Porter, Quincy, 1897-1966

Commissioned by the Little Symphony Society of St. Louis, 1937. Composed 1937. First performance St. Louis, 2 July 1937, St. Louis Little Symphony, Hans Lange conducting.--Cf. Fleisher Collection.

Commissioned by the Columbia Broadcasting System. Composed 1938. First performance over CBS Radio from New York, summer 1938, CBS Orchestra. For Dance no. 2 see FLC callno.: 5132.--Cf. Fleisher Collection.

Commissioned by the Cleveland Orchestra. Composed 1932. First performed Cleveland, 24 June 1932, Cleveland Orchestra, the composer conducting.--Cf. Fleisher Collection.

American composer and music professor.

Born in New Haven, Conn in 1897, Porter earned his A.B. from Yale College and Mus. B from the Music School the same year. Porter spent the following year in Paris following the courses of d'Indy at the Schola Cantorum and studying violin with Capet. Returning to New York, Porter studied composition with Ernest Bloch, violin with Herbert Dittler, and played in the Capitol Theater Orchestra. Porter followed Bloch to Cleveland the following year and was soon made a member of the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he taught theory, history, and solfege, heading the theory and composition department for three years after Bloch's departure. During this period he played viola for six years in the de Ribaupierre Quartet. Porter spent three years in Paris, two of which were on a Guggenheim Fellowship, writing a number of chamber works, including two more quartets, his Second Sonata for Violin and Piano, a piano sonata, and his Suite for Viola Alone which he later recorded for New Music Recordings. After returning to Cleveland for a year, playing with the Maurice Hewitt quartet (along with his wife, Lois), Porter joined the faculty of Vassar College, where he taught for six years. In addition, Porter held positions of leadership in many musical organizations including the International Society for Contemporary Music, the League of Composers, the American Music Center, Yaddo, NASM, and MTNA. Porter came to New England Conservatory in 1938 to succeed Frederick S. Converse as Dean of the Faculty. In 1942, he was appointed Director of the New England Conservatory, a position which he held until 1946. In 1946, Porter was named to the faculty of Yale University, where he would remain until his retirement in 1965. Porter died on November 12, 1966 in Bethany, Connecticut.

Commissioned by the Festival Committee of the Inter-American Music Festival. Composed 1958. First performance First Inter-American Music Festival, Lisner Audiotrium, George Washington University, Washington, D.C., 18 April 1958, National Symphony Orchestra, Howard Mitchell conductor. Composer offers the following "program" for the work: Hymn - prayer - promenade - hymn - carillon - fanfare - meditation (passacaglia); Love song - ironic waltz; Rite (fugue); Melancholy - nostalgia; Promenade - madrigal; Procession - threnody - hymn - prayer - curfew.--Cf. Fleisher Collection.

Written as incidental music for a presentation of Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra" by the Experimental Theatre of Vassar College under the direction of Hallie Flanagan, December 13-15, 1934. This present arrangement for chamber orchestra was made in 1937. Porter also extracted a suite for chamber orchestra.--Cf. Fleisher Collection.

Commissioned by the Columbia Broadcasting System. Composed 1938. First performance over CBS Radio from New York, summer 1938, CBS Orchestra. For Dance no. 1 see FLC callno.: 4983.--Cf. Fleisher Collection.

Composed 1934. First performance New York, Philharmonic Symphony Society of New York, 2 April 1938, the composer conducting.--Cf. Fleisher Collection.

Quincy Porter was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1897. He attended Yale University as a student of Horatio Parker. After graduating from there his studies carried him to Paris, New York, and Cleveland, and his teachers included Vincent d'Indy and Ernest Bloch. As a composer and teacher himself, Porter held positions at the Cleveland Institute, Vassar College, and the New England Conservatory - where he became its director in 1942 - before returning to Yale in 1946 as professor of music. He concluded his professional career there, serving as Master of Pierson College and Battell Professor of Music Theory. He died in Bethany, Connecticut on November 12, 1966.

Included on his list of many honors are the Coolidge Medal (1943) and the Pulitzer Prize for musical composition, awarded in 1954 for his Concerto Concertante for two pianos and orchestra.

Porter was actively involved in musical activities on the national level, as a glance at the register which follows will point out. Included in this collection is a wealth of correspondence dealing with his involvement in the American Composers Alliance, the National Institute of Arts & Letters, the American Music Center, and many other organizations and societies which concerned themselves with the musical developments of this century. Porter also played a major role in the organization of the musical sessions held at the Yaddo grounds located in Saratoga Springs, New York, and the large body of Yaddo correspondence contained in this collection provides something of the flavor of the events there during the late '30s.