Merrill Leroy Ellis

Merrill Ellis
Birth name	Merrill Leroy Ellis
Born	9 December 1916(1916-12-09)
Died	12 July 1981(1981-07-12) (aged 64)
Flourished	1950–1981

Merrill Leroy Ellis (9 Dec 1916, Cleburne, Texas – 12 Jul 1981, Denton, Texas) was an American composer, performer, and experimental music researcher. He is most known for his work with electronic (analog) and intermedia compositions, new compositional techniques, development of new instruments, and exploration of new notation techniques for scoring and performance.^[1]

Ellis founded the electronic music program at the University of North Texas College of Music in 1962, when he began teaching there. He persuaded Robert Moog to design and build the second synthesizer ever made for him and his students. North Texas acquired its first Moog Machine for use in Merrill Ellis' studio, late 1965.^[2] Ellis was a pioneer of performing live music on Moogs from the mid to late 1960s. In March 1970, a Tucson newspaper (Tucson Daily Citizen) mentioned that he had brought a Moog (smaller than the North Texas studio model) for a live performance of Kaleidoscope. Robert Moog labeled it "E-II — a take-off on "Ellis II." It was Ellis' second Moog.

The electronic music center at North Texas was one of the few in the southwest in the early 1960s. According to Ellis in a 1970 interview, Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center (in New York City) was the largest and oldest. Yale University, University of Toronto, and University of Illinois had prolific computer music labs, too.^[3]

The Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia (CEMI) at North Texas is an outgrowth of his accomplishments. When the College of Music designed and erected a new music complex in the late 1970s, a "new music" theater was designed and named "The Merrill Ellis Intermedia Theater" or "MEIT."

Selected compositions

Instrumental works

• And Ruth Said, sacred songs (medium voice) with piano (Aug. 15, 1947)
• Brass Quartet, for 2 trumpets, tenor trombone, bass trombone (manuscript dated 1951)
• Bridge Game, for string quartet
• Cape "G" Melody, for oboe, viola, cello, with optional part for double bass (manuscript dated 1951)
• Classical Combo,, a septet + one
• Dizzy Kate Piano Suite, (Sept. 19, 1947)

Introducing Kate

Kate was very modal

She was long and slim and loved to dance

Kate lived at the corner of 4th and 5th

My, my, dizzy Kate.

• A Dream Fantasy, an intermedia piece; may use dancers if desired; for clarinet (some passages may be performed on saxophone), percussion, tape, and 2 reels of 16 mm. film; 35 mm. slides optional, C. Fischer, (c1976)
• Duets,, for flute & piano (1969)
• Ecce homo, for cello & piano(1970)
• Einyah [Festival], for piano, trumpet, and percussion; UNT Library, Special Collections, Merrill Ellis (1969)
• Etudes for Piano, ("to Sis, Jan 5, 1951)

Etude I: Dorian

Etude II: Phrygian

Etude III: Lydian

• Fantasy for Organ, (1969)
• Five Plus One, for woodwind quintet – flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon, with optional double bass (1969)
• General William Booth Enters Into Heaven, for SATB chorus with instrumental ensemble, text by V. Lindsay (1954)
• Incantations, for two pianos (1969)
• Mutations, a multi-media composition for brass quintet, prepared electronic tape, 16mm film projection and 35mm slide projections, Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania, Shawnee Press (1972)

for 2 trumpets, horn, bass trombone and tuba.

• Pastoral, for harp (1970)
• Pastoral, for & piano (1970)
• Piece, for trumpet & piano (1950)
• Celebration, for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, percussion, tape, lasers, and visual events (commissioned by Baylor University, Richard Shanley & Society for Commissioning New Music) American Music Center, New York (1980)
• Dream of the Rode, for tape and 16 mm film; UNT Library, Special Collections, Merrill Ellis Library (1973)

Premiered Nov 6, 1973, Montevallo University, Alabama; Marsue Burns, PhD (1935–2007),^[4] libretto; Carroll Young Rich, PhD (1933– ), Anglo-Saxon translation for the spoken parts (Marsue and Carroll were members of the UNT English faculty)^[5]

• Feedback Fantasy, UNT Library, Special Collections, Merrill Ellis (1965)
• The Great Gift, UNT Library, Special Collections, Merrill Ellis (1964)
• Kaleidoscope, UNT Library, Special Collections, Merrill Ellis (1969)
• Mutations, Shawnee Press, Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania (1972)
• Nostalgia, for orchestra, film & theatrical events; UNT Library, Special Collections, Merrill Ellis (1974)
• Oboe Quintet, UNT Library, Special Collections, Merrill Ellis (1965)
• Organ Fantasy, UNT Library, Special Collections, Merrill Ellis (1963)
• Scintillation, solo piano; General Words and Music Co., Park Ridge, Illinois (1976)
• Tomorrow Texas, North Texas Composer’s Archive, Denton (1965)

Scores

• Opera: The Sorcerer, for solo baritone, tape, film, slides, and chorus (with optional live band); Shawnee Press, Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania (1973)

Film/TV

• The Choice is Ours, intermedia work for 2 films, slides, tape & audience participation

Awards & honors

• 1962 — Harvey Gaul Prize, Friends of Harvey Gaul, Inc., and the Carnegie Institute of Technology, Department of Music, for the composition, Organ Fantasy, performed in Carnegie Hall
• 1964 — Texas Federation of Music Clubs Competition, First Prize for The Great Gift
• 1965 — Texas Federation of Music Clubs Competition, First Prize for Oboe Quintet
• 1965 — Texas Federation of Music Clubs Competition, Second Prize for Tomorrow Texas

Ellis became a member of ASCAP in 1966.^[6]

• 1967 — ASCAP Award for contributions in serious music
• 1970 — ASCAP Award for contributions in serious music
• 1971 — ASCAP Award for contributions in serious music
• 1972 — ASCAP Award for contributions in serious music
• 1973 — ASCAP Award for contributions in serious music
• 1974 — ASCAP Award for contributions in serious music
• 1975 — ASCAP Award for contributions in serious music
• 1976 — ASCAP Award for contributions in serious music
• 1977 — ASCAP Award for contributions in serious music
• 1978 — ASCAP Award for contributions in serious music
• 1979 — ASCAP Award for contributions in serious music

Other publications

• Electronic music composition manual, Merrill Ellis, Robert Cannon Ehle (1939– ), and Robert A. Moog, North Texas State University (196-?)

Merrill Ellis Memorial Composition Scholarship recipients

• 1990-92 — Kurt Kuniyasu
• 1990-91 — Gregory Alan Schneider
• 1991-92 — Rick D. Chatham
• 1991-92 — Michael Anthony McBride
• 1994-95 — Steven Bryant
• 1994-95 — Hideko Kawamoto
• 1994-96 — Man-Mei Wu
• 1996-97 — Lucio Edilberto Cuellar
• 1998-99 — J.T. Rinker
• 1999-00 — Henry Vega
• 2000-01 — Kayli House
• 2002-03 — James Worlton
• 2005-07 — Stephen Lucas
• 2007-08 — Camilo Salazar
• 2009-10 — Nicholas Kanozik

Selected discography

• Louisville Orchestra – Jorge Mester, conductor

Merrill Ellis, Kaleidoscope, for Orchestra, Synthesizer, and Soprano – Joan Wall, soprano

George Crumb, Echos of Time and the River †

originally released 1974 (LP), Louisville Orchestra First Edition Recordings LS711

• Unconventional Trumpet, music by University of North Texas (CD), composers Ellis, Beasley, McTee, Mailman, Austin, Latham, and Tull

Crystal Records (2004)

• Facets 2, John Holt, Trumpet

Natalia Bolshakova (piano)

Crystal Records CD764 (Dec 1, 2004)

Track 10 – Ellis: Trumpet Piece

† Crumb, who shares the album with Ellis, won the 1968 Pulitzer Prize in Music for this composition

External links

• UNT College of Music Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia (CEMI)
• UNT College of Music Division of Composition Studies
• UNT Library, Special Collections, Merrill Ellis

Education

• 1939 – Bachelor of Music, University of Oklahoma
• 1940 – Master of Music Education, University of Oklahoma
• Graduate studies, University of Missouri

Ellis studied privately with Roy Harris, Spencer Norton (b. 1909; d. 1978), and Charles Garland (University of Missouri).

Early career

• Merrill Ellis taught in the early 1950s at Missouri Southern State University. From 1956 to 1957, Ellis was a saxophonist in the 7th Army Symphony in Germany.^[7]

References

General references

• Mary Alice Druhan, Performer’s Guide to Multimedia Compositions for Clarinet and Visuals: A Tutorial Focusing on Works by Joel Chadabe, Merrill Ellis, William O. Smith, and Reynold Weidenaar, DMA dissertation, Louisiana State University (2003)
• Contemporary American Composers, A biographical dictionary, First edition, compiled by E. Ruth Anderson (born 1928), Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., Boston (1976)

Inline citations

1. ^ Elsa Gonzalez, Ellis, Merrill, Handbook of Texas Online
2. ^ Various Cultural Programs Brighten Year in Denton, The Denton Record-Chronicle, pg 2, Section 7, Jan 30, 1966
3. ^ Dan Pavillard, Deedle, Blat, Zonk, Beep, Urk, To Star in Festival Opener, The Tucson Daily Citizen, March 29, 1970
4. ^ Marsue M. Haviland, née McFadden – surnames from former marriages: Burns, Johnson; Obituary: Marsue (McFadden) Johnson – Haviland, The Daily Courier, Aug 22, 2007
5. ^ Ellis to Play with Symphony, The Denton Record-Chronicle, Nov 9, 1973
6. ^ ASCAP Biographical Dictionary, fourth edition, compiled for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers by Jaques Cattell Press, New York, R.R. Bowker (1980)
7. ^ 7th Army Symphony Website

Persondata
Name	Ellis, Merrill Leroy
Alternative names
Short description	Electronic Music Composer & Professor
Date of birth	9 Dec 1916
Place of birth	Cleburne, Texas
Date of death	12 July 1981
Place of death	Denton, Texas