Walter piston composer biography
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Walter Hamor Piston Jr. (January 20, 1894 – November 12, 1976) was an American composer and theorist of the front rank in the middle twentieth century. Winner of two Pulitzer Prizes in music for his Third Symphony (1948, premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra) and his Seventh Symphony (1961, premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra) and two New York Music Circle awards, Piston was among several prominent American symphonists of the World War II era who attained international notoriety. In addition to his many achievements as a composer, Walter Piston wrote authoritative books on harmony, counterpoint, harmonic analysis and orchestration.
Though he was considered to be a part of the new school of American "nationalism" in music, he downplayed the idea of establishing an American style preferring to be more concerned with developing his craft in pursuit of his own personal style. On this subject, he wrote, "The self-conscious striving for nationalism gets in the way
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Walter Piston
Walter Piston (1894-1976), American composer, wrote traditionalist music of great technical skill which was neoclassic in its orientation. He was highly influential as an educator.
Walter Piston was born on Jan. 20, 1894, in Rockland, Maine. His grandparents had settled there after their arrival from Italy, and soon after dropped the final "e" from their original name of Pistone. At the age of ten young Piston moved to Boston with his family and, after graduating from high school, studied painting at the Massachusetts Normal School, where he graduated in 1916. Music was a secondary interest to Piston until World War I. During the war he served in a service band and taught himself how to play most of the wind instruments. "They were just lying around and no one minded if you picked them up and found out what they could do, " he said about this time in his life.
Returning to the United States in 1919, he entered Harvard University and began to study music serious
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Piano Quintet (1964)
The Incredible Flutist (Ballet Suite)
Walter Piston (1894 – 1976) was a notable American composer, music theorist and an influential professor at Harvard University whose students included Leonard Bernstein, Irving Fine, Leroy Anderson, and Elliott Carter.
Born in Rockland, Maine, Piston and his family moved to Boston in 1904. He exhibited musical talent at a young age, and could play the violin and piano with self-taught proficiency.
While studying architecture at the Massachusetts Normal Art School, Piston performed in cafés and theatres to earn an income. During World War I, he joined the U.S. Navy band as a saxophonist, and learned to play most of the wind instruments himself.
In 1920, Piston was admitted to Harvard as a full-time music student, and was graduated summa cum laude kvartet years later. As the winner of the John Knowles Paine Fellowship, Piston traveled to Paris and stayed at the Ecole Nationale dem Musique, where he studied compositi