Robert Moffat (variously "Moffatt" and "Moffett") Palmer (b. June 2, 1915, Syracuse, New York; d. July 3, 2010, Ithaca, New York) was an American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

and

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

. He composed more than 90 works,''Ithaca Journal'' obituary, July 5–7, 2010 including two symphonies, ''Nabuchodonosor'' (an oratorio), a piano concerto, four string quartets, three piano sonatas and numerous works for chamber ensembles.Austin, 1986, p. 465

Biography

Education

Born in Syracuse, New York, Palmer began, at age 12, piano studies with his mother.Ewen, p. 488 He attended Syracuse's Central High School, undertaking pre-college studies in piano and additional study of violin and music theory at the Syracuse Music School Settlement. Awarded a piano scholarship to 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, United States. Established in 1921 by celebrated industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman, it was the ...

, he soon became a composition major. At Eastman, he studied 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 and music theorist. As director for forty year ...

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 ...

, earning bachelor's (1938) and master's (1940) degrees in composition. He undertook additional studies with

Quincy Porter William Quincy Porter (February 7, 1897 – November 12, 1966) was an American composer and teacher of european classical music, classical music. Biography Born in New Haven, Connecticut, he went to Yale University where his teachers included H ...

Roy Harris Roy Ellsworth Harris (February 12, 1898 – October 1, 1979) was an American composer. He wrote music on American subjects, and is best known for his Symphony No. 3. Life Harris was born in Chandler, Oklahoma on February 12, 1898. His ancestry ...

and, at the first composition class at the

Tanglewood Music Center The Tanglewood Music Center is an annual summer music academy in Lenox, Massachusetts, United States, in which emerging professional musicians participate in performances, master classes and workshops. The center operates as a part of the Tanglew ...

in 1940, with

Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, critic, writer, teacher, pianist, and conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as the "Dean of American Compos ...

.Salvatore, p. 22

Early career

Palmer came to national attention in an article titled "Robert Palmer and Charles Mills" published in 1943 by critic

Paul Rosenfeld Paul Leopold Rosenfeld (May 4, 1890 – July 21, 1946) was an American journalist, best known as a music critic. Biography He was born in New York City into a German-Jewish family, the son of Clara (née Liebmann) and Julius Rosenfield. His mot ...

in ''Modern Music''.Rosenfeld, pp. 264-265 Rosenfeld hails two "new, impressive, distinctive works" by Palmer," noting "an impression of robustness and maturity." In the Concerto for Small Orchestra (1940), Rosenfeld discerns a "quite original opening movement, (whose) clash of melodies in contrary motion was magnificent and fierce," signaling "a new composer to be watched with happy expectation." Further national attention came with the publication in 1948 by

of an article in the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' titled "The New 'School' of American Composers." Copland's article singles out Palmer as one of seven composers "representative of some of the best we have to offer the new generation," adding that "Palmer happens to be one of my own particular enthusiasms."Copland In Palmer's first two string quartets, Copland discerns "separate movements of true originality and depth of feeling," observing that "always his music has urgency—it seems to come from some inner need for expression." Early in his career, Palmer taught music theory, composition and piano at the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...

from 1940 until 1943.

Later career

From 1943 until his retirement in 1980, Palmer served as a member of the faculty at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, where he was appointed Given Foundation Professor of Music in 1976. According to

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

-winning composer

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

, chair of the board of directors of the

American Music Center New Music USA is a new music organization formed by the merging of the American Music Center with Meet The Composer on November 8, 2011. The new organization retains the granting programs of the two former organizations as well as two media progr ...

and a former Palmer student, "(Palmer) founded the doctoral program in music composition at Cornell University, which was the first in the United States (and quite possibly the world).""Remembering Robert Moffat Palmer (1915-2010)"
Writing in ''Clavier'' magazine in 1989, pianist Ramon Salvatore observed that " almer'sinfluence on two generations of Cornell composers has been enormous; many of his former students now hold university and college professorships throughout the United States" Additionally, Palmer served as visiting composer at

Illinois Wesleyan University Illinois Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college in Bloomington, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1850, the central portion of the present campus was acquired in 1854 with the first building erected in 1856. History The in ...

in 1954 and as the George A. Miller Professor of Composition at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

in 1955-56. Many of Palmer's most distinctive works date from his Cornell period. Steven Stucky remarks that Palmer "once seemed poised to become a leading national figure. A steady stream of first-rate pieces attracted top performers in concert and on recordings: the Second Piano Sonata (1942; 1948), championed by John Kirkpatrick; ''Toccata Ostinato'' (1945), a

boogie-woogie Boogie-woogie is a genre of blues music that became popular during the late 1920s, but already developed in African-American communities since the 1870s.Paul, Elliot, ''That Crazy American Music'' (1957), Chapter 10, p. 229. It was eventually ex ...

in 13/8 written for pianist

William Kapell Oscar William Kapell (September 20, 1922 – October 29, 1953) was an American classical pianist. ''The Washington Post'' described him as "America's first great pianist", while ''The New York Times'' described him as "one of the last century's ...

