Gunther Schuller Explained

Gunther Schuller
Background:non_vocal_instrumentalist
Birth Date:22 November 1925
Birth Place:Queens, New York, U.S.
Death Place:Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Genre:Jazz, classical, third stream
Occupation:President of the New England Conservatory
Instrument:French horn, flute
Associated Acts:Modern Jazz Society, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

Gunther Alexander Schuller (November 22, 1925June 21, 2015) was an American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, educator, publisher, and jazz musician.

Biography and works

Early years

Schuller was born in Queens, New York City, the son of German parents Elsie (Bernartz) and Arthur E. Schuller, a violinist with the New York Philharmonic.[1] He studied at the Saint Thomas Choir School and became an accomplished French horn player and flute player. At age 15, he was already playing horn professionally with the American Ballet Theatre (1943) followed by an appointment as principal hornist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (1943–45), and then the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York, where he stayed until 1959.[2] During his youth, he attended the Precollege Division at the Manhattan School of Music, later going on to teach at the school.[3] But, already a high school dropout because he wanted to play professionally, Schuller never obtained a degree from any institution.[4] He began his career in jazz by recording as a horn player with Miles Davis (1949–50).[5]

Performance and growth

In 1955, Schuller and jazz pianist John Lewis founded the Modern Jazz Society,[5] which gave its first concert at Town Hall, New York, the same year and later became known as the Jazz and Classical Music Society. While lecturing at Brandeis University in 1957, he coined the term "Third Stream" to describe music that combines classical and jazz techniques. He became an enthusiastic advocate of this style and wrote many works according to its principles, among them Transformation (1957, for jazz ensemble),[6] Concertino (1959, for jazz quartet and orchestra),[7] Abstraction (1959, for nine instruments),[8] and Variants on a Theme of Thelonious Monk (1960, for 13 instruments) utilizing Eric Dolphy and Ornette Coleman.[8] In 1966, he composed the opera The Visitation.[9] He also orchestrated Scott Joplin's only known surviving opera Treemonisha for the Houston Grand Opera's premiere production of this work in 1975.[10]

Career maturity

In 1959, Schuller largely gave up performance to devote himself to composition, teaching and writing. He conducted internationally and studied and recorded jazz with such greats as Dizzy Gillespie and John Lewis among many others.[5] Schuller wrote over 190 original compositions in many musical genres.[11]

In the 1960s and 1970s, Schuller was president of New England Conservatory, where he founded The New England Ragtime Ensemble. During this period, he also held a variety of positions at the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home in Tanglewood, serving as director of new music activities from 1965 to 1969 and as artistic director of the Tanglewood Music Center from 1970 to 1984 and creating the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music.[12]

In the 1970s and 1980s Schuller founded the publishers Margun Music and Gun-Mar and the record label GM Recordings.[13] [14] Margun Music and Gun-Mar were sold to Music Sales Group in 1999.[15]

Schuller recorded the LP Country Fiddle Band with the Conservatory's country fiddle band, released by Columbia Records in 1976. Reviewing in (1981), Robert Christgau wrote: "The melodies are fetchingly tried-and-true, the (unintentional?) stateliness of the rhythms appropriately nineteenth-century, and the instrumental overkill (twenty-four instruments massed on 'Flop-Eared Mule') both gorgeous and hilarious. A grand novelty."[16]

Schuller was editor-in-chief of Jazz Masterworks Editions, and co-director of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra[17] in Washington, D.C. Another effort of preservation was his editing and posthumous premiering at Lincoln Center in 1989 of Charles Mingus's immense final work, Epitaph, subsequently released on Columbia/Sony Records.[18] He was the author of two major books on the history of jazz, Early Jazz (1968)[19] and The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz, 1930-1945.

His students included Irwin Swack,[20] Ralph Patt,[21] John Ferritto, Mohammed Fairouz, Gitta Steiner, Oliver Knussen, Nancy Zeltsman, Riccardo Dalli Cardillo[22] and hundreds of others.

See also: Gunther and Schuller.

Accomplishments in final decades

From 1993 until his death, Schuller served as Artistic Director for the Northwest Bach Festival in Spokane, Washington state. Each year the festival showcased works by J.S. Bach and other composers in venues around Spokane. At the 2010 festival, Schuller conducted the Mass in B minor at St. John's Cathedral, sung by the Bach Festival Chorus, composed of professional singers in Eastern Washington, and the BachFestival, composed of members of the Spokane Symphony and others. Other notable performances Schuller conducted at the festival include the St Matthew Passion in 2008 and Handel's Messiah in 2005.

Schuller's association with Spokane began with guest conducting the Spokane Symphony for one week in 1982.[23] He then served as Music Director from 1984 to 1985[24] and later regularly appeared as a guest conductor. Schuller also served as Artistic Director to the nearby Festival at Sandpoint.[25]

In 2005, the Boston Symphony, New England Conservatory, and Harvard University presented a festival of Schuller's music, curated by Bruce Brubaker, titled "I Hear America." At the time, Brubaker remarked, "Gunther Schuller is a key witness to American musical culture."[26] His modernist orchestral work Where the Word Ends, organized in four movements corresponding to those of a symphony, was premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 2009.[27]

In 2011 Schuller published the first volume of a two-volume autobiography, Gunther Schuller: A Life in Pursuit of Music and Beauty.[28]

In 2012, Schuller premiered a new arrangement, the Treemonisha suite from Joplin's opera. It was performed as part of The Rest is Noise season at London's South Bank in 2013.[29]

Schuller died on June 21, 2015, in Boston, from complications from leukemia. He married Marjorie Black, a singer and pianist, in 1948, and the marriage lasted until her death in 1992.[30] [31] His sons George and Ed survived him, as did his brother Edgar.

Awards and honors

Discography

As arranger

As conductor

As a sideman

With Gigi Gryce

all tracks appearing on "Nica's Tempo"

