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Elliott Cook Carter, Jr. (born December 11, 1908) is an American composer from New York City. Events 359 - Honoratus, the first known Prefect of the City of Constantinople, takes office Year 1908 ( MCMVIII) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A composer (literally meaning 'one who puts together' is a person who creates Music, usually in the medium of notation, for Interpretation and Performance The City of New York He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, and then returned to the United States. Nadia Boulanger (September 16 1887 &ndash October 22 1979 was an influential French Composer, conductor, and Music professor After a neoclassical phase, he went on to write atonal, rhythmically complex music. Atonality in its broadest sense describes Music that lacks a tonal center, or key. His compositions, which have been performed all over the world, include orchestral and chamber music as well as instrumental and vocal works. An orchestra is an instrumental ensemble, usually fairly large with string brass woodwind sections and possibly a percussion section as well Chamber music is a form of Classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber

Contents

Biography

Elliott Carter was born in New York City. The City of New York His father, Elliott Carter, Sr. was a businessman and his mother was the former Florence Chambers. The family was well-to-do. As a teenager he developed an interest in music and was encouraged in this regard by the composer Charles Ives (who sold insurance to his family). Charles Edward Ives (October 20 1874 – May 19 1954 was an American Composer of modernist Classical music. Although Carter majored in English at Harvard College, he also studied music there and at the nearby Longy School of Music. Harvard College is the undergraduate section and oldest school of Harvard University, a Private university in the United States founded in 1636 by the Massachusetts The Longy School of Music is a conservatory located near Harvard Square in Cambridge Massachusetts. His professors included Walter Piston. Walter Hamor Piston Jr ( January 20, 1894 &ndash November 12, 1976) was an American composer and music theorist He sang with the Harvard Glee Club. The Harvard Glee Club is a 60-voice all-male choral ensemble at Harvard University.

He did graduate work in music at Harvard, from which he received a master's degree in music in 1932. He then went to Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger (as did Aaron Copland, George Gershwin and many other American composers). Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city Nadia Boulanger (September 16 1887 &ndash October 22 1979 was an influential French Composer, conductor, and Music professor Aaron Copland (November 14 1900 &ndash December 2 1990 was an American Composer of concert and film music as well as an accomplished Pianist. George Gershwin (September 26 1898 &ndash July 11 1937 was an American Composer. Carter worked with Mlle Boulanger from 1932-35 and in 1935 he received a doctorate in music (D Mus) from the Ecole Normale in Paris. École Normale de Musique de ParisThe École normale supérieure (also known as Normale Sup’, Normale, ENS, ENS-Paris, ENS-Ulm or Later in 1935 he returned to the US where he directed the Ballet Caravan.

From 1939 to 1941 Elliott Carter taught courses in physics, mathematics and classical Greek, in addition to music, at St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland. St John's College is a Liberal arts college with two US campuses Annapolis Maryland and Santa Fe New Mexico. On July 6, 1939, Carter married Helen Frost-Jones. They had one child, a son, David Chambers Carter.

During World War II, Carter worked for the Office of War Information. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The United States Office of War Information (OWI was a US government agency created during World War II to consolidate government information services He later held teaching posts at the Peabody Conservatory (1946 - 1948), Columbia University, Queens College, New York (1955-56), Yale University (1960-62), Cornell University (from 1967) and the Juilliard School (from 1972). The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University is a conservatory and preparatory school located in the Mount Vernon neighborhood Columbia University is a private University in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Queens College, located in Flushing, Queens, New York City, is one of the senior Colleges of the City University of New York. The Juilliard School, located in New York City, is a world renowned Performing arts conservatory. In 1967 he was appointed a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 250-member organization whose goal is to "foster assist and sustain excellence" in American Literature,

