Newman, William S(tein)
Newman, William S(tein)
Newman, William S(tein),distinguished American music scholar; b. Cleveland, April 6, 1912. He studied piano with Riemenschneider and Arthur Loesser and composition with Elwell and Shepherd in Cleveland, receiving his Ph.D. at Western Reserve Univ. in 1939 with the diss. The Present Trend of the Sonata Idea; then pursued postdoctoral studies with Lang and Hertzmann at Columbia Univ. in 1940. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army Air Force Intelligence. From 1945 to 1970 he taught at the Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; became prof. emeritus in 1976. He focused most of his research on the evolution of the instrumental sonata. His chief project was A History of the Sonata Idea (Chapel Hill; Vol. I, The Sonata in the Baroque Era, 1959; 4th ed., rev, 1983; Vol. II, The Sonata in the Classic Era, 1963; 3rd ed., rev, 1983; Vol. Ill, The Sonata since Beethoven, 1969; 3rd ed., rev, 1983). He also publ. The Pianist’s Problems (N.Y., 1950; 4th ed., 1984), Understanding Music (N.Y., 1953; 3rd ed., rev, 1967), Performance Practices in Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas (N.Y., 1971), and Beethoven on Beethoven: Playing His Piano Music His Way (N.Y. and London, 1989). He contributed articles to various reference works and music journals.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire