Leroy Burrill Phillips (November 9, 1907 – June 22, 1988) was an American composer, teacher, and pianist.

Biography

Phillips was born in

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...

. He studied at the College of Music at the

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univ ...

with Edwin Stringham and at the

Eastman School of Music The Eastman School of Music is the music school of the University of Rochester, a private research university in Rochester, New York. It was established in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman. It offers Bachelor of Music ...

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in W ...

, with

Howard Hanson Howard Harold Hanson (October 28, 1896 – February 26, 1981)''The New York Times'' – Obituaries. Harold C. Schonberg. February 28, 1981 p. 1011/ref> was an American composer, conductor, educator, music theorist, and champion of American class ...

and

Bernard Rogers Bernard Rogers (4 February 1893 – 24 May 1968) was an American composer. His best known work is ''The Passion'', an oratorio written in 1942. Life and career Rogers was born in New York City. He studied with Arthur Farwell, Ernest Bloc ...

. On September 17, 1928, he married Alberta Corinne Mayfield (1907–1979) who wrote many of his librettos. In 1931 the couple had a daughter who, under the stage name Ann Todd, became a child actress in films. She continued acting into her early twenties, but left the entertainment industry in 1954 and died in 2020. A second child, son Stephen, was born in 1937. He died in 1986, two years before his father. Phillips's first important work was ''Selections from McGuffey's Reader'', for orchestra, based on poems by

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include " Paul Revere's Ride", '' The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely tran ...

and

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (; August 29, 1809 – October 7, 1894) was an American physician, poet, and polymath based in Boston. Grouped among the fireside poets, he was acclaimed by his peers as one of the best writers of the day. His most fa ...

Immediately successful, the work established his reputation as a composer with a "consciously American style". By the 1940s he had turned to a more astringent and expressive idiom. In 1960, his String Quartet No. 2 was premiered at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. by the

Paganini Quartet The Paganini Quartet was an American string quartet founded by cellist Robert Maas and violinist Henri Temianka in 1946. The quartet drew its name from the fact that all four of its instruments, made by Antonio Stradivari (1644–1737), had o ...

, with the composer present, and broadcast on live FM radio. In the early 1960s he turned to free serial techniques, less sharply accented rhythms, and increasing fantasy. Phillips taught composition and theory at

(1933–49), the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

(1949–64), the Juilliard School of Music (1968–69), and

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

(1972–73). His students include Jack Beeson,

William Flanagan William Flanagan may refer to: * William Flanagan (composer) (1923–1969), American composer * William Flanagan (American football) (1901–1975), professional football player * William Flanagan (politician) (1871–1944), British Member of Parli ...

Kenneth Gaburo Kenneth Louis Gaburo (July 5, 1926 – January 26, 1993) was an American composer. Life Gaburo was born in Somerville, New Jersey. He served as a professor of music at the University of Illinois, the University of California, San Diego, and the Un ...

, Ben Johnston,

H. Owen Reed Herbert Owen Reed (June 17, 1910 – January 6, 2014) was an American composer, conductor, and author. Personal life Reed was raised in rural Odessa, Missouri, where his first exposure to music was his father's playing of the old-time fiddle ...

, Daria Semegen, Mary McCarty Snow, Steven Stucky,

David Ward-Steinman David Ward-Steinman (November 6, 1936 – April 14, 2015) was an American composer and professor. He was the author of ''Toward a Comparative Structural Theory of the Arts'', and co-authored ''Comparative Anthology of Musical Forms''. Ward-Stei ...

, and

Charles Whittenberg Charles Whittenberg (July 6, 1927 – August 22, 1984) was an American composer and holder of two Guggenheim Fellowships. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and graduated from the Eastman School of Music in 1948 with a Bachelor of Music in com ...

, as well as

Jerry Amaldev Jerome Thomas Veleeparambil, more popularly known by his stage name Jerry Amaldev (born 15 April 1939) is a three-time Kerala State Film Awards winning Indian composer of film scores who has given music to some of the most important motion pic ...

. He was a Fulbright Lecturer in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

in 1960–61, and received Guggenheim fellowships in 1942–43 and 1961–62.

Death

He died in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...

, in 1988, aged 80, of complications after a heart attack. His scores and sketches are housed in the Burrill Phillips archive, Special Collections,

Sibley Music Library Sibley Music Library is the library of the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY. It was founded in 1904 by Hiram Watson Sibley in honor of his father Hiram Sibley and is said to be the largest university music library in the US. History The li ...

, Rochester, New York.

Selected works

His major works include: *''Selections from McGuffey's Reader'', Suite for orchestra (1933) * String quartets (No. 1, 1939–40; No. 2, 1958) * Piano Concerto (1942) *''Don't We All?'', Opera buffa (1947); text by Alberta Phillips *''Concert Piece'' for bassoon and string orchestra (or piano) (1942) * Four piano sonatas (1942–60) *''Music for This Time of Year'' for wind quartet (1954) *''A Rondo of Rondeaux'' for viola and piano (1954) *''The Return of Odysseus'' for baritone, narrator, chorus and orchestra (1956); text by Alberta Phillips *''Conversations'' for violin and viola (1962) *''Perspectives in a Labyrinth'' for 3 string orchestras (1962) *''Dialogues'' for violin and viola (1963) *''The Unforgiven'', opera in a prologue and 3 acts (1982); libretto by Alberta Phillips *Various choral works, including ''That Time May Cease'' from Marlowe's '' Doctor Faustus'' (1967) *Various works for solo voice and instruments, including ''Eve Learns a Little'' (1974)

References

Sources * * * *

External links

Phillips' ''American Dance for Bassoon and String Orchestra''
performed by the

Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is an American orchestra based in the city of Rochester, New York. Its primary concert venue is the Eastman Theatre at the Eastman School of Music. History George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak Compa ...

and Vincent Pezzi, bassoon, conducted by

(1941)
Interview with Burrill Phillips
October 19, 1986 {{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Burrill 20th-century classical composers 1907 births 1988 deaths American male classical composers American classical composers Musicians from Omaha, Nebraska Eastman School of Music alumni Eastman School of Music faculty University of Illinois faculty Juilliard School faculty Cornell University faculty 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians

Biography

Death

Selected works

References

Further reading

External links