Robert Ward
Encyclopedia
Robert Ward is an American
composer
.
, from which he graduated in 1935. After that, Ward attended the Eastman School of Music
in Rochester, New York, where his composition teachers were Bernard Rogers
, Howard Hanson
, and Edward Royce. Ward received a fellowship and attended the Juilliard School of Music in New York from 1939 to 1942, where he studied composition with Frederick Jacobi
, orchestration with Bernard Wagenaar
, and conducting with Albert Stoessel
and Edgar Schenkman. In the summer of 1941 he studied under Aaron Copland
at the Berkshire Music Center in Massachusetts.
From his student days to the end of World War II
, Ward produced about forty compositions, of which eleven he later withdrew. Most of those early works are small scale, songs and pieces for piano or chamber ensembles. He completed his First Symphony in 1941, which won the Juilliard Publication Award the following year. Around that time, Ward also wrote a number of reviews and other articles for the magazine Modern Music and served on the faculty of Queens College.
In February 1942 Ward joined the U.S. Army, and attended the Army Music School at Fort Myer
, being assigned the military occupational specialty of band director. At Fort Riley, Kansas, he wrote a major part of the score to a musical revue called The Life of Riley. Ward was assigned to the 7th Infantry and sent to the Pacific. For the 7th Infantry Band he wrote a March, and for its dance band he wrote at least two jazz compositions.
During his military service Ward met Mary Raymond Benedict, a Red Cross recreation worker. They married on June 19, 1944, and had five children. They are named Melinda, Jonathan, Mark, Johanna, and Tim. Their children are named Julie, Amy (Melinda), Elizabeth, Nathaniel, Caleb (Jonathan), Nick, Katherine (Mark), Sam, Melinda (Johanna), Gianna and Sophia (Tim).
for meritorious service in the Aleutian Islands. During his military service Ward managed to compose two serious orchestral compositions, Adagio and Allegro, first performed in New York in 1944, and Jubilation: An Overture, which was written mostly on Okinawa, Japan
, in 1945, and was premiered at Carnegie Hall
by the National Orchestral Association the following spring.
After being discharged from military service at the end of the war, Ward returned to Juilliard, earning postgraduate certificate in 1946 and immediately joining the faculty, teaching there until 1956. He served as an Associate in Music at Columbia University
from 1946 to 1948.
Ward wrote his Second Symphony, dedicated to his wife, in 1947, while living in Nyack
, New York
. It was premiered by the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hans Kindler
. This symphony was quite popular for a few years, in part thanks to Eugene Ormandy
playing it with the Philadelphia Orchestra
several times and even taking it on tour to Carnegie Hall
in New York
and Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.
Andrew Stiller, in his article on Ward for the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, describes Ward's musical style as deriving "largely from Hindemith
, but also shows the considerable influence of Gershwin
".
Ward conducted the Doctors Orchestral Society of New York from 1949 to 1955, wrote his Third Symphony and his First Sonata for Violin and Piano in 1950, the Sacred Songs for Pantheists in 1951, and was music director of the Third Street Music School Settlement
from 1952 to 1955, and wrote the Euphony for Orchestra in 1954. He left Juilliard in 1956 to become Executive Vice-President of Galaxy Music Corporation and Managing Editor of High Gate Press in New York, positions he maintained until 1967. Ward wrote his Fourth Symphony in 1958, the Prairie Overture in 1957, the cantata Earth Shall Be Fair and the Divertimento in 1960.
Ward wrote his first opera
to a libretto
by Bernard Stambler, He Who Gets Slapped, and it was premiered in 1956. His next opera, The Crucible
, based on Arthur Miller
's play
, premiered in 1961, became Ward's best known work. For it Ward received the Pulitzer Prize
for music. It is frequently produced around the world.
After the success of The Crucible, Ward received several commissions for ceremonial works, such as Hymn and Celebration in 1962, Music for a Celebration in 1963, Festive Ode in 1966, Fiesta Processional in 1966, and Music for a Great Occasion in 1970. During those years he also wrote the cantata
, Sweet Freedom's Song, in 1965; the Fifth Symphony in 1976; a Piano Concerto in 1968, which was commissioned by the Powder River Foundation for the soloist Marjorie Mitchell; a Saxophone Concerto in 1984; and the operas The Lady from Colorado in 1964, Claudia Leqare in 1977, Abelard and Heloise in 1981, Minutes till Midnight in 1982, and Roman Fever in 1993 (based on the short story of the same name
by Edith Wharton
). He also wrote chamber music, such as the First String Quartet of 1966 and the Raleigh Divertimento of 1985.
His work has been championed by such conductors as Igor Buketoff
, who recorded the 3rd and 6th symphonies.
in Winston-Salem
. He held this post until 1975, when he stepped down to serve as a member of the composition faculty for five more years. In 1978 he came to Duke University
as a visiting professor, and there he remained as Mary Duke Biddle
Professor of Music from 1979 to 1987.
