Paul Creston

Paul Creston (born October 10, 1906 in New York City , † August 24, 1985 in San Diego ) was one of the most popular composers in the United States, at least in the years after World War II.

Mostly autodidact , Creston never submitted to any school. He himself lists Bach , Scarlatti , Chopin , Debussy and Ravel as his most important teachers. For Henry Cowell there was no contemporary composer who was more skilled in developing a musical theme than Creston. Creston wrote pieces in almost every genre. In vocal music he liked to fall back on texts by his compatriot Walt Whitman . The cornerstone of his composing was rhythm. He loved metrical shifts, lush harmonies and orchestration, including dissonances , and unusual instruments such as the saxophone and marimba . All in all, his music is considered to be “tonal” and “conservative” in the sense of accessible, despite the “cheeky” trait. After great success, he saw himself pushed to the edge of musical life by the avant-garde in his later creative years . Currently (2011) it is rarely played and heard.

Life

Paul Creston, originally Giuseppe Guttivergi or Giuseppe Guttoveggio , came from a Sicilian immigrant family. His father was a house painter. As a child, Paul traveled with his mother to Sicily , where he was bewitched by the songs of the farmers. When he returned, his parents spared piano and organ lessons for the gifted boy. At the age of 14 Creston was already composing his first works. After two years of high school, however, he had to leave school to support his family financially. He worked as a delivery boy, later as an employee of banks and insurance companies. He practiced the piano and composed early in the morning before work and late into the night.

Creston got his first job as a musician in 1926 as an organist for the accompaniment of silent films. He later became organist at St. Malachy Church in New York, a position he held for 33 years. At the age of 34, the Cummington School of the Art in Massachusetts hired him to teach piano and composition. Four years later he became musical director of the ABC radio program "Hour of Faith". Since then he has composed a lot for radio and television. At college, he 'd been called Cress after playing a role in a play. He later changed that nickname to Creston and added the first name Paul . This name was officially approved by the authorities in 1944.

The 1950s were a particularly fruitful creative period for the composer, during which over 30 new works were performed. Abroad he was hailed as one of the great American musicians alongside Gershwin , Barber and Harris . When the Boston Symphony Orchestra was the first North American orchestra to make a guest appearance in the Soviet Union in 1956, Creston was one of the three composers who performed it. He was also highly valued in his home country. After receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1938, Creston received the New York Music Critics' Circle Award in 1941 for his first symphony. From 1956 to 1960 he was President of the Association of American Composers and Conductors. In the late 1960s his music was gradually pushed into the background by the experimental works of the young avant-garde composers. This offended Creston, but he continued to compose. His Symphony No. 6 premiered in 1982 and Prelude and Dance for two pianos in 1985. Creston died that same year after a prolonged illness at the age of 78. Among the bereaved were his wife, Louise, and their two sons, Joel and Timothy.

Works (selection)

Works for orchestra

• 1938 Threnody Op. 16
• 1938 Two Choric Dances Op. 17B
• 1940 Symphony No. 1 op. 20th
• 1940 Concertino for Marimba and Orchestra Op. 21st
• 1941 Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra Op. 26th
• 1941 Prelude and Dance Op. 25th
• 1941 A Rumor Op. 27
• 1941 Pastorale and Tarantella Op. 28
• 1941–1942 Dance Variations Op. 30 for Coloratura Soprano and Orchestra
• 1942 Fantasy Op. 32
• 1943 Chant of 1942 Op. 33, for orchestra
• 1943 Frontiers Op. 34
• 1944 Symphony No. 2 Op. 35
• 1945 Poem Op. 39
• 1947 Fantasy Op. 42 for Trombone and Orchestra
• 1951 Symphony No. 4 Op. 52
• 1953 Invocation and Dance Op. 58
• 1953 Toccata Op. 68
• 1959 Janus , Op. 77
• 1965–1966 Introit Op. 87 (homage to Pierre Monteux )
• 1966 Pavanne Variations Op. 86
• 1966 Chthonic Ode Op. 90 (Homage to Henry Moore ) for large orchestra with euphonium, celesta and piano
• 1981 Sadhana Op. 117 for violoncello and orchestra
• 1982 Symphony No. 6 Op. 118 - "Organ Symphony" for Organ and Orchestra
• Choreographic Suite Op. 86b
• Concerto for Piano and Orchestra Op. 43
• Corinthians XIII Op. 82 (Tone Poem)
• Dance overture
• Evening in Texas
• Homage Op. 41 for strings
• Kangaroo caper
• Nocturne Op. 83 - for Lyric Soprano or Tenor and 11 Instruments
• Rumba - tarantella
• Sunrise in Puerto Rico
• Symphony No. 3 Op. 48

Works for wind orchestra

• 1940 Concertino for Marimbaphon and Band opus 21
• 1942 Legend opus 31
• 1946 Zanoni opus 40
• 1954 Celebration Overture opus 61
• 1959 Prelude and Dance opus 76
• 1967 Anatolia - Turkish Rhapsody opus 93
• 1972 Calamus Op. 104 for mixed choir, 4 trumpets, 2 horns, 3 trombones, euphonium, tuba, timpani and percussion
• 1981 Festive Overture
• Kalevala opus 95 Fantasy on Finnish Folk Songs for Band
• Liberty Song '76 Op. 107 for mixed choir and concert band

Chamber music

• 1939 Sonate for Alto-Saxophone and Piano Op. 19th

Works for choir

• Here Is Thy Footstool A Cappella mixed choir

Masses and sacred music

• 1945 Psalm XXIII Op. 37 for soprano solo, mixed choir and orchestra
• Missa Solemnis Op. 44 for mixed choir or male choir and orchestra

Stage works

• 1938 Two Choric Dancees Op. 17 A, ballet

Works for percussion

• Ceremonial Op. 103 for 7 percussionists and piano

literature

• Paul Creston: Principles of Rhythm , New York 1964
• Paul Creston: Rational metric notation: the mathematical basis of meters, symbols, and note-values , New York 1979
• Monica J. Slomski: Paul Creston: a bio-bibliography , Westport / Connecticut 1994
• Walter Simmons: Voices in the Wilderness: Six American Neo-Romantic Composers , Lanham / Maryland 2006

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Schirmer 1999 , accessed on October 10, 2011
2. ↑ Walter Simmons ( Memento of the original from July 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed October 10, 2011 
3. ↑ Mark Satola , accessed 10 October 2011
4. ↑ Crestons op. 21 in Erlangen 2004 , accessed on October 10, 2011
5. ↑ G. Schirmer 1999 , accessed on June 17, 2018
6. ^ François Verschaeve: What's What in Titles of Classical Music-- and Beyond: A Dictionary of Titles , Waterdown, 2007
7. ↑ Walter Simmons ( Memento of the original from July 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed October 10, 2011 
8. ↑ Chicago Tribune, August 26, 1985 , accessed October 10, 2011. The article also states: “The Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell took his music to Belgium, and Eugene Ormandy played his Chant for 1942 in London with the Philadelphia Orchestra. "
9. ↑ Page 191: “The story of Paul Creston has the qualities of an American myth: an individual's triumph over deprivation, achieving fame and success; his subsequent decline; and his posthumous vindication. "

Web links

• Works by and about Paul Creston in the catalog of the German National Library