; the first Piano Quartet (1947); the Chamber Concerto No. 1 (1949); the Quintet for Clarinet, Piano, and Strings (1952). Most influential of these was the mighty Piano Quartet, which used to loom large as one of the major accomplishments of American chamber music." Echoing this assessment, Robert Evett, in a review written in 1970 for the Washington ''Evening Star'' of Palmer's first Piano Quartet (1947), found it "one of the most engrossing works of a superb American composer. ... At its premiere, it was a triumph. It was a triumph again last night." Palmer's publishers include Elkan-Vogel, Peer International, C. F. Peters Corporation, G. Schirmer Inc., Valley Music Press, and Alphonse Leduc-Robert King, Inc. Palmer's students include

-winning composers

and Christopher Rouse and composers

Paul Chihara Paul Seiko Chihara (born July 9, 1938) is an American composer. Life and career Chihara was born in Seattle, Washington in 1938. A Japanese American, he spent three years of his childhood with his family in an internment camp in Minidoka, Idah ...

, Bernhard Heiden, Brian Israel, Ben Johnston,

David Conte David Conte (born 1955) is an American composer who has written over 150 works published by E.C. Schirmer (a division of ECS Publishing), including six operas, a musical, works for chorus, solo voice, orchestra, chamber music, organ, piano, guita ...

, John S. Hilliard,

Leonard Lehrman Leonard Jordan Lehrman is an American composer who was born in Kansas, on August 20, 1949, and grew up in Roslyn, New York. Since August 3, 1999, he has resided in Valley Stream, New York. Since 1995 he has served as a part-time Reference Librari ...

Daniel Dorff Daniel Dorff (born March 7, 1956) is an American classical musician and classical composer. Biography and career Dorff was born in New Rochelle, New York, and grew up in Flower Hill, New York, graduating from Roslyn High School.A Compact ...

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 pict ...

, James Marra, Harris Lindenfeld, and Jack Gallagher.

Style and reception

Elliott Carter, writing for ''Modern Music'' about an early-1940s League of Composers performance of Palmer's String Quartet No. 1 (1939), reported that "Palmer, a hitherto unheard-from composer, was the big surprise of the whole concert series. His music is firm and definite; its dissonance resembles that of younger Europeans whom we never hear in this country... His quartet showed an impressive seriousness and great musicality." William Austin, writing in 1956 in ''

The Musical Quarterly ''The Musical Quarterly'' is the oldest academic journal on music in America. Originally established in 1915 by Oscar Sonneck, the journal was edited by Sonneck until his death in 1928. Sonneck was succeeded by a number of editors, including C ...

,'' observes that "through recordings and published scores... almer'sfairly large but scattered audience can now confirm the predictions of

and

that Palmer would rank among the leading musical representatives of his generation." Austin notes "the works

almer Almer is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Sturminster Marshall, in the Dorset district, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. Almer is located on the A31 road near Winterborne Zelston, Huish Manor, Sturminster Ma ...

creates are taut and sturdy" and cites as characteristic Palmer's use of asymmetrical rhythm and meter, the

octatonic scale An octatonic scale is any eight-note musical scale. However, the term most often refers to the ancohemitonic symmetric scale composed of alternating whole and half steps, as shown at right. In classical theory (in contrast to jazz theory), ...

, "imitative

counterpoint In music theory, counterpoint is the relationship of two or more simultaneous musical lines (also called voices) that are harmonically dependent on each other, yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. The term originates from the Latin ...

" and "expansion of phrases by varied repetition." Austin holds that "Palmer sings with a kind of devout serenity" of the "grim, divided, disappointed world of the 1940s and '50s, doggedly refusing to despair, no matter how often its hopes for liberty, equality and fraternity must be deferred. . . His best music ranks with the best means available for all who share this outlook."Austin, "The Music of Robert Palmer", p. 48 The previous year (1955), Herbert Livingston described the premiere performance of Palmer's String Quartet No. 3 at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

as "the most recent addition to the distinguished series of works commissioned by the University for the Stanley Quartet (others cited by Livingston included quartets and quintets by

Walter Piston Walter Hamor Piston, Jr. (January 20, 1894 – November 12, 1976), was an American composer of classical music, music theorist, and professor of music at Harvard University. Life Piston was born in Rockland, Maine at 15 Ocean Street to Walter ...

Wallingford Riegger Wallingford Constantine Riegger ( ; April 29, 1885 – April 2, 1961) was an American modernist composer and pianist, best known for his orchestral and modern dance music. He was born in Albany, Georgia, but spent most of his career in New York Ci ...

Darius Milhaud Darius Milhaud (, ; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as ''The Group of Six''—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His composition ...

, and

Heitor Villa-Lobos Heitor Villa-Lobos (March 5, 1887November 17, 1959) was a Brazilian composer, conductor, cellist, and classical guitarist described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has globally bec ...

). It is both a significant contribution to the repertory of contemporary American chamber music and a work that reveals new developments in the composer's style." Livingston adds, "every refinement of its complex structure contributes positively to the expressiveness of the music." The premiere performance in 1963 of Palmer's

oratorio An oratorio () is a musical composition with dramatic or narrative text for choir, soloists and orchestra or other ensemble. Similar to opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguisha ...

, ''Nabuchodonosor,'' lasting 40 minutes, was greeted by ''

's'' William C. Holmes as "a culminating point in Robert Palmer's more than twenty-five years as an active composer... It is his largest and most ambitiously conceived work to date. It is a forceful, rough-hewn cry of defiance against tyranny in all forms and, as such, cannot help but move anyone who shares Palmer's views on this subject." Holmes takes note of "the exciting forcefulness that carries one with it to the climax" and of the coda that follows—intended, says Holmes, "to convey a serene greeting of peace to mankind." Arthur Cohn, surveying four works by Palmer in ''The Literature of Chamber Music'' (1997), detects "brilliant contrapuntalism" in Palmer's "vitally communicative music." Cohn notes that "in Palmer's hands repetition is always paralleled by change" and finds "positive tonalism, broadened and colored by contemporary expansion" in the music of "this American composer of virile voice." In a eulogy written in 2010 for the

, AMC chair of the board of directors and former Palmer student

noted that "Austin captures the grave lyricism that makes Palmer memorable, but no less important was his lively rhythmic language, which owed a debt in equal parts to American vernacular music, jazz, and Renaissance polyphony." Stucky concludes that "Palmer's music is ripe for rediscovery by a wider public, and it lives on in those who knew him, and those who celebrate him now for a life well and generously lived." According to Daniel Aioi, Palmer's "body of work resides at Cornell in the Sidney Cox Library of Music and Dance and in the University Archives in Olin Library."

Commissioned works

* Concerto for Small Orchestra (1940); commissioned by

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

and the

League of Composers The League of Composers/International Society for Contemporary Music is a society whose stated mission is "to produce the highest quality performances of new music, to champion American composers in the United States and abroad, and to introduce Ame ...

* Second String Quartet (1943; rev. 1947); commissioned by the

Sergei Koussevitzky Serge Koussevitzky (born Sergey Aleksandrovich Kusevitsky;Koussevitzky's original Russian forename is usually transliterated into English as either "Sergei" or "Sergey"; however, he himself adopted the French spelling "Serge", using it in his sig ...

Music Foundation * Variations, Chorale and Fugue for orchestra (1947; rev. 1954); commissioned by

Dimitri Mitropoulos Dimitri Mitropoulos (; – 2 November 1960) was a Greek and American conductor, pianist, and composer. Life and career Mitropoulos was born in Athens, the son of Yannis and Angelikē (Angeliki) Mitropoulos. His father owned a leather goods s ...

and the Minneapolis Symphony * Quintet for Piano and Strings (1950); commissioned by the

Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge (October 30, 1864 – November 4, 1953), born Elizabeth Penn Sprague, was an American pianist and patron of music, especially of chamber music. Biography Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge's father was a wealthy wholesale ...

Foundation * Quintet for Clarinet, Piano and Strings (1952; rev. 1953); commissioned by the Quincy, Illinois Chamber Music Society * String Quartet No. 3 (1954); commissioned by the Stanley Foundation of the

* ''Of Night and the Sea'' (1956); commissioned by the Paul Fromm Music Foundation * ''Memorial Music'' (1960); commissioned by the

National Association of Educational Broadcasters The National Association of Educational Broadcasters (NAEB) was a US organization of broadcasters with aims to share or coordinate educational programmes. It was founded as the Association of College and University Broadcasting Stations (ACUBS) i ...

