throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan. He has received numerous awards and commissions (29). His orchestral works have been performed by the Cincinnati Symphony, the Eastman-Rochester Philharmonic, the Dallas Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, and Radio Orchestras in Brussels, Belgium and Hilversum, Holland, under such well known conductors as Eugene Goossens, Howard Hanson, Thor Johnson, Anshel Brusilow, John Giordano, and Walter Susskind.

Dr. Latham died in Denton, Texas on 24 February 2004. Memorial donations may be made to:

William P. Latham Composition Fund
UNT College of Music
Attn: Elida Tamez
P.O. Box 311367
Denton TX 76203-1367
(940) 565-2243

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« Reply #138 on: January 05, 2014, 02:37:45 pm »

More Music of Charles Frink



From the collection of Karl Miller.



Karl has found some more recordings of the works of Charles Frink, the American composer living in Connecticut.  One could characterize Frink as a higly melodic composer of Americana, who stands in strong contrast to musical academicism.  He's not afraid to write simple, direct, heartfelt, music.

I'll be sharing a copy of these recordings with Charles and his wife, who informed me that Charles has been ill a lot of this year, but is doing much better, and has performed at Yale University last month.

All performances by the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, Conducted by Victor Norman. Recordings are from radio broadcasts or personnal recordings-- none of these have been released commercially in digital form.

1. Joe Hill
2. Radio Outro
3-6: John Henry
7-9: Johnny Appleseed



A newspaper article about Frink's and Norman's efforts to help promote American music:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1915&dat=19810410&id=YwEhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=_nQFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3458,2150472

Mr. Frink provided the following "composer's notes" for his work Songs for Travellers.  I am reproducing them below, since they say a lot about his approach to music.

Quote
Although I began creating music at the age of four – (I was unable to write it until age nine) – and have continued composing all my life, except for a hiatus of seven years from my late teens to mid-twenties, and although audiences have loved performances of my music since I was fifteen, my work has never been accepted by the music establishment. This is not due to inadequate quality, but to the fact that I have consistently refused to comply with the orthodoxy of the self-proclaimed avant-garde, enshrined by twentieth-century academia and the performance-licensing oligopoly.

I find it fascinating that Solveig has programmed Songs For Travelers with Hindemith’s In Praise of Music, for I concur with the basic premise of Hindemith’s conception that music theory is a branch of physics. This relationship was first perceived two-and-a-half millennia ago by Pythagoras, and emphatically confirmed by the nineteenth-century German physicist and physiologist Hermann Von Helmholtz, who demonstrated that harmony is rooted in the overtone series. The twentieth-century fads of serialism (Schönberg et al) and randomness (John Cage et al) violate nature – and human nature – and are understandably rejected by the majority of listeners. However, since these pseudo-theories result in complex, unintelligible networks of sound, they have been beloved by a dominant cadre of academicians for whom works of art are occasions for pseudo-analysis.

When, in spite of this discouraging environment, I resumed composing at age twenty-five, I wrote a love song with which I was immediately dissatisfied; I could not get the words right, so I tore it up. However, the melody survived in a submerged portion of my mind. When, at age thirty-five, I began writing Songs For Travelers, I realized that the melody expresses the soul’s ‘free flight into the wordless.’

I am delighted beyond words by Solveig’s recognition of the value of my work. I am confident that the performance will be a worthy experience for all (at least for most) concerned. I hope that you will be able to send me a tape. I am always fascinated by performance, and I welcome the divergence of the performers’ interpretation from what I hear in my head. Inevitable errors do not trouble me. What I seek in performance is expression of the spirit of the work, and I find that expression is rooted in dynamics and rubato. Close attention to, and forceful presentation of, dynamics is essential – far more important than note-by-note accuracy. And I regard rubato as the essence of rhythm. Rhythm must breathe. Metronomic regularity is not rhythm for me – it is mechanical death.

The foregoing is the closest I can come now to providing the information you request. If you have questions, please let me know.

P.S.

Resurrección [ his wife: editor's note] tells me that I should relate the following. Hindemith’s presence at Yale in the 1940’s was my reason for entering the Yale School of Music at age 17. He tested me for placement in music theory. He quickly concluded that I should pass over introductory theory and harmony, and be enrolled in counterpoint; my teacher there was H. L. Baumgarter, with whom I spent a fruitful year.

I did not study with Hindemith. I read his Craft of Musical Composition, and found therein confirmation and clarification of my instructive perceptions. I audited a few of his classes, and was quickly aware that his teaching was not for me. He imposed his style on students to such an extent that many became disciples.

Before the end of my first semester I had decided not to become a professional musician. I doubted that my individuality would allow me to gain tenure in academic music, and my experience with commercial music had convinced me that it was hopelessly trivial. I therefore set out on the hard road for composers who make their living outside of music – the road travelled by my predecessor at Yale, Charles Ives.

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« Reply #139 on: January 05, 2014, 09:15:06 pm »

Music of Elmer Schoettle


From the collection of Karl Miller.

These tracks are from radio broadcasts and personal recordings.  To the best of my knowledge, none of them have been commercially released in digital form.


Fantasy for Strings
Houston Symphony Orchestra/John Barbirolli
[18/19 January 1965]

Intro
Concerto Grosso

Composer, piano; Ray Weaver, oboe; Richard Pickar, clarinet; Paul Tucci, bassoon; Austin, trumpet; Tonkersly, French Horn; Fleigal, violin, Orchestra and conductor not specified.

Concerto Grosso
Outro

Composer, piano; Okalhoma City Symphony Orchestra/Guy Frasier Harrington

Intro
Sontantina for Percussion and Piano
Outro

Virginia Walker, Ferrell Morris, David Walliger, Composer on Piano

Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra
Mr. and Mrs. Schoettle, pianos.
Oklahoma City Symphony Orchestra,
Guy Fraser Hamilton

Divertimento for Oboe and Piano
Andante, Little Scherzo, Gigue
Michael Sanchez, Oboe
Randy A Earles, Piano

Songs:
  • The Rose Family
  • Of Himself
  • Dark Girl
  • Pierrot's Song
[/u]
Beverly Johnson, Soprano
William Glick, Piano

Piece for Brass
Richard Crady, Bruce Johnson, Trumpet
Dennis Bishop, Lester Kegley, Trombone
Darrel Jensen, Baritone

Gavotte and Cappricio
Carl Gibbs, Piano


Dorian Theme and Varations:
  • Theme
  • L'issesso tempo
  • Poco Piu Mosso
  • Fughetta
  • Alla Marcia
[/u]

Chanson
Marietta Dustin, Susanne Henneke, soprano
Cynthia Moya, mezzo
Patricia Spain, Jo Ellen Meador, alto
Dennis Bishop, Rodney McGlothin, tenor
Scott Denson, Ronald Tiahrt, bass

Wind Song
Marietta Dustin, Susanne Henneke, soprano
Cynthia Moya, mezzo
[29 November 1973]

Into
Bartok: Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion

Mr. and Mrs. Schoettle, Pianos
Mary Anne Hines, David Walliger, Percussion




Description of Schoettle by JK Stevenson from Youtube:
Elmer Schoettle (American: 1910-1973) was an American composer who grew up immersed in the musical world from the very start. It is no surprise that he and his younger sister Louise were precocious if not child prodigies. Elmer and his sister were playing duo-piano works around the country as early as 1920 when he was 10 and Louise was 7. Their father was a professor of music at Minnesota University who became the head of the Minnesota University School of Music. This brought them into contact with many stars of musical talent through their youth.

In 1951 Elmer became a professor on the faculty of the University of Houston. His transcription of Bach's Organ Prelude in C Minor for Band was played at the Fine Arts Festival that May. He himself performed in concerts with many big names in the musical world such as Eugene Goossens, Sir John Barbirolli, and Darius Milhaud. He and Mary Phillips Street (later to become wife Mary Schoettle) partnered as duo-pianists. Elmer and his wife enjoyed collecting many works for piano for four hands and travelling around the country performing these works in concert.

Schoettle was a musicologist, pianist, teacher and composer-in-residence through most of his later years. His compositions range from piano works to chamber pieces to works for full orchestra. Among the many works programmed (often with Schoettle himself performing) include:
*A concerto for two pianos and orchestra (1952), reviewed as "beautifully melodic;"
*"Gavotte" for piano
*Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano (1962)
*"Flight," A Song for Tenor, Clarinet, and Piano on a Poem by John Gillespie Magee
*Quartet for Oboe, Violin, Viola, and Cello (which was written at the request of Lady Barbirolli (1966)
*Song: "Of Himself"
*"Fear of the Lord" for Chorus and Organ
*Amores (I - IV) (1960)
* Fantasy for Strings (1964).


The only other source about him that  I've found that offers much detail is the following geneology page:
http://www.rbberg.net/g1/p1231.htm

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« Reply #140 on: January 05, 2014, 09:20:16 pm »

Music of Louise Talma


From the collection of Karl Miller.

These recordings come from personal collections and radio broadcasts.  To the best of my knowledge, none of them have been commerically released in digital form.

Carmina Mariana (1943, arranged 1963 for chorus and orch)
Pius X Choir of Manhattanville College
(Orch/Conductor unknown)

Dialogues for Piano and Orchestra (1963-64)
Grant Johannesen, Piano
Buffalo Philharmonic/Lukas Foss
[14 December 1965]

A Time to Remember(1966-7)
Hunter College Choir and Orchestra
Ralph Hunter, Conductor
[11 May 1968]


Wikipedia Bio:

Louise Talma (October 31, 1906 in Arcachon, France–August 13, 1996 in Saratoga Springs, New York) was a composer. She was raised in New York City and studied at the Institute of Musical Arts (Juilliard School), 1922–1930, and received her bachelor of music degree from New York University and masters of arts degree from Columbia University. She studied with Isidor Philipp at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, France, and with Nadia Boulanger every summer from 1926 to 1939. She taught at Hunter College of the City University of New York.

She began composing in a spare neoclassical tonal style featuring static harmonies, short distinct melodies in counterpoint, ostinatos, and pedal points varied through mode, tempo, rhythm, metre, and articulation. Also featured were rhythmic units varied through imitation, augmentation, and diminution.

She began using the twelve tone technique in 1954 after hearing Irving Fine's String Quartet, and returned to a neo-tonal style in her last works of the 1980s and 1990s. She wrote most of her compositions at the MacDowell Colony where she also met composers of the "Boston school", Arthur Berger, Lukas Foss, Irving Fine, Alexei Haieff, Harold Shapero, and Claudio Spies. She provided a bequest for one million dollars for the MacDowell Colony in her will. She died at the Yaddo artists colony.

She was the first woman to receive two Guggenheim Fellowships, to be elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters (1974), and to receive the Sibelius Medal for composition from the Harriet Cohen International Music Awards in London (1963). She was also the first American woman to have a full-scale opera performed in Germany and the first American to teach at Fontainebleau.[1]

Her works include Song of the Songless (1928), Three Madrigals (1928), Two Dances (1934), In principio erat verbum (1939), Six Etudes (1954), The Alcestiad (1955–1958) an opera with a libretto by Thornton Wilder, Full Circle (1985), Spacings (1994), and A Time to Remember (1966–1967) based on speeches of John F. Kennedy.

Interview with Bruce Duffie:
http://www.bruceduffie.com/talma.html
An excerpt below:

Quote
BD:    Now you say you’re a slow worker.  Is it slow in taking shape in your mind, or do you rework it and rework it on the paper over and over again?

LT:    Well, my rate of work is on an average of about four measures a day.  That’s very little.

BD:    It seems very little.

LT:    And that’s because I hunt around a long time before I get really, absolutely both the sounds and the rhythm that I want

BD:    But then those four measures are right?

LT:    Well, I hope they’re right.  They seem right to me when I finally have settled on them.  But it takes an astonishingly long time, and it’s so frustrating and irritating because you go along, and you know that such-and-such a note is the wrong one!  Don’t ask me how I know this, but I know this!  And you hunt and hunt and hunt, and you try absolutely every other note in the octave, and not any one of them seems to be the right one!  [Laughs]  Very frequently it depends upon the rhythmic element in it.  It’s in the wrong place rhythmically, and once you have cleared that up, then the dratted note that you couldn’t stand is all right!  I don’t understand this, either.  In fact, that’s one of the reasons I would never teach composition, because I can’t begin to explain why I make the choices and changes that I do.

BD:    You don’t go into a kind of trance, do you?

LT:    Oh, God, no! .....This is very hard work.
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« Reply #141 on: January 13, 2014, 11:26:47 am »

Music of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra

From the collection of Karl Miller.

This collection of music focuses not on a single composer, but rather a collection of works of underappreciated americal composers performed by the Hartford Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Arthur Winograd.


To the best of my knowledge, None of these recordings have been commerically released in digital form.

