John Pfeiffer (September 29, 1920February 8, 1996) was a classical recording producer, a design engineer, and an occasional

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

composer.

Life and career

Born in

Tucson Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...

, Arizona, Pfeiffer studied music and engineering at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

and Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas. After naval service in World War II, he moved to New York, where he attended

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

and worked as a jazz pianist before joining

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic ...

as a design engineer in 1949. Pfeiffer was best known as a producer of classical music. His reissues of the complete recordings of

Arturo Toscanini Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orche ...

Sergei Rachmaninoff Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and Conducting, conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a compos ...

and

Jascha Heifetz Jascha Heifetz (; December 10, 1987) was a Russian-American violinist, widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time. Born in Vilnius, he was soon recognized as a child prodigy and was trained in the Russian classical violin styl ...

during the 1980s and '90s were critically praised and won several awards. The ''Heifetz Collection'' received a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

in the historical category. Pfeiffer also recorded contemporary artists, including the mezzo-sopranos

Marilyn Horne Marilyn Berneice Horne (born January 16, 1934) is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer. She specialized in roles requiring beauty of tone, excellent breath support, and the ability to execute difficult coloratura passages. She is a recipient ...

and

Frederica von Stade Frederica von Stade (born 1 June 1945) is a semi-retired American classical singer. Best known for her work in opera, she was also a recitalist and concert artist, and she recorded more than a hundred albums and videos. She is especially associa ...

, and Xiang-Dong Kong, a young Chinese pianist. Pfeiffer also produced recordings by the pianists

Vladimir Horowitz Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz (November 5, 1989) was a Russian and American pianist. Considered one of the greatest pianists of all time, he was known for his virtuoso technique, timbre, and the public excitement engendered by his playing. Life ...

Arthur Rubinstein Arthur Rubinstein Order of the British Empire, KBE OMRI (; 28 January 1887 – 20 December 1982) was a Polish Americans, Polish-American pianist.

and

Van Cliburn Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn Jr. (July 12, 1934February 27, 2013) was an American pianist. At the age of 23, Cliburn achieved worldwide recognition when he won the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958 during the Cold ...

, the harpsichordist

Wanda Landowska Wanda Aleksandra Landowska (5 July 1879 – 16 August 1959) was a Polish harpsichordist and pianist whose performances, teaching, writings and especially her many recordings played a large role in reviving the popularity of the harpsichord in t ...

, and the soprano

Leontyne Price Leontyne Price ( born Mary Violet Leontine Price February 10, 1927) is an American spinto soprano who was the first African-American soprano to receive international acclaim. From 1961 she began a long association with the Metropolitan Opera. ...

. In addition to Toscanini, Pfeiffer worked with

Fritz Reiner Frederick Martin Reiner (; December 19, 1888 – November 15, 1963) was an American conductor of opera and symphonic music in the twentieth century. Hungarian born and trained, he emigrated to the United States in 1922, where he rose to promine ...

Leopold Stokowski Leopold Anthony Stokowski (18 April 1882 – 13 September 1977) was a British-born American conductor. One of the leading conductors of the early and mid-20th century, he is best known for his long association with the Philadelphia Orchestra. H ...

Eugene Ormandy Eugene Ormandy (born Jenő Blau; November 18, 1899 – March 12, 1985) was a Hungarian-born American conductor and violinist, best known for his association with the Philadelphia Orchestra, as its music director. His 44-year association with ...

and Charles Munch, and produced their initial "Living Stereo" recordings. In addition to his recording work, Mr. Pfeiffer was the audio producer for several televised classical music programs, including "Heifetz on Television," for

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 ...

; "Horowitz Live," for

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

; the 1978 White House concert by Horowitz, the cellist

Mstislav Rostropovich Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich (27 March 192727 April 2007) was a Russian Cello, cellist and conducting, conductor. In addition to his interpretations and technique, he was well known for both inspiring and commissioning new works, which enl ...

and the soprano

, as well as installments of "Live From

Lincoln Center 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 ...

" and "Live From The Met." Pfeiffer helped RCA Victor develop

stereo Stereophonic sound, commonly shortened to stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configurat ...

and

quadraphonic Quadraphonic (or quadrophonic, also called quadrasonic or by the neologism quadio ortmanteau, formed by analogy with "stereo" sound – equivalent to what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four audio channels in which speakers are po ...

recording techniques and coordinate the company's adoption of digital recording. Pheiffer was also a composer and recorded an LP of

called ''Electronomusic--Nine Images'' which was released on the

RCA Victrola RCA Victrola was a budget record label introduced by RCA Victor in the early 1960s to reissue classical recordings originally released on the RCA Victor " Red Seal" label. The name "Victrola" came from the early console phonographs first marketed ...

label in 1968 and has since become a collector's item. The individual tracks on the record are labelled "Warm-Up, Canon, and Peace, For Inharmonic Side-Band", "Reflection of a String, For Contraformer", "Drops, For Programmer and Sines", "Moments, Events for Parametric Blocks", "Take Off, For Metric Transperformer", "Forests, Modes for Alphormer and Set". "Pavone, A Duotonic Transform", "Orders, For Sequential Sines", and "After Hours, For Ordered Simpliformer". Pfeiffer in his liner notes explains that "the names e hasapplied to the 'instrumentation' of these works are shorthand descriptions of the technical methods of producing the various sounds". He describes his approach as "one which balances liberation with orientation--head-in-the-stars-feet-on-the-ground idea," declaring that "the concept of holding onto some familiar feature of musical orientation while exploring totally new ideas in other features is the basic aesthetic of 'electronomusic'." In 1996, Pfeiffer died in New York City from a heart attack at the age of 75.

Partial discography

* ''Electronomusic — 9 Images'', RCA Victrola LP, 1968 * ''

A Salute to American Music ''A Salute to American Music'' is a 113-minute live album of music, both classical and popular, performed by Steven Blier, Renée Fleming, Paul Groves (tenor), Paul Groves, Jerry Hadley, Karen Holvik, Marilyn Horne, Jeff Mattsey, Robert Merrill, Sh ...

'', RCA Victor Red Seal CD, 1992

Tribute albums

*''The Age of Living Stereo: A Tribute to John Pfeiffer'' - Martial Singher (Performer), Ludwig van Beethoven (Composer), Hector Berlioz (Composer), Johannes Brahms (Composer), Claude Debussy (Composer), Leo Delibes (Composer), Morton Gould (Composer), Franz Liszt (Composer), Felix Mendelssohn (Composer), Jacques Offenbach (Composer), Camille Saint-Saëns (Composer), Richard Strauss (Composer), Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky (Composer), Arthur Fiedler (Conductor), Charles Münch (Conductor), Fritz Reiner (Conductor), G. Wallace Woodworth (Conductor), Kiril Kondrashin (Conductor), Leopold Stokowski (Conductor), Pierre Monteux (Conductor)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pfeiffer, John Record producers from Arizona American electronic musicians Bethany College (Kansas) alumni 1920 births 1996 deaths Musicians from Tucson, Arizona Columbia University alumni 20th-century American musicians 20th-century American businesspeople