* ''Centennial Overture'' (1965); commissioned by

and

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 ...

* Quartet No. 2 for Piano and Strings (1974); commissioned by the Galzio Quartet, Caracas, Venezuela * Piano Sonata No. 3 (1979); commissioned by Ramon Salvatore * Cello Sonata No. 2 (1983); commissioned by the

Hans Kindler Johannes Hendrikus Philip Kindler (January 8, 1892 – August 30, 1949) was a Dutch American cellist and conductor who founded the National Symphony Orchestra. He was married to painter Alice Kindler and Persis Chase Myers. Kindler as c ...

Foundation, Washington, DC

Notable performances

* Piano Sonata No. 1 (1938) premiered March 26, 1940 in New York by pianist John Kirkpatrick * Concerto for Small Orchestra (1940) premiered in 1941 by the

Orchestra * ''Toccata Ostinato'' (1944) for piano commissioned, premiered,Austin, "The Music of Robert Palmer", p. 49 dedicated to and recordedMP3 download at ''Rhapsody.com.'' Retrieved 2011-06-08
/ref> by

* Quartet for Piano and Strings (1947) Premiered in 1947 by John Kirkpatrick, pianist, and members of the Walden Quartet * Quintet for Piano and Strings (1950) premiered in 1951 at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

by the

Juilliard String Quartet The Juilliard String Quartet (JSQ) is a classical music string quartet founded in 1946 at the Juilliard School in New York by William Schuman and Robert Mann. Since its inception, it has been the quartet-in-residence at the Juilliard School. ...

and pianist

Erich Itor Kahn Erich Itor Kahn (23 July 1905 - 5 March 1956) was a German composer of Jewish descent, who emigrated to the United States during the years of National Socialism. Biography He was born in Rimbach in the Odenwald, the son of Leopold Kahn, a mathema ...

* String Quartet No. 3 (1954) premiered July 12, 1955 by the Stanley Quartet at the

* ''Centennial Overture'' (1965) premiered March 12, 1965 at

and broadcast nationally by the

New York Philharmonic Orchestra The New York Philharmonic is an American symphony orchestra based in New York City. Known officially as the ''Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc.'', and globally known as the ''New York Philharmonic Orchestra'' (NYPO) or the ''New Yo ...

conducted by George Cleve.Ewen, p. 487 * ''Organon II'' (1975), for string orchestra, premiered April 4, 1975 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 Compan ...

conducted by

David Zinman David Zinman (born July 9, 1936, in Brooklyn, New York) is a retired American conductor and violinist. Education After violin studies at Oberlin Conservatory, Zinman studied theory and composition at the University of Minnesota, earning his M.A. ...

Awards

* National Academy of Arts and Letters, 1946 *

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

, 1952Ewen, p. 489 *

, 1960 *

Fulbright Grant The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people o ...

, 1960 *

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

grant, 1980

Compositions

Orchestral

* Poem for violin and chamber orchestra (1938) * Concerto for Small Orchestra (1940) * ''K 19,'' symphonic elegy for Thomas Wolfe * Variations, Chorale and Fugue (1947; rev. 1954) * Chamber Concerto for violin, oboe and string orchestra (1949) * Symphony No. 1 (1953) * ''Memorial Music'' (1960) * ''Centennial Overture'' (1965) * Symphony No. 2 (1966) * Piano Concerto (1971) * Symphonia concertante for nine instruments (1972) * ''Organon II'' for string orchestra (1975) * Concerto for two pianos, two percussion, strings and brass (1984)

Wind Ensemble

* ''Choric Song and Toccata'' (1968)

Choral

* ''Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight'' for chorus and orchestra (1948) * ''Slow, Slow, Fresh Fount'' for SATB chorus (1953; rev. 1959) * ''The Trojan Women'' for women's chorus, winds and percussion (1955) * ''And in That Day'' for chorus (1963) * ''Nabuchodonosor'' for tenor and bass soloists, TTBB chorus, winds, percussion, and two pianos (1964) * ''Portents of Aquarius'' for narrator, SATB chorus and organ (1975)

Chamber Ensemble

* String Quartet No. 1 (1939) * Concerto for five instruments (1943) * String Quartet No. 2 (1943; rev. 1947) * Piano Quartet No. 1 (1947) * Piano Quintet (1950) * Sonata for viola and piano (1951) * Quintet for clarinet, string trio, and piano (1952; rev. 1953) * String Quartet No. 3 (1954) * Sonata for violin and piano (1956) * Piano Trio (1958) * String Quartet No. 4 (1960) * ''Organon I'' for flute and clarinet (1962) * Sonata for trumpet and piano (1972) * Piano Quartet No. 2 (1974) * ''Organon II'' for violin and viola (1975) * Sonata No. 1 for cello and piano (1978) * Sonata No. 2 for cello and piano (1983)