Edward Diemente, Two Preludes for Orchestra



Material below from ZoomInfo:
Edward Diemente, born in Cranston, RI, grew up in New Britain, CT.He served a distinguished tenure as professor and chair of the music theory and composition department at the Hartt School of Music.His considerable output as a composer is eclectic, ranging from electronic music for tape and instruments to jazz to a more traditional vocabulary.The Hartford Chorale has had the privilege of premiering three of Diemente's works.Beginning with the Credo in 1991, continuing with My Heart is Ready in 1992 and Porterama in the same year, the Chorale has cherished its close relationship with this special and estimable musician.In the case of My Heart is Ready, Diemente has chosen an unusual instrumentation: 3 trumpets, French horn, trombone, tuba, percussion and strings.Drawing freely from Psalms 33, 108, 145 and 147, Diemente, true to his assertion that a composer's role is to be a "teller of stories," writes a piece that is at once direct, yet sophisticated, and simply, as Anton Bruckner said of his own Te Deum, "praises God" and humankind's relationship with God.
...
Diemente served as Professor of Composition at Hartt School, University of Hartford for over forty years.He also held the position of organist at the Cathedral of St. Joseph and various other organ positions.Diemente has written compositions for chorus and orchestra, orchestra, band, chamber music, choral music and music for solo instruments.
For the past few years, Diemente has been absorbed with the idea of synthesis in his music.His is working with combining musical styles (or dialects).In a search for continuity, not revolution, he looks for methods to bring together the musical past and what has been introduced into the musical vocabulary in the past thirty years.In simple terms, it is the combining of tonal and non-tonal music, acoustic and electronic music.Many composers in the past (often in their more mature years) have done the same.One thinks of Beethoven, in his later works, introducing contrapuntal forms associated with Bach, and of using "Turkish" music in his Ninth Symphony.
In a Diemente work, one might find Gregorian chant, impressionism,, jazz, nineteenth century romanticism, non-tonal music and electronic music (or its influence).For Diemente, it comes to this: Is the composer's music engaging?


Thomas Putsche: Symphony

I've been unable to find out much about Putsche other than he won the BMI Student Composer award in 1958, was a teacher at the Hartt School (in theory and composition)  along with Diemente, and was the author of the following paper.

http://www.ex-tempore.org/putsche/index.htm

Edward Miller: Reflections at the Bronx Zoo


Bio from the American Composer's Alliance:

For Edward J. Miller, the motivation for writing music came mainly from performers. During his 27 years on the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music composition faculty (four as chair), he was stimulated by the talents of colleagues and students. His most frequently-performed composition, “Piece for Clarinet and Tape,” was written for clarinet professor Lawrence McDonald. “Beyond the Wheel” for violin and tape, a piece praised by New York Times music critic Allan Kozinn for its “shimmering otherworldly texture,” was inspired by a dramatic passage from the Book of Ezekiel and written for Oberlin faculty violinist Gregory Fulkerson. Both tapes were created in the Oberlin electronic studio, where Miller worked closely with composer Gary Nelson. Another fellow faculty composer, Randolph Coleman, came up with the title for Miller’s orchestral piece, “Anacrusis.” The musical term for “pick-up notes,” the title acknowledged the borrowing of fragments from works by Ravel and Mahler that followed the world premiere of Miller’s piece on a concert by the Hartford Symphony.

Composer-conductor Edwin London, 1982 Cleveland Arts Prize winner and founding music director of the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, characterized Miller as a composer who made “music out of music,” a reference to the recycling of themes or ideas from previous generations. Newark Star-Ledger critic Paul Somers, reviewing Miller’s tone poem “Images from the Eye of a Dolphin,” admired the composer’s “ear for exact color differences” and “care for precise sonority.” Although most of his music is upbeat, Miller regards his doomsday piece, “The Seven Last Days” for chorus, orchestra, film and tape as his masterwork.

Before joining the Oberlin faculty in 1971 at the invitation of composition department chairman and 1980 Cleveland Arts Prize winner Walter Aschaffenburg, Miller completed several pieces that were performed by major orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic and the Cleveland Orchestra. By the time he retired in 1998, he had written about 70 works and received numerous commissions and awards. His music is published by Bote & Bock (Berlin), McGinnis & Marx, Music for Percussion, Ione Press, and Associated Music Publishers; and recorded on CBS, Orpheus, CRI, Opus One, New World Records and several other labels.

Born in Miami, Florida, on August 4, 1930, Miller started music lessons at age 10. His first instrument was trumpet, but he switched to valve trombone and baritone horn when he was required to wear braces on his teeth. At 16, he began playing in a professional jazz band. Midway through his undergraduate studies at the University of Miami, he took a year off to tour internationally as an arranger with Miguelito Valdez and His Orchestra. After earning a bachelor of music degree, he received a Koussevitzky Prize to study with Mexican composer Carlos Chavez at Tanglewood’s Berkshire Music Center. Aaron Copland, who had recommended Miller for the prize, later named him one of the “young talents whose music commands attention” and helped him win a Fulbright Fellowship to study with Boris Blacher and Josef Ruter in Germany.

Miller earned his master’s degree in composition at the University of Hartford’s Hartt School of Music, where he studied with Arnold Franchetti and Isadore Freed, and served on the faculty for 12 years prior to his Oberlin appointment. Following his retirement, Miller stayed in Oberlin until 2005 when his wife Judi stepped down from her post as a professor of psychology. The couple then moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico, where they have a new home with a magnificent view of the snow-capped Organ Mountains.

—Wilma Salisbury

If you are curious, you can hear a performance of his Beyond the Wheel at:





Obituary Notice from Oberlin (Sept 2013)
Throughout his 27 years at Oberlin, Professor of Composition Edward J. Miller found inspiration in the work of his students and fellow faculty members.

Miller, likewise, was an inspiration to countless others: His compositions have been performed by numerous major orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic and the Cleveland Orchestra, and he earned widespread acclaim for his work.

Miller, who retired in 1998, died on August 31 after an extended illness.

“The thing that impressed me most about Ed was his ability to teach a wide variety of courses,” says Professor Warren Darcy, a longtime colleague of Miller’s at Oberlin. “Music Theory, Aural Skills, Composition—he taught it all, and he did it all very well.

“In addition, he was a first-rate composer, and he wrote some of the most beautiful music that ever flowed from the pen of a late-20th-century composer.”

As a younger man, Miller was fortunate to study with some of the best. Born in Miami, he began playing music at age 10, and by 16 was performing in a professional jazz band. He earned a bachelor of music from the University of Miami, then won a Koussevitzky Prize, which afforded him the opportunity to study with Mexican composer Carlos Chavez at Tanglewood’s Berkshire Music Center. Miller had been recommended for the prize by Aaron Copland, who called Miller one of the “young talents whose music commands attention.”

Miller later earned a master’s degree in composition from the Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford, where he taught for 12 years before joining the faculty of Oberlin. Over the course of his career, Miller won two Ohio Arts Council Awards, a composition award from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Cleveland Arts Prize, among other honors.

Miller’s compositions—he wrote roughly 70 of them in all—were performed by a number of fellow Oberlin faculty members, including Peter Takács, Gregory Fulkerson, Daune Mahy, and Marlene and Michael Rosen. Though his works tended toward the upbeat, Miller was most proud of The Seven Last Days, an apocalyptic piece he wrote for chorus, orchestra, film, and tape.

