Jencks, Gardner
Jencks, Gardner
Jencks, Gardner, American pianist and composer; b. N.Y., Jan. 7, 1907; d. Cambridge, Mass., Aug. 6, 1989. He studied piano with Heinrich Gebhard in Boston (1923) and with Josef and Rosina Lhévinne in N.Y. (from 1927); later took courses at the Diller-Quaile School (1930–34); concurrently took private lessons in composition with Franklin Robinson, and then with Gustav Strube at the Peabody Cons. of Music in Baltimore (artist’s diploma, 1940). On Feb. 24, 1941, he made his debut in N.Y. as a pianist; while pursuing his career, he also studied composition with Goeb and Cowell at Columbia Univ. (1956). He wrote numerous works for piano. His idiom of composition was derived from the considerations of relative sonorous masses in chordal structures and interactive rhythmic patterns; the general effect may be likened to neo- Classical concepts; tonality and atonality are applied without prejudice in his melodic lines, as are concords and discords in contrapuntal combinations.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire