Walter Piston
Encyclopedia
Walter Hamor Piston Jr., (January 20, 1894 – November 12, 1976), was an American composer
of classical music
, music theorist and professor of music at Harvard University
whose students included Leroy Anderson
, Leonard Bernstein
, and Elliott Carter
.
. His paternal grandfather, a sailor named Antonio Pistone, changed his name to Anthony Piston when he came to America from Genoa
, Italy. In 1905, the composer's father Walter Piston Sr. moved with his family to Boston
.
Walter Jr. first trained as an engineer at the Mechanical Arts High School in Boston, but he was artistically inclined. Upon graduating in 1912, he proceeded to the Massachusetts Normal Arts School, where he completed a course of study in draftsmanship in 1916.
During the 1910s, Piston made a living playing piano and violin in dance bands and later playing violin in orchestras led by Georges Longy. During World War I, Piston joined the U.S. Navy as a band musician, after rapidly teaching himself to play the 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". Playing in a service band, Piston taught himself to play most of the 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".
Piston was admitted to Harvard
in 1920, where he studied counterpoint with Archibald Davison, canon and fugue with Clifford Heilman, advanced harmony with Edward Ballantine
, and composition and music history with Edward Burlingame Hill
. Piston often worked as an assistant to the various music professors there, and conducted the student orchestra.
In 1920, Piston married artist Kathryn Nason (1892–1976), who had been a fellow student at the Normal Arts School. They remained married until her death in February 1976, a few months before his own.
Upon graduating summa cum laude
from Harvard, Piston was awarded a John Knowles Paine
Traveling Fellowship. He chose to go to Paris, living there from 1924 to 1926. At the Ecole Nationale de Musique in Paris, Piston studied composition and counterpoint with Nadia Boulanger
, composition with Paul Dukas
and violin with George Enescu
. His Three Pieces for Flute, Clarinet and Bassoon of 1925 was his first published score.
He taught at Harvard from 1926 until retiring in 1960. His students include Samuel 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
, Conlon Nancarrow
, William P. Perry
, Daniel Pinkham
, Frederic Rzewski
, Allen Sapp
, Harold Shapero
, and Claudio Spies
.
In 1936, the Columbia Broadcasting System commissioned six American composers (Aaron Copland
, Louis Gruenberg
, Howard Hanson
, Roy Harris
, William Grant Still
and Piston) to write works for CBS radio stations to broadcast. The following year Piston wrote his Symphony No. 1, and conducted its premiere with the Boston Symphony Orchestra
on April 8, 1938.
Piston's only dance work, The Incredible Flutist
, was written for the Boston Pops Orchestra
, which premiered it with Arthur Fiedler
conducting 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 by Fritz Reiner
and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
on November 22, 1940. Leonard Slatkin
and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra
included the suite in a 1991 RCA Victor CD recording that also featured Piston's Three New England Sketches
and Symphony No. 6.
Piston studied the twelve-tone technique
of Arnold Schoenberg
and 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 the Chromatic Study on the Name of Bach for organ (1940), which nonetheless retains a vague feeling of key. Although he employed twelve-tone elements sporadically throughout his career, these become much more pervasive in the Eighth 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).
In 1943, the Alice M. Ditson fund of Columbia University
commissioned Piston's Symphony No. 2, which was premiered by the National Symphony Orchestra on March 5, 1944 and was awarded a prize by the New York Music Critics' Circle. His next symphony, the Third, earned a Pulitzer Prize
, as did his Symphony No. 7. His Viola Concerto and String Quartet No. 5 also later received Critics' Circle awards.
Piston wrote four books on the technical aspects of music theory
which are considered to be classics in their respective fields: Principles of Harmonic Analysis, Counterpoint, Orchestration and Harmony. The last of these 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.
He died at his home in Belmont, Massachusetts on November 12, 1976.
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...
of classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, music theorist and professor of music at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
whose students included Leroy Anderson
Leroy Anderson
Leroy Anderson was an American composer of short, light concert pieces, many of which were introduced by the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler...
, Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
, and Elliott Carter
Elliott Carter
Elliott Cook Carter, Jr. is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, and then returned to the United States. After a neoclassical phase, he went on to write atonal, rhythmically complex music...
.
Life
Piston was born in Rockland, MaineRockland, Maine
Rockland is a city in Knox County, Maine, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 7,297. It is the county seat of Knox County. The city is a popular tourist destination...
. His paternal grandfather, a sailor named Antonio Pistone, changed his name to Anthony Piston when he came to America from Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
, Italy. In 1905, the composer's father Walter Piston Sr. moved with his family to Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
.
Walter Jr. first trained as an engineer at the Mechanical Arts High School in Boston, but he was artistically inclined. Upon graduating in 1912, he proceeded to the Massachusetts Normal Arts School, where he completed a course of study in draftsmanship in 1916.
During the 1910s, Piston made a living playing piano and violin in dance bands and later playing violin in orchestras led by Georges Longy. During World War I, Piston joined the U.S. Navy as a band musician, after rapidly teaching himself to play the 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". Playing in a service band, Piston taught himself to play most of the 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".
Piston was admitted to Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1920, where he studied counterpoint with Archibald Davison, canon and fugue with Clifford Heilman, advanced harmony with Edward Ballantine
Edward Ballantine
Edward Ballantine , was an American composer and professor of music.-Biography:Edward Ballantine was born in Oberlin, Ohio, on August 6, 1886, the son of William Gay Ballantine, the fourth president of Oberlin College, and Emma Frances Atwood...
, and composition and music history with Edward Burlingame Hill
Edward Burlingame Hill
Edward Burlingame Hill was an American composer.After graduating from Harvard University in 1894, Hill studied music in Boston with John Knowles Paine, Frederick Field Bullard, Margaret Ruthven Lang, and George Elbridge Whiting, and in Paris with Charles Marie Widor...
. Piston often worked as an assistant to the various music professors there, and conducted the student orchestra.
In 1920, Piston married artist Kathryn Nason (1892–1976), who had been a fellow student at the Normal Arts School. They remained married until her death in February 1976, a few months before his own.
Upon graduating summa cum laude
Latin honors
Latin honors are Latin phrases used to indicate the level of academic distinction with which an academic degree was earned. This system is primarily used in the United States, Canada, and in many countries of continental Europe, though some institutions also use the English translation of these...
from Harvard, Piston was awarded a John Knowles Paine
John Knowles Paine
John Knowles Paine , was the first American-born composer to achieve fame for large-scale orchestral music.-Life:He studied organ, orchestration, and composition in Germany and toured in Europe for three years...
Traveling Fellowship. He chose to go to Paris, living there from 1924 to 1926. At the Ecole Nationale de Musique in Paris, Piston studied composition and counterpoint with Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger was a French composer, conductor and teacher who taught many composers and performers of the 20th century.From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, but believing that her talent as a composer was inferior to that of her younger...
, composition with Paul Dukas
Paul Dukas
Paul Abraham Dukas was a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher. A studious man, of retiring personality, he was intensely self-critical, and he abandoned and destroyed many of his compositions...
and violin with George Enescu
George Enescu
George Enescu was a Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor and teacher.-Biography:Enescu was born in the village of Liveni , Dorohoi County at the time, today Botoşani County. He showed musical talent from early in his childhood. A child prodigy, Enescu created his first musical...
. His Three Pieces for Flute, Clarinet and Bassoon of 1925 was his first published score.
He taught at Harvard from 1926 until retiring in 1960. His students include Samuel Adler
Samuel Adler (composer)
Samuel Hans Adler is an American composer and conductor.-Biography:Adler was born to a Jewish family in Mannheim, Germany, the son of Hugo Chaim Adler, a cantor and composer, and Selma Adler. The family fled to the United States in 1939, where Hugo became the cantor of Temple Emanuel in...
, Leroy Anderson
Leroy Anderson
Leroy Anderson was an American composer of short, light concert pieces, many of which were introduced by the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler...
, Arthur Berger
Arthur Berger
Arthur Victor Berger was an American composer who has been described as a New Mannerist.-Biography:Born in New York City, of Jewish descent, Berger studied as an undergraduate at New York University, during which time he joined the Young Composer's Group, as a graduate student under Walter Piston...
, Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
, Gordon Binkerd, Elliott Carter
Elliott Carter
Elliott Cook Carter, Jr. is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, and then returned to the United States. After a neoclassical phase, he went on to write atonal, rhythmically complex music...
, John Davison
John Davison (composer)
John Davison was an American composer and pianist.Born in Istanbul, Turkey, he grew up in Upstate New York and in New York City, and studied music at the Juilliard School's lower school, Haverford College, then received his master's degree from Harvard University, where he focused on Renaissance...
, Irving Fine
Irving Fine
Irving Gifford Fine was an American composer. Fine's work assimilated neo-classical, romantic and, later, serial elements...
, John Harbison
John Harbison
John Harris Harbison is an American composer, best known for his operas and large choral works.-Life:...
, Karl Kohn
Karl Kohn
Karl Georg Kohn is an American composer, teacher and pianist.- Biography :Kohn began playing the piano as a child in Vienna and, after he, at the age of 13, immigrated to the United States, continued his education in New York City and at Harvard where he studied composition with Walter Piston,...
, Ellis B. Kohs, Gail Kubik
Gail Kubik
Gail Thompson Kubik was an American composer, motion picture scorist, violinist, and teacher. He studied at the Eastman School of Music, the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago with Leo Sowerby, and Harvard University with Walter Piston and Nadia Boulanger...
, Billy Jim Layton, Noël Lee
Noël Lee
Noël Lee is an American classical pianist and composer living in Paris, France.He studied music in Lafayette, Indiana, then attended Harvard University, studying with Walter Piston, Irving Fine, and Tillman Merritt and was also a student at the Longy School of Music in the early 1940s...
, Robert Middleton, Robert Moevs
Robert Moevs
Robert Walter Moevs was an American composer of contemporary classical music. He was known for his highly chromatic music....
, Conlon Nancarrow
Conlon Nancarrow
Conlon Nancarrow was a United States-born composer who lived and worked in Mexico for most of his life. He became a Mexican citizen in 1955.Nancarrow is best remembered for the pieces he wrote for the player piano...
, William P. Perry
William P. Perry
William P. Perry is an American composer and television producer.-Life and career:Born in Elmira, New York in 1930, he attended Harvard University and studied with Paul Hindemith, Walter Piston, and Randall Thompson...
, Daniel Pinkham
Daniel Pinkham
Daniel Rogers Pinkham, Jr. was an American composer, organist, and harpsichordist. Pinkham was one of America's most active composers during his lifetime...
, Frederic Rzewski
Frederic Rzewski
Frederic Anthony Rzewski is an American composer and virtuoso pianist.- Biography :Rzewski began playing piano at age 5. He attended Phillips Academy, Harvard and Princeton, where his teachers included Randall Thompson, Roger Sessions, Walter Piston and Milton Babbitt...
, Allen Sapp
Allen Sapp
Allen Sapp, OC, SOM is a Canadian Cree painter, currently living in North Battleford, Saskatchewan. His art and his story have become well known throughout Canada and has become an inspiration to many. His paintings tell a personal story. Many of his paintings feature images of his grandmother,...
, Harold Shapero
Harold Shapero
Harold Samuel Shapero is an American composer.-Early years:Born in Lynn, Massachusetts, Shapero and his family later moved to nearby Newton. He learned to play the piano as a child, and for some years was a pianist in dance orchestras. With a friend, he founded the Hal Kenny Orchestra, a swing-era...
, and Claudio Spies
Claudio Spies
Carlos Claudio Spies is a Chilean-American composer.Born in Santiago, Chile, of German-Jewish parents, Spies completed primary and secondary education in Santiago in 1941, when he passed the Bachillerato...
.
In 1936, the Columbia Broadcasting System commissioned six American composers (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"...
