Verrall, John, 1908-2001

John Verrall was born in Britt, Iowa, in 1908 and died in Seattle in 2001. He was a composer and professor of music. Verrall studied composition with Zoltan Kodaly at the Liszt Conservatory of Music in Budapest. He also studied with Aaron Copland, Roy Harris, and Frederick Jacobi. Before becoming an editor for G. Schirmer and the Boston Music Company, he taught at Hamline University, 1934-1942, and Mount Holyoke College, 1942-1946. He taught composition at the University of Washington from 1948 until his retirement in 1993. Verrall composed works in a variety of genres, ranging from solo piano works for children to large orchestral and operatic pieces. For the Washington Centennial Celebration, he wrote a choral symphony in honor of Chief Joseph that was premiered by the Walla Walla Symphony Orchestra in 1989. Many of his compositions used a nine-pitch scale consisting of two tetrachords on either side of a central pitch that was alterable (C-Db-Eb-E, F or F♯, G-Ab-Bb-B).

From the description of John Verrall papers, 1929-1993. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 70692980

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