“Ed had a fantastic attentiveness to the general flow of music,” says Professor of Violin Gregory Fulkerson, for whom Miller wrote a piece called Beyond the Wheel in the mid-1980s. Fulkerson played it in Cleveland and New York, where a New York Times critic praised it for its “shimmering otherworldly texture.”

Seven years after his retirement, Miller relocated to New Mexico with his wife, Judi Miller, a former Oberlin professor of psychology.



Continued in Next Post...
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« Reply #142 on: January 13, 2014, 11:30:33 am »

Music of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra-- Continued

From the collection of Karl Miller...

Alvin L. Epstein: Music for Orchestra:
I have not been able to unearth much about Epstein beyond the fact that he also taught composition at the Hartt school of music, and won the BMI student composer award in 1952.  However, Kyle Gann, a big enthusiast for microtonal music, was a student of Epstein, and speaks very well of Hartt School, which has provided most of the composers in this collection. 

Quote
[PostClassic]    
Safe Haven for Us Oddballs
PostClassic
Yesterday I had the great pleasure of lecturing on Cage and my own music at the Hartt School in Hartford, at the invitation of Robert Carl and Ken Steen. I'm always joking with them about doing endorsements for the place, and I might as well proceed. Hartt is one of the few graduate schools I recommend for my own students and for those who share my anti-establishment musical interests - others are CalArts, Mills College, Yale, and Wesleyan. But Yale and Wesleyan accept only a tiny number of students and are all but impossible to get into; Hartt has significantly more slots open. Hartt doesn't seem to have the reputation it did in the mid-20th-century, and I can't figure out why. I was certainly aware of it as a teenager, possibly because my first composition teacher Alvin Epstein studied and taught there, whereas I was in my 30s before I heard of Bard. One never really knows what goes on in a department from the outside, but the atmosphere there seems enviable, the faculty open-minded and mutually supportive. I've sent two students there now, and both of them have been amazed what's been required from them in learning ear-training, score-reading, and other nuts-and-bolts topics. They take musical education very seriously. The students call it "Boulanger Lite," and the curriculum does seem copied from the Paris Conservatoire. Nevertheless, it's one of the few places where one could pursue microtonality, Downtown music, and even conceptualism without drawing down faculty discouragement, PLUS study electronic music in friendlier softwares than Max/MSP and Supercollider. I was very impressed this time with the level and camaraderie of grad students. I got to sit in on Robert's "Cage, Carter, and Crumb" class, and he was running circles around me in the Cage analysis department. Maybe being slightly underrated is what gives a music department a vibrant energy, while acquiring the "prestige" label turns it into a nest of vipers. If I could do grad school again, I can't imagine a place I'd rather do it than Hartt.


Obituary for Conductor Arthur Winograd from the Hartford Courant:
Arthur Winograd, a cellist and co-founder of the famed Juilliard String Quartet, was a former conductor of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.

Born on April 22, 1920, in New York, he was one of two sons of Eli Winograd, a wealthy furrier, and his wife, Mildred.

He was exposed early to music — his father played the violin and his mother the piano — and began studying the piano, then switched to the cello and was sitting in with adult quartet players as a teenager. He attended the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and the New England Conservatory.

During World War II, Winograd was assigned to a musical unit of the Army and was stationed on Fisher's Island in Long Island Sound, where the main mission was to look out for Japanese submarines. At night, he played percussion with fellow soldier Robert Mann in the Army band, and off duty, he and Mann performed in a jazz trio.

In 1946, he, Mann and two other players formed the Juilliard String Quartet, one of the first serious American quartets. It became known for its performances of contemporary music and, while Winograd was with them, recorded all of Bartok's quartets.

"His main quality as a player was a very deep commitment and an athletic projection," said Mann. "I always enjoyed making music with him."

Winograd also was on the faculty of Juilliard and played the cello in the NBC Symphony Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini. In 1956, he left the quartet to embark on a career as a conductor and directed the MGM Orchestra.

He moved to Alabama in 1960 to become music director of the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, then came to Hartford in 1964 to lead the HSO.

At that time, the local orchestra had a small number of members who were augmented by musicians from New York during performances. Winograd decided to improve the quality of the orchestra by engaging outstanding young players from the Hartt School of Music.

"He built up the orchestra from scratch and really gave the symphony its character," said James Rouman, a former member of the symphony board.

Winograd emphasized the giants of the early 20th century, including Bruckner, Stravinsky, Bartok and Mahler.

"He felt if he was going to introduce 20th-century music, it would have to be of extraordinary caliber," said Rouman. World-class soloists, including Emil Gilels and David Oistrakh, often accompanied the orchestra.

Winograd took the symphony on several occasions to Carnegie Hall, where it received good reviews from The New York Times.

"All true musicians respected Arthur," said Steve Metcalf, a former music critic for The Courant. "They recognized he had this fierce artistic integrity."

Winograd was demanding on the podium. He could be gruff and had a quick temper. When he heard a mistake during rehearsal, he would demand to have sections of the orchestra repeat the passage in pairs until they got it right. When things went wrong, he would take his fists and grab his red hair in frustration.

Conductors such as Leonard Bernstein had a dramatic, flamboyant style, but Winograd followed the Central European practice of using the baton with more restraint.

He copied Toscanini's "straight stick" style and told people that the conductor shouldn't stand in the way of the music, which should speak for itself, Rouman said.

His players admired his musical knowledge and his command of the repertoire.

"He was regarded with a great deal of respect and affection," said violinist Anhared Stowe. "He was someone you really looked up to and revered."

"Arthur was one of the best conductors I've ever played for," said Bernard Lurie, symphony concertmaster for 50 years. "There wasn't an ink spot on the score he didn't know. He was a real student of the music he conducted."

Winograd was known to mutter an oath under his breath whenever there was an egregious musical error, which only Lurie, seated close by, could hear. One day, when Winograd was rehearsing a cello part in a Beethoven quartet with Lurie, Winograd made a mistake. Lurie had the temerity to repeat the oath, and the quick-witted Winograd retorted, "My sentiments exactly."

Winograd retired from the symphony in 1985 but continued to live in West Hartford and taught chamber music at the Hartt School. He moved to New Jersey in 1997, where he died of complications of pneumonia on his 90th birthday.

Winograd was married to Winifred Schaefer, a cellist, with whom he had a son, Nicholas, but they later divorced. In 1950, he married Betty Olsen, a pianist who taught at Hartt for many years before her death in 1987. They had two children, Wendy and Peter, the first violinist of the American String Quartet.

Winograd rode his bicycle frequently around West Hartford. He continued cooking the macrobiotic diet he had adopted while his wife was ill, sometimes to the distress of his dinner guests.

After he retired, the stress of years of conducting affected his shoulder, which made it very difficult for him to conduct or to play the cello. He nevertheless returned to Hartford in 2002 to conduct the symphony, and conducted his son Peter in the Sibelius violin concerto.

