Schuller Gunther, *22 November 1925 New York, †21 June 2015 Boston, American composer, horn player, conductor, music writer, and teacher. Autodidact in composition, he studied flute, horn, and music theory at the St. Thomas Choir School and the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. He began his career at the age of 16 as a member of the American Ballet Theatre orchestra and also played with the New York Philharmonic. He was the principal horn player of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (1943–45, in 1945 E. Goossens premiered Schuller’s Horn Concerto No. 1, with the composer as soloist), the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra (1945–59), and taught horn at the Manhattan School of Music in 1950–63; he later gave up performing. From 1964 to 1967, he was professor of composition at Yale University, and from 1967 to 1977, he directed the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where he founded the jazz department, the Ragtime Ensemble, and the Jazz Repertory Orchestra. From 1963 to 1984, he taught composition at the Berkshire Music Centre (later Tanglewood Music Centre, Massachusetts); there, he was artistic director from 1969. In 1959 and 1960, he taught at the Lenox School of Jazz, and in 1955, he founded the Jazz and Classical Music Society with John Lewis to present rarely performed music (including early music). As a conductor, he worked with many symphony and jazz orchestras; in 1984–85, he was music director of the Spokane Symphony, in 1985–1998, artistic director of the Sandpoint Festival (Idaho), in 1993–2013, artistic director of the Northwest Bach Festival in Spokane.
In 1967, he was appointed a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, in 1980 of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters (in 1997, he received a gold medal). In 2005, he was an artist-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin, and in 2007 Fromm Visiting Professor in Music Composition at Harvard University. He was associated with the Boston chamber orchestra Pro Arte, which awarded him the title of Conductor Laureate in 1990, and in 1998 Principal Guest Conductor.
He received numerous awards, including the MacArthur Foundation Genius Award (1991), the Pulitzer Prize for Of Reminiscences and Reflections (1994), the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master Award (2008), the Edward MacDowell Medal (2015) for outstanding contribution to American culture, and several honorary doctorates.
Schuller’s eclectic musical style was shaped by Schoenberg, and, to a lesser extent, Stravinsky (mainly in the metro-rhythmic layer), Ravel, Debussy, Scriabin, and in later years also Babbitt (serialism) and others. The composer assimilated various elements, primarily (especially in his early works) the 12-note technique. His works are distinguished by their colourful instrumentation and predilection for wind instruments. The 1940s brought Schuller a lasting fascination with jazz, both as an instrumentalist and composer, teacher and writer. He performed in New York jazz clubs, collaborated with John Lewis and his Modern Jazz Quartet, Miles Davis (the album Birth of the Cool), Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Ornette Coleman, Bill Evans, Charles Mingus, Joe Lovano and others. Alongside J. Lewis, he is the main figure of the so-called third stream (in 1957, he coined the term “Third Stream”). Believing in the possibility of symbiosis between classical and jazz, recorded music and improvisation, he composed pieces combining traditional orchestral apparatus with jazz band (their fullest fusion, among others through role reversal, occurred in Encounters) and jazz with atonality or dodecaphony (The Visitation, Eine kleine Posaunenmusik). Many of Schuller’s compositions were inspired by paintings of Paul Klee (in 7 Studies…, there is a translation of shape, texture, sequence of colours into the sound process), Jackson Pollock and others (American Triptych), or photography, such as the poem An Arc Ascending (after Alice Weston), in which there are clear references to Debussy and Ravel.
Schuller made great contributions to the promotion of contemporary music, jazz, and American music through his conducting (in which he was guided by the principle of complete fidelity to the composer’s intentions), teaching, and popularisation. To this end, in 1975, he founded the publishing house Margun Music, in 1979, GunMar Music, and in 1981, the record company GM Recordings. During his years at the New England Conservatory, he contributed to the renaissance of ragtime and the work of S. Joplin. He is the author of important works on jazz and conducting, numerous radio and television broadcasts, and articles on jazz, performance, musical aesthetics, and education. Thanks to his activity in so many fields (he is sometimes compared to L. Bernstein), he had a strong influence on younger generations of American composers.
Literature: N. Carnovale Gunther Schuller. A Bio-Bibliography, Westport (Connecticut) 1987; Gunther Schuller. A Life in Pursuit of Music and Beauty, Rochester (New York) 2011 (autobiography).
Compositions
Instrumental:
orchestra:
Symphonic Study 1948, revised 1964
Symphonic Tribute to Duke Ellington 1955
Spectra 1958
7 Studies on Themes of Paul Klee 1959, Polish premiere at the Warsaw Autumn Festival 1964
Symphony 1965
American Triptych 1965
Concerto No. 1 for orchestra (Gala Music) 1966
Shapes and Designs 1969
4 Soundscapes (Hudson Valley Reminiscences) 1975
Concerto No. 2 for orchestra 1976
Concerto No. 3 for orchestra (Farbenspiel) 1985
And They All Played Ragtime 1992
Of Reminiscences and Reflections 1993
The Past is in the Present 1994
An Arc Ascending 1996
Where the Word Ends 2007
Dreamscape 2012
Symphonic Images 2012
Symphonic Triptych 2015
for chamber orchestra:
Suite 1945
Symphony for Brass and Percussion 1950
I Concerto da camera 1971
In Praise of Winds for wind orchestra, 1981
Chamber Symphony 1989
II Concerto da camera 2002
Nature’s Way for wind instruments and percussion, 2006
Games 2013
for instruments solo and orchestra:
Concerto No. 1 for horn and orchestra, 1944
Concerto for cello and orchestra, 1945, revised 1984
Concertino for jazz quartet and orchestra, 1959
Contrasts for wind quintet and orchestra, 1961
Concerto No. 1 for piano and orchestra, 1962
Concerto No. 1 for double bass and orchestra, 1968
Museum Piece for renaissance instruments and orchestra, 1970
Concerto No. 1 for violin and orchestra, 1976
Concerto No. 2 for horn and orchestra, 1976
Concerto No. 2 for double bass and orchestra, 1978
Concerto for contrabassoon and orchestra, 1978
Concerto for trumpet and orchestra, 1979
Eine kleine Posaunenmusik for trombone and wind ensemble, 1980
Concerto No. 2 for piano and orchestra, 1981
Concerto for alto saxophone and orchestra, 1983
Concerto quaternio for flute, oboe, trumpet, viola and 4 orchestra groups 1984
Concerto festivo for brass quintet and orchestra, 1984
Concerto for bassoon and orchestra, 1985
Concerto for viola and orchestra, 1985
Concerto for flute, flute piccolo flet piccolo and orchestra, 1988
Concerto for string quartet and orchestra, 1988
On Winged Flight for wind orchestra and 3 cellos, 1989
Concerto for 2 pianos for 3 hands with chamber orchestra, 1990
Song and Dance for violin and wind orchestra, 1990
Concerto No. 2 for violin and orchestra, 1991
Concerto for organ and orchestra, 1993
Encounters for jazz soloists, jazz ensemble and orchestra, 2003
Grand Concerto for Percussion and Keyboards for 8 percussions, harp, cello and piano, 2005
Refrains for 12 tubes, 10 euphonium and 2 percussions, 2006
Concerto No. 2 for tube and orchestra, 2008
chamber:
Sonata for clarinet, horn and piano, 1941, revised 1983
Suite for wind quintet, 1944
Jumpin’ in the Future (Atonal Jazz Study) for 12 instruments, 1948
Sonata for cello and piano, 1948
Sonata for clarinet and bass clarinet, 1949
Sonata for oboe and piano, 1951
Twelve by Eleven for jazz nonet, 1955
String Quartet No. 1 1957, Polish premiere at the Warsaw Autumn Festival 1962
Conversations for jazz and string quartet, 1959
Variants on a Theme of Thelonious Monk for 13 instruments, 1960
Variants on a Theme of John Lewis for 11 instruments, 1960
Double Quintet for woodwind and brass quintet, 1961
Music for Brass Quintet 1961
String Quartet No. 2 1966
Octet for clarinet, bassoon, horn and string quintet, 1979
Duologue for violin and piano, 1983
Piano Trio 1984
String Quartet No. 3 1986
Sonata for horn and piano, 1988
A Trio Setting for clarinet, violin and piano, 1990
Brass Quintet No. 2 1993
Sextet for piano and wind quintet, 1994
Sonata for alto saxophone and piano, 1999
Quodlibet for oboe, horn, violin, cello and harp, 2001
String Quartet No. 4 2002
Quintet for horn and string instruments, 2009
Four Soliloquies for clarinet, cello and piano, 2010
Sonata for Two Pianos, Four Hands 2010
Piano Trio No. 3 2012
Magical Trumpets for 12 trumpets, 2014
String Quartet No. 5 2013
***
works for instruments solo
Vocal-instrumental:
songs for voice and piano, including Meditations, lyrics G. Stein, 1960
6 Renaissance Lyrics for tenor and 7 instruments, 1962
Journey into Jazz for narrator, jazz quintet and orchestra, lyrics by the composer and N. Hentoff, 1962
5 Shakespearean Songs for baritone and orchestra, 1964
Sacred Cantata (Psalm 98) for choir and chamber orchestra, 1966
The Power Within Us, oratorio for reciting voice, baritone, choir and orchestra, lyrics H. Long, 1971
Poems of Time and Eternity for choir and 9 instruments, lyrics E. Dickinson, 1972
Mondrian’s Vision for choir and orchestra, 1994
Singing Poems for soprano and 6 instruments, 2015
Scenic:
The Visitation, opera, libretto by the composer after F. Kafka, staged in Hamburg 1966
The Fisherman and His Wife, children’s opera, libretto J. Updike after Brothers Grimm, staged in Boston 1970
ballets, including Variants 1960, staged in New York 1961
***
film and TV music
numerous transcriptions and arrangements for orchestra, jazz bands and others of works by, among others, J.S. Bach, F. Converse, D. Ellington, C. Farina, L.M. Gottschalk, Ch. Ives, S. Joplin, C. Monteverdi, J. Ockeghem, Th. Tallis and K. Weill
Works:
Horn Technique, London 1962, 2nd ed. 1992
Early Jazz. Its Roots and Musical Development, London 1968, 2nd ed. 1986
Musings. The Musical Worlds of Gunther Schuller, collection of articles, New York 1986, 2nd ed. 1999
The Swing Era. The Development of Jazz 1930–1945, New York 1989, 2nd ed. 1991
The Compleat Conductor, New York 1997