Style and works

Carter's earlier works are influenced by Stravinsky and Hindemith, and are mainly neoclassical in aesthetic. Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (Игорь Фёдорович Стравинский) ( &ndash 6 April 1971 was a Russian born Composer, considered by many to Paul Hindemith (16 November 1895 &ndash 28 December 1963 was a German Composer, Violist, violinist teacher music theorist and conductor. Neoclassicism (sometimes rendered as Neo-Classicism or Neo-classicism) is the name given to quite distinct movements in the decorative and He had a strict and thorough training in counterpoint, from medieval polyphony through Stravinsky, and this shows in his earliest music, such as the ballet Pocohontas (1938-9). Some of his music during the Second World War is frankly diatonic, and includes a melodic lyricism reminiscent of Samuel Barber. Samuel Osborne Barber II ( March 9, 1910 – January 23, 1981) was an American Composer of Orchestral, Opera, Interestingly, Carter abandoned neoclassicism around the same time Stravinsky did, saying that he felt he had been evading vital areas of feeling.

His music after 1950 is typically atonal and rhythmically complex, indicated by the invention of the term metric modulation to describe the frequent, precise tempo changes found in his work. Year 1950 ( MCML) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Atonality in its broadest sense describes Music that lacks a tonal center, or key. Rhythm (from Greek ῥυθμός - rhythmos, "any measured flow or movement symmetry" is the variation of the length and accentuation of In Music a metric modulation is a change ( modulation) from one Time signature / Tempo ( meter) to another wherein a note value from While Carter's chromaticism and tonal vocabulary parallels serial composers of the period, Carter does not employ serial techniques in his music. In Music, serialism is a technique for composition that uses sets to describe musical elements, and allows the manipulation of those Rather he independently developed and cataloged all possible collections of pitches (i. e. all possible 3 note chords, 5 note chords etc. ). Musical theorists like Allen Forte later systematized this data into musical set theory. Musical set theory provides concepts for categorizing musical objects and describing their relationships A series of works in the 1960s and 1970's generates its tonal material by using all possible chords of a particular number of pitches. The Piano Concerto (1964-65) uses the collection of three note chords for its pitch material; the Third String Quartet (1971) uses all four-note chords; the Concerto for Orchestra (1969) all five-note chords; and the Symphony of Three Orchestras utilizes the collection of six note chords. Carter also makes frequent use of "tonic" 12-note chords. Of particular interest are "all-interval" 12-tone chords where every interval is represented within adjacent notes of the chord. His 1980 solo piano work Night Fantasies utilizes the entire collection of 88 all-interval 12 note chords. Typically the pitch material is segmented between instruments, with a unique set of chords or sets assigned to each instrument or orchestral section. This stratification of material, with individual voices assigned not only their own unique pitch material, but texture and rhythm as well, is a key component of Carter's musical style. Carter's music after Night Fantasies has been termed his late period and his tonal language has become less systematized and more intuitive, but retains the basic characteristics of his earlier works.

Carter's use of rhythm can best be understood within the concept of stratification. Each instrumental voice is typically assigned its own set of tempos. A structural polyrhythm, where a very slow polyrhythm is used as a formal device, is present in many of Carter's works. The solo piano work Night Fantasies, for example, uses a 216:175 tempo relation that coincides at only two points in the entire 20+ minute composition. This use of rhythm is part of his goal to expand the notion of counterpoint to encompass simultaneous different characters, even entire movements, rather than just individual lines.

Carter developed his technique to further his artistic goals. His use of rhythm allows his music a structured fluidity and sense of time perhaps unique in classical music. The music also is overtly expressive and dramatic. He has said that "I regard my scores as scenarios, auditory scenarios, for performers to act out with their instruments, dramatizing the players as individuals and participants in the ensemble. " He has also talked about his desire to portray a "different form of motion," in which players are not locked in step with the downbeat of every measure. He has said that such steady pulses remind him of soldiers marching or horses trotting, sounds that are not heard anymore in the late 20th century, and he wants his music to capture the sort of continuous acceleration or deceleration experienced in an automobile or an airplane. While Carter's music shows little trace of American popular music or jazz, his vocal music has demonstrated strong ties to contemporary American poetry. Jazz is an American Musical art form which originated in the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States He has set works of Elizabeth Bishop, John Ashbery, Robert Lowell, William Carlos Williams and, most recently, Wallace Stevens. Elizabeth Bishop ( February 8, 1911 &ndash October 6, 1979) was an American Poet and Writer from Worcester John Ashbery (born July 28, 1927) is Robert Lowell (March 1 1917&ndashSeptember 12 1977 born Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV, was an American Poet whose works confessional in nature William Carlos Williams ( 17 September 1883 &ndash 4 March 1963) was an American poet closely associated with modernism Wallace Stevens ( October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was a major American Modernist Poet. Several of his large instrumental works such as the Concerto for Orchestra or Symphony of Three Orchestras are inspired by Twentieth Century American poets as well.

Among his better known works are the Variations for Orchestra (1954-5); the Double Concerto for harpsichord, piano and two chamber orchestras (1959-61); the Piano Concerto (1964-65), written as an 85th birthday present for Igor Stravinsky; the Concerto for Orchestra (1969), loosely based on a poem by Saint-John Perse; and A Symphony of Three Orchestras (1976). A harpsichord is a Musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. The piano is a Musical instrument played by means of a keyboard that produces sound by striking steel strings with Felt covered hammers Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (Игорь Фёдорович Стравинский) ( &ndash 6 April 1971 was a Russian born Composer, considered by many to Saint-John Perse (pseudonym of Alexis Léger, also Alexis Saint-Léger Léger) ( 31 May, 1887 &ndash 20 September, 1975 He has also written five string quartets[1], of which the second and third won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1960 and 1973 respectively. A string quartet is a Musical ensemble of four String instruments &mdash usually two Violins a Viola and Cello &mdash or a piece The Pulitzer Prize for Music was first awarded in 1943 Joseph Pulitzer did not call for such a prize in his will but had arranged for a music scholarship to be awarded Symphonia: Sum Fluxae Pretium Spei (1993-1996) is his largest orchestral work, complex in structure and featuring contrasting layers of instrumental textures, from delicate wind solos to crashing brass and percussion outbursts.

In spite of a usually rigorous derivation of all pitch content of a piece from a source chord, or series of chords, Carter never abandons lyricism, and ensures that a text is sung intelligibly, sometimes even simply. In A Mirror on Which to Dwell (1975) (based on poems by Elizabeth Bishop) Carter writes colorful, subtle, transparently clear music; yet almost every pitch in the piece is derived from the content of a single sonority. Elizabeth Bishop ( February 8, 1911 &ndash October 6, 1979) was an American Poet and Writer from Worcester While Carter seems to set up rigorous systems for deriving the pitch content of a piece, he deviates from them on occasion: not every note can be explained with the same rigor as can be done, for example, in Webern. WikipediaWikiProject Composers#Lead section --> Anton Webern (December 3 1883 &ndash September 15 1945 was an Austrian Composer

Most of Carter's music is published by either G. Schirmer/Associated Music Publishers (works up to 1982) or Boosey & Hawkes (works since 1982). G Schirmer Inc is a classical music publishing company based in New York NY in the USA Boosey & Hawkes is a British music publisher that claims to be the largest specialist Classical music publisher in the world

Recent years

Carter has lived in Greenwich Village and has recently completed Interventions, to be premiered by pianist Daniel Barenboim and the Boston Symphony Orchestra under James Levine when the composer turns 100 in 2008. Greenwich Village (ˌgrɛnɪtʃ ˈvɪlɪdʒ often simply called the Village, is a largely residential area on the west side of downtown (southern Manhattan Daniel Barenboim (born November 15, 1942) is a pianist and conductor. The Boston Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based at Symphony Hall in Boston Massachusetts, USA James Lawrence Levine (born 23 June 1943) is an American orchestral conductor and pianist. [2] He is also rumored to be working on a concerto for flute.

Partial list of works

Partial discography

Notable students

See also

References

  1. ^ 'Minimalism is death'. Telegraph, 26 July 2003.
  2. ^ Boston Symphony concert listing

External links

Interviews

Listening

The Arditti Quartet is an internationally acclaimed String quartet founded in 1974. Phillip Chapman Lesh (born March 15, 1940 in Berkeley California) is a Musician and a founding member of the Grateful Dead.
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