Vocal

* Two Songs (Walt Whitman) for voice and piano (1940) * ' 'Kaw River' ' (Will Gibson) for soprano and piano (1943) * ''Carmina Amoris'' for soprano, clarinet, violin and piano (1951) * ''Of Night and the Sea,'' chamber cantata for soprano and bass soloists and orchestra (1956)

Keyboard

* Piano Sonata No. 1 (1938; rev. 1946) * Three Preludes for piano (1941) * Piano Sonata No. 2 (1942; rev. 1948) * Sonata for two pianos (1944) * ''Toccata Ostinato'' for piano (1944) * Sonata for piano four hands (1952) * ''Evening Music'' for piano (1956) * Seven Epigrams for piano (1957) * Epithalamium for organ (1968) * ''Morning Music'' for piano (1973) * ' 'Transitions' ' for piano (1977) * Piano Sonata No. 3 (1979)

References

Sources

* Aioi, Daniel
"Retired music professor Robert Palmer dies at age 95"
''Cornell Chronicle Online'', July 8, 2010. Retrieved 2011-06-07. * Anderson, E. Ruth. "Palmer, Robert M." ''Contemporary American Composers: A Biographical Dictionary'' (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1976), . Digitized by the Internet Archive, 2010. Retrieved 2011-05-15. * Austin, William. "The Music of Robert Palmer", ''The Musical Quarterly,'' Vol. 42, No. 1 (Jan. 1956), pp. 35–50. * Austin, William W. 1986. "Palmer, Robert (Moffat)". ''The New Grove Dictionary of American Music,'' Vol. 3, edited by H. Wiley Hitchcock and Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan. * Austin, William W. 2001. "Palmer, Robert (Moffett)". ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians,'' edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. * Austin, William W., ''Music in the 20th Century'' (NY: W. W. Norton, 1966), , p. 441. * Cohn, Arthur. ''The Literature of Chamber Music'' (Chapel Hill, NC: Hinshaw Music, 1997), , Vol. 3, pp. 2067–2069. * Copland, Aaron. "The New School of American Composers", ''The New York Times,'' March 4, 1948. * Ewen, David. ''American Composers: A Biographical Dictionary'' (NY: Putnam, 1982), , pp. 487–489. * Holmes, William C. "Current Chronicle", ''The Musical Quarterly,'' Vol. 50, No. 3 (Jul. 1964), pp. 367–370. * Livingston, Herbert. "Current Chronicle", ''The Musical Quarterly,'' Vol. 41, No. 4 (Oct. 1955), pp. 511–514. * "Robert M. Palmer", ''Ithaca Journal'' obituary
Robert M. Palmer Obituary: View Robert Palmer's Obituary by Ithaca Journal
July 5–7, 2010. Retrieved 2011-06-07. * Rosenfeld, Paul. "Robert Palmer and Charles Mills", ''Modern Music,'' XX, May–June 1943, pp. 264–266. * Salvatore, Raymond. "The Piano Music of Robert Palmer", ''Clavier,'' April 1989, Vol. 28, No. 4: 22–30. * Slonimsky, Nicholas. 1958. "Palmer, Robert." ''Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians,'' 5th ed. (NY: G. Schirmer, 1958), pp. 1203–1204. * Stucky, Steven
"Remembering Robert Moffat Palmer (1915-2010)."

External links

"Remembering Robert Moffat Palmer (1915-2010)"

"Robert M. Palmer" obituary, ''Ithaca Journal''

MP3 download of ''Toccata Ostinato'' at ''Rhapsody.com''

MP3 download of Quartet No. 1 for Piano and Strings at mediafire.com

MP3 download of Quintet for A-Clarinet, String Trio and Piano at ''Amazon.com''

Archived recording of ''Memorial Music'' (Orch. des Solistes de Paris/Husa)

May 14, 1987
"In Search of Robert Palmer"
by Adam Tendler, April 24, 2019 {{DEFAULTSORT:Palmer, Robert Moffat 1915 births 2010 deaths 20th-century American classical composers American male classical composers Cornell University faculty Eastman School of Music alumni Illinois Wesleyan University faculty National Endowment for the Arts Fellows University of Illinois faculty Musicians from Syracuse, New York Pupils of Aaron Copland Pupils of Howard Hanson