Olly Wilson

Olly Woodrow Wilson, Jr. (September 7, 1937 – March 12, 2018) was an American composer of contemporary classical music, pianist, double bassist, and a musicologist. He was one of the most preeminent composers of African American descent in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He is known for developing a list of Heterogenous Sound Ideals that is widely used to dissect different aspects of music, with an emphasis on African culture. According to Wilson himself, "The essence of Africanness consists of a way of doing something, not simply something that is done" (1991). This motto is the basis of Wilson's work in the realm of ethnomusicology. He is also known for establishing the TIMARA (Technology in Music and Related Arts) program at Oberlin Conservatory, the first-ever conservatory program in electronic music.

Biography

Wilson was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Alma Grace Peoples Wilson, a seamstress, and Olly Woodrow Wilson, Sr., an insurance salesman and butler. He graduated with a B.M. degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 1959, and earned an M.M. degree in music composition in 1960 from the University of Illinois. His composition instructors included Robert Wykes and Philip Bezanson. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 1964.

Wilson taught at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (1965-1970). He was an emeritus professor of music at the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught from 1970 to 2002 when he retired. He also served as the chairman of that university's music department between 1993 and 1997. His notable students include Neil Rolnick, Robert Greenberg, Valerie Samson and Frank La Rocca.

He was commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony and New York Philharmonic. He was commissioned by the 1979 International Contemporary Organ Music Festival at the Hartt School of Music for his organ work ''Expansions'', which was premiered at the festival by Donald Sutherland.

Wilson's music is published by Gunmar Music (a division of G. Schirmer). His music has been recorded on the Columbia, CRI, Desto, Turnabout, and New World labels.

Wilson died March 12, 2018, in Berkeley, California at the age of 80.

Heterogeneous sound ideals

Olly Wilson contributed to the study of African and American music by defining heterogeneous sound ideals that involve common themes in traditional African music: such as use of aspects of sound ( pitch, duration, timbre and volume), usage of physical body movement in music making, and introspection of listeners. His heterogenous sound ideals are still used today to help identify different aspects of sounds in music.

Awards and honors

*Elected to The American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1995
*Received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1971, which he used to live in West Africa, where he studied African music and languages.
*Received a Rome Prize, 2008

References

Further reading

*

External links

*
Olly Wilson
biography at the Music Sales Group
Olly Wilson interview
February 4, 1991

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Olly
1937 births
2018 deaths
20th-century American classical composers
African-American classical composers
African-American male classical composers
University of Iowa alumni
American classical double-bassists
American male double-bassists
American classical pianists
American male classical pianists
Oberlin College faculty
University of California, Berkeley faculty
Musicians from Berkeley, California
Florida A&M University faculty
Washington University in St. Louis alumni
Musicians from St. Louis
Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
Musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area
American contemporary classical composers
American male classical composers
Experimental Music Studios alumni
20th-century American pianists
African-American classical pianists
20th-century American male musicians