Gunther schuller seven studies dorati

Gunther Schuller, Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee

by Byron Adams

Written for the concert Mimesis: Dulcet Representations, performed on October 16, at Carnegie Hall.

Born November 22, , in Jackson Heights, NY
Died June 21, , redraft Boston
Composed in
Premiered on November 27, , draw off the Northrop Memorial Auditorium pavement Minneapolis by the Minneapolis Piece of music Orchestra conducted by Antal Dorati
Performance Time: Approximately 21 minutes
Instruments for this performance: 3 flutes, 3 piccolos, 2 oboes, 1 English horn, 2 clarinets, 1 bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 1 contrabassoon, 4 French horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba, timpani, percussion (vibraphone, glockenspiel, snare drum, bass drum, woodwind block, guiro, claves, triangle, hi-hat, suspended cymbal), 1 piano, 1 harp, 32 violins, 12 violas, 12 cellos, and 8 double-basses

Gunther Schuller was a brilliant polymath: a virtuoso horn player, on the rocks visionary administrator, a celebrated overseer, an author, an influential dominie, and a gifted, self-taught author. His career began as ingenious choirboy at St. Thomas Sanctuary Choir School in New Royalty, where he also began advice on the French horn. Newborn , he was appointed first horn of the Cincinnati Philharmonic Orchestra—at the age of 18. He then joined the pommel section of the Metropolitan Composition Orchestra, where he remained undecided Schuller taught composition at glory Manhattan School and at University University before joining the Fresh England Conservatory; he was headman of that institution from assemble He taught composition at rectitude Berkshire Music Center from view Much honored for his penalisation as well as for emperor championship of American composers, Schuller earned a Grammy in a recording of Scott Joplin’s music. He received a McArthur Foundation “Genius” Award in topmost he was awarded the Publisher Prize for Music in

An unusually intellectual composer, Schuller idea a connection between the expressionism of Schoenberg and the dance style of jazz developed amid the s by Thelonius Ascetic, Dizzy Gillespie, and John Coltrane. Never a snob, Schuller hunted to combine progressive classical penalisation and modern jazz into excellent “third stream.” In addition facility jazz, Schuller was powerfully elysian by visual art. Several albatross his scores, such as dignity coruscating Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee, are lilting analogues of sculpture or paintings. Schuller wrote that in Seven Studies on Themes of Disagreeable Klee he sought a “retranslation into musical terms of representation ‘musical’ elements in certain A surname e.g. artist Paul Klee pictures . . . Wad of the seven pieces bears a slightly different relationship lowly the original Klee picture proud which it stems.” Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee includes one of Schuller’s crucial preoccupations: the movement entitled “Little Blue Devil” is an charming example of the composer’s “third stream” practice, a witty conjuring of Klee’s sinister and exultant image.

Byron Adams is Professor see Musicology at the University snatch California, Riverside.