Carlton Gamer

Carlton Gamer (born 1929 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American composer and music theorist. He has taught at Princeton University, the University of Michigan, and Colorado College. He studied at Northwestern University and Boston University and privately with Roger Sessions.

Compositional style

According to the "American Record Guide" (July-August 2000), p. 274, "Carlton Gamer's "Arkhe" freely moves between the poles of tonality and atonality. Its melodies are frankly sentimental, its harmonies often dense to the point of clusters." "Fanfare" (May-June 2000), p. 265, remarks that, " [This] work opens with a long crescendo on the note A (for "Alpha," of course) and soon erupts into a Big Bang of fascinating noises." The composer himself describes this piece as using "an externally imposed scheme to derive the duration of each section of the work, [based] upon the miniaturization of a geological time-scale formulated by recent scientific research."

Compositions

*"Three haiku by Basho" (1956).
*"Three haiku" (1956).
*"Sonata for Violin and Piano" (1960).
*"Piano Raga Music" (1962, 1967, 1970).
*"Laudate Dominum : Psalm 116, Vulgate" (1963).
*"Arkhe" for orchestra (1968/1993).
*"Organum" for piano and percussion (1976).
*"Quietly, with Feeling" for piano (1978).

Publications

*"Some Combinational Resources of Equal-Tempered Systems", "Journal of Music Theory", Vol. 11, No. 1 (Spring, 1967), pp. 32-59.
*"Et setera: some temperamental speculations."
* (with Paul Lansky) "Fanfares for the common tone", "Perspectives of New Music", Vol. 14-15, No. 1-2 (1976), pp. 228-35.
*"Sketch of a foundation for music theory today." "College Music Symposium", Vol. XVII/1 (spring 1977) 153-56.
* (with David W. Roeder and John J. Watkins) "Trapezoidal Numbers"; "Mathematics Magazine", Vol. 58, No. 2 (Mar., 1985), pp. 108-110.
* (with Robin Wilson) "Microtones and Projective Planes"; "Music and Mathematics", ed. John Fauvel, Raymond Flood, Robin J. Wilson, Oxford University Press (2003).

Conference papers

*"Deep scales and difference sets in equal-tempered systems". "American Society of University Composers. Proceedings", Vol. 2; 1967; pp. 113-122.
*"The role of the composer as theorist: Some introductory remarks." "American Society of University Composers. Proceedings", Vol. 7; 1972; pp. 12-14.

Discography

*"Janacek, Bloch, Gamer: Violin & Piano Sonatas"; Crystal Records; ASIN: B000003J5E
*"MMC New Century, Vol. 13"; Master Musicians Col; ASIN: B00003L9JB
*"Society of Composers, Inc: View from the Keyboard"; Capstone; ASIN: B00005YCDV
*"Harmony for a New World"; Innova; ASIN: B0002L56MO

External links

* [http://www.amazon.com/s?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=carlton+gamer&x=14&y=21 amazon.com]
* [http://www.pikespeakyoungcomposers.org/history.html Pike's Peak Young Composer's Competition judges blurbs]