Smith, Leland (Clayton)

Smith, Leland (Clayton) , American bassoonist, clarinetist, teacher, computer music publisher, and composer; b. Oakland, Calif., Aug. 6, 1925. He was a student of Milhaud (composition) at Mills Coll. in Oakland, Calif. (1941–43; 1946–47), of Sessions (composition) and Bukofzer (musicology) at the Univ. of Calif, at Berkeley (M.A., 1948), and of Messiaen at the Paris Cons. (1948–49). After teaching at the Univ. of Calif, at Berkeley (1950–51), Mills Coll. (1951–52), and the Univ. of Chicago (1952–58), he joined the faculty of Stanford Univ. in 1958 and was a prof. there from 1968 until his retirement in 1992. He was one of the founders and director of Stanford’s computer music center, and he also served as an advisor to IRCAM in Paris. He pioneered in the development of a computer music publishing system he named SCORE. In 1971 he published what is believed to have been the first score ever printed entirely by a computer without added hand work. Since that time, he has perfected his system to such a high level of excellence that most of the principal music publishers of the world have chosen his SCORE system for their prestige publications. He later worked on projects to use his SCORE system and the Internet for complete music distribution systems. In addition to his lectures on the use of computers in both composing and printing, he publ, the Handbook of Harmonic Analysis (1963). In his compositions, Smith has traversed a modern course in which serial procedures are often utilized with occasional excursions into explorations of computer-generated sounds.

Works

DRAMATIC: Opera: Santa Claus (Chicago, Dec. 9, 1955). ORCH .: Sym. (1951); Concerto for Orch. (1956); Divertimento No. 2 for Chamber Orch. (1957). CHAMBER : Trumpet Sonata (1947); Trio for Flute, Cello, and Piano (1947); Trio for Violin, Trumpet, and Clarinet (1948); Divertimento No. 1 for 5 Instruments (1949); Woodwind Quintet (1951); 2 Duets for Clarinet and Bassoon (1953); Sonata for Heckelphone or Viola and Piano (1953); String Trio (1953); Quintet for Bassoon and Strings (1956); Trio for Oboe, Clarinet, and Bassoon (1960); Quartet for Horn, Violin, Cello, and Piano (1961); Orpheus for Guitar, Harp, and Harpsichord (1967); piano pieces. VOCAL : 2 motets (1948, 1954); 3 Pacifist Songs for Soprano and Piano (1951–58); Advice to Young Ladies for Women’s Voices, Clarinet, Violin, and Cello (1963); Dona nobis pacem for Chorus and Chamber Ensemble (1964); Machines of Loving Grace for Narrator, Bassoon, and Computer (1970).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire