Era: 20th Century

Late Romantic English

BRIGHT, Dora

Born in Ecclesall Bierlow, York, August 16, 1862
Died in London, Nov 16, 1951

Sometimes this composer is known by her married name, Dora Knatchbull.

Bright was an English composer, concert pianist, and music critic.
Bright studied piano and composition at the Royal College of Music, where she and Edward German were part of the same artistic circle.
After her marriage to Wyndham Knatchbull, she transitioned away from public performances and toward more composition and working as a music critic.¹

Biography from the British Music Collection

Pieces

20th Century English

BRITTEN, Benjamin

Benjamin Britten, photographed in 1968

Born in Lowestoft, Nov 22, 1913
Died in Aldeburgh, Dec 4, 1976

Pieces

Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34

Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, Op. 33a

Simple Symphony, Op. 4

Suite on English Folk Tunes: A Time There Was…

Pieces

20th Century English

BUSH, Geoffrey

Born in London, March 23, 1920
Died in London, Feb 24, 1998

Bush was a lecturer in music at Oxford and London universities, and edited music by Victorian and Elizabethan composers.²
Bush was largely self-taught as a composer, though he was encouraged (as a schoolboy) by English composer John Ireland.³

Obituar y

Pieces

Consort Music

Late Romantic Italian

BUSONI, Ferruccio

Born in Empoli, April 1, 1866
Died in Berlin, July 27, 1924⁴

“boo-ZOH-nee” / PRONUNCIATION

Biography from Steinway & Sons

Pieces

Berceuse elegiaque (Elegiac Lullaby), Op. 42

20th Century Late Romantic English

BUTTERWORTH, George

Born in London, July 12, 1885
Died in Pozières, Aug 5, 1916

Like Vaughan Williams, Butterworth found much of his artistic identity in English folk music, and in the poetry of A.E. Houseman.
- He set to music six poems from Housman’s poem cycle A Shropshire Lad, and also wrote an orchestral rhapsody based upon it.
Butterworth was a member of the English Folk Song Society, which collected and conserved English folk music. He was also part of the English Folk Dance Society, and was an accomplished Morris dancer.
Butterworth served in WWI, fought at the Somme, and died in 1916. This is why we have very little of his music.⁵

Short biography

Pieces

20th Century Modernist American

CAGE, John

Born in Los Angeles, Sept 5, 1912
Died in New York, Aug 12, 1992

“[John Cage] had a greater impact on music in the 20th century than any other American composer.”⁶

Biography

Pieces

Late Romantic Mexican

CAMPA, Gustavo E.

Born in Mexico City, Sept 8, 1863
Died in Mexico City, Oct 29, 1934

Campa taught composition at Mexico City Conservatory, and also edited a music journal for a Mexico City music publisher.⁷
He was honored by the Mexican government: ⁸
- In 1884 his Himno sinfónico was played at the opening of the Mexican National Library
- In 1900 he served as a delegate to an international congress in Paris.
Campa was part of a group of composers who called themselves The Group of Six who wanted to promote “Mexican composers’ aesthetic principles, so as to create a truly national art.”⁹

Short biography

Pieces

Melody for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 1

CANNING, Thomas

Born in Brookville, Pennsylvania, December 12, 1911
Died on October 4, 1989

Biography from American Composers’ Alliance

Pieces

20th Century French

CANTELOUBE, Joseph

Born in Annonay, Oct 21, 1879
Died in Paris, Nov 4, 1957

PRONUNCIATION / “kahnt-loob”

Joseph Canteloube studied composition under Vincent d’Indy, first informally and then at the Schola Cantorum in Paris. Under d’Indy’s influence, Canteloube became a member of a circle of French composers dedicated to preserving regional traditions of folk music and incorporating folksong into classical composition.
Canteloube is best known for his five volumes of arrangements of Chants d’Auvergne for voice and orchestra, written between 1923–54.¹⁰

Short biography

Pieces

20th Century American

CAPERS, Valerie

Image courtesy of the composer's website

Born in New York City, May 24, 1935

Biography from the composer’s website

Short biography from the African American Art Song Alliance

Pieces

Sweet Mister Jelly Roll

Pieces

Sweet Mister Jelly Roll

20th Century American

CARPENTER, John Alden

Born in Park Ridge, IL, Feb 28, 1876
Died in Chicago, April 26, 1951

Carpenter studied music at Harvard. After graduation, he divided his time between composition and helping run his father’s business firm George Carpenter & Co.
Fun fact: Carpenter and his wife Rue Witherbotham, an interior designer, created two books of music and pictures for children together: Improving Songs for Anxious Children and When Little Boys Sing.
Fun fact: He composed a jazz-inflected piece based on a comic strip, Krazy Kat (1921)¹¹

Short biography

Pieces

Adventures in a Perambulator

20th Century Venezuelan

CARRILLO, Antonio

Born October 29, 1892
Died June 13, 1962

Antonio Carrillo [kah-RREE-yoh] was a Venezuelan composer and multi-instrumentalist.
In addition to his work as a composer, Carrillo led a distinguished career as an educator. He founded the Duaca Music School, in addition to serving as director of the Escuela de Música San Felipe Neri and teaching at the Lara State Music School (now the Conservatorio Vicente Emilio Sojo).¹²

Pieces

Como llora una estrella (How a Star Weeps)

20th Century Modernist American

CARTER, Elliott

Elliott Carter in the 2000s

Born in New York, NY, Dec 11, 1908
Died in New York, NY, Nov 5, 2012

Carter was mentored as a young man by Charles Ives.
He studied with Nadia Boulanger after earning an MA in music at Harvard.
Carter taught at numerous American colleges and music schools, including Julliard.
Carter’s music is influenced both by European modernism of Schoenberg, Stravinsky and others, and by American “ultra-modernism” of Cowell and Ives.¹³

Short biography

Pieces

Elegy (1952), for string orchestra

20th Century English

CARWITHEN, Doreen

Born in Haddenham, Bucks., Nov 15, 1922
Died in Forncett, January 5, 2003

Carwithen was an RAM-educated composer, pianist, and teacher. She taught composition at the RAM after graduating, and also taught at Furzedown College in London.
One of Carwithen’s earliest compositional successes was an overture which Adrian Boult premiered at Covent Garden in 1947. The overture was entitled ODTAA, inspired by a novel of the same name (it stood for One Damn Thing After Another).
Carwithen composed concert works and a large number of film scores, including the score for the official film of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation.
In 1961, Carwithen became an amanuensis for composer William Alwyn (who had also been one of her teachers at the RAM). They married, and she took the name “Mary Alwyn” as her married name. (Mary was her middle name. Apparently she never liked the name Doreen.) ¹⁴¹⁵

Biography from Chandos Records

Pieces

CASALS, Pablo

Engraving of Pablo Casals, 1914.

Born in Vendrell, Dec 29, 1876
Died in Puerto Rico, Oct 22, 1973

Pieces

Sardana

20th Century Haitian

CASSÉUS, Frantz

Photograph of Frantz Casséus c. 1964, by Melvin Unger, courtesy of BOMB Magazine

Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti,¹⁶ in 1915
Died in 1993¹⁷

Casséus [ka-SAY-eus / pronunciation] was a Haitian classical guitarist. He was the son of a Haitian civil servant, and was influenced musically by classical music, by Haitian folk music, and by the jazz brought to Haiti by the American forces which occupied the country from 1915-1934.
Casséus emigrated to the USA in 1946 and settled in New York. He concertized until the 1970s, when a hand injury hampered his ability to play.
Casséus was also a talented luthier who made and sold guitars to supplement his composing income.
As a composer, Casséus was interested in creating a synthesis of classical music and Haitian folk music.

“I believe it is the artist’s function to render articulately and with beauty the soul of the land of his origin and also the world that he experiences…. As you may know, my work is considered an expression of the Haitian spirit. Yet, critics have stated (and this has been my hope) that it transcends regionalism and enters the realm of transnational art.”
Interview with Ira Landgarten, Frets Magazine #17, 1989¹⁸

Biography written by Marc Ribot, Casséus’ student and interpreter

Pieces

20th Century American Italian

CASTELNUOVO-TEDESCO, Mario

Born in Florence, April 3, 1895
Died in Beverly Hills, CA, March 16, 1968

[PRONUNCIATION]

In addition to composing, Castelnuovo-Tedesco was a pianist and a writer on music. He studied at the Istituto Musicale Cherubini in Florence and at the Liceo Musicale of Bologna.
Castelnuovo-Tedesco left Italy in 1939 before the outbreak of WWII (but not before suffering professionally for his Jewish identity). He settled in the United States, where he wrote music for Hollywood and taught film music at the Los Angeles Conservatory (his students included Henry Mancini, Andre Previn and John Williams).¹⁹

Composer website

Pieces

Late Romantic American

CHADWICK, George Whitefield

Born in Lowell, MA, Nov 13, 1854
Died in Boston, MA, April 4, 1931

Chadwick was one of the foremost composers of the Second New England School, also known as the Boston Six.
- Other Second New England School composers in this database include Edward MacDowell and Amy Beach.
In addition to achieving success as a composer in most classical music genres, Chadwick was an influential educator who taught at the the New England Conservatory from 1881 until his death. He became the institution’s director in 1897.
- Chadwick’s many successful composition students included Horatio Parker, Florence Price, and William Grant Still.²⁰

Biography from the New England Conservatory

Pieces

20th Century American Polish

CHAJES, Julius

Born 1910 in L’vov, Galacia (now part of Poland)
Died in 1985

Chajes [pronounced HA-yes] was a piano prodigy who gave his first public recital at the age of 9. He wrote his first piano composition the same year.
Chajes fled Poland in 1938 after its annexation by the Nazis. He lived in Palestine for two years, teaching at Beit L’viyim music academy in Tel Aviv (and studying the roots of Jewish music), then settled in the United States, becoming an important figure in Jewish liturgical music in Detroit.²¹

Biography from the Milken Archive of Jewish Music

Pieces

Chassid, Op. 24 No. 2

Late Romantic French

CHAMINADE, Cécile

Born in Paris, Aug 8, 1857
Died in Monte Carlo, April 13, 1944

[PRONUNCIATION]

Chaminade studied piano as a child with her mother. Her father opposed her enrollment in the Paris Conservatory, so Chaminade studied privately with Conservatory professors, including Benjamin Godard.
Chaminade composed about 400 works over the course of her life, and almost all of them were published.
Though most of Chaminade’s works are piano miniatures or songs (which were more marketable for a woman composer), she also composed larger works: like her Concert Piece for piano and orchestra, and a program symphony entitled Les amazones: Symphonie dramatique, both of which were performed during her lifetime.
Chaminade performed extensively as a concert pianist. She was especially popular in the United States, where numerous “Chaminade Clubs” popped up to celebrate her music.²²

Biography from the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

Pieces

20th Century English

CHAPLIN, Charles

Born in London, Apr 16, 1889
Died in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland, 25 December 1977

In addition to writing, directing and starring in his own films,²³ Chaplin composed the music for his films after the advent of sound movies.²⁴

Short biography

Pieces

Modern Times: “Smile”

20th Century Modernist Mexican

CHÁVEZ, Carlos

Born in Mexico City, June 13, 1899
Died in Mexico City, Aug 2, 1978

Chávez’s musical career spanned more than 50 years. As a composer, Chávez wrote over 200 works, including ballets, symphonies, concertos, a cantata and opera, and many pieces for voice, piano, and chamber ensemble.
- As a conductor, he led nearly every major orchestra in the US, Latin America, and Europe.
Chávez’s coming of age coincided with the end of the Mexican Revolution in 1921, after which a new cultural nationalism emerged with particular emphasis on the pre-Conquest era indigenous Indian cultures. This cultural shift greatly impacted Chávez’s music, fusing native Mexican music and instruments with modernist techniques.
Chávez was an invaluable advocate for increased access to the arts in Mexico. As founder and head of the Orquesta Sinfónica de México (OSM), Chávez organized concerts for workers and children and even took the orchestra out to Mexican provinces, bringing music to many audiences experiencing classical music for the first time.²⁵

“As a composer, Chávez is often linked in the United States to his good friend and contemporary, iconic American musician Aaron Copland. Both composers worked to create a distinct musical sound world that spoke to their home countries at a time when Europe was seen as the only serious and legitimate contributor to classical music.”
L. A. Phil²⁶

Learn More
Short biography via Wise Music Classical

Pieces

Piano Concerto

20th Century Contemporary Chinese

CHEN Gang and HE Zhanhao

Chen Gang was born on March 10, 1935, in Shanghai, China
He Zhanhao was born on August 29, 1933, in Hajiasham, Zhuji, Zhejiang Province

Chen and He are best known for co-composing The Butterfly Lovers Concerto.

Note: Theses composers’ names are written in the Chinese style, with surname first and given name second.

