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Walter Piston

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Walter Piston

Walter Hamor Piston, Jr.(January 20, 1894 – November 12, 1976), was an Americancomposerofclassical music,music theorist, and professor of music atHarvard University.

Life

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Piston was born inRockland, Maineat 15 Ocean Street to Walter Hamor Piston, a bookkeeper, and Leona Stover. He was the second of four children.[1][circular reference]His paternal grandfather was a sailor named Antonio Pistone, who changed his name to Anthony Piston when he came to Maine fromGenoa, Italy.In 1905 the composer's father, Walter Piston Sr, moved with his family toBoston, Massachusetts.[2]

Walter Jr first trained as an engineer at the Mechanical Arts High School in Boston, but was artistically inclined. After graduating in 1912, he enrolled in theMassachusetts Normal Art School,where he completed a four-year program in fine art in 1916.[3][failed verification]

During the 1910s, Piston made a living playing piano and violin in dance bands and later playing violin in orchestras led byGeorges Longy.[2]During World War I, he joined the U.S. Navy as a band musician after rapidly teaching himself to play saxophone; he later stated that, when "it became obvious that everybody had to go into the service, I wanted to go in as a musician".[4]While playing in a service band, he taught himself to play most wind instruments. "They were just lying around," he later observed, "and no one minded if you picked them up and found out what they could do".[5]

Piston was admitted toHarvard Collegein 1920, where he studiedcounterpointwith Archibald Davison, canon and fugue with Clifford Heilman, advanced harmony withEdward Ballantine,and composition and music history withEdward Burlingame Hill.He often worked as an assistant for various music professors there, and conducted the student orchestra.[6][7]

In 1920, Piston married artist Kathryn Nason (1892–1976), who had been a fellow student at the Normal Art School.[8]The marriage lasted until her death in February 1976, a few months before his own.[3]

On graduatingsumma cum laudefrom Harvard, Piston was awarded aJohn Knowles PaineTraveling Fellowship.[7]He chose to go to Paris, living there from 1924 to 1926.[9]At the Ecole Nationale de Musique in Paris, he studied composition and counterpoint withNadia Boulanger,composition withPaul Dukasand violin withGeorge Enescu.HisThree Pieces for Flute, Clarinet and Bassoonof 1925 was his first published score.[2]

He taught at Harvard from 1926 until his retirement in 1960.[2]His students includeSamuel Adler,Leroy Anderson,Arthur Berger,Leonard Bernstein,Gordon Binkerd,Elliott Carter,John Davison,Irving Fine,John Harbison,Karl Kohn,Ellis B. Kohs,Gail Kubik,Billy Jim Layton,Noël Lee,Robert Middleton,Robert Moevs,Daniel Pinkham,Mildred Barnes Royse,Frederic Rzewski,Allen Sapp,Harold Shapero,andClaudio Spies,[2]as well asFrank D'Accone,[10]Ann Ronell,[11]Robert Strassburg,[12]Yehudi Wyner,[13]andWilliam P. Perry.[citation needed]See:List of music students by teacher: N to Q#Walter Piston.

In 1936, theColumbia Broadcasting Systemcommissioned six American composers (Aaron Copland,Louis Gruenberg,Howard Hanson,Roy Harris,William Grant Stilland Piston) to write works for broadcast on CBS radio.[14]Piston wrote hisSymphony No. 1and conducted its premiere with theBoston Symphony Orchestraon April 8, 1938.[15]

Piston's only dance work,The Incredible Flutist,was written for theBoston Pops Orchestra,which premiered it withArthur Fiedlerconducting on May 30, 1938. The dancers were Hans Weiner and his company. Soon after, Piston arranged a concert suite including "a selection of the best parts of the ballet." This version was premiered byFritz Reinerand thePittsburgh Symphony Orchestraon November 22, 1940.Leonard Slatkinand theSt. Louis Symphony Orchestraincluded the suite in a 1991RCA VictorCD recording that also featured Piston'sThree New England SketchesandSymphony No. 6.[16]

Piston studied thetwelve-tone techniqueofArnold Schoenbergand wrote works using aspects of it as early as the Sonata for Flute and Piano (1930) and the First Symphony (1937). His first fully twelve-tone work was theChromatic Study on the Name of Bachfor organ (1940), which nonetheless retains a vague feeling of key.[17]Although he employed twelve-tone elements sporadically throughout his career, these become much more pervasive in theEighth Symphony(1965) and many of the works following it: the Variations for Cello and Orchestra (1966),Clarinet Concerto(1967),Ricercare for Orchestra,Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra (1970), and Flute Concerto (1971).[18]

In 1943, the Alice M. Ditson Fund ofColumbia Universitycommissioned Piston'sSymphony No. 2,which was premiered by theNational Symphony Orchestraon March 5, 1944 and was awarded a prize by the New York Music Critics' Circle. His next symphony,the Third,earned aPulitzer Prize,as did hisSymphony No. 7.His Viola Concerto andString Quartet No. 5also later received Critics' Circle awards.[2]

Piston was awarded theEdward MacDowell Medalfor his outstanding contribution to the arts by theMacDowell Colonyin 1974.[19]

Piston wrote four books on the technical aspects ofmusic theorywhich are considered to be classics in their respective fields:Principles of Harmonic Analysis,Counterpoint,Orchestration,andHarmony.The last of these introduced for the first time in theoretical literature several important new concepts that Piston had developed in his approach to music theory, notably the concept of harmonic rhythm, and thesecondary dominant.[20]This work went through four editions in the author's lifetime, was translated into several languages, and (with changes and additions by Mark DeVoto) was still regarded as recently as 2009 as a standard harmony text.[21]

He died at his home in Belmont, Massachusetts on November 12, 1976.[5]

