Peter Talbot Westergaard (28 May 1931 – 26 June 2019) was an American composer and music theorist. He was

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

music Music is generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact definition of music, definitions of mu ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the n ...

Biography

Westergaard was born on 28 May 1931 in

Champaign, Illinois Champaign ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 88,302 at the 2020 census. It is the tenth-most populous municipality in Illinois and the fourth most populous city in Illinois outside the Chicago metrop ...

. He pursued undergraduate studies at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, graduating in 1953, and in 1956 obtained an M.F.A. degree from Princeton University. He studied with

Roger Sessions Roger Huntington Sessions (December 28, 1896March 16, 1985) was an American composer, teacher and musicologist. He had initially started his career writing in a neoclassical style, but gradually moved further towards more complex harmonies and ...

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 ...

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 compositions ...

, Edward Cone,

Milton Babbitt Milton Byron Babbitt (May 10, 1916 – January 29, 2011) was an American composer, music theorist, mathematician, and teacher. He is particularly noted for his serial and electronic music. Biography Babbitt was born in Philadelphia to Albert E ...

and Wolfgang Fortner in Freiburg/Germany. He taught at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

, Amherst College, and Princeton University before retiring in 2001. He continued to be active as a composer, mainly of

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libre ...

and

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small num ...

. He died in June 2019 at the age of 88.

Composer and theorist

Amongst former pupils of Babbitt, Westergaard stands out for his contributions to serial theory, as well as for his compositions, which are characterized by a delight in symmetry and mirror relationships, together with a concern for the systematic and integrated use of all the parameters of music, producing multileveled, clear, beautiful, and audible patterns .

Music

Operas

*''Charivari'' (1953) *''Mr. and Mrs. Discobbolos'' (1966) *''The Tempest'' (1994) *''Chicken-Little'' (1997) *''Moby Dick: Scenes from an Imaginary Opera'' (2004) *''Alice in Wonderland'' (2006) Film version of ''Alice in Wonderland'' published by Albany records.

Vocal music

* Cantata I: "The Plot Against the Giant" (text: W. Stevens), for female voices, clarinet, harp, and cello (1956) * Cantata II: "A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London" (text:

Dylan Thomas Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems " Do not go gentle into that good night" and " And death shall have no dominion", as well as the "play for voices" ''Unde ...

), for bass and ten instruments (1958) * Cantata III: "Leda and the Swan" (text:

William Butler Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

), for mezzo-soprano, clarinet, viola, vibraphone, and marimba (1961) * Cantata IV: "Spring and Fall: To a Young Child" (text:

Gerard Manley Hopkins Gerard Manley Hopkins (28 July 1844 – 8 June 1889) was an English poet and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous fame placed him among leading Victorian poets. His prosody – notably his concept of sprung rhythm – established him as an innova ...

), for soprano and five instruments (1964) * ''There Was a Little Man'' for soprano and violin (1979) * ''Ariel Music'' (text:

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

, from ''The Tempest''), for soprano and ten instruments (1987) * ''Ode'' (text:

Ben Jonson Benjamin "Ben" Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August 1637) was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for ...

), for soprano, flute, clarinet, harp, violin, and viola (1989) * ''anyone lived in a pretty how town'' (text: E. E. Cummings), for SATB choir (1997) * Cantata V: "'Byzantium' and 'Sailing to Byzantium'" (text: William Butler Yeats), for baritone and percussion quartet (1997) * ''There Was a Lady Loved a Sow'' (text: traditional) (1997) * Cantata VI: "To the Dark Lady" (text: William Shakespeare), for soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, and percussion duo (1999)

Instrumental music

* String Quartet, 1957; * Five Movements, for small orchestra (1958) * Quartet, for clarinet, vibraphone, violin, and cello (1960) * Trio, for flute, cello, and piano (1962) * Variations for Six Players, for flute, clarinet, piano, percussion, violin, and cello (1963) * ''Divertimento on Discobbolic Fragments'', for flute and piano (1967) * ''Noises, Sounds, and Sweet Airs'', for ensemble (1968) * ''Tuckets and Sennets'' , for band (1969) * ''Moto perpetuo'', for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, and horn (1976) * ''Two Fanfares'', for brass (1988) * ''Ringing Changes'', for orchestra (1996) * ''All Fours'', for percussion quartet (1997)

Writings

References

Sources

* * *

External links

*
New York Times review of ''Alice in Wonderland''Article on ''The Tempest'' from Princeton Weekly Bulletin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Westergaard, Peter 1931 births 2019 deaths Harvard University alumni Princeton University alumni 20th-century classical composers 21st-century classical composers Twelve-tone and serial composers American male classical composers American classical composers American opera composers Male opera composers Pupils of Darius Milhaud Pupils of Roger Sessions 21st-century American composers 20th-century American composers People from Champaign, Illinois