Whittenberg Charles

Whittenberg, Charles, American composer and teacher; b. St. Louis, July 6, 1927; d. Hartford, Conn., Aug. 22, 1984. He was a student of Phillips and Rogers at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. (B.A., 1948). From 1961 to 1963 he was ed. of the American Composers Alliance Bulletin. In 1962 he became associated with the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center and became a teacher at Bennington (Vt.) Coll. After teaching at the Center of Liberal Studies in Washington, D.C. (1965), he served as an assoc. prof, at the Univ. of Conn, in Storrs (1967-77), where he was director of its Contemporary Music Projects. In 1963 and 1964 he held Guggenheim fellowships, and in 1965-66 the prize of the American Academy in Rome. Whittenberg was especially adept at writing brass music.

Works

ORCH.: Event for Chamber Orch. and Tape (1963; N.Y., April 28, 1964); Correlatives (1969); Serenade for Strings (1971-73). CHAMBER: Dialogue and Aria for Flute and Piano (1956); Fantasy for Wind Quintet (1961); Concert Piece for Bassoon and Piano (1961; rev. 1971); Structures for 2 Pianos (1961); Triptych for Brass Quintet (1962); Chamber Concerto for Violin and 7 Instruments (1963); Cello Sonata (1963); Duo-Divertimento for Flute and Double Bass (1963); 3 Pieces for Clarinet (1963; rev. 1969); Variations for 9 Players (1964; rev. 1970); 2 string quartets (1965; 1974-75); 4 Forms and an Epilogue for Harpsichord (1965); Polyphony for Trumpet (1965); Sextet for Flute, Clarinet, Bassoon, Violin, Cello, and Double Bass (1967); Conversations for Double Bass (1967); 3 Compositions for Piano (1967; rev. 1969); Games of 5 for Wind Quintet (1968); Iambi for 2 Oboes (1968; rev. 1972); Concerto for Brass Quintet (1968-69); Winter Music for Violin (1971); Sonata-fantasia for Cello (1973); 5 Feuilletons for Clarinet (1976); In Memoriam Benjamin Britten for Percussion (1977). VOCAL: 3 Songs on Texts of Rilke for Soprano and 9 Instruments (1957-62); Concertante for Baritone, Viola, Flute, and Vibraphone (1961); From the Sonnets to Orpheus for Narrator and Soprano (1962); Vocalise for Soprano and Viola (1963); A Sacred Triptych for Chorus (1971). TAPE: Study I for Cello and Tape (1961); Electronic Study II for Double Bass and Tape (1961); Study for Clarinet and Electronic Extensions (1961); Event II for Double Bass, Flute, Strings, and Tape (1963).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire