Don Freund (born 1947,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...
) is an American composer, pianist, and Professor of Composition at the
Indiana University
Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana.
Campuses
Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI.
*Indiana Universi ...
Jacobs School of Music
The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana, is a music conservatory established in 1921. Until 2005, it was known as the Indiana University School of Music. It has more than 1,500 students, approximately half of whom ar ...
. His over 100 performed works, include solo, chamber, and orchestral music, live performance with electronic instruments, large theatre works.
He has received several awards for his work, including a
Guggenheim Fellowship and grants from the
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...
.
Education
Don Freund earned his bachelor's at Duquesne University in 1969.
Both his master's degree and doctorate were earned 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 ...
in 1970 and 1972, respectively.
Professorship
Don Freund began his professorship in 1972 as chair of
Memphis State University
}
The University of Memphis (UofM) is a public university, public research university in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1912, the university has an enrollment of more than 22,000 students.
The university maintains the Herff College of Engineering ...
's composition department.
In 1992, Freund moved to working at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he remains.
The Spectrum of Fifths
Freund developed the theory of the spectrum of fifths as a way to explain why different musical
modes
Mode ( la, modus meaning "manner, tune, measure, due measure, rhythm, melody") may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* '' MO''D''E (magazine)'', a defunct U.S. women's fashion magazine
* ''Mode'' magazine, a fictional fashion magazine which is ...
have different emotional connotations. The spectrum comes from the
circle of fifths
In music theory, the circle of fifths is a way of organizing the 12 chromatic pitches as a sequence of perfect fifths. (This is strictly true in the standard 12-tone equal temperament system — using a different system requires one interval of ...
, commonly used as a tool to teach a multitude of subjects to young music students, form harmony to scales.
Any particular note, if heard with another directly to its right on the spectrum, can be considered a parent note. The note to the right is the child note. All parent notes are relatively flatter, or darker, than their relatively sharper, brighter, child notes.
Recordings
*''New Music From Indiana University Vol 4 - Don Freund'' ''Madame Bovary Suite'', ''Soft Cells'', ''Concerto for Viola'', ''Dissolving Music'':Indiana University Concert Orchestra, Indiana University New Music Ensemble, Indiana University Chamber Orchestra conducted by Don Freund, David Dzubay, and Paul Biss. Indiana University 10.
Sources
* Jens Staubrand: Kierkegaard International Bibliography Music Works and Plays, Copenhagen 2009. In English and Danish. . Including Don Freund's ''FEAR AND TREMBLING BLUES'', 1983
Don Freund Composition Department, Jacobs School of Music
Interview with Don Freund by George Walker (September 18, 2009), accessed 28 January 2010
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Freund, Don
American male classical composers
American classical composers
20th-century classical composers
21st-century classical composers
1947 births
Musicians from Pittsburgh
Living people
Indiana University faculty
Pupils of Darius Milhaud
21st-century American composers
20th-century American composers