John Eaton (composer)

John Eaton (born March 30, 1935 in Bryn Mawr , Pennsylvania , † December 2, 2015 in Manhattan ) was an American composer who also emerged as a jazz pianist and synthesizer player. He is not to be confused with the jazz pianist of the same name (* 1934).

Life

From 1953 to 1959 at Princeton University, John Eaton studied composition with Milton Babbitt , Edward Cone , Earl Kim and Roger Sessions , musicology with Arthur Mendel and Oliver Strunk and piano with Erich Itor Kahn , Frank Sheridan , Eduard Steuermann and Louise Strunsky .

From 1959 to 1971 Eaton gave concerts and lectures in North and South America on behalf of the United States Information Agency (USIA). He also worked as a jazz pianist and interpreter of new music from 1953 to 1971, and played synthesizers as early as the 1960s. In this capacity he has participated in world premieres of works by Larry Austin , Leslie Bassett , Niccolò Castiglioni , Joel Chadabe , Donald Martino , Robert Moevs and William O. Smith . Together with Smith he founded the American Jazz Ensemble , with which he toured and made recordings in Europe and the USA and introduced the early synthesizer Synket developed by Paul Ketoff . Smith also performed his Concert Music for Solo Clarinet . Together with Robert Moog , he developed the keyboard for contemporary synthesizers.

In addition to electronic music, Eaton wrote more than 20 operas, including Myshkin (1970), Danton and Robespierre (1978), The Cry of Clytaemnestra (1980), and The Tempest (1985).

In 1976 he published the book Involvement with Music: New Music since 1950 .

From 1971 to 1991 Eaton was Professor of Music at Indiana University and Artistic Director of the Center for Electronic and Computer Music . He was then a professor at the University of Chicago until his retirement in 2001 .

Meaning and awards

Eaton was considered one of the most important contemporary opera composers in the United States. In addition, he dealt intensively with electro-acoustic and microtonal music . He has received numerous awards for his compositions. He has received ten awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), 32 BMI awards, three Prix ​​de Rome and two Guggenheim scholarships. In 1990 he was a MacArthur Fellow .

