- Joseph R. Wood
Joseph Wood (
12 May 1915 -3 June 2000 ) was an Americancomposer andmusic educator .Biography
Born in
Pittsburgh ,Pennsylvania , Wood attendedBucknell University from 1932-1934. Afterwords, he began his formal music training at the Juilliard Institute of Musical Arts where he received a diploma in piano performance in 1936. Impressed with his work, theJulliard School offered him a full four-year Juilliard fellowship from 1936-40. He continued his piano studies withBernard Wagenear , completing his Bachelors degree in 1949. In 1942 he won first prize for his opera "The Mother" in the Juilliard Opera Competition. [http://opera.stanford.edu/composers/W.html Opera at Stanford University] ] On the basis of winning the opera prize he was given a Ditson Award fromColumbia University , on which he lived and wrote music for a year. He went on to study composition withOtto Luening atColumbia University . He graduated with a M.A. in music composition in 1950. [http://www.oberlin.edu/alummag/oamcurrent/oam_spring01/losses2.html Joseph R. Wood article at the Oberlin Alumni Magazine] ]During his time at Julliard, Wood would periodically take time off from school to pursue other interests. He was the staff composer at the Chekov Theatre Studio in
Manhattan from 1939-1941 where he wrote a wide variety of scores for many productions directed byMichael Chekov . He also worked as a freelance composer and arranger inNew York City from 1941-1943 and from 1946-1950. During this time period Wood was primarily working as a composer for radio and televisioncommercials , writing many of the tunesMadison Avenue used to sell everything from soap to television dramas. He wrote charts for many dance bands, the most famous of which was his arrangement of "Chiquita Banana " that he did forXavier Cugat . He also wrote many of the orchestral arrangements used for the firstMuzak recordings. [http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/communications/bucknellworld/2000-3/alumni.html Bucknell University Alumni profile] ]From 1943-46, Wood joined the special services as a member of the
U.S. Army , serving in theSouth Pacific duringWorld War II . Fond of telling stories, Wood would later amuse friends with tales of his experiences in the army, especially those about the oddity of meeting many celebrities in remote and dangerous places likeOkinawa and other "Pacific hotspots".In 1950 Wood, under the invitation of
David Robertson , became a faculty member at theOberlin Conservatory of Music where he remained a teacher of music theory and composition until his retirement in 1985. Wood, along withRichard Hoffmann andWalter Aschaffenburg , initiated the conservatory major in composition in 1956. They also established the Oberlin Contemporary Music Festival, which was held in February of each year until 1971. It brought to the campus such distinguished composers asRoger Sessions ,Wallingford Riegger ,Ernest Krenek ,Leon Kirchner , and, in 1963,Igor Stravinsky , as well as many outstanding performers and commentators.Wood was a guest composer at the
Villa Montalvo in 1957 and was awarded aHuntington Hartford fellowship in 1960, and was a fellow eight times at theMacDowell Colony . In 1966 and 1973 he receivedH. H. Powers travel grants fromOberlin College . He also worked with some of the 20th century’s best-known composers and musicians, includingFrederick Loewe , ofLerner and Loewe . He arranged the choral music for "Brigadoon " and other Loewe works.Wood's compositions were sought after by many musicians, and he received many commissions. He wrote numerous
chamber music pieces including apiano trio in 1937 and aviola sonata in 1938. He also wrote fourstring quartets between 1942-1978 which have been performed by such notable ensembles as theNBC Quartet , theGordon Quartet , thePiastro Quartet , and theNew Hungarian Quartet . Other notable works include aviolin sonata (1947) and apiano quintet (1956). Throughout his life he wrote a considerable number ofchoral pieces which are still being programmed, including a "Te Deum " written on the occasion of Oberlin's sesquicentennial for theOberlin College Choir andRobert Fountain .His
symphony orchestra compositions include a "Concerto for Chamber Orchestra", a "Poem for Orchestra" (1950), a "Concerto for Viola and Piano with orchestra" in 1970 premiered by theCleveland Philharmonic Orchestra conducted byJose Serebrier , a "Violin Concerto" and a "Divertimento for Piano and small orchestra" from 1959. He also wrote three symphonies, one each in 1939, 1952, and 1956. After the premiere of his third symphony in 1957, the critic of theNew York Herald Tribune wrote that the work "was a thoroughly distinguished and handsome creation with such an internal and external appeal that it would be no exaggeration to place it in the very top rank of American symphonies." TheNBC Orchestra premiered his "Overture to Twelfth Night" on the eve ofPearl Harbor . Arguably, his most important piece was a large ballet-cantata commissioned by theDraco Foundation and written to a scenario byEvelyn Eaton entitled "The Progression".Joseph Wood died in
Auburn, Alabama , onJune 3 ,2000 . He is survived by his two daughters, Lynne and Lorna, and four grandchildren.References
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