Jean Eichelberger Ivey (July 3, 1923 – May 2, 2010) was an American composer who produced an extensive and diverse catalog of solo,
chamber
Chamber or the chamber may refer to:
In government and organizations
*Chamber of commerce, an organization of business owners to promote commercial interests
*Legislative chamber, in politics
*Debate chamber, the space or room that houses deliber ...
, vocal, and orchestral works as an innovator and "respected
electronic
Electronic may refer to:
*Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor
* ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal
*Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device
*Electronic co ...
composer."
Early Life and Education
Born in 1923 to Joseph S. Eichelberger and Mary Elizabeth Pfeiffer, Jean B. Eichelberger Ivey attended high school at the Academy of Notre Dame in Washington, D.C. Though her childhood was impacted by the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
and her father's loss of his job as editor of the anti-
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
serial
''The Woman Patriot'', Jean Eichelberger won a full-tuition scholarship at
Trinity College Trinity College may refer to:
Australia
* Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales
* Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
in Washington, D.C. where she graduated magna cum laude with her bachelor's degree in 1944. Subsequently, she earned master's degrees in piano performance from
Peabody Conservatory
The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University is a private conservatory and preparatory school in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1857 and opened in 1866 by merchant/financier and philanthropist George Peabody (1795–1869) ...
and composition from the Eastman School of Music. In the late 1940s and 1950s she taught music theory at Trinity College, the Peabody Conservatory, and the Catholic University of America. In 1964 she began a Doctor of Musical Arts program in composition, including studies in electronic music, at the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
and completed the degree in 1972. She served as the editor of the
American Society of University Composers newsletter from its founding in January 1968 until summer 1970.
Peabody
She founded the Peabody Electronic Music Studio in 1967, and taught
composition
Composition or Compositions may refer to:
Arts and literature
*Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography
*Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...
and
electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
at the
Peabody Conservatory of Music
The Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, The Johns Hopkins University is a Private university, private music school, conservatory and College-preparatory school, preparatory school in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1857 and ...
until her retirement. Works composed by Ivey and her students within the studio's first full season were presented at New York's Carnegie Recital Hall, around Peabody, and on radio and television. Most of her electronics works are composed for mixed mediums including acoustic instruments and voice. At the Peabody Conservatory Summer Session, Ivey presented a workshop on electronic music, using her own tape recorders and borrowed equipment, for an audience of school music teachers. She then persuaded the Conservatory to purchase its own equipment and launch the Peabody Electronic Music Studio in 1969, the first such studio at a conservatory. Ivey directed the studio (later renamed the Computer Music Studio) and the computer music composition program at Peabody until her retirement in 1997, earning tenure in 1976 and serving as an adviser to dozens of composers over the years. The
Baltimore Symphony
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Baltimore SO has its principal residence at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, where it performs more than 130 concerts a year. In 2005, it bega ...
premiered two of her works which combine tape with orchestra, and her music has been recorded on the
CRI
CRI or CRi may refer to:
Organizations
* Canadian Rivers Institute, for river sciences, University of New Brunswick
* Cancer Research Institute, New York, US
* Centro de Relaciones Internacionales (International Relations Center), Universidad Nac ...
,
Folkways and Grenadilla labels. Her publishers include
Boosey and Hawkes
Boosey & Hawkes is a British music publisher purported to be the largest specialist classical music publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a major manufacturer of brass, string and woodwind musical instruments.
Formed in 1930 throu ...
, Carl Fischer, Inc. and E.C. Schirmer.
Achievement
Ivey is listed in the
New Grove Dictionary of Music
''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...
and
Who's Who in America
Marquis Who's Who ( or ) is an American publisher of a number of directories containing short biographies. The books usually are entitled ''Who's Who in...'' followed by some subject, such as ''Who's Who in America'', ''Who's Who of American Wome ...
. She is also the subject of a half-hour documentary film prepared in Washington: ''A Woman Is... a Composer''. Her awards include a
Guggenheim fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
, two fellowships 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 ...
, annual
ASCAP
The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...
awards since 1972, the Peabody Director's Recognition Award, and the Peabody Distinguished Alumni Award.
On her compositional ideals, Ivey wrote: "I consider all the musical resources of the past and present as being at the composer's disposal, but always in the service of the effective communication of humanistic ideas and intuitive emotion."