With John Lewis

With Mitch Miller

With Frank Sinatra

With others

Books

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Gunther Schuller Dies at 89; Composer Synthesized Classical and Jazz. Allan Kozinn . 2015-06-22 . 2015-06-23 . The New York Times.
  2. News: BMI Mourns the Loss of Jazz and Classical Great Gunther Schuller. BMI Foundation. June 22, 2015. June 23, 2015.
  3. Web site: Manhattan School of Music. 1950s. June 23, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150623212043/http://www.msmnyc.edu/Offices/Alumni/Virtual-Yearbooks/1950s. June 23, 2015. dead.
  4. Web site: Gunther Schuller. New Music Box . June 24, 2015 . July 2009 . /
  5. News: Gunther Schuller, Pulitzer-winning jazz and classical musician, dies aged 89. The Guardian. June 21, 2015. June 23, 2015.
  6. News: Jazz Appreciation Month: Gunther Schuller, 'Transformation'. Classicalite. April 11, 2013. June 23, 2015. Logan. Young.
  7. News: Gunther Schuller: Concertino for Jazz Quartet and Orchestra. July 28, 2008. Ted. Giola. Jazz.com. June 23, 2015. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20140419210023/http://www.jazz.com/music/2008/7/28/gunther-schuller-concertino-for-jazz-quartet-and-orchestra. April 19, 2014. mdy-all.
  8. Web site: John Lewis Presents Jazz Abstractions. AllMusic. Scott. Yanow. June 23, 2015.
  9. News: Joseph . Berger . Reclaimed Jewel Whose Attraction Can Be Perilous . The New York Times . July 19, 2010 . July 21, 2010.
  10. News: 'Treemonisha' as It Was Intended To Be. The Wall Street Journal. December 6, 2011. June 23, 2015. Barrymore Laurence. Scherer.
  11. Web site: Gunther Schuller (1925–2015). Horn Society. June 23, 2015. November 6, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20191106044908/https://www.hornsociety.org/home/ihs-news/26-people/honorary/90-gunther-schuller. dead.
  12. Web site: From the Audio Archives: Schuller, Spectra . Tanglewood.org . July 29, 2012 . Dyer . Richard . November 6, 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20191106044911/https://www.bso.org/brands/tanglewood/features/from-the-audio-archives/from-the-audio-archives-day-39.aspx . dead .
  13. Book: Oxford University Press. Carnovale. Norbert. Dyer. Richard. Schuller, Gunther. 2019.
  14. Web site: GM Recordings home page. 2020-06-13.
  15. Lichtman. Irv. Words & Music. Billboard. 1999-12-04.
  16. Book: Christgau, Robert. Robert Christgau. 1981. . Ticknor & Fields. 089919026X. Consumer Guide '70s: S. https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_chap.php?k=S&bk=70. March 12, 2019. robertchristgau.com.
  17. Web site: Jazz Exhibits, Jazz Events, Smithsonian Masterworks Orchestra, Jazz Listserv, Jazz Merchandise . Smithsonian Jazz . October 26, 2010.
  18. News: Mingus' Magnum Opus: 'Epitaph' In Concert. NPR. July 24, 2008. June 23, 2015.
  19. Book: Early Jazz. Oxford University Press. The History of Jazz. June 19, 1986. 978-0-19-504043-2. June 23, 2015.
  20. Web site: Dwight Winenger . Irwin Swack Music . Dwightwinenger.net . September 11, 1999 . October 26, 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130512203121/http://www.dwightwinenger.net/swack.htm . May 12, 2013 . dead .
  21. Tuning in thirds: A new approach to playing leads to a new kind of guitar. Jonathon. Peterson. Tacoma, WA. American Lutherie: The Quarterly Journal of the Guild of American Luthiers. The Guild of American Luthiers. 1041-7176. 72. Winter. 2002. October 9, 2012. 36–43. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20111021185726/http://www.luth.org/backissues/al69-72/al72.htm. October 21, 2011. mdy-all.
  22. Web site: A music life . 2014-02-02 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140219114326/http://www.dallicardillo.com/a_music_life.html . February 19, 2014 . mdy-all .
  23. Web site: Marty Demarest . The Spokane Connection . Inlander.com . February 8, 2002 . October 26, 2010.
  24. Web site: Music Director . Spokane Symphony . October 26, 2010.
  25. Web site: Michael Delucchi . Gunther Schuller makes the music beautiful . Sandpointonline.com . October 26, 2010.
  26. Cleary, David, "Review of Festival – I Hear America: Gunther Schuller at 80", New Music Connoisseur, 2005
  27. Web site: Loomis, George, "Boston Symphony Orchestra/Levine, Symphony Hall, Boston", Financial Times (February 10, 2009) . Financial Times . February 10, 2009 . October 26, 2010.
  28. Web site: University of Rochester Press. Boydellandbrewer.com. September 9, 2020 . August 1, 2021.
  29. Web site: The Rest is Noise: American mavericks. Time Out. February 2013 .
  30. News: Gunther Schuller, 89; classical-jazz giant . Boston Globe . Jeremy Eichler . 2015-06-22 . 2015-08-26.
  31. News: Gunther Schuller, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer who bridged jazz and classical music, dies at 89. The Washington Post. Matt Schudel . 2015-06-22 . June 23, 2015.
  32. News: Former NEC President Gunther Schuller To Receive 2015 Edward MacDowell Medal. April 7, 2015. June 23, 2015. New England Conservatory.
  33. Musings: The Musical Worlds of Gunther Schuller by Gunther Schuller (1986), Oxford University Press
  34. News: Gunther Schuller, Who Bridged Classical Music And Jazz, Dies At 89. Anastasia. Tsioulcas. NPR. June 21, 2015. June 23, 2015.
  35. Web site: The Juilliard School. American Brass Quintet Pays Tribute to Retiring Members. June 23, 2015. September 4, 2014.
  36. Cleary, David, "Review of Festival – I Hear America: Gunther Schuller at 80", New Music Connoisseur, 2005
  37. Book: Mathieson . Kenny . Cookin' Hard Bop and Soul Jazz, 1954–65 . 2002 . Canongate . Edinburgh . 9780857866165.
  38. Book: Price. Emmett G. . Encyclopedia of African American Music . 2010 . Greenwood . Oxford . 9780313341991 .
  39. Book: Erlewine. Michael. Bogdanov. Vladimir. Woodstra. Chris . Yanow . Scott . All Music Guide to Jazz . 2002 . Backbeat . San Francisco . 9780879307172 . 4th.
  40. Book: Schuller . Gunther . Musings . 1999 . Da Capo . New York . 9780306809026 . 1st Da Capo Press.
  41. Book: Kirchner. Bill. The Oxford companion to jazz. 2005. Oxford University Press. New York. 9780195183597.
  42. Book: Cooke. Mervyn . Horn. David. The Cambridge Companion to Jazz. Cambridge Companions to Music. 2002. Cambridge University Press. New York . 9780521663205. 1.
  43. Book: Silver. Horace. Horace Silver. Let's Get to the Nitty Gritty: The autobiography of Horace Silver . 2006 . University of California Press . Berkeley, California. 9780520243743 . 211. registration .
  44. Book: Lambert. Philip. Alec Wilder. 2013. University of Illinois Press . Urbana . 9780252094842 . 63.
  45. Book: Do Nascimento Silva . Luis Carlos . Put Your Dreams Away . 2000 . Greenwood Press . Westport, Connecticut . 0313310556.
  46. Book: Summers. Claude. The Queer Encyclopedia of Music, Dance & Musical Theater. 2004. Cleis Press. San Francisco. 9781573441988. 165–166. 1st.
  47. Web site: Goodreads. Books by Gunther Schuller. June 23, 2015.

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