"He really helped build the orchestra up," said Peter Winograd. "His passion was always about the music and not about the instrument itself."
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« Reply #143 on: January 13, 2014, 02:24:15 pm »

Music of William Latham



From the collection of Karl Miller.

Recordings are from radio broadcasts or personnal recordings-- to my knowledge, none of these have been released commercially in digital form.

Passacaglia and Fugue for Band (1958)
University of Illinois Band/Mark Hinsley

Suite for Trumpet and Band(1958)
John Haynie, trumpet
University of Illinois Band/Mark Hinsley

Five Sketches for String Quartet(1938)
Cincinnati String Quartet

String Trio #2 (1938)
James Werner, violin; Walter Werner, viola; Aurther Knecht, cello [22 February 1939]

String Quartet #3(1940)
James R. Lerch, Alice Oglesby, violin; George Papich, viola, Charles Baker, cello [24 April 1969]

Sonata for Violin and Piano (1949)
Norman Paulu, volin; Claire Von Ausdall, piano
[31 May 1950]

Intro
Concerto Grosso for 2 Saxophones and Chamber Orchestra
(1962)
Sigurd and Karen Rascher, saxophone
Dutch Radio Orchestra/Hank Spruit
[30 October 1962]

Concertino for E-Flat Saxophone and Wind Ensemble (1968)
John Giordano, saxophone
San Diego State Band/Karl Holvig

Sisyphus for Alto Saxophone and Piano (1971)
Francois Daneels, Saxophone
C. Cappel, piano

American Youth Performs(1969)
Youth Orchestra of Greater Fort Worth/John Giordano

Concert March #5 for Band(1969)
Richardson HS Band/Robert M Blanton

Three Choral Predules for Band(1956--Two Movements only)
University of Michigan Symphony Band/William Revelli
[20 March 1957]

Swingin' Reel for Band (1956)
Chicago Symphonic Band/Herman Chebanoff

Court Festival for Band(1957)
NTSU Band/Maurice McAdow






Bio from the University of North Texas Website:


William P. Latham

    (1917-2004)
    Appointment: 1965-1984
    Archive of Works (UNT library)

William Peters Latham was born in Shreveport, Louisiana on 4 January 1917. He was educated in Kentucky, Ohio and New York, completing degrees in composition and theory at the Cincinnati College of Music in Cincinnati, Ohio. Later, he was awarded a PhD in composition at the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York (1951). His principal composition teachers were Eugene Goossens and Howard Hanson.

Latham taught theory and composition at the University of Northern Iowa from 1946 to 1965, attaining the rank of Professor of Music in 1959. In 1965 he joined the faculty of the College of Music at the University of North Texas (North Texas State University) as Professor of Music and Coordinator of Composition. He was appointed Director of Graduate Studies in Music in 1969. In 1978 he was promoted to the rank of Distinguished Professor of Music, the University's highest rank. Only seven other faculty members of the University had been so honored at that time. He retired from active service at UNT in June, 1984, and he was formally designated Professor Emeritus by the Board of Regents in November 1984.

Dr. Latham has composed 118 works; 62 have been published, 56 remain in manuscript, but all have been performed — many throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan. He has received numerous awards and commissions (29). His orchestral works have been performed by the Cincinnati Symphony, the Eastman-Rochester Philharmonic, the Dallas Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, and Radio Orchestras in Brussels, Belgium and Hilversum, Holland, under such well known conductors as Eugene Goossens, Howard Hanson, Thor Johnson, Anshel Brusilow, John Giordano, and Walter Susskind.

Dr. Latham died in Denton, Texas on 24 February 2004. Memorial donations may be made to:

William P. Latham Composition Fund
UNT College of Music
Attn: Elida Tamez
P.O. Box 311367
Denton TX 76203-1367
(940) 565-2243




hmm I need to check this out since I live in the Dallas area.
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« Reply #144 on: January 29, 2014, 07:37:12 pm »

Ellsworth Milburn: Salus...Esto (1984)


From the collection of Karl Miller

Springfield (MO) Symphony Orchestra
Charles Bontrager


To the best of my knowledge, this recording has never been commerically released in digital form.



Salus...Esto by Ellsworth Milburn. Orchestra.
For 3(1d Piccolo).2.2.1: 4.4.3.1: Timpani.Percussion(3).Piano.Harp: Strings. Full score. Published by MMB Music Inc (MU.X077176).

Commissioned by the Springfield (MO) Symphony Orchestra.

Description from the Classical Voice of North Carolina Site:
Quote
There were great contrasts in dynamics and density in "Salus…esto," composed by Ellsworth Milburn (b.1938) to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Springfield (Missouri) Symphony Association. The first and last words of the state motto make up the work's title, and the name "Springfield" "occurs in Morse code in several of the (piece's) rhythms." After a loud beginning, with heavily bowed strings, brazen brass, and assertive timpani, the scoring quickly lightens. A short clarinet melody is quickly taken up by the violas and the other strings. Bombastic sections alternate with tranquil episodes and subtle solos. Complex rhythmic patterns are scattered throughout. A fine solo for muted violin, near the end, was subtly played by Concertmistress Ellerbe. Gutter led a vigorous and well-focused performance that maintained balances in even the loudest passages.

Reflections on Ellsworth Milburn, by Keith Carpenter

On May 8, my father called and told me that Ellsworth Milburn, one of my undergraduate composition teachers, had died. Ellsworth taught composition and theory at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music for 25 years before retiring in 2000 to compose in northeastern Pennsylvania. (He didn’t like Houston’s suffocating heat and humidity.) Many of the details of his life are found in the obituaries at the Rice University and Houston Chronicle websites. I will share my reflections on what Ellsworth has meant to me as a composer and a composition teacher. Driving out to one of the colleges I teach at in the Milwaukee area to turn in end-of-semester grades, I had the opportunity to think about how much Ellsworth meant to me. Despite only studying two years with him, he left an indelible mark on my identity as a composer and composition teacher.

Ellsworth’s background always intrigued me. It wasn’t the same as other composers. After all, how many composers have played for the great comedy troupe Second City? Humor, like the entire spectrum of emotions, was allowed to co-exist with the technical precision of his work. That is, technique alone did not make a piece of music. This may seem self-evident today, but given the time that Ellsworth came of age, the mere whiff of emotional expression could consign a composer to compositional purgatory. Instead of clinging dogmatically to axiomatic composition, Ellsworth dared to let his humanity shine through his compositions. This is the greatest lesson I learned from him: allow yourself to express any emotion, but do it with technical excellence. This is the lesson I most want to pass on to my students.