A guide for pronouncing Chinese names

Pieces

The Butterfly Lovers Concerto

20th Century English

CLARKE, Rebecca

Born in Harrow, near London, Aug 27, 1886
Died in New York, Oct 13, 1979

Rebecca Clarke was an English violist and composer.
Clarke studied both violin and composition at the Royal Academy of Music, but was unable to complete either course of study because her father withdrew financial support.
Clarke embarked on a career as a violist to support herself, and became one of the first women employed in a professional British orchestra (the Queen’s Hall orchestra, directed by Henry Wood).
In 1919, Clarke’s Viola Sonata was a runner-up at a competition in the Berkshire Chamber Music Festival, sponsored by American arts patron Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. Judges and press struggled to believe that the work’s composer was a woman; some judges believed the work was by Ravel, and a writer for the Daily Telegraph proposed that the name “Rebecca Clarke” was actually a pseudonym for Ernest Bloch.

“I take this opportunity to emphasize that I do indeed exist … and that my Viola Sonata is my own unaided work!”
Rebecca Clarke, program notes (1977) to her Viola Sonata²⁷

Clarke was an active viola soloist and chamber player in London in the 1920s, and a member of the all-women piano quartet, the English Ensemble.
Clarke’s compositional output slowed after the 1940s, partly due to discouragement from lack of recognition.²⁸

Pieces

20th Century Australian English

CLIFFORD, Hubert

Born in Bairnsdale, Victoria, May 31, 1904
Died in Singapore, Sept 4, 1959

Clifford was born in Australia, and moved to London to study with Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Clifford taught music at a boys’ school, composed extensively for the BBC and has many film scores to his credit.²⁹

Short biography

Pieces

20th Century American

COLE, Ulric

Born in New York, Sept 9, 1905
Died in Bridgeport, CT, May 21, 1992

Full name: Frances Ulric Cole (The composer’s parents were named Emilie Cole and Gustave Ulric.)³⁰

Cole studied at Julliard; additionally, her composition teachers included Nadia Boulanger, and her piano teachers included Josef Lhévinne.³¹
Cole also had a career outside of music, as an editor: she was on the editorial staff of Time Magazine from 1945-1952.³²
Along with Amy Beach and Marion Bauer, Ulric Cole was among the founding members of the Society of American Women Composers.³³

Biography from Oxford Music Online

Pieces

Metropolitones Suite

20th Century French

COLOMBIER, Michel

Born in Lyon, May 23, 1939
Died in Santa Monica, Nov 14, 2004

[Pronunciation]

Colombier was a French film composer who wrote scores for French films and Hollywood films. Some of his credits include Man on Fire (2004) and The Golden Child (1986).³²

Composer website

Pieces

Emmanuel (arr. Steven Mercurio)

20th Century American

COPLAND, Aaron

Aaron Copland, photographed for the CBS television/New York Philharmonic "Young Peoples' Concerts" series.

Born in Brooklyn, NY, 14 Nov 1900
Died in North Tarrytown, NY, 2 Dec 1990

The child of Lithuanian immigrants and Aaron Copland was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY.
Interestingly, Copland’s formal compositional training didn’t take place at a specific institution but rather with private teachers. He first studied under Rubin Goldmark, followed by Nadia Boulanger at the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau.
- During his time in Paris, Copland became enamored with the music of Stravinsky and Milhaud; unsurprisingly, much of his early music reflects stylistic trends associated with the two composers, such as rhythmic unpredictability and the fusion of classical and popular styles.
As a composer, Copland sought to compose music that was both uniquely American and would appeal to a wide audience.
- In the composer’s New York Times obituary, the author wrote that “Copland’s greatest gift was his ability to be both serious and popular.”³⁴

Learn more:

Short biography/timeline from CopelandHouse.org

Pieces

20th Century Canadian

COULTHARD, Jean

Photo of Jean Coulthard by Andreas Poulsson; courtesy of The Canadian Encyclopedia

Born in Vancouver, Feb 10, 1908
Died in Vancouver, March 9, 2000

Jean Coulthard (pronounced “Jeen Coal-thard,” despite its French appearance) was the first composer from Western Canada to receive wide recognition.
From 1928-1930, Coulthard studied at the Royal College of Music under Vaughan Williams and continued composition studies through the next decade or so under such notable names as Copland, Milhaud, Schoenberg, Bartók, and Bernard Wagenaar, among others.
Coulthard’s unique musical voice was influenced by the vast array of influences she studied under and is characterized by a dichotomy of lyrical romanticism and brooding introspection.
She was also a respected educator and taught composition at the University of British Columbia for nearly 30 years.³⁵

Learn More:

