Lejaren Arthur Hiller Jr. (February 23, 1924,
New York City – January 26, 1994,
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Southe ...
)
[Lejaren Hiller (1924-1994)](_blank)
© 1994 by Peter Gena.[Kozinn, Allan (February 1, 199]
NYTimes.com; accessed July 1, 2017. was an
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
composer.
Career
In 1957 he collaborated with
Leonard Issacson
Leonard Maxwell Isaacson (born 1925) is an American chemist and composer.
Isaacson collaborated with Lejaren Hiller on the computer-programmed acoustic composition, ''Illiac Suite
''Illiac Suite'' (later retitled String Quartet No. 4)Andrew St ...
on his String Quartet No. 4, ''
Illiac Suite
''Illiac Suite'' (later retitled String Quartet No. 4)Andrew Stiller, "Hiller, Lejaren (Arthur)", ''Grove Music Online'' (reviewed December 3, 2010; accessed December 14, 2014). is a 1957 composition for string quartet which is generally agreed t ...
'',
the first significant use of a
computer to compose music. In 1958 Hiller founded the
Experimental Music Studios The Experimental Music Studios (EMS) is an organization or center for electroacoustic and computer music, focusing on synthesis and concert performance of art music, at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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 Universi ...
. His notable pupils included composers
James Fulkerson,
Larry Lake,
Ilza Nogueira,
David Rosenboom,
Margaret Scoville,
Bernadette Speach and
James Tenney
James Tenney (August 10, 1934 – August 24, 2006) was an American composer and music theorist. He made significant early musical contributions to plunderphonics, sound synthesis, algorithmic composition, process music, spectral music, microtonal ...
.
He was originally trained as a chemist, and worked as a research chemist for
DuPont in
Waynesboro, Virginia (1947–52). He developed the first reliable process for dyeing
Orlon and coauthored a popular textbook.
[Bohn, James](_blank)
(undated)
Lejaren Hiller"
illinois.edu; accessed February 26, 2017.
He played
piano,
oboe
The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range.
...
,
clarinet, and
saxophone
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to ...
as a child. He also studied composition with
Roger Sessions and
Milton Babbitt while earning his chemistry degree at
Princeton University.
His father,
Lejaren Hiller, Sr., was a well-known art photographer who specialized in historical tableaux.
He wrote an article on the ''Illiac Suite'' for ''
Scientific American'' which garnered a lot of attention from the press, generating a storm of controversy.
The musical establishment was so hostile to this interloper scientist that both ''
Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians
''Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians'' is a major reference work in the field of music, originally compiled by Theodore Baker, PhD, and published in 1900 by G. Schirmer, Inc. The ninth edition, the most recent edition, was published in 2 ...
'' and the ''
New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' refused to include him until shortly before his death.
A majority of Hiller's works after 1957 do not involve computers at all, but might include
stochastic music,
indeterminacy,
serialism, Brahmsian traditionalism,
jazz,
performance art,
folksong and
counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...
mixed together. He also collaborated with
John Cage for ''
HPSCHD
''HPSCHD'' (pronounced as initials: eɪtʃ-piː-ɛs-siː-eɪtʃ-di:, although Cage himself said the title is "Harpsichord") is a composition for harpsichord and computer-generated sounds by American avant-garde composers John Cage (1912–1992) an ...
''.
He created the
MUSICOMP ("MUsic SImulator-Interpreter for COMpositional Procedures")
programming language for music composition with Robert Baker in order to create their ''Computer Cantata'' (1963).
In 1968, he joined the faculty at
University at Buffalo
The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...
as Slee Professor of Composition, where he established the school's first computer music facility and co-directed with
Lukas Foss at the Center of the Creative and Performing Arts. Illness forced him to retire in 1989.
Death
He died from
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As ...
in 1994 in Buffalo.
Bibliography
Hiller wrote three books:
*Hiller, Lejaren A., and
Leonard M. Issacson. (1959/1979). ''Experimental Music: Composition With an Electronic Computer''. McGraw-Hill, New York. .
*Hiller, Lejaren and Herber, Rolfe H. (1960). ''Principles of Chemistry''.
*Hiller, Lejaren (1964). ''Informationstheorie und Computermusik''.
References
Further reading
*Bohn, James M. (2004). ''The Music of American Composer Lejaren Hiller and an Examination of His Early Works Involving Technology'' (Studies in the History and Interpretation of Music). Edwin Mellen. .
External links
Lejaren Hiller's page at Theodore Presser CompanyLejaren A. Hiller Archive at the University of Buffalo LibrariesA biography about Lejaren A. Hiller
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hiller, Lejaren
1924 births
1994 deaths
20th-century classical composers
American male classical composers
American classical composers
Musicians from Buffalo, New York
University at Buffalo alumni
Princeton University alumni
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty
20th-century American chemists
Deaths from dementia in New York (state)
Deaths from Alzheimer's disease
Musicians from New York City
Pupils of Roger Sessions
Experimental Music Studios alumni
20th-century American composers
Scientists from New York (state)
Classical musicians from New York (state)
20th-century American male musicians