William Jennings Bryan "Ben" Weber (July 23, 1916 in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

– June 16, 1979 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

) was an American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

. Weber He was "one of the first Americans to embrace the 12-tone techniques of Schoenberg, starting in 1938"; he was largely self-taught. He worked initially as a copyist and only came to recognition in the 1950s. Weber used the

twelve-tone technique The twelve-tone technique—also known as dodecaphony, twelve-tone serialism, and (in British usage) twelve-note composition—is a method of musical composition first devised by Austrian composer Josef Matthias Hauer, who published his "law o ...

but, rather than avoid

tonality Tonality is the arrangement of pitches and/or chords of a musical work in a hierarchy of perceived relations, stabilities, attractions and directionality. In this hierarchy, the single pitch or triadic chord with the greatest stability is call ...

, he worked with it and achieved a virtuoso Romantic style: "Weber could not stifle his bent for expansive lyricism and bold gestures," wrote music critic

Anthony Tommasini Anthony Carl Tommasini (born April 14, 1948) is an American music critic and author who specializes in classical music. Described as "a discerning critic, whose taste, knowledge and judgment have made him a must-read", Tommasini was the chief ...

, adding: "One gets the sense that his adaptation of the 12-tone technique was his way of ensuring that his music would keep its cutting edge and not slip into Romanticism. There is a rather Brahmsian spirit trying to emerge here." He composed chamber music for various combinations of instruments, orchestral music including concertos for violin and piano, piano music, and songs. Weber also wrote an unpublished memoir, ''How I Took 63 Years to Commit Suicide (as told to Matthew Paris).''

Awards

Weber was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowships in 1950. He received a Thorne Music Award in 1965,. which was given to composers of “mature years and recognized accomplishments".

Compositions

(in chronological order) *op.1: Three songs for contralto and piano (texts by

Robert Browning Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings ...

and Edward Short) (1936/40) *o. op.: ''To a golden-haired girl'', for voice and piano (text by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay) *o. op. : Autumn *o. op. : Legende for violin and piano *op.2: Five Bagatelles for piano (4/1939) *o. op.: Two pieces for clarinet and piano *op.3: Pastorale and Scherzino for woodwinds *op.4: Fantasie for violin and piano *op.5: Violin sonata No.1 (1939) *op.6: Three songs for soprano and piano (texts by Ben Weber and

Rainer Maria Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), shortened to Rainer Maria Rilke (), was an Austrian poet and novelist. He has been acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, and is widely recogni ...

) (1940) *op.7: Lyric piece for string quartet (1940) *op.8: Suite for piano *op.9: Pastorale for violin and piano *op.10: ''Lied des Idioten'', for soprano and orchestra (text by

) *op.11a: Variations for piano, violin, clarinet and cello (1941) *op.11b: Concertino for violin, clarinet and cello *op.12: String quartet No.1 *op.13: Five pieces for cello and piano *op.14: Divertimento for 2 solo celli *op.15: Five songs for voice and piano (texts by

Adelaide Crapsey Adelaide Crapsey (September 9, 1878 – October 8, 1914) was an American poet. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Rochester, New York. Her parents were the businesswoman Adelaide T. Crapsey and the Episcopal priest Algernon Sidne ...

) (1941) *op.16: Violin sonata No.2 (1940–42, rev. 1943) *op.17: Cello sonata No.1 (1941) *o. op.: Piece (later called: Ballade) for oboe and orchestra (1943) *op.18: Chorale and Variations for cello and piano *o. op.: Ballade for cello and piano *o. op.: Intermezzo for clarinet and piano *op.19: String trio (1944) *op.20: ''Wie kann ich bleich'', for voice and piano (German text by Ben Weber) *op.21: Sinfonia for cello and orchestra (1945) *op.22: Variations for oboe and string quartet (1944) *op.23: Three piano pieces (1946) *op.24: String trio *op.25: Fantasia (Variations) for piano *op.26: Ballet: ''The Pool of Darkness'', for flute, violin, trumpet, bassoon, cello and piano *op.26a: Episodes for piano (Piano version of Ballet ''Pool of Darkness'') (1957) *op.27: Suite for piano No.2 (1948) *op.28: Dance for cello *op.29: ''Concert Aria after Solomon'', for soprano, wind quintet, violin, cello and piano (text from the bible, song of Solomon) *op.30: Sonata da camera for violin and piano *op.31: Dance No.2 for cello *op.32: Concerto for piano solo, cello and woodwind quintet *op.33: Symphony in four movements on Poems of William Blake *op.34: Two pieces for string orchestra (1950) *op.35: String quartet No.2 *op.36: ''Closing piece'', for organ solo *op.37: ''Colloquy'', for brass septet *op.38: Ballade for 2 pianos *op.39: Serenade for harpsichord, flute, oboe and cello (1953) *op.40: Four songs for tenor or soprano and cello (texts by

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...

Euenus Euenus (or Evenus) of Paros, ( el, Εὔηνος ὁ Πάριος), was a 5th-century BC philosopher and poet who was roughly contemporary with Socrates. Euenus is mentioned several times in Plato's ''Phaedo'', '' Phaedrus'', and '' Apology'' of So ...

Hadrian Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania B ...

Bhāsa Bhāsa is one of the earliest and most celebrated Indian playwrights in Sanskrit, predating Kalidasa. His name was already well-known by the 1st century BCE and he belongs to the late-Mauryan (322-184 BCE) period at the earliest, but the thir ...

) *op.41: Concerto for violin and orchestra (1954) (WP: 1973,

Daniel Kobialka Daniel Kobialka (November 19, 1943 – January 18, 2021) was an American violinist, composer, and music entrepreneur. Biography Kobialka studied violin at the Hartt College of Music. Kobialka was the principal second violinist with the San Fran ...

(violin), Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Robert Shaw (conductor)) *op.42: Prelude and Passacaglis for orchestra (1954) *op.43/1: Madrigal No.1 ''Ah, Dear Heart'' for SATB chorus (text by

John Donne John Donne ( ; 22 January 1572 – 31 March 1631) was an English poet, scholar, soldier and secretary born into a recusant family, who later became a clergy, cleric in the Church of England. Under royal patronage, he was made Dean of St Paul's ...

) *op.43/2: Madrigal No.2 ''Sonnet to Orpheus'' for SATB chorus (text by

) *op.44: Serenade for string quintet *op.44a: ''New Adventures'', for piano *op.45: Concertino for flute, oboe, clarinet and string quartet (1956) *op.46: Serenade for strings *op.47: Rapsodie concertante for viola and small orchestra (1957) *op.48: Three songs for soprano and strings (1958) (texts by

Stefan George Stefan Anton George (; 12 July 18684 December 1933) was a German symbolist poet and a translator of Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare, Hesiod, and Charles Baudelaire. He is also known for his role as leader of the highly influential literar ...

Richard Dehmel Richard Fedor Leopold Dehmel (18 November 1863 – 8 February 1920) was a German poet and writer. Life A forester's son, Richard Dehmel was born in Hermsdorf near Wendisch Buchholz (now a part of Münchehofe) in the Brandenburg Province, Ki ...

) *op.49: Humoresque for piano *op.50: String quartet No.3 (1959) *op.51: Chamber fantasie for solo violin and small ensemble (1959) *op.52: Two songs for voice and piano (texts by

John Dowland John Dowland (c. 1563 – buried 20 February 1626) was an English Renaissance composer, lutenist, and singer. He is best known today for his melancholy songs such as "Come, heavy sleep", " Come again", "Flow my tears", " I saw my Lady weepe", ...

and

Ausonius Decimius Magnus Ausonius (; – c. 395) was a Roman poet and teacher of rhetoric from Burdigala in Aquitaine, modern Bordeaux, France. For a time he was tutor to the future emperor Gratian, who afterwards bestowed the consulship on him. H ...

) *op.53: Piano concerto (1961) *op.54: ''The Ways'', for voice and piano (text by

Pauline Hanson Pauline Lee Hanson (''née'' Seccombe, formerly Zagorski; born 27 May 1954) is an Australian politician who is the founder and leader of One Nation, a right-wing populist political party. Hanson has represented Queensland in the Australian ...

) *op.55: Nocturne for flute, celesta and cello (1963) *op.56: Suite for piano four hands *op.57: ''A bird came down the walk'', for mezzo-soprano and piano (1963) (text by

Emily Dickinson Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry. Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massach ...

) *op.58: ''Dolmen'', for winds and strings (1964) *op.59: Four songs (1966) *op.60: ''The enchanted midnight'', for orchestra (1967) *op.61: Dramatic piece for violin and orchestra (1970) *op.62: ''Sinfonia Clarion'', for orchestra (1973) *op.63: Two songs for voice and piano (text by J. Mayhall) *op.64: Intermezzo for piano (1972) *op.65: ''Variazioni quasi una fantasia'' for harpsichord (1974) *op.66: ''Consort of Winds'', for wind quintet (1974) *op.67: Capriccio for cello and piano (1977) *op.68: Ciaconna for piano (1979, incomplete)

References

Links

2012 article by Roger Trefousse

List of compositions published by American Composers Edition (BMI) {{DEFAULTSORT:Weber, Ben 1916 births 1979 deaths American male composers LGBT composers Musicians from St. Louis American LGBT musicians 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century LGBT people