Mark Wessel (March 26, 1894 – May 9, 1973) was an American

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

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 ...

Life

Wessel was born in

Coldwater, Michigan Coldwater is a city in and county seat of Branch County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city had a population of 13,822 at the 2020 census. The city is mostly surrounded by Coldwater Township, but the two are administered autonomously. H ...

, and graduated from Northwestern School of Music, now known as

Bienen School of Music The Bienen School of Music (formally the Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music) is the music and performance arts school of Northwestern University. It is located on Northwestern University's campus in Evanston, Illinois, United States. The s ...

; he later taught

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

and theory there. When Wessel left Northwestern, he became a professor of

and composition at the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado Denver, and the U ...

Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In ...

. Wessel was a former pupil of

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian and American composer, music theorist, teacher and writer. He was among the first Modernism (music), modernists who transformed the practice of harmony in 20th-centu ...

. He was twice awarded

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 ...

s, in

1930 Events January * January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will be on J ...

and

1932 Events January * January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. * January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident (1932), Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort ...

. He was also the recipient in 1930 of a Pulitzer Scholarship to further his education in Europe. In the 1938 contest of the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Society his

choral A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

l work ''The King of Babylon'' won honorable mention, while his former student

David Van Vactor David Van Vactor (May 8, 1906 – March 24, 1994) was an American composer of contemporary classical music. He was born in Plymouth, Indiana, and received Bachelor of Music (1928) and Master of Music (1935) degrees from Northwestern University ...

won the competition with his Symphony in D. He died on May 9, 1973, in Orchard Lake,

Oakland County, Michigan Oakland County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a principal county of the Detroit metropolitan area, containing the bulk of Detroit's northern suburbs. Its county seat, seat of government is Pontiac, Mic ...

Selected compositions

*Adagio, for orchestra *Allegro pomposo, for two pianos (pub. 1982) *''The Amorous Peacock'', for piano *Ballade, for solo violin, solo oboe, string orchestra (1931) *Ballade, for violin and piano (1937) *Concertino, for flute or violin and chamber orchestra (1928) *Concerto, for piano and orchestra (1941) *''The Day Is No More'' (words by Rabindranath Tagore), for voice and piano (1919) *''The Departure'', for orchestra (1922) *Etude in G Minor, for piano (before 1947) *''Feminine Conversations'' and ''Promenade of Respectable People'', for piano (pub. 1931) *''The King of Babylon'', for mixed chorus and orchestra (1933) *''Holiday'', overture for orchestra (1932) *''The Hour Comes When One May Question Fate'', for orchestra (1922) *''Lento Fantasia'', for horn and piano (pub. 1941) *''Meerestille'' (words by Nicolaus Lenau), for voice, viola, violoncello (or horn in C), and piano *''1945'', for orchestra *Nocturne, for piano *''Original Theme and Four Fantasies'', for horn (1979) *''Plains and Mountains'', for violin, cello, and piano *''Poem'', for orchestra and piano solo (1924) *Prelude and Fugue, for string quartet (1931) *''Prisms'', for two pianos *Quintet *''Sacred Dances'', for piano *Scherzo, for horn and piano (pub. 1941) *''Scherzo burlesque'', for piano and orchestra (ca. 1931) *''Seven Ages of Man'', for orchestra *Sextet, for woodwind and piano (ca. 1931) *Sonata, for four horns *Sonata, for violin and piano *Sonata, for cello and piano (before 1947) *Sonatine, for piano (before 1937) *''Song and Dance'', for orchestra (1933) *''Southern Tour'', for piano (pub. 1982) *String Quartet no. 1 (1931) *String Quartet no. 2 (ca. 1938) *''String Serenade'', for solo violin and string orchestra *Suite, for large orchestra (and baritone voice in second movement) (1928) *Symphony (1932) *Symphony Concertante, for piano and horn with orchestra (1929) *''Theme and Variations on "I've Got a Gal in Summer School"'', for two pianos, organ, and orchestra *''Two Concert Pieces for the Piano'', "Green River" (Symmetrical Toccata) and "Isle Of Death" (pub. 1926)

Discography

*''

Leonardo De Lorenzo Leonardo De Lorenzo (August 29, 1875 – July 29, 1962) was an Italian virtuoso flutist and music education, music educator. Biography Born at Viggiano, in the province of Potenza, De Lorenzo started playing the flute at the age of 8 and went to ...

, flautista e compositore: registrazioni storiche 1928–1935'' (includes Mark Wessel, Concertino for flute and orchestra, together with works by Ary van Leeuwen, Charles Tomlinson Griffes, and Gian-Luca Petrucci). 1 CD. .p. Valdom, 2000.

Life

Selected compositions

Discography

References

Further reading