Jackson Hill (composer)
Encyclopedia
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
in 1941, is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
composer primarily of symphonic, ensemble, and vocal music.
Biography
Hill was a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (Ph.D. in musicologyMusicology
Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...
in 1970). A composer from the age of 14, he studied composition with Iain Hamilton
Iain Hamilton (composer)
Iain Ellis Hamilton was a Scottish composer.He was educated in London where he became an apprentice engineer, and remained in that profession for the next seven years. He undertook the study of music in his spare time...
at Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
(1964-66) and Roger Hannay (1967-68). He has served as a visiting scholar and choral assistant at Exeter College, Oxford
Exeter College, Oxford
Exeter College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth oldest college of the University. The main entrance is on the east side of Turl Street...
, and as a Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge
Clare Hall, Cambridge
Clare Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is a college for advanced study, admitting only postgraduate students.Informality is a defining value at Clare Hall and this contributes to its unique character...
University. He studied Buddhist chant
Buddhist chant
A Buddhist chant is a form of musical verse or incantation, in some ways analogous to Hindu, Christian or Jewish religious recitations. They exist in just about every part of the Buddhist world, from the Wats in Thailand to the Tibetan Buddhist temples in India and Tibet...
as a Fulbright Fellow in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
in the 1970s, and traditional Japanese music
Traditional Japanese music
Traditional Japanese music is the term used to describe historical Japanese folk music, or traditional music.-Rhythm:One of the characteristics of traditional Japanese music is a sparse rhythm. It also doesn't have regular chords. In Japanese music, one cannot beat time with one's hands because...
has been a strong influence in his work.
He has received numerous awards and prizes for his music, which includes choral, solo, and chamber music, as well as a chamber opera and three symphonies. Hill’s music has been widely performed in Europe, Asia and the Americas, including performances at the Tanglewood
Tanglewood Music Festival
The Tanglewood Music Festival is a music festival held every summer on the Tanglewood estate in Lenox, Massachusetts in the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts....
, Ravinia, Chautauqua, and Edinburgh
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
festivals. Recent commissions have come from The Fitzwillliam String Quartet (UK), Lichfield Cathedral
Lichfield Cathedral
Lichfield Cathedral is situated in Lichfield, Staffordshire, England. It is the only medieval English cathedral with three spires. The Diocese of Lichfield covers all of Staffordshire, much of Shropshire and part of the Black Country and West Midlands...
, Chanticleer
Chanticleer (ensemble)
Based in San Francisco, California, Chanticleer is a full-time classical vocal ensemble in the United States. Over the last three decades, it has developed a major reputation for its interpretations of Renaissance music, but it also performs a wide repertoire of jazz, gospel, and other venturesome...
, the King's Singers
King's Singers
The King's Singers is a British a cappella vocal ensemble who celebrated their 40th anniversary in 2008. Their name recalls King's College in Cambridge, England, where the group was formed by six choral scholars in 1968. In the United Kingdom, their popularity peaked in the 1970s and early 1980s...
, New York Polyphony
New York Polyphony
New York Polyphony is a male classical vocal quartet based in New York City.Although the ensemble draws heavily from the music of the Medieval and Renaissance periods, New York Polyphony has demonstrated a commitment to contemporary music and, in the case of commissions by Andrew Smith, Gregory...
, and the Three Choirs Festival
Three Choirs Festival
The Three Choirs Festival is a music festival held each August alternately at the cathedrals of the Three Counties and originally featuring their three choirs, which remain central to the week-long programme...
(UK). His composition Voices of Autumn was part of Chanticleer’s Grammy nomination in 2003. He taught at Duke University (1966-1968) and 1968-2008 at Bucknell University
Bucknell University
Bucknell University is a private liberal arts university located alongside the West Branch Susquehanna River in the rolling countryside of Central Pennsylvania in the town of Lewisburg, 30 miles southeast of Williamsport and 60 miles north of Harrisburg. The university consists of the College of...
, where he served as Associate Dean, Presidential Professor, and Chair of the Department of Music.
Compositions
Hill is internationally known for his contribution to the vocal idiom. Principal works include:Music for orchestra
- Secrets (Himitsu) (1990)
- Symphony No. 1 (Sinfonia Nipponica) (1990)
- Symphony No. 2 (Sinfonia Canonica) (1996)
- Symphony No. 3 (Sinfonia Romantica) (1997)
Ensemble music
- Serenade (1970) flute / violin / cello / piano
- Remembered Landscape (1984) violin / viola / cello / piano
- Tholos (1991) flute / oboe / clar / violin / cello / piano / percussion
- Trio da Camera (1993) flute / oboe / cello
- Threnody (2005) horn / string quartet
- Ghosts (2010) string quartet
Music for solo voice
- Love Parting (1987) song cycle for voice / piano
- The Streams of Love (1989) voice / viola / piano
- Long hidden deep in winter's keeping (2001) voice / string quartet
- Philomel (2002) voice / recorder / cello / harp
- El Duelo ("The Mourning") (2010) tenor / string quartet
- The Silent Ground (2010) voice / piano
Church music with English text
- By Water and the Word (1995) SATB / org
- The Gifts of the Spirit (1996) SATB / org
- Praise, O Praise the Lord (1997) SATB / org
- A Song of Pilgrimage (1997) SATB
- How Shall the Young (2000) SATB / org
- The St. Chad Magnificat and Nunc dimittis (Lichfield Service) (2003)
- Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life (2010) SATB / org
Church music with Latin text
- Missa Brevis (1974) SATB
- Three Motets (1977) SATB
- Sacris sollemniis (1992) SATB
- Populus Sion, ecce Dominus (1994) SATB
Choral concert music
- Voices of Autumn (1985) SATB
- O Light Invisible (1994) SATB
- In Winter's Keeping (2001)
- Remembered Love (2004) AATBBB
- When spring is born at last (2004) SATB
- Summer Dreams (2006) SSAATTBB
- A Haunted Melancholy (2008) SSAATBB
- Ma fin est mon commencement (2009) ATBB
- Still, in Remembrance (Elegy for 9/11) (2011) SSAATTBB