Johnston, Ben

Born in Yonkers, Salvatore Martirano (1927-1995) grew up in New Rochelle, New York where he graduated from high school in 1945.�?  While there he was the leader of "The Sonny Martin Band," the name of which came from Martirano's childhood nickname "Sonny."�?  After graduating, Martirano served as a Marine for fourteen months in 1945 and 1946, during which time he performed with the Parris Island Marine Band and a touring USO show.

Martirano received his undergraduate degree in 1951 from Oberlin College, where he studied composition with Herbert Elwell.�?  A year later he completed his master's degree in composition at the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Bernard Rogers.�?  During the same year, Martirano received a Fulbright to study composition in Italy with Luigi Dallapiccola from 1952 to 1954.�?  Martirano continued to work in Italy from 1956 to 1959, when he was a resident fellow at the American Academy.�?  Between 1959 and 1964, Martirano received commissions, awards, and fellowships from the Guggenheim, Ford, Koussevitzky, and Fromm Foundations, as well as from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and Brandeis University.�?  In 1963, Martirano joined the Theory and Composition Department at the University of Illinois, where he remained on the faculty until his retirement and death in 1995.�?  He was also a resident composer at the NSW Conservatorium of Music in Sydney (1979), IRCAM in Paris (1982) and the California Institute of the Arts (1993).�?  Composers including Phil Winsor, Mark Zanter, Thorsteinn Hauksson, Stuart Saunders Smith, Maggi Payne, and Yehuda Yannay studied with Martirano while students at the University of Illinois.

Many of Martirano's early works incorporate twelve-tone compositional techniques as well as jazz, vernacular, and multimedia idioms.�?  His best-known composition, "L's GA" (Lincoln's Gettysburg Address), was widely performed in the late 1960s and early 1970s and became associated with the anti-war movement.�?  In the early 1960s, Martirano became interested in electronic music, and this interest guided much of his work from the 1960s on.�?  Martirano was among the very first composers in the United States to utilize and invent new computer technology for composition.�?  Martirano created a series of electronic music systems, including the Sal-Mar Construction and YahaSALmaMac, which enabled him to write and perform music that mixed human and computer-generated sounds and composition.

From the guide to the University of Illinois Festival of Contemporary Arts Music and Sound Recordings, 1954-1990, (The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music)

Born in Oakland, CA in 1901, Harry Partch was an American composer, theorist, instrument designer and performer. He is best known for the work he did with just temperment: developing a 43 tone octave scale, writing pieces to showcase it, and building instruments upon which it could be played.�?  His musical knowledge was largely self-taught and his interest in intonation emerged out of microtonal experimentation conducted on string instruments. Many of his thoughts on the matter are outlined in his 1947 treatise, Genesis of a Music .

By the early 1950s, he had established the Gate 5 Ensemble and record label and begun a musical partnership with fellow composer Ben Johnston that would take him to the University of Illinois in 1956, where Johnston was then teaching. While at Illinois, Partch premiered his large stage work, The Bewitched, as part of the Festival of Contemporary Arts and also composed and had performed the stage works Revelation in the Courthouse Park and Water! Water! He returned to California in 1962 where he completed his last project, the text and music for a film, The Dreamer that Remains before his death in 1974.

From the guide to the Music and Performing Arts Library Harry Partch Collection, 1914-2007, (The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music)

Ben Johnston (b. Mar. 15, 1926, Macon, Georgia) is an American composer. Having received a BFA from William and Mary College in 1949, he attended the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, only to leave after a year to work with Harry Partch in California; he also enrolled in Mills College (MFA, 1952), where he studied with Milhaud. In 1951 Johnston began teaching at the University of Illinois; he was granted tenure in 1959, became a full professor in 1967, and retired from teaching in 1983 and moved to Rocky Point, N.C. where he continued to compose.

Johnston has composed in many genres and styles but is best known for his work in just intonation and microtonality. His most performed works include his opera Carmilla, the choral works Ci-Gît Satie and Sonnets of Desolation (both written for the Swingle Singers), his second, fourth, and sixth string quartets, the Duet for flute and string bass, and the Sonata for microtonal piano ( "Sonata/Grindlemusic" ).

From the guide to the Ben Johnston papers, 1939-2003, (Music Library)