Technique was of paramount importance to Ellsworth. Once, while I was writing a short set of piano preludes, he commented on an octave I had written between the two hands. He seized on it and made me defend its presence. He, of course had nothing against octaves personally (as he would have joked), but it diminished the independence of the parts. After I gave my defense of the offending interval, he granted me that yes, in this particular instance the offense was not so great and may even be useful. Instead of thinking that I had won this battle, I thought: this guy’s got incredible eyes and ears and is watching you like an eagle, so make dandelion sure the technique is in the pocket. I like to think it has been ever since.

Of course, for Ellsworth, technique was only at the service of the expressive quality of music. He made a pronounced distinction between the music he respected (usually highly technical) and the music he liked (music that combined great technical control with expression). In the case of the former, it seemed that he was trying to find ways to integrate the admired technical elements into his own work. Once absorbed, he would write emotionally charged and moving music with the strength and precision of excellent technical execution.

Another great lesson I learned from him was that music shouldn’t shy away from expressing the full range of human emotions. His works appealed to me unlike so many other contemporary works in that they conveyed humor, passion, tenderness, anger and many more emotions. Not that he wore his heart on his sleeve as a composer. His music to me is more analogous to that of Brahms, one of his favorite composers. The emotional intensity is draped in rare technical and formal elegance.

During my doctoral studies I lost touch with Ellsworth. A couple of years ago he and I both had pieces on a conference in North Carolina. I looked forward to reconnecting with him and hearing his music again. At the time, he was recovering from a bout with lung cancer and was in weak condition. He missed most of the concerts but ginned up the energy to come hear my piece. After the concert he congratulated me, beaming like a proud father. He gave me the greatest compliment when he said that I had developed my own voice and was writing gripping music. Hearing high praise from one of my most important teachers was the greatest compliment I could have received and I will treasure this memory. We exchanged a few emails in recent years and I sent him a disc of some of my work. He was complimentary and encouraging, urging me on in my career. He gave me courage to continue on despite setbacks and disappointments, something that I, as a teacher, need to remember to give my students.

Music is the rare art that fully engages every element of our humanity, from intellect to spirit, from soul to body. Few composers write music that touch all of these but Ellsworth Milburn was one of them. I will truly miss him and his compositional voice dearly.

***

Composer Keith Carpenter is a lecturer in composition and music theory at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He studied composition with Ellsworth Milburn at Rice University in the late 1980s.
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« Reply #145 on: January 29, 2014, 08:01:32 pm »

Music of Judith Shatin Allen



From the collection of Karl Miller


Source: Radio broadcast.
To the best of my knowledge, none of these recordings has been commercially released in digital form.



Passion According to St. Cecelia
Gale Martin, Piano
Charlottesville Symphony University and Community Orchestra
Douglas Hargrave
Note: This is likley the premiere, April 27, 1984

From the Composer's Website:

The Passion of St. Cecilia

Instrumentation:  Solo piano,  2 fl (2nd dbl picc), 2 ob, 2 cl, 2 bssn, 2 tpts in C, 2 Hn, 2 trmb, 1 tba, 3 perc, strings

Duration:  21:00

Premiere
4/27/84
Gayle Martin Henry, pianist and the Charlottesville University and Community Orchestra
Old Cabell Hall, Charlottesville, VA


Program Note
The Passion of St. Cecilia, for piano and orchestra, plumbs depths of experience. Here, Shatin creates sound images that are deeply impassioned, and, at times, truly harrowing. The piece begins with a cry of pain inspired by Cecilia’s impossible predicament. The piece was inspired by the story of St. Cecilia, long the patron saint of music, though her musical reputation is based on either a textual misinterpretation or a deliberate embroidering of legend in the fifteenth century. In either case, it’s a delicious irony, and a provocative one: Does it say that Cecilia should somehow be expunged from the official courthouse records of artistic inspiration? Or does it say that faith — and art — work in more powerful, mysterious ways than mere facts?”

“Shatin kept this in mind as she wrote her piano concerto. But she was also inspired by the fifth-century legend of Cecilia as a Christian martyr. When the opening movement was first rehearsed, the pianist wrote on her score, “the struggle.” For the pianist, like Cecilia, it’s a spectacular and dramatic effort to make her voice heard, to raise it in protest or delight or love, and affirm her religious beliefs.

After this public confrontation, the second movement of the Passion turns inwards. Shatin calls it a “meditation on faith” — you may even hear whispers of a chorale by J.S. Bach. Soon, though, the mood of nocturnal reflection passes over, like the eye of a cyclone, and the inevitable approaches. The final movement tells of St. Cecilia’s desperation, and her martyrdom. The piece ends, as did her life, with three brutal blows. Gayle Martin Henry recorded the piece with the Moravian Philharmonic, Joel Suben conducting, and it is currently available on Parma’s Capstone Collection.
–David Schulman

Press
“…Based on the legend of St. Cecilia, the piece uses the piano and orchestra against each other to depict the conflict between Cecilia and the society that condemned her, as well as together to express her calmer, meditative side. The coloristic effects, language and ideas are fresh and bold. (Shatin) has full grasp of her orchestral flavorings, and her sense of direction is always crystal clear. The work has beautiful sonorities yet an almost primitive character in its dramatic representation of conflict. (Shatin) uses a wall of orchestral sound in the first movement to portray society, from which the piano (as Cecilia) seems to rise. The second movement is mainly clam and lyrical; some of its harmonies are almost impressionist. The third builds to a striking finish as Henry pounds the piano with her forearms, perhaps depicting Cecilia’s behading. The ending is almost too abrupt, but the device is tremendously effective, almost making the listeners jump to their feet. ”
–The Denver Post

Arche for Viola and Orchestra
Rosemary Glyde, Viola
Houston Symphony Orchestra/C. William Harwood

Note: the composer's website had little information about this work except for the following.  It is of interest that the soloist is the one who commissioned ths work.

Instrumentation Viola Concerto

Duration 17:00

Commission
Rosemary Glyde

Premiere
9/13/78
Roundabout Theatre, Manticore Orchestra
Thomas James, Conductor; Rosemary Glyde, Viola Solo
New York, NY

Interview: The Mind of the Artist

This is not a musical work, but rather an Library of Congress Podcast addressing a topic that fascinates me no end.  The description from the LOC post is reproduced below:

Title: The Mind of the Artist

Speakers: Michael Kubovy and Judith Shatin, University of Virginia
Series: Music and the Brain
Date: June 2009
Running Time: 26:29 minutes

Description:

Michael Kubovy and Judith Shatin of the University of Virginia discuss their presentation "The Mind of an Artist." Debate has long raged about whether and how music expresses meaning beyond its sounding notes. Kubovy and Shatin discuss evidence that music does indeed have a semantic element, and offer examples of how composers embody extra-musical elements in their compositions. Kubovy is a cognitive psychologist who studies visual and auditory perception, and Shatin is a composer who explores similar issues in her music.


