George Perle

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Perle in 1991

George Perle (May 6, 1915 – January 23, 2009) was a composer and music theorist.

Contents

Biography [edit]

Perle was born in Bayonne, New Jersey. He graduated from DePaul University, where he studied with Wesley LaViolette and received private lessons from Ernst Krenek.[1]

Perle composed with a technique of his own devising called "twelve-tone tonality". This technique was different from, but related to, the twelve-tone technique of the Second Viennese School,[2] of which he was an "early admirer" and whose techniques he used aspects of but never fully adopted.[3] Perle's former student Paul Lansky described Perle's twelve-tone tonality thus:

Basically this creates a hierarchy among the notes of the chromatic scale so that they are all referentially related to one or two pitches which then function as a tonic note or chord in tonality. The system similarly creates a hierarchy among intervals and finally, among larger collections of notes, 'chords.' The main debt of this system to the 12-tone system lies in its use of an ordered linear succession in the same way that a 12-tone set does".[4]

In 1968, Perle cofounded the Alban Berg Society with Igor Stravinsky and Hans F. Redlich, who had the idea (according to Perle in his letter to Glen Flax of 4/1/89[citation needed]). Perle's important work on Berg includes documenting that the third act of Lulu, rather than being an unfinished sketch, was actually three-fifths complete and that the Lyric Suite contains a secret program dedicated to Berg's love-affair.[3]

After retiring from Queens College in 1985, he became a professor emeritus at the Aaron Copland School of Music.[3] In 1986, Perle was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Music for his Fourth Wind Quintet and also a MacArthur Fellowship.[3]

He died aged 93 in his home in New York City in January 2009.[3]

Works [edit]

Swift differentiates between Perle's 'free' or 'intuitive', tone-centered, and twelve-tone modal music.[5] He lists Perle's tone-centered compositions:

  • Sonata for Solo Viola (1942)
  • Three Sonatas for Solo Clarinet (1943)
  • Hebrew Melodies for Solo Cello (1945)
  • Sonata for Solo Cello (1947)
  • Quintet for Strings (1958)
  • Sonata I for Solo Violin (1959)
  • Wind Quintet I (1959)
  • Wind Quintet II (1960)
  • Monody I for Flute (1962)
  • Monody II for Double Bass (1962)
  • Three Inventions for Bassoon (1962)
  • Sonata II for Solo Piano (1963)
  • Solo Partita for Violin and Viola (1965)
  • Wind Quintet III (1967)

Partial bibliography [edit]

  • Perle, George (1992). "Symmetry, the Twelve-Tone Scale, and Tonality", Contemporary Music Review 6 (2), pp. 81–96.
  • Perle, George (1962, reprint 1991). Serial Composition and Atonality: An Introduction to the Music of Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern. University of California Press.
  • Perle, George (1978, reprint 1992). Twelve-Tone Tonality. University of California Press.
  • Perle, George (1990). The Listening Composer. California: University of California Press.
  • Perle, George (1984). "Scriabin's Self-Analysis", Musical Analysis III/2 (July).
  • Perle, George (1980). The Operas of Alban Berg. Vol. 1: Wozzeck. California: University of California Press.
  • Perle, George (1985). The Operas of Alban Berg. Vol. 2: Lulu. California: University of California Press.

See also [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ Perle, George (2007). "Biography". George Perle. Retrieved 11 May 2012. 
  2. ^ Perle (1992).[page needed]
  3. ^ a b c d e Kozinn, Allan (January 24, 2009). "George Perle, a Composer and Theorist, Dies at 93", New York Times.
  4. ^ Chase, Gilbert (1992). America's Music: From the Pilgrims to the Present, p. 587. University of Illinois Press, ISBN 0-252-06275-2.
  5. ^ Swift, Richard. "A Tonal Analog: The Tone-Centered Music of George Perle", p.258-259 & 283. Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 21, No. 1/2, (Autumn, 1982 - Summer, 1983), pp. 257-284.

External links [edit]