{"id":19262,"date":"2012-11-13T17:51:37","date_gmt":"2012-11-13T21:51:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/?p=19262"},"modified":"2012-11-13T17:53:45","modified_gmt":"2012-11-13T21:53:45","slug":"celebrating-the-103-years-of-elliot-carters-life-reflecting-on-the-great-composers-ties-to-the-queen-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/2012\/11\/celebrating-the-103-years-of-elliot-carters-life-reflecting-on-the-great-composers-ties-to-the-queen-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating the 103 years of Elliot Carter's Life: Reflecting on the Great Composer's Ties to the Queen City"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Lauren Fink<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Elliot<\/a>In addition to the John Cage Festivities this week at CCM, another major event has happened in the musical world: one of the century\u2019s greatest composers, Elliot Carter died on Monday, Nov. 5th<\/sup>, at 103 years of age.<\/p>\n

Born on Dec. 11th<\/sup>, 1908, at age 15 Carter met composer Charles Ives who was an extremely influential mentor, introducing Carter to contemporary composers and musicians and encouraging his musical development. Throughout the 1920s, Carter spent most of his summers in Europe studying the scores of composers from the second Viennese school \u2013 Schoenberg, Berg, Webern \u2013 and eventually matriculated to Harvard University. At Harvard, where he studied with Gustav Holst, Carter received a B.A. in English Literature and an M.A. in Music.\u00a0 In 1932, Carter went to Paris to study at the Ecole Normale de Musique, in addition to taking private lessons with Nadia Boulanger (who was a notable teacher of many other famous composers, like Aaron Copland and Philip Glass). Carter returned to the US in 1936, mainly residing in New York.\u00a0 Throughout his career he taught at Yale, Cornell, Columbia, Julliard, Peabody Conservatory, Queens College, and St. John\u2019s College.\u00a0 He was also composer-in-residence at the American Academy in Rome and Berlin.<\/p>\n

\"Elliot<\/a>

Click on the letter to view a larger version<\/p><\/div>\n

Carter\u2019s compositional output includes music for chamber ensemble, orchestra, chorus, solo instruments, theatre, and ballet. He has won numerous prestigious awards; including two Pulitzers, the Prix de Rome, and Germany\u2019s Ernst Von Siemens Music Prize (other Siemens recipients include Benjamin Britten, Oliver Messiaen, Pierre Boulez).\u00a0 Of special note, Carter was the first composer to receive the National Medal of Arts, which was awarded to him by President Reagan.<\/p>\n

In reflecting on his prolific musical achievements, I decided to search ARB\u2019s bio files, wondering whether the University of Cincinnati had any special connections to Elliot Carter. As it turns out, CCM awarded Elliot Carter an Honorary Doctor of Music Degree on January 19, 1989.\u00a0 This event happened in conjunction with Carter\u2019s 80th<\/sup> birthday festivities, which included guest lectures by Carter during his four day stay in Cincinnati, as well as CCM and CSO performances of his music. The honorary degree, recommended by CCM composition faculty, was conferred upon Carter by UC president, Joseph Steger. Our files include letters of endorsement for this endeavor, as seen on right in a letter written by Milton Babbitt, which states, \u201cI can conceive of no undertaking more superogatory than that of presuming to certify the position and the attainments of Elliot Carter, for his position long has been an exalted one and his compositional attainments are among the most importantly distinguished not just of our time but of all musical time.\u201d In another letter, former CCM professor of composition and theory, Jonathan Kramer, declares that out of the three C\u2019s of American music \u2013 Copland, Cage, and Carter \u2013 Carter is \u201cthe original and the intellectual.\u201d Carter\u2019s music is ripe in individualism, emotion, and compositional complexity.<\/p>\n

\"Elliot<\/a>It seems to have taken the Cincinnati public a little longer to agree, however.\u00a0 In the 1983-84 season the CSO performed Carter\u2019s Variations for Orchestra<\/em> (1955) and was met with multiple letters of complaint. The following season, though, music director Michael Gielen decided to program Carter\u2019s Piano Concerto<\/em> (1965).\u00a0 Fearing audience distaste for this magnificent work, which is often considered even more complex than Variations<\/em>, John Kramer decided to invite Carter to Cincinnati to talk about his music. This is the birth of CCM\u2019s Visiting Composers Program and Cincinnati\u2019s appreciation for Elliot Carter. In ARB files detailing the event, Carter was \u201can articulate, patient, intelligent lecturer.\u201d\u00a0 He spoke at both CCM and Music Hall, and his piece was met with great applause; perhaps due to the help of his lectures, audiences were able to connect with the composer and his music. The Piano Concerto<\/em> was recorded by WGUC-FM (90.9 mHz) and released by New World Records, on an LP which also included Variations<\/em>. Carter was particularly fond of this recording and pianist Ursula Oppens\u2019 interpretation of his concerto.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the week after the triumphant performance of Carter\u2019s Piano Concerto<\/em>, WGUC listeners ranked it 8th<\/sup> on their \u201ctop 40\u201d list of favorites to be subsequently broadcast (right before Tchaikovsky\u2019s 1812 Overture!).\u00a0 Fascinatingly, another tie to Cincinnati comes from WGUC\u2019s Ann Santen, whose husband commissioned Elliot Carter to write a piece for her birthday. This piece, Enchanted Preludes<\/em>, was written for cello and flute, drawing its title from a poem by Wallace Stevens: The Pure Good of Theory, “All the Preludes to Felicity,” stanza no.7:<\/p>\n

Felicity, ah! Time is the hooded enemy,
\nThe inimical music, the enchanted space
\nIn which the enchanted preludes have their place.<\/p>\n

For more information on these or any other holdings of the Archives and Rare Books Library, please call (513)-556-1959, email archives@ucmail.uc.edu<\/a>, check out our website at http:\/\/www.libraries.uc.edu\/libraries\/arb\/index.html<\/a>, or visit us on the 8th<\/sup> floor of Blegen Library.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lauren Fink In addition to the John Cage Festivities this week at CCM, another major event has happened in the musical world: one of the century\u2019s greatest composers, Elliot Carter died on Monday, Nov. 5th, at 103 years of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,13],"tags":[53,353,66],"class_list":["post-19262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arb","category-uclibraries","tag-cincinnati-history","tag-college-conservatory-of-music","tag-university-archives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19262\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}