Verrall, John (Weedon)

Verrall, John (Weedon), American composer and teacher; b. Britt, Iowa, June 17, 1908. He studied piano and composition with Donald Ferguson, then attended classes at the Royal Coll. of Music in London with R. O. Morris, and took lessons with Kodály in Budapest. Returning to the U.S., he studied at the Minneapolis Coll. of Music and Hamline Univ. (B.A., 1932); received further training at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood, with Roy Harris, and with Frederick Jacobi; and held a Guggenheim fellowship (1947). He held teaching positions at Hamline Univ. (1934-42), at Mount Holyoke Coll. (1942-46), and at the Univ. of Wash, in Seattle (1948-73).

Works

dramatic: Opera: The Cowherd and the Sky Maiden,after a Chinese legend (1951; Seattle, Jan. 17,1952); The Wedding Knell,after Hawthorne (Seattle, Dec. 5, 1952); 3 Blind Mice (Seattle, May 22, 1955). ORCH.: 3 syms: No. 1 (1939; Minneapolis, Jan. 16, 1940), No. 2 (1948), and No. 3 (1968); Violin Concerto (1946); Symphony for Young Orchestras (1948); The Dark Night of St. Johnfor Chamber Orch. (1949); Sinfonia festivafor Band (1954); Piano Concerto (1960); Viola Concerto (1968); Radiant Bridge (1976); Rhapsodyfor Horn and Strings (1979). CHAMBER: 2 viola sonatas (1939, 1963); 7 string quartets (1941, 1942, 1948, 1949, 1952, 1956, 1961); 2 serenades for Wind Quintet (1944, 1950); Piano Quintet (1953); Nocturnefor Bass Clarinet and Piano (1956); Septet for Winds (1966); Nonet for Wind Quintet and String Quartet (1966); Flute Sonata (1972); Eusebius Rememberedfor Horn and Piano (1976); Invocation to Eosfor Horn and Piano (1983); Sonata for 2 Pianos (1984). VOCAL: Choruses; songs.

Writings

Elements of Harmony (n.p., 1937); with S. Moseley, Form and Meaning in the Arts (N.Y., 1958); Fugue and Invention in Theory and Practice (Palo Alto, Calif., 1966); Basic Theory of Scales, Modes and Intervals (Palo Alto, Calif., 1969).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire