Robert Cogan (February 2, 1930 – August 19, 2021) was an American

music theorist Music theory is the study of theoretical frameworks for understanding the practices and possibilities of music. '' The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory": The first is the " rudiments", that ...

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 ...

and teacher.

Career

He studied at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

(B.M., 1951; M.M., 1952);

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

(M.F.A., 1956);

Royal Conservatory of Brussels The Royal Conservatory of Brussels (, ) is a historic conservatory in Brussels, Belgium. Starting its activities in 1813, it received its official name in 1832. Providing performing music and drama courses, the institution became renowned par ...

;

Berkshire Music Center The Tanglewood Music Center is an annual summer music academy in Lenox, Massachusetts, United States, in which emerging professional musicians participate in performances, master classes and workshops. The center operates as a part of the Tanglew ...

Tanglewood Tanglewood is a music venue and Music festival, festival in the towns of Lenox, Massachusetts, Lenox and Stockbridge, Massachusetts, Stockbridge in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. It has been the summer home of the Boston Symphony ...

; and the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Theater,

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

. His principal teachers included

Nadia Boulanger Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher, conductor and composer. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organis ...

Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, critic, writer, teacher, pianist, and conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as the "Dean of American Compos ...

Ross Lee Finney Ross Lee Finney (December 23, 1906 – February 4, 1997) was an American composer who taught for many years at the University of Michigan. Life and career Born in Wells, Minnesota, Finney received his early training at Carleton College and the Un ...

Philipp Jarnach Philipp Jarnach (26 July 1892 17 December 1982 in Börnsen) was a German composer of contemporary music ("Neue Musik"), pianist, teacher, and conductor. Jarnach was born in Noisy-le-Sec, France, the son of a Spanish sculptor and a Flemish mothe ...

and

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

. For more than three decades Cogan was Chair of Graduate Theoretical Studies and Professor of Composition at

New England Conservatory The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a Private college, private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. The conservatory is located on Huntington Avenue along Avenue of the Arts (Boston), the Avenue of the Arts near Boston Symphony Ha ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. He also was a visiting professor at the

; at

State University of New York at Purchase The State University of New York at Purchase, commonly referred to as Purchase College or SUNY Purchase, is a public liberal arts college in Purchase, New York. Established in 1967 by Governor Nelson Rockefeller, SUNY Purchase is one of 13 compr ...

; at the

Central Conservatory of Music The Central Conservatory of Music (CCOM; ) is the national music academy of China, located in Beijing. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education. The academy is part of Project 211 and the Double First-Class Construction. Overview Fo ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, and

Shanghai Conservatory The Shanghai Conservatory of Music (SHCMusic) is a municipal public college in Shanghai, China. It is affiliated with the City of Shanghai and is part of the Double First-Class Construction. The college was founded on November 27, 1927. The Sh ...

; and at

IBM Research IBM Research is the research and development division for IBM, an American Multinational corporation, multinational information technology company. IBM Research is headquartered at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York ...

. As speaker and/or composer Cogan was programmed in Belgium, Brazil, Canada (Banff Festival), China, France (

IRCAM IRCAM (French: ''Ircam, '', English: Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music) is a French institute dedicated to the research of music and sound, especially in the fields of Avant-garde music, avant garde and Electroacoustic ...

), Paris; Avignon and Nice Festivals), Germany (

Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music Darmstadt () is a city in the state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the fourth largest city in the state of Hesse aft ...

); North and West German Radios; Zinzig Festival;

Bielefeld University Bielefeld University () is a public university in Bielefeld, Germany. Founded in 1969, it is one of the country's newer universities, and considers itself a "reform" university, following a different style of organization and teaching than the e ...

), Great Britain (Universities of Edinburgh, London, and Southampton), Italy (

Gubbio Gubbio () is an Italian town and ''comune'' in the far northeastern part of the Italian province of Perugia (Umbria). It is located on the lowest slope of Mt. Ingino, a small mountain of the Apennine Mountains, Apennines. History Prehistory The ol ...

and

Prix Italia The Prix Italia is an international television, radio-broadcasting and web award. It was established in 1948 by RAI – Radiotelevisione Italiana (in 1948, RAI had the denomination RAI – Radio Audizioni Italiane) in Capri and is honoured with th ...

festivals; Italian Society for Musical Analysis; Rockefeller Bellagio Study Center), Korea (Seoul Arts Olympics), the Netherlands (

International Computer Music Association The International Computer Music Association (ICMA) is an international affiliation of individuals and institutions involved in the technical, creative, and performance aspects of computer music. It serves composers, engineers, researchers and musi ...

), Russia, Sweden (Swedish Institute for Electronic Music), Switzerland (Montanea Festival), and Yugoslavia (Belgrade Radio-Television). In the United States he appeared under the auspices of the

American Society for Aesthetics American Society for Aesthetics (ASA) is a philosophical organization founded in 1942 to promote the study of aesthetics. The ASA sponsors national and regional conferences, and publishes the '' Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism'', the ' ...

; College Music Society;

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

Morse Morse may refer to: People * Morse (surname) * Morse Goodman (1917-1993), Anglican Bishop of Calgary, Canada * Morse Robb (1902–1992), Canadian inventor and entrepreneur Geography Antarctica * Cape Morse, Wilkes Land * Mount Morse, Churchi ...

, Rockefeller, and Rothschild Foundations; International Association for Semiotics;

League of Composers The League of Composers/International Society for Contemporary Music is a society whose stated mission is "to produce the highest quality performances of new music, to champion American composers in the United States and abroad, and to introduce Ame ...

;

Music Educators National Conference The National Association for Music Education (NAfME) is an organization of American music educators dedicated to advancing and preserving music education as part of the core curriculum of schools in the United States. Founded in 1907 as the Mus ...

;

Music Teachers National Association Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) is an American nonprofit professional organization for the support, growth, and development of music-teaching professionals, with more than 17,000 members in 50 states, and more than 500 affiliated loca ...

; Society of Composers;

Society for Ethnomusicology The Society for Ethnomusicology is, with the International Council for Traditional Music and thBritish Forum for Ethnomusicology one of three major international associations for ethnomusicology. Its mission is "to promote the research, study, an ...

; and

Society for Music Theory The Society for Music Theory (SMT) is an American organization devoted to the promotion, development and engagement of music theory as a scholarly and pedagogical discipline. Founded in 1977 by a group of distinguished theorists, among them Alle ...

; as well as in universities throughout North America. Performers of Cogan's works include the conductors Tamara Brooks, Lorna Cooke deVaron, John Heiss,

Jacques-Louis Monod Jacques-Louis Monod (25 February 1927 – 21 September 2020) was a French composer, pianist and conductor of 20th century and contemporary music, particularly in the advancement of the music of Charles Ives, Edgard Varèse, Arnold Schoenberg, ...

, Fredrick Prausnitz,

Gunther Schuller Gunther Alexander Schuller (November 22, 1925June 21, 2015) was an American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, educator, publisher, and jazz musician. Biography and works Early years Schuller was born in Queens, New York City ...

, and

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 ...

; the

Cleveland Orchestra The Cleveland Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cleveland, Ohio. Founded in 1918 by the pianist and impresario Adella Prentiss Hughes, the orchestra is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the " Big Five". T ...

Norddeutscher Rundfunk (; "North German Broadcasting"), commonly shortened to NDR (), is a public broadcasting, public radio and television broadcaster, based in Hamburg. In addition to the city-state of Hamburg, NDR broadcasts for the German states of Lower Saxony, ...

, and

RIAS Berlin RIAS (; ''Radio in the American Sector'') was a radio and television station in the American Sector of Berlin during the Cold War. It was founded by the US occupational authorities after World War II in 1946 to provide the German population in ...

orchestras; pianists Geoffrey Burleson,

Marilyn Crispell Marilyn Crispell (born March 30, 1947) is an American jazz pianist and composer. Scott Yanow described her as "a powerful player... who has her own way of using space... She is near the top of her field." Jon Pareles of ''The New York Times'' ...

, David Del Tredici, David Hagan, Robert Henry, and Ellen Polansky; instrumentalists Esther Lamneck, Alexei Ludewig, and Stephanie Key; and singers

Jan DeGaetani Jan (Janice) DeGaetani (July 10, 1933 – September 15, 1989) was an American mezzo-soprano known for her performances of contemporary classical vocal compositions. DeGaetani was born in Massillon, Ohio. Educated at The Juilliard School with ...

, Elizabeth Keusch, Joan Heller, Jane Bryden, and Maria Tegzes. His music appears on the Delos, Golden Crest, Leo, Music and Arts, Neuma, and Spectrum recording labels. Cogan resided in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

, with his partner, composer and theorist Pozzi Escot.

Selected compositions

;Orchestral * ''Fantasia for Orchestra'' (1951) * ''Gulf Coast Bound'', a multi-movement work for big band (1987) ;Chamber music * Sonata for viola and piano (1953) * ''Two Compositions for String Trio'' (1960) * ''Spaces and Cries'' for five brass instruments (1963) * ''Soliloquy'' for saxophone and two percussionists (1987) * ''Fierce Singleness'' for solo clarinet (1988) * ''America Is'' for string quartet * ''Events Dancing'', Open-ended Folio for viola and piano (1989) * ''Aflame in Flight'' for solo violin with text by

William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. His '' Spring and All'' (1923) was written in the wake of T. S. Eliot's '' The Waste Land'' (1922). ...

(1999) ;Organ * ''No Attack of Organic Metals'' for organ (1973) ;Piano * ''Sou Nos & Variants'' for solo piano (1961) * ''Contexts/Memories'' for piano (1982) * ''Pemungkah'' for two acoustic and two electric pianos (1983) * ''Costellar Pulsations'' for two pianists (1985) * ''Algebra & Piano'' (1981–2000) ;Vocal * ''Whirl DS IS III: Mysterium Fragment'' for mixed chorus with two solo sopranos, oboe, clarinet, bassoon & cello (1969) * ''Polyutterances'' for two solo voices, one of which may be pre-recorded (1989) * ''Eight Poems of William Bronk'' for voice and piano (1998)

Publications

* Cogan, Robert (1984): ''New Images of Musical Sound'', Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press * Cogan, Robert and Escot, Pozzi: ''Sonic Design: The Nature of Sound and Music'', Prentice Hall * Cogan, Robert and Escot, Pozzi: ''Sonic Design: Practice and Problems'', Publication Contact International (This won the

's "Distinguished Publication Award" in 1987.) He also published in numerous journals including ''College Music Symposium'', ''Interface'', ''

Journal of Music Theory The ''Journal of Music Theory'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal specializing in music theory and analysis. It was established by David Kraehenbuehl (Yale University) in 1957. According to its website, " e ''Journal of Music Theory'' fosters co ...

'', ''

The Musical Quarterly ''The Musical Quarterly'' is the oldest academic journal on music in America. Originally established in 1915 by Oscar Sonneck, the journal was edited by Sonneck until his death in 1928. Sonneck was succeeded by a number of editors, including C ...

'', ''

Perspectives of New Music ''Perspectives of New Music'' (PNM) is a peer-reviewed academic journal specializing in music theory Music theory is the study of theoretical frameworks for understanding the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Musi ...

'', and '' Sonus''.

References

External links

Profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cogan, Robert 1930 births 2021 deaths American male composers 21st-century American composers New England Conservatory faculty University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance alumni Pupils of Roger Sessions 21st-century American male musicians Music & Arts artists Princeton University alumni Musicians from Cambridge, Massachusetts American music theorists

Career

Selected compositions

Publications

References

Further reading

External links