About the Composer:

Judith Shatin (Allen) has a very informative website and blog here:  http://judithshatin.com/

I am reproducing her bio below:

Judith Shatin (www.judithshatin.com) is a composer and sound artist whose music, called “something magical” by Fanfare, reflects her multiple fascinations with literature and visual arts, with the sounding world, and with the social and communicative power of music. Shatin’s music has been commissioned by organizations such as the Barlow and Fromm Foundations, the McKim Fund of the Library of Congress, the Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Arts Partners Program, as well as ensembles including Ash Lawn Opera, Da Capo Chamber Players, the Dutch Hexagon Ensemble, newEar,the National and Richmond Symphonies, and many more. Twice a fellow at the Rockefeller Center in Bellagio, she has held residencies at MacDowell, Yaddo, the VCCA, La Cité des Arts (France), Mishkan HaAmanim (Israel), among others. Her Rotunda, a film collaboration with Robert Arnold, won the Macon Film Festival Best Experimental Film Award (2011), while her music for the film Cinnamon, by Kevin J. Everson, has been heard at festivals ranging from Sundance to Munich and Rotterdam. In demand as a master teacher, Shatin has served as BMI composer-in-residence at Vanderbilt University, as master composer at California Summer Music, and as senior composer at the Wellesley Composers Forum. She is William R. Kenan Jr. Professor at the University of Virginia, where she founded and directs the Virginia Center for Computer Music. Her work is featured in the recent book Women of Influence in Contemporary Music, Nine American Composers (Scarecrow Press). A staunch advocate for her fellow composers, she has served as President of American Women Composers and on the boards of the League/ISCM, American Composers Alliance, and International Alliance for Women in Music.








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« Reply #146 on: February 23, 2014, 08:24:59 pm »

Music of Thomas Beversdorf



From the collection of Karl Miller
Concerto Grosso for Chamber Orchestra and Solo Oboe
Arno Mariotti, oboe
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra/Vladimier Bakaleinikov
Source LP: RCA E0QC-11901

Symphony 4 (1960)
Indiana University Philharmonic
Tibor Kozma (Possibly the premiere?)

Other recordings from the Beversdorf Website, collected and restored by  by S. Thomas Beversdorf III (his son):

Symphony 3 for Winds and Percussion (1954)
Thomas Beversdorf conducting Director Band


Cathedral Music: Four Short Pieces for Brass Choir (1953)
Indiana University Brass Choir conducted by Charles Gorham


La Petite Exposition (1976) 
Michael Antonello, violin; Wolfgang Vacano, conductor–Indiana University Symphony Orchestra

Overture to the opera The Hooligan (1969)
based on the short story, “The Boor” by Franz Kafka.
Performed by The University of Utah Symphony Orchestra, Robert Reingart, conductor



Bio from beversdorf.com:
Thomas Beversdorf,
a Most Notable Composer,
Biographical Material*

Thomas Beversdorf’s daughter Anne provides the following information:

S. Thomas Beversdorf, Jr. was born August 8, 1924, in Yoakum, Texas, to Estelle Hamblen Beversdorf and Samuel Thomas Beversdorf Sr. His father (Sam) was a postal carrier and local band-director, and “Tommy” studied the trombone as a child. After a brief period in the army, he was discharged 4F because of his severe allergies. His freshman year at college was at Baylor University in Waco, TX, which is where he first met Norma Beeson, although they didn’t seriously connect at that time. Each independently decided to transfer to the University of Texas at Austin the next year, where Norma, a talented pianist, became his accompaniest. Tom Beversdorf married Norma Beeson in 1945. They had five children together: Anne (1949), Paula (1952), Sarah (1960-1962), STB III (Tom) 1963, and David Quintin (1965). Thomas Beversdorf taught music at Indiana University from 1949-1980, living in Bloomington, and died (asthma) in 1981.

Additional facts were provided from a short bio in the Cook Music Library web pages and the University of Pittsburg web pages. Livingston regards Anne’s material as more primary if there are differences. Thomas Beversdorf was born at Yoakum, Texas on August 8, 1924 and died early at age 57 on February 15, 1981. {Rule: 1981-1924=57 if the 1981 month exceeds the 1924 month in the calendar year.} He began studying piano at age six, and at seven, baritone horn with his father, a band director in Yoakum. He started playing trombone in high school, also under the guidance of his father. Beversdorf graduated high school when he was sixteen. Between age 6 and 16 he also studied horn, saxophone, cello, and clarinet which provided a large sampling of orchestral instruments for his tutelege. In 1941, Beversdorf went to Baylor University on a full scholarship. In 1942, he transferred to the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied composition with Kent Kennan, Eric DeLemarter, and Anthony Donato. He finished his BM degree (cum laude) in Theory and Composition in August 1945. Beversdorf went to the Eastman School of Music that fall, studying composition with Bernard Rogers and Howard Hanson, and trombone with Emory Remington. He received his MM in theory and composition in Spring 1946.

In the summer of 1947, Beversdorf studied composition with Aaron Copland and Arthur Honegger at Tanglewood, and privately with Anis Fuleihan. Fuleihan was teaching at IU in the fall of 1950 and until 1952; Beversdorf apparently got his doctorate in near zero time from IU under Fuleihan. Beversdorf played trombone with the Rochester Philharmonic from 1945 to 1946 and the Houston Symphony from 1946 to 1948, and bass trombone in the Pittsburgh Symphony from 1948 to 1949. He was an instructor at the University of Houston from 1946 to 1948. In 1951, he joined the faculty of the Indiana University School of Music as a professor of trombone and composition. [note from Anne Beversdorf.  Thomas Beversdorf moved to Indiana University in August, 1949 as an assistant professor, according to his wife, Norma Beversdorf.  His wife and newborn daughter followed about a month later.] Amongst other things, he wrote Three Epitaphs for Brass Quartet, which appears larger than life painted on the west outside wall of Smith-Holden Music Store at 222 W. Kirkwood Avenue, in downtown Bloomington, Indiana. The mural was created in 1976. George Holden now owns and manages the store with his son, Mark Holden. He was a much respected professor of the Holden’s as he was of Julian Livingston who also studied composition and orchestration with Beversdorf. [The store has closed and the building has changed hands, but the Bloomington Arts Council has ensured that the mural will always be there.]

Website manager, Livingston’s, experience with Beversdorf was primarily as a student of orchestration, calligraphy, and with one semester spent in composition studies. Fortunately, Livingston, who wrote the orchestration for the songs and ballets of the winning Jordan River Review in 1954, had the opportunity to have Beversdorf’s extensive advice and teaching in those matters. As for orchestration, Beversdorf’s contacts in the WFIU radio station and the early Television Station at IU made it possible for his classes to write music for those outlets as well, an unusual facet in those early days of television, but an all important advantage for the student.