Works

• Song Cycle on Holy Sonnets of John Donne , 1956
• Variations for piano, 1957
• Ma Barker , opera (libretto: Arthur Gold ), 1957–1958
• Tertullian Overture for orchestra, 1958
• String Quartet No. 1 , 1958
• Sonata for trumpet and piano, 1959
• Encore Piece for flute and piano, 1959
• Three Epigrams for clarinet and piano, 1960
• Concert Piece for Clarinet and Piano, 1960
• Adagio and Allegro for flute, oboe and string orchestra, 1960
• Concert Music for Solo Clarinet , 1961
• Herakles , opera (libretto: Michael Fried after Sophocles and Seneca ), 1961–1964
• Theme and Variations for flute, 1964
• Songs for RPB (lyrics by Hart Crane , Richard Palmer Blackmur ), 1964
• Microtonal Fantasy for two pianos, 1965
• Concert Piece No. 2 for synthesizers, 1966
• Thoughts on Rilke , 1966
• Myshkin , opera (libretto: Patrick Creagh based on Fjodor Dostojewski ), 1966–1971
• Soliloquy for synthesizers, 1967
• Vibrations for flute, two oboes and two clarinets, 1967
• Five Thoughts for Sunny for trumpet, 1967
• Blind Man's Cry (text by Tristan Corbier ), 1968
• Duet for synthesizer, 1968
• Concert Piece for synthesizer and large orchestra, 1968
• Study for Viola and Two Tape Recorders, 1970
• Mass for soprano, five mixed voices, clarinet, piano, two percussionists and digital system, 1970, 1997
• Sonority Movement: In the Cave of the Sybil for flute and harp, 1971
• Piano Trio: In Memoriam Mario Cristini for violin, cello and piano, 1971
• The Three Graces , play (text by David Anderson ) for two sopranos, mezzo-soprano, actor and synthesizer, 1972
• Ajax for baritone and instrumental ensemble, 1972
• The Lion and Androcles , children's opera (libretto: Eugene Walter , David Anderson after Aulus Gellius ), 1973
• Guillen Songs (text by Giorgi Guillen ), 1974
• Oro (text by Matthias Bomhard ), 1974
• Land of Lampedusa (text by Marilyn Perry ), 1974
• Lullaby for Estela (text by Patrick Creagh ), 1975
• Emily Dickinson Song , 1975
• Variants for double bass, 1975
• Transformations for synthesizer and symphony orchestra, 1975
• Duo for soprano, mixed choir and piano, 1977
• Danton and Robespierre , Opera (Libretto: Patrick Creagh ), 1978
• The Cry of Clytaemnestra , opera (libretto: Patrick Creagh after Aeschylus ), 1979–1980
• Symphony No. 2 for large orchestra, 1981
• Burlesca for tuba and piano, 1981
• A Greek Vision (text by Angelos Sikelianos ), 1981
• The Tempest , opera (libretto: Andrew Porter based on William Shakespeare ), 1983–1985
• Duo for Julian and Estela for violin (s) and cello, 1984
• Big Aerobics for violin, 1985
• Remembering Rome Symphony for 22 or more strings, 1986
• Ars Poetica (song cycle based on William Butler Yeats ), 1986
• Songs of Despair (song cycle based on James Joyce ), 1987
• A Little Love Song for flute and piano, 1987
• String Quartet No. 2 , 1987
• Four Miniatures for tenor saxophone, 1987
• The Reverend Jim Jones , opera (libretto: James Reston Junior ), 1988
• Fantasy Romance for cello and piano, 1989
• Peer Gynt , incidental music for the piece by Henrik Ibsen , 1990
• Overture for the Dedication of a House (texts by Margarita Peña , Federico Campbell , Hernán Lavin Cerda , Héctor Valdés ), 1990
• Two Plaudits for Ralph for flute, oboe and cello, 1991
• A Packet for Emile and Bill (text by Emile Snyder ), 1991
• Notes on Moonlight (song cycle, texts by Federico García Lorca , Wallace Stevens , Leopoldo Lugones , Charles Baudelaire , William Butler Yeats ), 1991
• Trumpet Voluntary (text by Geoffrey Chaucer ), 1991
• Genesis ... for Eaton-Moog Multiple-Touch-Sensitive Keyboard, 1992
• Let's Get This Show on the Road: an Alternative View of 'Genesis' , Opera (Libretto: Eugene Walter ), 1993
• Songs of Desperation and Comfort (texts by John Donne , Patrick Creagh , William Shakespeare , Tristan Corbier ), 1993
• Lettere (text by Michaeli Ranchetti ), 1994
• Salome's Flea Circus , music for the play, for clarinet and piano, 1994
• Don Quixote , music for the play based on Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra 1994
• Golk , Opera (Libretto: Richard G. Stern ), 1995
• Golk Sonatina for oboe and piano, 1995
• Ad Luciam Beatricem , 1995;
• 3 Designs for Solo Clarinet , 1996
• Traveling with Gulliver , music for the play by Estela Eaton (based on Jonathan Swift ), 1997
• El Divino Narciso , cantata (text by Nelda Nelson after Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz ), 1998
• Sor Juana Songs , 1998
• Tocotín (text by Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz), 1998
• Sor Juana's Dreams , 1999
• Elegy for Jane (text by Theodore Roethke ), 1999
• Antigone , opera (libretto: Nicholas Rudall after Sophocles), 1999
• Youth , dramatic opera cantata (Libretto: Estela Eaton ), 2000
• Footnotes for two bass clarinets, 2000
• ... inasmuch , opera (Libretto: Estela Eaton after Eugene Walter ), 2002
• Dirge without Music (text by Edna St. Vincent Millay ), 2002
• Vespers for two sopranos, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, bass and instrumental ensemble, 2002
• Threnody for Paisan , 2003
• String Quartet No. 3 , 2003
• King Lear , opera (libretto: Laura Bates based on William Shakespeare), 2003-04

Web links

• Obituary (University of Chicago)
• Remembering John Eaton (Moog Foundation)
• John Eaton at Allmusic (English)
• John Eaton at Discogs (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Composer John Eaton Has Died on synthtopia.com, December 4, 2015, accessed December 4, 2015 (English)