Don Freund (born 1947,

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

) is an American composer, pianist, and Professor of Composition at the

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...

Jacobs School of Music The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana, is a music conservatory established in 1921. Until 2005, it was known as the Indiana University School of Music. It has more than 1,500 students, approximately half of whom ar ...

. His over 100 performed works, include solo, chamber, and orchestral music, live performance with electronic instruments, large theatre works. He has received several awards for his work, including a

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 ...

and grants from the

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 ...

Education

Don Freund earned his bachelor's at

Duquesne University Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit ( ; also known as Duquesne University or Duquesne) is a Private university, private Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded by members of ...

in 1969. Both his master's degree and doctorate were earned 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, United States. Established in 1921 by celebrated industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman, it was the ...

in 1970 and 1972, respectively.

Professorship

Don Freund began his professorship in 1972 as chair of

Memphis State University The University of Memphis (Memphis) is a public university, public research university in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1912, the university has an enrollment of more than 20,000 students. The university maintains the Herff Col ...

's composition department. In 1992, Freund moved to working at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he remains.

The Spectrum of Fifths

Freund developed the theory of the spectrum of fifths as a way to explain why different musical

modes Mode ( meaning "manner, tune, measure, due measure, rhythm, melody") may refer to: Arts and entertainment * MO''D''E (magazine), a defunct U.S. women's fashion magazine * ''Mode'' magazine, a fictional fashion magazine which is the setting fo ...

have different emotional connotations. The spectrum comes from the

circle of fifths In music theory, the circle of fifths (sometimes also cycle of fifths) is a way of organizing pitches as a sequence of perfect fifths. Starting on a C, and using the standard system of tuning for Western music (12-tone equal temperament), the se ...

, commonly used as a tool to teach a multitude of subjects to young music students, from harmony to scales. Any particular note, if heard with another directly to its right on the spectrum, can be considered a parent note. The note to the right is the child note. All parent notes are relatively flatter, or darker, than their relatively sharper, brighter, child notes.

Recordings

*''New Music From Indiana University Vol 4 - Don Freund'' ''Madame Bovary Suite'', ''Soft Cells'', ''Concerto for Viola'', ''Dissolving Music'':Indiana University Concert Orchestra, Indiana University New Music Ensemble, Indiana University Chamber Orchestra conducted by Don Freund, David Dzubay, and Paul Biss. Indiana University 10.

Sources

* Jens Staubrand: Kierkegaard International Bibliography Music Works and Plays, Copenhagen 2009. In English and Danish. . Including Don Freund's ''FEAR AND TREMBLING BLUES'', 1983
Don Freund
Composition Department, Jacobs School of Music
Interview with Don Freund by George Walker (September 18, 2009), accessed 28 January 2010

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Freund, Don American male classical composers 20th-century American classical composers 21st-century American classical composers 1947 births Musicians from Pittsburgh Living people Indiana University faculty Pupils of Darius Milhaud