Richard G. Swift (September 24, 1927 – November 8, 2003) 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 ...

and

music theorist Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the "rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (ke ...

Life

Born in

Middle Point, Ohio Middle Point is a village in Van Wert County, Ohio, United States. The population was 576 at the 2010 census. It is included within the Van Wert, Ohio Micropolitan Statistical Area. History Middle Point was laid out in 1851. The town's original ...

, Swift studied with

Leland Smith Leland Clayton Smith (August 6, 1925 – December 17, 2013) was an American musician, teacher and computer scientist. He taught at Stanford University for 34 years, and developed the music engraving tool SCORE. Career Smith was born in Oaklan ...

, Grosvenor Cooper, and

Leonard B. Meyer Leonard B. Meyer (January 12, 1918 – December 30, 2007) was a composer, author, and philosopher. He contributed major works in the fields of aesthetic theory in music, and of compositional analysis. Career Meyer studied at Columbia Un ...

at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, where he received an MA in 1956. His career was spent teaching at the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

, from 1956 until his retirement in 1991. He was the recipient of many awards, amongst others 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 ...

(1977), and the

American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqua ...

(1978). He died in

Davis, California Davis is the most populous city in Yolo County, California. Located in the Sacramento Valley region of Northern California, the city had a population of 66,850 in 2020, not including the on-campus population of the University of California, Da ...

, in 2003. In addition to his activity as a composer, he also published many articles on twentieth-century music and music theory. His wife, Dorothy Zackrisson Swift (1928–1990), was an accomplished musician and poet who wrote the

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

for Swift's opera, ''The Trial of Tender O'Shea'' (1964). Richard Swift also set two of her poems in the song cycle ''Roses Only'', conceived as a memorial for her. Her collected poetry was published posthumously.

Compositions (selective list)

* String Trio No. 1, Op. 6 (1954–55) * String Quartet No. 1 (1955) * ''Stravaganza I'', for instrumental ensemble (1956) * ''Serenade Concertante'', for piano and wind quintet (1956) * Trio, for clarinet, cello, and piano, Op. 14 (1957) * String Quartet No. 2 (1958) * ''Stravaganza II'', for piano (1958) * ''The Pleasures of Merely Circulating'' for band (1959) * ''Stravaganza III'', for clarinet, violin, and piano, Op. 22 (1960) * Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 26 (1961) * ''Domaines I'', for baritone, flute, clarinet, trombone, vibraphone, and cello (texts:

Robert Lowell Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV (; March 1, 1917 – September 12, 1977) was an American poet. He was born into a Boston Brahmin family that could trace its origins back to the ''Mayflower''. His family, past and present, were important subjects i ...

), Op. 29 (1963) * ''Domains III'', for four groups of instruments, Op. 31 (1963) * String Quartet No. 3 (1964) * ''The Trial of Tender O'Shea'', opera in 1 scene (1964) * ''Music for a While I'', for violin, viola, and harpsichord (1965) * ''Planctus'', for chorus (soprano, alto, bass), flute, bassoon, viola, and cello (1966) * Violin Concerto (1968) * ''Stravaganza VII'', for solo viola (1968) * ''Music for a While II'', for clarinet, viola, and harpsichord (1969) * Symphony (1970) * ''Thanatopsis'', for mezzo-soprano, small four-part chorus and seventeen instruments (text:

Titus Lucretius Carus Titus Lucretius Carus ( , ; – ) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem '' De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, and which usually is translated int ...

) (1971) * String Quartet No. 4 (1973) * ''Prime'', for alto saxophone and chamber ensemble (flute, oboe, trombone, viola, cello, contrabass and harp) (1973) * ''Music for a While III'', for two instruments (1975) * ''Mein blaues Klavier'', for piano (1978) * String Trio No. 2 (1979–80) * Piano Concerto No. 2 (1980) * String Quartet No. 5 (1982) * ''Elective Affinities'' for cello and piano (1983) * ''The Garden'' for voice, chamber group (1984) * ''Things of August'' for piano (1985) * ''Stravaganza X (for

Ernst Krenek Ernst Heinrich Krenek (, 23 August 1900 – 22 December 1991) was an Austrian, later American, composer of Czech origin. He explored atonality and other modern styles and wrote a number of books, including ''Music Here and Now'' (1939), a study ...

's 85th birthday)'' for piano (1985) * ''Serenade Concertante II'' for clarinet, violin, cello and piano (1985) * ''Domains''for piano (1986) * ''Some Versions of Paraphrase'' for violin, clarinet, and piano (1987) * ''In the Country of Blue (Piano Trio II)'' (1988) * ''Voyages II '' for small chorus (1989) * ''Credences of Summer'' for violin, piano (1989) * ''Things of August'', for piano (1986) * ''Stitch in Time'' for guitar, piano (1989) * ''A Field of Light'' for eight instruments (1990) * ''Roses Only'' for soprano and small orchestra (1991) * ''Music for a While IV'' for string quartet (1991) * ''Radix Matrix''for piano (1992) * ''Asphodel, That Greeny Flower'' solo flute (1992) (see " Asphodel, That Greeny Flower" by

William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both pedia ...

) * ''String Quartet No. 6'' (1992) * ''Stravaganza XI'', for instrumental ensemble (1995) * ''Getting Back In'' for guitar, piano (1997) * ''Stravaganza XII'' for piano (1998) * ''Stravaganza XIII'' for piano (1999) * ''Stravaganza XIV'' for piano (2001) * ''Stanzas'' for 2 pianos (2001) * ''Elegies'' for pianos (2002)

Writings (selective list)

* 1964. "The ''Demonstrations'' of J. K. Randall". ''

Perspectives of New Music ''Perspectives of New Music'' (PNM) is a peer-reviewed academic journal specializing in music theory and analysis. It was established in 1962 by Arthur Berger and Benjamin Boretz (who were its initial editors-in-chief). ''Perspectives'' was first ...

'' 2, no. 2 (Spring): 77–86. * 1976. "Some Aspects of Aggregate Composition". ''Perspectives of New Music'' 14, no. 2 / 15, no. 1 ("Sounds and Words. A Critical Celebration of

Milton Babbitt Milton Byron Babbitt (May 10, 1916 – January 29, 2011) was an American composer, music theorist, mathematician, and teacher. He is particularly noted for his Serialism, serial and electronic music. Biography Babbitt was born in Philadelphia t ...

at 60") (Spring-Summer/Fall-Winter): 236–248. * 1977. "1/XII/99: Tonal Relations in Schoenberg's ''

Verklärte Nacht ''Verklärte Nacht'' (''Transfigured Night''), Op. 4, is a string sextet in one movement composed by Arnold Schoenberg in 1899. Composed in just three weeks, it is considered his earliest important work. It was inspired by Richard Dehmel's poe ...

''". ''

19th-Century Music ''19th-Century Music'' is a triennial academic journal that "covers all aspects of Western art music composed in, leading to, or pointing beyond the "long century" extending roughly from the 1780s to the 1930s." The Journal is "interested equally ...

'' 1, no. 1 (July): 3–14. * 1978–79. " Mahler's Ninth and Cooke's Tenth", ''19th-Century Music'' 2:165–172. * 1982–83. "A Tonal Analog: The Tone-Centered Music of

George Perle George Perle (6 May 1915 – 23 January 2009) was an American composer and music theorist. As a composer, his music was largely atonal, using methods similar to the twelve-tone technique of the Second Viennese School. This serialist style, an ...

", ''Perspectives of New Music'' 21, nos. 1–2: 257–284. * 1995. " Schoenberg's Second Chamber Symphony, Op. 38". '' International Journal of Musicology'' 4:169–181.

References

Sources * * *

External links

Richard G. Swift compositions
The Swift Fund for the Arts
Richard Swift papers
Department of Special Collections, Library,

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swift, Richard 1927 births 2003 deaths People from Van Wert County, Ohio University of Chicago alumni University of California, Davis faculty American male classical composers American classical composers American opera composers Twelve-tone and serial composers 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians