Philip Greeley Clapp

Philip Greeley Clapp (August 4 1888 - April 9 1954) was an American educator, conductor, pianist, and composer of classical music.

He served as Director of the School of Music at the University of Iowa for more than three decades (1919-53), helping to establish that school’s strong reputation in music and in the arts overall. He worked especially hard in advocating that music and the other arts should be an integral part of a liberal arts education, and succeeded in creating strong graduate programs that awarded degrees not just in scholarship and research but also in performance and creation. Among his students was Gene Gutchë.

As a composer, Clapp followed firmly in the line of Germanic Romantic works created by Wagner, Mahler, Strauss, Liszt, and others, but adding his own distinctly American style and ideas about orchestration. Although a number of his compositions were never performed, several of his twelve symphonies were premiered by major orchestras and conductors, including Dmitri Mitropoulos and the New York Philharmonic. He conducted the world premiere of his Second Symphony with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

External links

* [http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/Bai/holcomb.htm Brief biography and list of musical compositions]