Biography from The Canadian Encyclopedia
Short biography from Naxos

Pieces

Music on a Quiet Song

20th Century Modernist American

COWELL, Henry

Born in Menlo Park, CA, March 11, 1897
Died in Shady, NY, Dec 10, 1965

Cowell rose from an impoverished childhood to become a leading composer of “ultramodernist” music, using experimental techniques like prepared pianos and tone clusters. He also supported other avant garde composers, especially as a writer/editor of New Music Quarterly.
Composers who benefitted from his support include Edgard Varése and Charles Ives, who was also Cowell’s friend and mentor. His students included John Cage and Lou Harrison.
His wife, and frequent writing collaborator, was folk song scholar Sidney Robertson Cowell.³⁶

Short biography

Pieces

20th Century Late Romantic French

D’INDY, Vincent

Born in Paris, Mar 27, 1851
Died in Paris, Dec 2, 1931³⁷

Biography from Britannica

Pieces

Symphony on a French Mountain Air, Op. 25

20th Century Italian

DALLAPICCOLA, Luigi

Born in Pisino d’Istria [now Pazin, Istra, Croatia], Feb 3, 1904
Died in Florence, Feb 19, 1975³⁸

Biography from Ricordi

Pieces

20th Century Canadian

DAUNAIS, Lionel

Born in Montréal on December 30, 1901
Died in Montréal on July 18, 1982

Daunais was a Canadian baritone, composer, and stage director.
As a director, Daunais specialized in operetta. He directed operetta in Montréal and on CBC TV.³⁹

“There is a droll spirit in your music, and if someone points it out to you, don’t blush. It’s a rare gift!”
Francis Poulenc to Lionel Daunais⁴⁰

Biography and Selected Works List from The Canadian Encyclopedia

Pieces

Le pont Mirabeau

20th Century English

DAVIES, Peter Maxwell

Born in Salford, Greater Manchester, 8 Sept 1934
Died in Orkney, 14 March 2016⁴⁰

Biography from Naxos

Pieces

20th Century American

DAWSON, William Levi

Photograph of William Levi Dawson courtesy of Tuskegee University

Born in Anniston, AL, Sept 23, 1899
Died in Montgomery, AL, May 2, 1990

When he was a young teenager (13-15) Dawson enrolled in the Tuskegee Institute. He went on to study music at Horner Institute of Fine Arts, Kansas City, and the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago.¹
- A biographical tribute from Tuskegee University reports that he ran away from home in order to attend Tuskegee, and that he worked his way through college doing manual labor.²
Dawson was a bassist and trombonist who played both jazz and classical music. He played bass with artists like Louis Armstrong, and he played trombone in the Chicago Civic Orchestra.³
Dawson taught at Tuskegee from 1931-1956. He conducted the Tuskegee Choir, which achieved international acclaim under his leadership.⁴

Sources

Willie Strong, “Dawson, William Levi,” Grove Music Online (October 16, 2021), accessed June 9, 2021.
“William L. Dawson Tribute,” Tuskegee University, accessed June 9, 2021, https://www.tuskegee.edu/student-life/join-a-student-organization/choir/william-l-dawson-tribute.
Strong, “Dawson, William Levi,” Grove Music Online.
Ibid.

Pieces

Negro Folk Symphony

Pieces

Negro Folk Symphony

Impressionist Late Romantic French

DEBUSSY, Claude

Claude Debussy, photographed c.1908

Born in St Germain-en-Laye, Aug 22, 1862
Died in Paris, March 25, 1918

Pieces

The Prodigal Son

Beau soir

Clair de lune

Danse (Styrian Tarantella)

Deux Arabesques

Estampes

Fantaisie for piano and orchestra

Images for Orchestra: No. 3, Springtime Rounds (Rondes de printemps)

Jeux (“poème dansé”)

La Boite a Joujoux (The Toy Box)

La Mer

Nocturnes

Petite Suite

Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun

Préludes (Book 1)

Rêverie

Sarabande

The Engulfed Cathedral

The Girl with the Flaxen Hair

Pieces

Late Romantic

DELIUS, Frederick

Portrait of Frederick Delius (1912) by Jelka Rosen, Delius's wife

Born in Bradford, Jan 29, 1862
Died in Grez-sur-Loing, June 10, 1934

Frederick Delius was an English composer of German heritage.
Delius’s father wanted him to follow his footsteps in the wool trade; this went so badly that Delius left England for Florida, to work at an orange plantation. In Florida, he found a teacher and began to study music in earnest.
After Florida, Delius studied music in Leipzig and befriended Edvard Grieg; in 1888 he moved to Paris and eventually associated with Fauré and Ravel.
Delius’s compositions were mostly successful outside of his homeland of England, until Sir Thomas Beecham got to know him and championed his music.
In later life Delius was very ill and produced compositions by dictating them to Eric Fenby, a British musician who admired Delius’ music and wanted to help him.
His music is known for rhapsodic qualities, harmonic originality and “secular spirituality” (his Grove article uses this phrase).¹

Short biography

Sources

Lionel Carley, Robert Anderson, and Anthony Payne, “Delius, Frederick,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed August 29, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000049095.