Livingston notes that Beversdorf wrote a piece Serenade to My Wife in 1956; however, as Anne Beversdorf’s submission above shows, this did not coincide with their marriage date. This devotion is strongly reminiscent of Wagner’s work “Siegried’s Rhine Journey” abstracted from his Ring Music, dedicated and performed outside their apartment. Other notable connections to the lives of famous composers may be found such as Beversdorf’s premature death at 57 years [6 months before his 57th birthday. (ab)] resonating with Beethoven’s early loss.

According to a review by Daniel K. Schneider,’57 Beversdorf had a major work, his Symphony No. 3 for Winds and Percussion played November 18, 1955 in the Kresge Auditorium by the MIT Concert Band which is quoted in part. “Due to their improved status, they tackled the Symphony for Winds and Percssiont, an extremely difficult work because of the intense personal concentration which it requires of the performers. This was the hardest piece which the band has ever tried, and therefore required more preparation than it was given. As a result,- the performance was not wholly convincing. Mr. Beversdorf’s work is a very fine composition which is masterfully constructed, and which displays the wind sound as well as, if not better than, any other number in the repertory. The piece reminds one of a Mahler symphony, where the instruments are treated individually rather than in choirs. This reviewer sincerely hopes that the MIT audience will soon hear another, more secure, presentation of the symphony.” This may have well been the premier as it was completed at Bloomington, IN, May 9, 1954. Beversdorf apparently decided to broaden the work’s outlet by presenting it for full orchestra in Bloomington, IN, October 10, 1958.

Searching the Internet reveals that there is material stored at the University of Pittsburg Archives under Collection No.: AIS64:24 Title: Papers of Jennie Bradley Roessing with limited access. Material relating to that file is currently found at: http://www.library.pitt.edu/guides/archives/finding-aids/ais6424.htm . They state that Thomas and Norma Beversdorf, Thomas’s wife, were close friends of Mrs. Jennie Bradley Roessing. Jennie Bradley Roessing was an active participant in the women’s suffrage movement and various Pittsburgh-area organizations, principally for the period, 1904-1920′s. The archives note that Thomas gained recognition as a composer and member of the Houston Symphony Orchestra. His work was performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony on several occassions. The material relating to Thomas and Norma Beversdorf includes correspondence, photographs, and music sheets. All of the correspondence in folder 9 was written by Norma Beversdorf.

Beversdorf continued at IU in the capacity of tenured Professor of Music with special areas of trombone, composition, orchestration, calligraphy until 1977. In 1977, he lectured at the University of Guadalajara. The Thomas Beversdorf Memorial Scholarship has been established, and is awarded annually to a worthy student studying in the School of Music. Bob Burnham reports that although a highly intellectual person, “Dr. B.” encouraged you to keep it simple, not sabotaging the musical goal by focusing on the physical means of producing it. During performance, “Analysis IS paralysis” was his claim according to Burnham. He died in the Bloomington Hospital in February of 1981 [death was approximately 2 am on February 15th. An unmailed letter to his mother was found after his death, where he wrote her "I just hope I don't die on Dad's birthday (Feb 14)] and his obituary in the Herald-Times was dated 17 February 1981.


*Note: This material was gleaned from many sources, especially Anne Beversdorf, his daughter, but also the Cook Music Library web page and the University of Pittsburg, quoted with interspersions from recollections of Julian Livingston and conversations with Sarah Clevenger and Norma Beversdorf.

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All download links I have posted are for works, that, to  my knowledge, have never been commercially released in digital form.  Should you find I've been in error, please notify myself or an Administrator.  Please IM me if I've made any errors that require attention, as I may not read replies.
mjkFendrich
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« Reply #147 on: March 22, 2014, 08:20:56 pm »

Music of George Antheil
Tracks 1-5 from the collection of Karl Miller

1. Jazz Symphony (original 1925 version)
Ivan Davis, Piano  Maurice Peress, Cond.
July 31, 1986
Venue unknown.
(the runtime for this is less than the commercial release Peress had in 1992)

2-4: Violin Concerto (Premiere -- Feb 9, 1947)

Verna Gebauer, Violin
Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Antal Dorait, Conductor


While listening to Guy Livingston's new Antheil CD from Wergo, I revisited this entry and discovered a
minor spelling mistake concerning the soloist of Antheil's violin concerto. His correct name is/was
Werner Gebauer (1918 - 2013). Some more info about him can be found at
http://gebauer.tv/werner/

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« Reply #148 on: March 23, 2014, 11:51:58 pm »

Ah....I THINK that I now understand ???

When Sydney said that he had "taken a snapshot" of UC before the "apocalypse" he did not mean to imply that the links to downloads had been moved to this site-with the notable exception of the entire British Music Archive which Albion had backed-up and was able to move in toto.

The links to which he refers are still the same links available on that site. Where a link has disappeared from UC he has been notifying us and requesting re-uploads(which have all-I think-been provided to date ???). Otherwise members here are being redirected to UC for the link.

Fortunately-for ME- that is ;D I do not need to be so redirected: (1) because I wouldn't get into that site since I am "excluded" even as a "guest" and (2) because I downloaded virtually everything from the site in any case before I was carted off to the scaffold.

So....in the case of the Gardner Read, I had the previous incarnations of the links from UC. If, however, as you say, Karl has improved the sound quality then I shall download the lot again :)

The other likely possibilty is that this did not originate from UC at all, but from a similar site.

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worov
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« Reply #149 on: June 09, 2014, 02:09:13 pm »

Hi, everyone !

I just discovered this forum and it seems to be a very enjoyable place. I intend to read in depth many of the posts and I'm sure I'll discover many composers.

However I have a question. I have downloaded some files (the Hovhaness symphonies, thanks to the uploader, by the way). I was surprised to see that the files in the ZIP archive were in MP3 format. As you may know, the MP3 format uses a lossy compression. Some information is lost in the process, which means that the MP3 file has a lower quality than the original recording.

More about this here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3

Well, I may sound bitching, but it seems to me, that, when one shares an out of print recording, one should share it in the best possible quality. These LP records are
out of print, right ? Some of these recordings have never been released in LP format (I'm thinking Symphony no.36 here. I never knew it was even recorded). These recordings are pure gold, they must have the best possible treatment they deserve.

There are several lossless formats (WAVE, FLAC, APE are the most used). Anybody can convert a FLAC file in MP3 if one wants to. But the other way around is impossible : I can't regain the information that was lost in the process of conversion in MP3 format.

I will do with the MP3 fles for the moment. But when I'll be listening to these in my living-room on my Hi-Fi system with my very large speakers, I'll be sure they definitely don't sound as good as the original sources. I guess I'll end up buying a second hand copy of the LP's (And I'll listen to Symphony no.36 in MP3 format since it's probably the only source I'll ever come by).

Thanks again for the uploads, I didn't know any of these recordings. And the music is beautiful.
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