His library and desk are permanently exhibited in the Piston Room, at the Boston Public Library.[22]

Works

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Ballet

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Orchestral

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Band and brass ensemble

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Concertante

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Flute

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  • Flute Concerto (1971)

Clarinet

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Harp

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Piano

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  • Piano Concertino (1937)
  • Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra (1959)

Violin

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Viola

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Cello

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  • Variations for Cello and Orchestra (1966)

Organ

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  • Prelude and Allegro for Organ and Strings (1943)[23]

Other

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  • Fantasy for English Horn, Harp, and Strings (1953)
  • Concerto for String Quartet, Wind Instruments and Percussion (1976)

Chamber/Instrumental

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  • String quartets
  • Three Pieces, for flute, clarinet, and bassoon (1925)
  • Sonata for Flute and Piano (1930)
  • Suite for Oboe and Piano (1931)
  • Piano Trio No. 1 (1935)
  • Sonata for Violin and Piano (1939)
  • Sonatina for Violin and Harpsichord(1945)[29]
  • Interlude, for viola and piano (1942)[15]
  • Flute Quintet (1942)
  • Partita, for violin, viola, and organ (1944)[23]
  • Divertimento,for nine instruments (1946)
  • Duo for Viola and Cello (1949)
  • Piano Quintet (1949)
  • Wind Quintet (1956)
  • Piano Quartet (1964)
  • String Sextet (1964)
  • Piano Trio No. 2 (1966)
  • Souvenirs,for flute, viola, and harp (1967)
  • Duo, for cello and piano (1972)[30]
  • Three Counterpoints,for violin, viola, and cello (1973)

Piano

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  • Piano Sonata (1926) [unpublished, withdrawn]
  • Passacaglia (1943)
  • Improvisation(1945)
  • Variation on Happy Birthday(1970)

Organ

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  • Chromatic Study on the Name ofBACH(1940)[15]

Choral

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  • Carnival Song,for male chorus and brass (1938)
  • March (1940)
  • Psalm and Prayer of David,for mixed chorus and seven instruments (1959)
  • "O sing unto the Lord a new song" (Psalm 96)
  • "Bow down thine ear, O Lord" (Psalm 86)

Books

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  • Principles of Harmonic Analysis.Boston: E. C. Schirmer, 1933.
  • Harmony.New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1941. Reprint edition (as U.S. War Dept. Education Manual EM 601), Madison, Wisconsin: Published for the United States Armed Forces Institute by W. Norton, 1944. Revised ed, New York: W. W. Norton, 1948. Third ed., 1962. Fourth ed., revised and expanded by Mark DeVoto, 1978.ISBN0-393-09034-5.5th edition, revised and expanded by Mark DeVotoISBN0-393-95480-3.British editions, London: Victor Gollancz, 1949, rev. ed. 1950 (reprinted 1973), 1959, 3rd ed. 1970, 4th ed. 1982. Spanish translation, asArmonía,rev. y ampliada por Mark DeVoto. Barcelona: Idea Books, 2001.ISBN84-8236-224-0Chinese version of the 2nd edition, as hòa thanh học [He sheng xue], trans. Chenbao Feng and Dun xing Shen. Bắc Kinh: Nhân dân âm nhạc nhà xuất bản: Nhà sách Tân Hoa Bắc Kinh phát hành phát ra hành [Beijing: Ren min yin yue chu ban she: Xin hua shu dian Beijing fa xing suo fa xing ], 1956. Revised, Bắc Kinh: Nhân dân âm nhạc nhà xuất bản [Beijing: Ren min yin yue chu ban she], 1978.
  • Counterpoint.New York: W. W. Norton, 1947.
  • Orchestration.New York: Norton, 1955. Russian translation, as 'Оркестровка', translation and notes by Constantine Ivanov. Moscow: Soviet Composer, 1990,ISBN5-85285-014-4.

Notes

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  1. ^"Music and History: Walter Piston".musicandhistory.RetrievedJune 6,2019.
  2. ^abcdefPollack 2001
  3. ^abDeVoto 1994
  4. ^Westergaard & Piston 1968,p. 3.
  5. ^abHudson 1976
  6. ^Pollack 2001.
  7. ^abWestergaard & Piston 1968,p. 4.
  8. ^Oja 2011.
  9. ^Thomson 1962.
  10. ^Morgan 2001.
  11. ^Andersen 2001.
  12. ^Pfitzinger 2017,pp. 422, 522.
  13. ^Perlis 2001.
  14. ^Kosovsky, Bob (June 13, 2017)."A Footnote in the History of Radio Music".The New York Public Library.Archivedfrom the original on 2023-12-09.Retrieved2024-03-07.
  15. ^abcdCarter 1946,p. 374
  16. ^RCA Victor 1991.
  17. ^Pollack 1982,pp. 35, 72–73.
  18. ^Archibald 1978,p. 267.
  19. ^"Piston Honored by MacDowell Colony".The New York Times.1974-08-19.ISSN0362-4331.Retrieved2024-03-07.
  20. ^Thompson 1980,pp. 127, 143.
  21. ^Firmino, Bueno & Bigand 2009,p. 206.
  22. ^Boston Public Library website, Rare Books Department.
  23. ^abcCarter 1946,p. 375
  24. ^Lowe 2002.
  25. ^US Marine Band,Family Album,2006. Label: Altissimo! Reference: B000QZSTZ2.
  26. ^Finding aid for the George Trescher records related to The Metropolitan Museum of Art Centennial, 1949, 1960–1971 (bulk 1967–1970).Metropolitan Museum of Art.Retrieved 6 August 2014.
  27. ^Pollack 1982,p. 108.
  28. ^Pollack 1987.
  29. ^Stowell 1992,p. 189.
  30. ^Anon. 2007.

Sources

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Further reading

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