Harvard Composers: Walter Piston and His Students, from Elliott Carter to Frederic Rzewski

1993 ◽  
Vol 134 (1804) ◽  
pp. 340
Author(s):  
David Wright ◽  
Howard Pollack
Keyword(s):  
Elliott Carter ◽  
Walter Piston

Carter, Elliott (Cook Jr.) (1908–2012)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brenda Ravenscroft
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Musical Language ◽  
Charles Ives ◽  
Harvard College ◽  
Elliott Carter ◽  
Gustav Holst ◽  
Nadia Boulanger ◽  
Walter Piston

Born in 1908 into a wealthy New York City family, Elliott Carter enjoyed a cosmopolitan childhood, spending time in Europe and learning French at an early age. The composer Charles Ives mentored the young Carter, taking him to concerts in New York and encouraging his developing interest in music. Carter’s childhood, characterized by immersion in a culturally enriched environment and exposure to the modern world, provided the elements from which his artistic aesthetic and musical language would later be forged. When Carter entered Harvard College, he focused his studies on English literature, Greek, and philosophy, although musical activities continued in the form of lessons with Walter Piston and Gustav Holst, as well as singing with the Harvard Glee Club. Carter completed a master’s degree in music at Harvard in 1932, after which he moved to Paris to study composition with Nadia Boulanger for three years. He received a doctorate in music from the École Normale de Musique in Paris in 1935.

Walter Piston 1894–1976

Tempo ◽  
1977 ◽  
pp. 23-24
Author(s):  
Paul Rapoport
Keyword(s):  
Harvard University ◽  
Leonard Bernstein ◽  
Main Text ◽  
Elliott Carter ◽  
American Composer ◽  
Nadia Boulanger ◽  
Walter Piston ◽  
Academic Study

Walter Piston, the American composer and teacher, died aged 82 on 12 November 1976. As a young amateur he learned to play nearly all the instruments, but he did not begin academic study of music until he was 25 He graduated from Harvard University with highest honours in 1924, studied for two years in France with Nadia Boulanger, and returned to teach at Harvard for over three decades, retiring in 1960. Among his pupils were Leonard Bernstein and Elliott Carter. His three main text books (Harmony, Counterpoint and Orchestration) have been, widely used for many years.

Harvard Composers: Walter Piston and His Students, from Elliott Carter to Frederic Rzewski

Notes ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 988
Author(s):  
Bill F. Faucett ◽  
Howard Pollack
Keyword(s):  
Elliott Carter ◽  
Walter Piston

Harvard Composers: Walter Piston and His Students, from Elliott Carter to Frederic Rzewski

1994 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 329
Author(s):  
Joshua Berrett ◽  
Howard Pollack
Keyword(s):  
Elliott Carter ◽  
Walter Piston

An Interview with Elliott Carter

1990 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan W. Bernard ◽  
Elliott Carter
Keyword(s):  
Elliott Carter

Elliott Carter's Harvest Home

Tempo ◽  
1988 ◽  
pp. 2-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Schiff
Keyword(s):  
Middle Years ◽  
Solo Piano ◽  
Elliott Carter ◽  
Rocky Soil ◽  
Solo Violin ◽  
As If

ApproachingHisEightiethBirthday, Elliott Carter has acquired a new fluency, as if composing had suddenly—finally—become easy. In his middle years Carter felt compelled to exhaust a musical vocabulary with each composition. Since the solo piano Night Fantasies of 1980, however, he has based a series of widely different works on similar premises: after years of ploughing through rocky soil it was now time for the harvest. As an overflow of this bounty Carter has produced a new (for him) genre: short occasional pieces of three to six minutes in duration. Along with the five major works composed since Night Fantasies, there are seven new short works for media ranging from solo violin to large orchestra. The inventiveness and high spirits of his recent music may call to mind those other wonders of a secondyouth, Falstaff and Agon.

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