Pieces

Three Small Tone Poems

A Song before Sunrise

Air and Dance, for strings

Aquarelles (Watercolors)

Caprice and Elegy for Cello and Small Orchestra (arr. Fenby)

Florida Suite

Intermezzo from Fennimore and Gerda

North Country Sketches: “Winter Landscape”

On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring

Prelude to Irmelin

Summer Night on the River

Pieces

20th Century American Canadian

DETT, R. Nathaniel

Born in Drummondsville, ON, Oct 11, 1882
Died in Battle Creek, MI, Oct 2, 1943

Robert Nathaniel Dett was born in Drummondville, Ontario, Canada (now part of Niagara Falls, Ontario). His ancestors were among the freedom-seekers who had escaped to Canada via the Underground Railroad. (In fact, Drummondville was a community founded by freedom-seekers.)¹
Dett’s formal musical education was substantial, to say the least.
- Dett attended Oberlin Conservatory, where he was the first person of African Descent to graduate from the institution with a double major in piano performance and composition in 1908.
- He would later be awarded honorary doctorates from both Oberlin and Howard University. Dett was the first Black alumnus to receive an honorary doctorate from Oberlin.
- Dett received his Master’s Degree from Eastman School of Music over 20 years after graduating from Oberlin. And in 1929, he studied with Nadia Boulanger at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, France.²
Dett was a choral conductor who taught for almost two decades at the Hampton Institute, now Hampton University, a historically Black university.
- Under his leadership, the Hampton Singers rose to artistic prominence, touring internationally and singing for President Herbert Hoover.³
As a composer, Dett published around 100 works, primarily pieces for piano, voice, and choir. He is best remembered for his arrangements of folksongs and spirituals.⁴

Biography from the Library of Congress

Sources

Christopher Brooks, “Dett, R(obert) Nathaniel,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed July 16, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000007669.
Ginger Deppman, “Conservatory Performances to Honor Nathaniel Dett,” The Oberlin Review (2022), accessed November 2, 2022, https://oberlinreview.org/27560/conservatory/conservatory-performances-to-honor-nathaniel-dett/.
Christopher Brooks, “Dett, R(obert) Nathaniel,” Grove Music Online.
“R. Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943),” Library of Congress Biographies, accessed November 2, 2022, https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200038840/.

Pieces

Suite: In the Bottoms

Cinnamon Grove: A Suite for the Piano

Inspiration Waltzes

Magnolia

Nepenthe and the Muse

Pieces

20th Century American

DIAMOND, David

Born in Rochester, NY, July 9, 1915
Died in Rochester, NY, June 13, 2005⁴¹

Composer’s website (The Estate of David Diamond)

Pieces

Late Romantic Dutch

DIEPENBROCK, Alphons

Born in Amsterdam, Sept 2, 1862
Died in Amsterdam, April 5, 1921

Dutch composer Alphons Diepenbrock was a skilled musician from an early age, particularly proficient in piano, organ, and violin. Though he longed for a career as a composer and conductor, his family convinced him to study classical languages instead.
- Diepenbrock began his professional career as a classics teacher while studying composition on the side. Fun fact – he received no formal training in composition and instead taught himself through extensive study of composers he admired, such as Wagner.
Around 1895, Diepenbrock decided to devote himself to music, though he still supported himself by teaching Latin and Greek and cultural writing articles. He finally gained notoriety as a composer around the turn of the century, gaining the recognition (and consequent friendship) of Gustav Mahler.
As a composer, Diepenbrock’s musical voice incorporated 16th-century polyphony and Wagnerian chromaticism. After extensive study of Debussy’s works in the last decade of his life, his musical style shifted to include impressionism.
- “Diepenbrock’s music is passionate and sensitive, without falling into the excesses of late Romanticism.”
- Diepenbrock was largely inspired by poetry; consequently, the bulk of his compositional oeuvre is vocal music.⁴²

Learn More

Biography from the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society
Short biography from the Kennedy Center

Pieces

Elektra