Perle, George, 1915-2009

Commissioned by Walter Trampler. Composed 1962. First performance Museum of Modern Art, New York, 10 May 1962, Composers Showcase concert, Arthur Weisberg conductor, Walter Trampler soloist. Dedicated to Walter Trampler.--Cf. Fleisher Collection.

An American composer and theorist, George Perle received his Ph.D. degree in 1956 from N.Y. Univ. with the dissertation Serial Composition and Atonality (publ. 1962; 4th ed. 1977). He also wrote Twelve-tone Tonality (1977); The Operas of Alban Berg (v. 1, Wozzeck, v. 2, Lulu; 1980-1985); The Listening Composer (1990); and numerous articles on Berg, Schoenberg, and Webern. He is co-founder and director of the International Alban Berg Society.

An American composer and theorist,

George Perle received his Ph. D. degree in 1956 from N.Y. Univ. with the dissertation Serial Composition and Atonality (publ. 1962; 4th ed. 1977). He also wrote Twelve-tone Tonality (1977); The Operas of Alban Berg (v. 1, Wozzeck, v. 2, Lulu; 1980-1985); The Listening Composer (1990); and numerous articles on Berg, Schoenberg, and Webern. He is co-founder and director of the International Alban Berg Society.

The composer George Perle was born May 6, 1915 in Bayonne, N.J.

After graduating from De Paul University in 1938, he received his Masters of Music at the American Conservatory of Music in 1942 and his Ph. D in Musicology at New York University in 1956. Perle has taught composition at the University of Louisville, the University of California, Davis College and Queens College of the City University of New York, and held numerous visiting professorships in theory, composition, and music history. He was awarded Guggenheim fellowships in 1966 and 1974, a MacArthur fellowship in 1986, and the 1986 Pulitzer Prize in music for his Wind Quartet no. 4. Aside from his work as a composer and teacher, he is widely recognized as an authority on the Second Viennese School.

The composer Paul Lansky was born on June 18, 1944 in New York, N.Y. He studied the French horn and composition at Queens College and received his MFA (1969) and Ph. D (1973) from Princeton University. His earliest compositions were written for acoustic instruments, but computer-generated sounds took a progressively central role starting with his Mild und Leise, written in 1973. He has served on the faculty at Princeton since 1969 and was made a full Professor of Music in 1984. His works have been widely recorded and he has received numerous commissions. Honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation (1981) and the National Endowment for the Arts (1981, 1988).

George Perle was born May 6, 1915 in Bayonne, N.J. His composition teachers include Wesley La Violette at De Paul University and Ernst Krenek, who he took lessons from privately. After graduating from De Paul in 1938 he took his Masters of Music at the American Conservatory of Music in 1942 and finally his Ph.D in Musicology at New York University in 1956. Perle has taught composition at the University of Louisville, University of California, Davis and Queens College of CUNY in addition to holding numerous visiting professorships in theory, composition and music history. He was awarded two Guggenheim Fellowships (1966 and 1974) and the MacArthur Fellowship (1986) and received the 1986 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his Wind Quintet no. 4. Aside from his work as a composer and teacher, he is widely recognized as a major authority on the Second Viennese School and for his writings on that subject, in particular his two volume "The Operas of Alban Berg" and his articles Weberns 12-Tone Sketches and The Secret Program of the Lyric Suite .

Paul Lansky was born on June 18, 1944 in New York City, where he attended the High School of Music and Art, graduating in 1961. Lansky continued his studies, majoring in French horn, at Queens College, where he studied composition with George Perle and Hugo Weisgall, He later received his MFA (1969) and Ph.D (1973) from Princeton University, where his composition teachers included Milton Babbitt, Edward Cone and Earl Kim. His earliest compositions were written for acoustic instruments, but computer-generated sounds took a progressively central role starting with his Mild und leise, written in 1973. He has served on the faculty at Princeton since 1969 and was made a full Professor of Music in 1984. His works have been widely recorded and he has received numerous commissions. Honors include fellowships from the Guggeneim Foundation (1981) and the National Endowment for the Arts (1981, 1988).

Sources:

Antokoletz, Elliott: 'Paul Lansky', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 13 Jan., 2004), <http://www.grovemusic.com>

Lansky, Paul: Curriculum vitae (Accessed 13 Jan., 2004) <http://silvertone.princeton.edu/~paul/cv.html>

Lansky, Paul: 'George Perle', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 15 Jan., 2004), <http://www.grovemusic.com>

McCarthy, David: Paul Lansky, (Accessed 13 Jan., 2004) <http://silvertone.princeton.edu/~paul/bio.html>

Slonimsky, Nicolas, Laura Kuhn and Dennis McIntire: George Perle, Bakers Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 8th Edition, 2001