In the fall of 1987, he retired from Duke University as Professor Emeritus, and continues to live and compose in Durham
, North Carolina
. His most recent composition is "In Praise of Science," which premiered at the ribbon-cutting ceremony of Syracuse University's Life Science Complex on November 7, 2008.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
.
Early work and education
Ward was one of five children of the owner of a moving and storage company. He sang in church choirs and local opera theaters when he was a boy. His earliest extant compositions date to 1934, at a time he was attending John Adams High SchoolJohn Adams High School (Cleveland, Ohio)
For schools with similar names, see Adams High School.John Adams High School is a public high school located on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is part of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.-History:...
, from which he graduated in 1935. After that, Ward attended the Eastman School of Music
Eastman School of Music
The Eastman School of Music is a music conservatory located in Rochester, New York. The Eastman School is a professional school within the University of Rochester...
in Rochester, New York, where his composition teachers were Bernard Rogers
Bernard Rogers
Bernard Rogers was an American composer.Rogers was born in New York City. He studied with Arthur Farwell, Ernest Bloch, Percy Goetschius, and Nadia Boulanger. He taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music, The Hartt School, and the Eastman School of Music...
, Howard Hanson
Howard Hanson
Howard Harold Hanson was an American composer, conductor, educator, music theorist, and champion of American classical music. As director for 40 years of the Eastman School of Music, he built a high-quality school and provided opportunities for commissioning and performing American music...
, and Edward Royce. Ward received a fellowship and attended the Juilliard School of Music in New York from 1939 to 1942, where he studied composition with Frederick Jacobi
Frederick Jacobi
Frederick Jacobi was a prolific American composer and teacher.His works include symphonies, concerti, chamber music, works for solo piano and for solo organ, lieder, and one opera....
, orchestration with Bernard Wagenaar
Bernard Wagenaar
Bernard Wagenaar was a Dutch/American composer, conductor and violinist.Wagenaar, not related to the Dutch composer Johan Wagenaar, was born in Arnhem. He studied at Utrecht University before starting his career as a teacher and conductor in 1914. He moved to the USA in 1920, where he became a...
, and conducting with Albert Stoessel
Albert Stoessel
Albert Frederic Stoessel was an American composer, violinist and conductor.He was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1894. He studied music at the Berlin Hochschule as a pupil of Emanuel Wirth and Willy Hess...
and Edgar Schenkman. In the summer of 1941 he studied under Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
at the Berkshire Music Center in Massachusetts.
From his student days to the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Ward produced about forty compositions, of which eleven he later withdrew. Most of those early works are small scale, songs and pieces for piano or chamber ensembles. He completed his First Symphony in 1941, which won the Juilliard Publication Award the following year. Around that time, Ward also wrote a number of reviews and other articles for the magazine Modern Music and served on the faculty of Queens College.
In February 1942 Ward joined the U.S. Army, and attended the Army Music School at Fort Myer
Fort Myer
Fort Myer is a U.S. Army post adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. It is a small post by U.S...
, being assigned the military occupational specialty of band director. At Fort Riley, Kansas, he wrote a major part of the score to a musical revue called The Life of Riley. Ward was assigned to the 7th Infantry and sent to the Pacific. For the 7th Infantry Band he wrote a March, and for its dance band he wrote at least two jazz compositions.
During his military service Ward met Mary Raymond Benedict, a Red Cross recreation worker. They married on June 19, 1944, and had five children. They are named Melinda, Jonathan, Mark, Johanna, and Tim. Their children are named Julie, Amy (Melinda), Elizabeth, Nathaniel, Caleb (Jonathan), Nick, Katherine (Mark), Sam, Melinda (Johanna), Gianna and Sophia (Tim).
Major work
Ward earned a Bronze StarBronze Star Medal
The Bronze Star Medal is a United States Armed Forces individual military decoration that may be awarded for bravery, acts of merit, or meritorious service. As a medal it is awarded for merit, and with the "V" for valor device it is awarded for heroism. It is the fourth-highest combat award of the...
for meritorious service in the Aleutian Islands. During his military service Ward managed to compose two serious orchestral compositions, Adagio and Allegro, first performed in New York in 1944, and Jubilation: An Overture, which was written mostly on Okinawa, 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 1945, and was premiered at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
by the National Orchestral Association the following spring.
After being discharged from military service at the end of the war, Ward returned to Juilliard, earning postgraduate certificate in 1946 and immediately joining the faculty, teaching there until 1956. He served as an Associate in Music at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
from 1946 to 1948.
Ward wrote his Second Symphony, dedicated to his wife, in 1947, while living in Nyack
Nyack
Nyack may refer to:*Nyack, New York, a village*Nyack College, located in the village*USS Nyack, the name of two U.S. Navy vessels...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. It was premiered by the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hans Kindler
Hans Kindler
Johannes Hendrikus Philip "Hans" Kindler was an American cellist and conductor.Kindler was born in Rotterdam, The Netherlands where he attended the Rotterdams Conservatorium....
. This symphony was quite popular for a few years, in part thanks to Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy was a Hungarian-born conductor and violinist.-Early life:Born Jenő Blau in Budapest, Hungary, Ormandy began studying violin at the Royal National Hungarian Academy of Music at the age of five...
playing it with the Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...
several times and even taking it on tour to Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
Andrew Stiller, in his article on Ward for the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, describes Ward's musical style as deriving "largely from Hindemith
Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and conductor.- Biography :Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child...
, but also shows the considerable influence of Gershwin
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
".
Ward conducted the Doctors Orchestral Society of New York from 1949 to 1955, wrote his Third Symphony and his First Sonata for Violin and Piano in 1950, the Sacred Songs for Pantheists in 1951, and was music director of the Third Street Music School Settlement
Third Street Music School Settlement
Founded in 1894, Third Street Music School is the oldest community school of the arts in the United States and traces its roots to the late 19th century settlement house movement...
from 1952 to 1955, and wrote the Euphony for Orchestra in 1954. He left Juilliard in 1956 to become Executive Vice-President of Galaxy Music Corporation and Managing Editor of High Gate Press in New York, positions he maintained until 1967. Ward wrote his Fourth Symphony in 1958, the Prairie Overture in 1957, the cantata Earth Shall Be Fair and the Divertimento in 1960.
Ward wrote his first opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
to a libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
by Bernard Stambler, He Who Gets Slapped, and it was premiered in 1956. His next opera, The Crucible
The Crucible (opera)
The Crucible is an English language opera written by Robert Ward based on the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller. It won both the 1962 Pulitzer Prize for Music and the New York Music Critics Circle Citation. The libretto was lightly adapted from Miller's text by Bernard Stambler.Ward received a...
, based on Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...
's play
The Crucible
The Crucible is a 1952 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatization of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay during 1692 and 1693. Miller wrote the play as an allegory of McCarthyism, when the US government blacklisted accused communists...
, premiered in 1961, became Ward's best known work. For it Ward received the Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
for music. It is frequently produced around the world.
After the success of The Crucible, Ward received several commissions for ceremonial works, such as Hymn and Celebration in 1962, Music for a Celebration in 1963, Festive Ode in 1966, Fiesta Processional in 1966, and Music for a Great Occasion in 1970. During those years he also wrote the cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
, Sweet Freedom's Song, in 1965; the Fifth Symphony in 1976; a Piano Concerto in 1968, which was commissioned by the Powder River Foundation for the soloist Marjorie Mitchell; a Saxophone Concerto in 1984; and the operas The Lady from Colorado in 1964, Claudia Leqare in 1977, Abelard and Heloise in 1981, Minutes till Midnight in 1982, and Roman Fever in 1993 (based on the short story of the same name
Roman Fever
Roman Fever is a short story by American writer Edith Wharton. It was first published in the magazine Liberty in 1934, and was later included in Wharton's last short-story collection, The World Over.-Plot summary:...
by Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton , was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer.- Early life and marriage:...
). He also wrote chamber music, such as the First String Quartet of 1966 and the Raleigh Divertimento of 1985.
His work has been championed by such conductors as Igor Buketoff
Igor Buketoff
Igor Buketoff was an American conductor, arranger and teacher. He had a special affinity with Russian music and with Sergei Rachmaninoff in particular. He also strongly promoted British contemporary music, and new music in general.- Biography :Buketoff was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the son...
, who recorded the 3rd and 6th symphonies.
Later work
In 1967, Ward became Chancellor of the North Carolina School of the ArtsNorth Carolina School of the Arts
The University of North Carolina School of the Arts , formerly the North Carolina School of the Arts, is a public coeducational arts conservatory in Winston-Salem, North Carolina that grants high school, undergraduate and graduate degrees. It is one of the seventeen constituent campuses of the...
in Winston-Salem
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Winston-Salem is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina, with a 2010 population of 229,617. Winston-Salem is the county seat and largest city of Forsyth County and the fourth-largest city in the state. Winston-Salem is the second largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region and is home to...
. He held this post until 1975, when he stepped down to serve as a member of the composition faculty for five more years. In 1978 he came to 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...
as a visiting professor, and there he remained as Mary Duke Biddle
Mary Duke Biddle
Mary Lillian Duke Biddle , was an American philanthropist.-Biography:She was born on November 16, 1887 in Durham, North Carolina as Mary Lillian Duke to Benjamin Newton Duke. She attended Durham's Trinity College, the institutional predecessor of Duke University, which was named in honor of her...
Professor of Music from 1979 to 1987.
In the fall of 1987, he retired from Duke University as Professor Emeritus, and continues to live and compose in Durham
Durham, North Carolina
Durham is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the county seat of Durham County and also extends into Wake County. It is the fifth-largest city in the state, and the 85th-largest in the United States by population, with 228,330 residents as of the 2010 United States census...
, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
. His most recent composition is "In Praise of Science," which premiered at the ribbon-cutting ceremony of Syracuse University's Life Science Complex on November 7, 2008.
External links
- Robert Ward interview by Bruce Duffie, February 25, 2000
- List of Robert Ward compositions published by ECS publishing