, Louis Gruenberg
Louis Gruenberg
-Life and career:He was born near Brest-Litovsk , to Abe Gruenberg and Klara Kantarovitch. His family emigrated to the United States when he was a few months old. His father worked as a violinist in New York City...
, 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...
, Roy Harris
Roy Harris
Roy Ellsworth Harris , was an American composer. He wrote much music on American subjects, becoming best known for his Symphony No...
, William Grant Still
William Grant Still
William Grant Still was an African-American classical composer who wrote more than 150 compositions. He was the first African American to conduct a major American symphony orchestra, the first to have a symphony performed by a leading orchestra, the first to have an opera performed by a major...
and Piston) to write works for CBS radio stations to broadcast. The following year Piston wrote his Symphony No. 1, and conducted its premiere with the Boston Symphony Orchestra
Boston Symphony Orchestra
The Boston Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1881, the BSO plays most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at the Tanglewood Music Center...
on April 8, 1938.
Piston's only dance work, The Incredible Flutist
The Incredible Flutist
The Incredible Flutist is a ballet composed by Walter Piston in 1938, his only composition for the stage. The ballet received its premiere by the Boston Pops, under Hans Wiener, on May 30 of that year. The text of the ballet was written by Piston and Wiener. It describes a marketplace teeming...
, was written for the Boston Pops Orchestra
Boston Pops Orchestra
The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, that specializes in playing light classical and popular music....
, which premiered it with Arthur Fiedler
Arthur Fiedler
Arthur Fiedler was a long-time conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, a symphony orchestra that specializes in popular and light classical music. With a combination of musicianship and showmanship, he made the Boston Pops one of the best-known orchestras in the country...
conducting 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 by Fritz Reiner
Fritz Reiner
Frederick Martin “Fritz” Reiner was a prominent conductor of opera and symphonic music in the twentieth century.-Biography:...
and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The orchestra's home is Heinz Hall, located in Pittsburgh's Cultural District.-History:...
on November 22, 1940. Leonard Slatkin
Leonard Slatkin
Leonard Edward Slatkin is an American conductor and composer.-Early life and education:Slatkin was born in Los Angeles to a musical family that came from areas of the Russian Empire now in Ukraine. His father Felix Slatkin was the violinist, conductor and founder of the Hollywood String Quartet,...
and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra
Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra
The Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra based in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1880 by Joseph Otten as the St. Louis Choral Society, the SLSO is the second-oldest symphony orchestra in the United States as it is preceded by the New York Philharmonic.-History:The St...
included the suite in a 1991 RCA Victor CD recording that also featured Piston's Three New England Sketches
Three New England Sketches
Three New England Sketches by Walter Piston is a symphonic suite dating from 1959.-History:The Sketches were commissioned by the Worcester County Musical Association for its 100th Annual Music Festival, and is dedicated to the conductor Paul Paray...
and Symphony No. 6.
Piston studied the twelve-tone technique
Twelve-tone technique
Twelve-tone technique is a method of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg...
of Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
and 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 the Chromatic Study on the Name of Bach for organ (1940), which nonetheless retains a vague feeling of key. Although he employed twelve-tone elements sporadically throughout his career, these become much more pervasive in the Eighth 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).
In 1943, the Alice M. Ditson fund of 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...
commissioned Piston's Symphony No. 2, which was premiered by the National Symphony Orchestra on March 5, 1944 and was awarded a prize by the New York Music Critics' Circle. His next symphony, the Third, earned a Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize for Music
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 each year...
, as did his Symphony No. 7. His Viola Concerto and String Quartet No. 5 also later received Critics' Circle awards.
Piston wrote four books on the technical aspects of music theory
Music theory
Music theory is the study of how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It seeks to identify patterns and structures in composers' techniques across or within genres, styles, or historical periods...
which are considered to be classics in their respective fields: Principles of Harmonic Analysis, Counterpoint, Orchestration and Harmony. The last of these 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.
He died at his home in Belmont, Massachusetts on November 12, 1976.
Orchestral
- SymphoniesSymphonyA symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...
- Symphony No. 1Symphony No. 1 (Piston)-History:By the time Piston finished his First Symphony he was 43 years old. It was premiered on April 8, 1938 by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer ....
(1937) - Symphony No. 2Symphony No. 2 (Piston)-History:Piston's Second Symphony was commissioned by the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, and was premiered in Washington, D.C, on March 5, 1944, by the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Hans Kindler...
(1943) - Symphony No. 3Symphony No. 3 (Piston)The Symphony No. 3 by Walter Piston was composed in 1946–47.-History:The Koussevitzky Music Foundation commissioned the Third Symphony and Piston began work on it in 1946 , completing the score at Woodstock, Vermont, in the summer of 1947...
(1946–47) (commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation) - Symphony No. 4Symphony No. 4 (Piston)-History:Piston composed his Fourth Symphony on commission from the University of Minnesota to mark the centennary of the university's foundation in the following year...
(1950) (composed for the 100th anniversary of the University of MinnesotaUniversity of MinnesotaThe University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
) - Symphony No. 5Symphony No. 5 (Piston)-History:Piston's Fifth Symphony was commissioned by the Juilliard School of Music on the occasion of their 50th anniversary. It was completed in 1954, but premiered only on February 24, 1956 by the Juilliard Orchestra, conducted by Jean Morel...
(1954) - Symphony No. 6Symphony No. 6 (Piston)-History:Piston composed the symphony to mark the 75th Anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He dedicated the score to the memory of Serge Koussevitzky and his wife Natalie. The symphony was first performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Charles Munch, on November 25,...
(1955) (composed for the 75th anniversary of the Boston Symphony OrchestraBoston Symphony OrchestraThe Boston Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1881, the BSO plays most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at the Tanglewood Music Center...
) - Symphony No. 7Symphony No. 7 (Piston)-History:Piston's Seventh Symphony was commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra Association, and was premiered by that orchestra, conducted by Eugene Ormandy, on February 10, 1961. The symphony was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1961, which was the second time for Piston—his first was in 1948 for...
(1960) - Symphony No. 8Symphony No. 8 (Piston)-History:The Boston Symphony Orchestra commissioned the Eighth Symphony and gave its first performance on March 5, 1965, conducted by Erich Leinsdorf, to whom the score is dedicated . Initially, Piston had preferred to write a flute concerto for the Boston Symphony's principal flautist, Doriot...
(1965)
- Symphony No. 1
- Suite for Orchestra (1929)
- Concerto for Orchestra (1934)
- Suite from The Incredible Flutist (The suite from The Incredible Flutist was transcribed for symphonic wind ensemble by MSgt Donald Patterson and recorded by Col. Michael Colburn with "The President's Own" United States Marine BandUnited States Marine BandThe United States Marine Band is the premier band of the United States Marine Corps. Established by act of Congress on July 11, 1798, it is the oldest of the United States military bands and the oldest professional musical organization in the United States...
.) - Sinfonietta (1941)
- Suite No. 2 for Orchestra (1948)
- Serenata for OrchestraSerenata for Orchestra (Piston)Walter Piston's Serenata for Orchestra is an orchestral suite or miniature symphony written in 1956.-History:Piston composed the Serenata in 1956, on commission for the Louisville Orchestra , and is dedicated to conductor Robert Whitney, who led the work's premiere on October 25, 1956.-Analysis:The...
(1957) - Three New England SketchesThree New England SketchesThree New England Sketches by Walter Piston is a symphonic suite dating from 1959.-History:The Sketches were commissioned by the Worcester County Musical Association for its 100th Annual Music Festival, and is dedicated to the conductor Paul Paray...
(1959) - RicercarRicercarA ricercar is a type of late Renaissance and mostly early Baroque instrumental composition. The term means to search out, and many ricercars serve a preludial function to "search out" the key or mode of a following piece...
e for Orchestra (1967)
Band
- Tunbridge Fair, for symphonic band (1950) (Commissioned by the American Bandmasters Association)http://americanbandmasters.org/
Concertante
- Piano
- Piano Concertino (1937)
- Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra (1958)
- Violin
- Violin Concerto No. 1Violin Concerto No. 1 (Piston)Walter Piston's Concerto No. 1 for Violin and Orchestra was written in 1939 and dedicated to violinist Ruth Posselt. On the 18th of March 1940, Posselt, backed by the National Orchestral Association under Léon Barzin gave the first performance at Carnegie Hall.The work is in three...
(1939) - Violin Concerto No. 2Violin Concerto No. 2 (Piston)Walter Piston's Concerto No. 2 for Violin and Orchestra was written between 1959 and 1960 on commission from the Ford Foundation and violinist Joseph Fuchs and dedicated to him...
(1960) - Fantasia for Violin and OrchestraFantasia for Violin and Orchestra (Piston)Walter Piston's Fantasia for Violin and Orchestra was commissioned in 1970 by Mario di Bonaventura, music director of the Hopkins Center Congregation of the Arts at Dartmouth College, who conducted the world premiere on March 11, 1973, performed by the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra with Salvatore...
(1970)
- Violin Concerto No. 1
- Prelude and Allegro for Organ and Strings (1943)
- Fantasy for English Horn, Harp, and Strings (1954)
- Viola ConcertoViola concertoThe viola concerto is a concerto contrasting a viola with another body of musical instruments, usually an orchestra or chamber music ensemble. Early examples of the viola concerto include, among others, Georg Philipp Telemann's concerto in G major, and several concertos by the Stamitz clan...
(1957) - Capriccio for Harp and String OrchestraCapriccio for Harp and String OrchestraWalter Piston's Capriccio for Harp and String Orchestra, was commissioned in 1963 by Broadcast Music Incorporated on the occasion of its twentieth anniversary, and is dedicated to the harpist Nicanor Zabaleta, who premiered it in Madrid on October 19, 1964....
(1963) - Variations for Cello and Orchestra (1966)
- Concerto for Clarinet and OrchestraClarinet Concerto (Piston)Walter Piston's Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra, was written in 1967. It was commissioned for the Hopkins Center Congregation of the Arts at Dartmouth College by its music director, Mario di Bonaventura, who conducted the world premiere on August 6, 1967 at the Congregation of Arts Festival,...
(1967) - Concerto for Flute and OrchestraFlute concertoA flute concerto is a concerto for solo flute and instrumental ensemble, customarily the orchestra. Such works have been written from the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up through the present day...
(1971) - Concerto for String Quartet, Wind Instruments and Percussion (1976)
Chamber/Instrumental
- String quartets
- String Quartet No. 1String Quartet No. 1 (Piston)String Quartet No. 1 by Walter Piston is a chamber-music work composed in 1933.-History:Piston’s First Quartet was premiered on March 7, 1933 by the Chardon Quartet, to whom it is dedicated. It is a charming but by no means bland work that later became a favorite of the Juilliard Quartet...
(1933) - String Quartet No. 2String Quartet No. 2 (Piston)String Quartet No. 2 by Walter Piston is a chamber-music work composed in 1935.-History:Piston’s Second Quartet was composed two years after his First Quartet, and like it was premiered by the Chardon Quartet, on March 16, 1935...
(1935) - String Quartet No. 3String Quartet No. 3 (Piston)String Quartet No. 3 by Walter Piston is a chamber-music work composed in 1947.-History:Piston’s Third Quartet was commissioned by Harvard University and first performed by the Walden Quartet on May 1, 1947...
(1947) - String Quartet No. 4String Quartet No. 4 (Piston)String Quartet No. 4 by Walter Piston is a chamber-music work composed in 1951.-History:Piston’s Fourth Quartet was commissioned by the Coolidge Foundation in celebration of the centennial of Mills College, and is dedicated to Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. It was premiered on May 18, 1952 by the...