Influence
Composing and conducting are two of the last male bastions, though women are steadily making inroads into these fields. Jean Eichelberger Ivey battled this prejudice not only in the field of music but also in academia where women were less likely to be awarded tenure, foundation grants, performance opportunities, and commercial recordings.
Compositions
Chamber Music
Androcles and the Lion
Dinsmoor Suite
Music for Viola and Piano
Ode for Violin and Piano
Pantomime
Scherzo for Wind Septet
Six Inventions for Two Violins
Sonatina for Unaccompanied Clarinet
Song of Pan
String Quartet
Suite for Cello and Piano
Tonado
Triton’s Horn
Electronic Music (Tape Only):
Continuous Form
Cortege – For Charles Kent
Enter Three Witches
Pinball
Theater Piece
Live Performers Plus Tape:
Aldebaran
Hera, Hung from the Sky
Prospero
Sea-Change
Skaniadaryo
Terminus
Testament of Eve
Three Songs of Night
Music for Theater, Films, and Television:
Androcles and the Lion
Continuous Form
The Exception and the Rule
Montage IV: The Garden of Eden
Montage V: How to Play Pinball
Documentary film on Jean Eichelberger Ivey
Orchestra Music:
Festive Symphony
Forms in Motion
Little Symphony
Ode for Orchestra
Overture for Small Orchestra
Passacaglia for Chamber Orchestra
Sea-Change
Testament of Eve
Tribute: Martin Luther King
Piano Music (Artist Level):
Prelude and Passacaglia
Skaniadaryo (Piano and Tape)
Sonata for Piano
Theme and Variations
Piano Music (Teaching Pieces):
Magic Circles
Modal Melodies (7)
Parade (Duet)
Pentatonic Sketches (5)
Sleepy Time
Tiny Twelve-Tone Tunes (5)
Water Wheel
Vocal and Choral Music:
Absent in the Spring
Ave Verum, see Lord, Hear My Prayer
The Birthmark
A Carol of Animals
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
Hera, Hung from the Sky
Iliad, see Two Songs for High Voice, Flute or Clarinet, and Piano
Lord, Hear My Prayer
Morning Song
Night Voyage, see Two Songs for High Voice, Flute or Clarinet, and Piano
Notes Toward Time
O Come, Bless the Lord
Panis Angelicus, see O Come, Bless the Lord
Prospero
Solstice
Terminus
Testament of Eve
Three Songs of Night
Tribute: Martin Luther King
Two Songs for High Voice, Flute or Clarinet, and Piano
Woman’s Love
Other
She met and married Fred Ivey, an American living in Germany. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1974.
Work
Pinball (Folkways records FMS 3/3436)
Hera, Hung from the Sky combines taped and live performances and inspired by poem by Carolyn Kizer (Composers Recording, Inc. CRI-SD 325, Garden
961
Year 961 ( CMLXI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* March 6 – Siege of Chandax: Byzantine forces under Nikephoros II Phokas cap ...
,
Testament of Eve (1974).
Her many notable composition students include
Michael Hedges
Michael Alden Hedges (December 31, 1953 – December 2, 1997) was an American acoustic guitarist and songwriter.
Early years
The son of Thayne Alden Hedges and Ruth Evelyn Hedges Ipsen, Michael Hedges was born in Sacramento, California. His l ...
,
Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez
Carlos Sánchez-Gutiérrez (born 1964 in Mexico City, Mexico) is a Latin-American composer and teacher. He currently resides near Rochester, New York.
Sanchez-Gutierrez grew up in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Guadalajara and later studied at the Univers ...
,
Geoffrey Dorian Wright,
Richard Dudas,
McGregor Boyle,
Vivian Adelberg Rudow
Vivian Adelberg Rudow (born 1936) is an American composer, performance artist, conducting, conductor and concert producer. She composes in the genres of Acoustic music, acoustic and electroacoustic music with works ranging from solo to full orche ...
,
Lynn F. Kowal and
Daniel Crozier.
Sources
External links
Interview with Jean Eichelberger Ivey February 28, 1987
* https://aspace.library.jhu.edu/repositories/4/resources/1490
* https://aspace.library.jhu.edu/repositories/4/resources/1490
* https://aspace.library.jhu.edu/repositories/4/resources/1490
* http://www.bruceduffie.com/ivey.html
* http://www.thelizlibrary.org/collections/woa/woa01-07.html
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ivey, Jean Eichelberger
1923 births
2010 deaths
American women composers
American composers
American women in electronic music
Musicians from Baltimore
21st-century American women