Stevens, Halsey, 1908-1989

Biographical Note

Halsey Stevens was born on December 3, 1908, in Scott, New York. Educated at Homer Academy as a youth, Stevens took to composing at a young age and completed his first work, The Frogs at School, sometime around 1920-1921. He studied composition with William Berwald at Syracuse University, earning his B.A. in 1931 and his M.M. in 1937. Shortly after graduation, Stevens accepted a position as associate professor of music at Dakota Wesleyan University, where he remained until 1944. He continued his composition studies with Ernest Bloch at the University of California, Berkeley, before settling into a professorship at the University of Southern California in 1946. Over the course of his thirty-year tenure at the school, Stevens served as chairman for its department of composition (1949-1975), composer-in-residence (1972-1976), and as Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities (1974-1976). He was named professor emeritus in 1976.

As a musicologist, Stevens spent a considerable portion of his academic career dedicated to documenting the music and legacy of Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. His signature monograph, The Life and Music of Béla Bartók, was first published in 1953, with a second edition in 1964. His scholarly success fueled a robust career as visiting professor and guest lecturer at nearly seventy American and European universities, including the University of Cincinnati and Yale University. Stevens was the recipient of Guggenheim Fellowships in 1964 and 1971, with which he traveled and composed a handful of his hundreds of instrumental and vocal works. His Sonata for Trumpet and Piano (1956), Sonata for Solo Cello (1956), and Symphonic Dances (1958) are among his most performed works. Stevens appears to have stopped composing by the early 1980s, at which point he was living in Inglewood, California. He died on January 20, 1989.

From the guide to the Halsey Stevens Papers, circa 1920-1987, (bulk 1930-1972), (Music Division Library of Congress)