(1951) - String Quartet No. 5String Quartet No. 5 (Piston)String Quartet No. 5 by Walter Piston is a chamber-music work composed in 1962.-History:Piston’s Fifth Quartet was commissioned for the 1962 Berlin Festival by the Kroll Quartet, who gave the first performance on October 8, 1962...
(1962)
- String Quartet No. 1
- Three Pieces for Flute, Clarinet and Bassoon (1926)
- Flute Sonata (1930)
- Suite for Oboe and Piano (1931)
- Piano Trio No. 1 (1935)
- Violin Sonata (1939)
- Sonatina for Violin and HarpsichordSonatina for Violin and Harpsichord (Piston)The Sonatina for Violin and Harpsichord is a three-movement, neoclassical chamber work composed by Walter Piston in 1945, that marks the beginning of his postwar style.-History:...
(1945) - Interlude for Viola and Piano (1942)
- Flute Quintet (1942)
- Partita for Violin, Viola and Organ (1944)
- Divertimento, for nine instruments (1946)
- Duet for Viola and Cello (1949)
- Piano Quintet (1949)
- Wind Quintet (1956)
- Piano Quartet (1964)
- String Sextet (1964)
- Piano Trio No. 2 (1966)
- Duo for Cello and Piano (1972)
Books
- 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, Wisc.: Published for the United States Armed Forces Institute by W. Norton & Co., 1944. Revised ed, New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1948. Third ed., 1962. Fourth ed., revised and expanded by Mark DeVoto, 1978. ISBN 0-393-09034-5. 5th edition, revised and expanded by Mark DeVoto ISBN 0-393-95480-3. British editions, London: Victor Gollancz, 1949, rev. ed. 1950 (reprinted 1973), 1959, 3rd ed. 1970, 4th ed. 1982. Spanish translation, as Armonía, rev. y ampliada por Mark DeVoto. Barcelona: Idea Books, 2001. ISBN 8482362240 Chinese version of the 2nd edition, as 和声学 [He sheng xue], trans. Chenbao Feng and Dunxing Shen. 北京 : 人民音乐出版社 : 新华书店北京发行所发行 [Beijing: Ren min yin yue chu ban she : Xin hua shu dian Beijing fa xing suo fa xing], 1956. Revised, 北京 : 人民音乐出版社 [Beijing: Ren min yin yue chu ban she], 1978.
- Counterpoint. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1947.
- Orchestration. New York: Norton, 1955. Russian translation, as 'Оркестровка', translation and notes by Constantine Ivanov. Moscow: Soviet Composer, 1990, ISBN 5-85285-014-4.
Sources
- Anon. (1991). Liner notes for RCA Victor recording 60798-2-RC.
- Anon. (2007).
- DeVoto, Mark (1994). "Walter Piston, Practical Theorist". (Accessed 03/02/11).
- Firmino, Érico Artioli, José Lino Oliveira Bueno, and Emmanuel Bigand. 2009. "Travelling Through Pitch Space Speeds up Musical Time". Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal 26, no. 3 (February): 205–209.
- Hudson, Edward (1976). "Walter Piston Dies; Composer Won Two Pulitzers". The New York Times (November 13): 21.
- Lowe, Steven (2002). Liner notes to Walter Piston: Symphony No. 4, Capriccio for Harp and String Orchestra, Three New England Sketches. Seattle Symphony Orchestra; Gerard Schwarz, conductor. Naxos CD 8.559162.
- Oja, Carol J. (2011). "Walter Piston (1894-1976)". American Symphony Orchestra Program Notes (March 29). (Accessed 03/02/11)., Deane Root, editor in chief. (Subscription access). Previously published in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley SadieStanley SadieStanley Sadie CBE was a leading British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , which was published as the first edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.Sadie was educated at St Paul's School,...
and John TyrrellJohn Tyrrell (professor of music)John Tyrrell was born in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia in 1942. He studied at the universities of Cape Town, Oxford and Brno. In 2000 he was appointed Research Professor at Cardiff University....
. London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001. - Thomson, Virgil (1962). "'Greatest Music Teacher' at 75". Music Educators Journal 49, no. 1 (Sept.-Oct.): 43.