Leroy Burrill Phillips (November 9, 1907 – June 22, 1988) was an American composer, teacher, and pianist.

Biography

Phillips was born in

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County, Nebraska, Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. List of ...

. He studied at the College of Music at the

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univ ...

with

Edwin Stringham Edwin John Stringham (July 11, 1890 – June 30, 1974) was an American composer. Life Stringham was a native of Kenosha, Wisconsin. He earned a bachelor's degree in music from Northwestern University, a doctorate in music from the University ...

and at the

Eastman School of Music The Eastman School of Music is the music school of the University of Rochester, a private research university in Rochester, New York. It was established in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman. It offers Bachelor of Music ...

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located i ...

, with

Howard Hanson Howard Harold Hanson (October 28, 1896 – February 26, 1981)''The New York Times'' – Obituaries. Harold C. Schonberg. February 28, 1981 p. 1011/ref> was an American composer, conductor, educator, music theorist, and champion of American cla ...

and

Bernard Rogers Bernard Rogers (4 February 1893 – 24 May 1968) was an American composer. His best known work is ''The Passion'', an oratorio written in 1942. Life and career Rogers was born in New York City. He studied with Arthur Farwell, Ernest Bloc ...

. On September 17, 1928, he married Alberta Corinne Mayfield (1907–1979) who wrote many of his librettos. In 1931 the couple had a daughter who, under the

stage name A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...

Ann Todd Dorothy Ann Todd (24 January 1907 – 6 May 1993) was an English film, television and stage actress who achieved international fame when she starred in 1945's '' The Seventh Veil''. From 1949 to 1957 she was married to David Lean who directed h ...

, became a child actress in films. She continued acting into her early twenties, but left the entertainment industry in 1954 and died in 2020. A second child, son Stephen, was born in 1937. He died in 1986, two years before his father. Phillips's first important work was ''Selections from

McGuffey's Reader The Eclectic Readers (commonly, but informally known as the McGuffey Readers) were a series of graded primers for grade levels 1–6. They were widely used as textbooks in American schools from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century, and ...

'', for orchestra, based on poems by

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include " Paul Revere's Ride", '' The Song of Hiawatha'', and '' Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely tra ...

and Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. Immediately successful, the work established his reputation as a composer with a "consciously American style". By the 1940s he had turned to a more astringent and expressive idiom. In 1960, his String Quartet No. 2 was premiered at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. by the

Paganini Quartet The Paganini Quartet was an American string quartet founded by cellist :fr:Robert_Maas_(violoncelliste)#Fondation, Robert Maas and violinist Henri Temianka in 1946. The quartet drew its name from the fact that all four of its instruments, made ...

, with the composer present, and broadcast on live FM radio. In the early 1960s he turned to free

serial techniques In music, serialism is a method of composition using series of pitches, rhythms, dynamics, timbres or other musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though some of his contemporaries were al ...

, less sharply accented rhythms, and increasing fantasy. Phillips taught composition and theory at

(1933–49), the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Unive ...

(1949–64), the

Juilliard School of Music The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most e ...

(1968–69), and

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to ...

(1972–73). His students include Jack Beeson, William Flanagan,

Kenneth Gaburo Kenneth Louis Gaburo (July 5, 1926 – January 26, 1993) was an American composer. Life Gaburo was born in Somerville, New Jersey. He served as a professor of music at the University of Illinois, the University of California, San Diego, and the U ...

, Ben Johnston, H. Owen Reed,

Daria Semegen Daria Semegen (born June 27, 1946) is a contemporary American composer of classical music. While she has composed pieces for traditional instruments – her ''Jeux des quatres'' (1970), for example, is scored for clarinet, trombone, cello, and pi ...

, Mary McCarty Snow,

Steven Stucky Steven Edward Stucky (November 7, 1949 − February 14, 2016) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer. Life and career Stucky was born in Hutchinson, Kansas. At age 9, he moved with his family to Abilene, Texas, where, as a teenager, he s ...

, David Ward-Steinman, and Charles Whittenberg, as well as

Jerry Amaldev Jerome Thomas Veleeparambil, more popularly known by his stage name Jerry Amaldev (born 15 April 1939) is a three-time Kerala State Film Awards winning Indian composer of film scores who has given music to some of the most important motion pi ...

. He was a Fulbright Lecturer in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ...

in 1960–61, and received Guggenheim fellowships in 1942–43 and 1961–62.

Death

He died in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

, in 1988, aged 80, of complications after a heart attack. His scores and sketches are housed in the Burrill Phillips archive, Special Collections, Sibley Music Library,

, Rochester, New York.

Selected works

His major works include: *''Selections from McGuffey's Reader'', Suite for orchestra (1933) * String quartets (No. 1, 1939–40; No. 2, 1958) * Piano Concerto (1942) *''Don't We All?'', Opera buffa (1947); text by Alberta Phillips *''Concert Piece'' for bassoon and string orchestra (or piano) (1942) * Four piano sonatas (1942–60) *''Music for This Time of Year'' for wind quartet (1954) *''A Rondo of Rondeaux'' for viola and piano (1954) *''The Return of Odysseus'' for baritone, narrator, chorus and orchestra (1956); text by Alberta Phillips *''Conversations'' for violin and viola (1962) *''Perspectives in a Labyrinth'' for 3 string orchestras (1962) *''Dialogues'' for violin and viola (1963) *''The Unforgiven'', opera in a prologue and 3 acts (1982); libretto by Alberta Phillips *Various choral works, including ''That Time May Cease'' from Marlowe's '' Doctor Faustus'' (1967) *Various works for solo voice and instruments, including ''Eve Learns a Little'' (1974)

References

Sources * * * *

External links

Phillips' ''American Dance for Bassoon and String Orchestra''
performed by the

Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is an American orchestra based in the city of Rochester, New York. Its primary concert venue is the Eastman Theatre at the Eastman School of Music. History George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak Compa ...

and Vincent Pezzi, bassoon, conducted by

(1941)
Interview with Burrill Phillips
October 19, 1986 {{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Burrill 20th-century classical composers 1907 births 1988 deaths American male classical composers American classical composers Musicians from Omaha, Nebraska Eastman School of Music alumni Eastman School of Music faculty University of Illinois faculty Juilliard School faculty Cornell University faculty 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians

Biography

Death

Selected works

References

Further reading

External links