Tui St. George Tucker (born Lorraine St. George Tucker; November 25, 1924 – April 21, 2004) was an American modernist

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 ...

, conductor,

recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...

virtuoso and creator of unique musical instruments. Her compositions often feature

microtonality Microtonal music or microtonality is the use in music of microtones—intervals smaller than a semitone, also called "microintervals". It may also be extended to include any music using intervals not found in the customary Western tuning of tw ...

and are strongly influenced by

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

, the music of Medieval Europe, and more. She would develop special recorders with extra holes, in addition to unique fingerings for modern recorders to allow for the playing of

quarter tone A quarter tone is a pitch halfway between the usual notes of a chromatic scale or an interval about half as wide (aurally, or logarithmically) as a semitone, which itself is half a whole tone. Quarter tones divide the octave by 50 cents each, a ...

s, typically in 24-tone equal temperament. Her avant-garde disposition and unique compositional language made her a staple in the 1940s New York scene, being encouraged by musicians such as

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...

and

Larry Polansky Larry Polansky (born 1954) is a composer, guitarist, mandolinist, and professor emeritus at Dartmouth College and the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is a founding member and co-director of Frog Peak Music (a composers' collective) He c ...

. After relocating to

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

in 1947, however, she fell into obscurity – but continued to write a large number of works for various ensembles. The exact size of her ''oeuvre'' is debated, but is believed to comprise around a hundred works, a few being unfinished.

Early life

Childhood

Tucker was born in

Fullerton, California Fullerton ( ) is a city located in northern Orange County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 143,617. Fullerton was founded in 1887. It secured the land on behalf of the Atchison, Topeka and Sa ...

, the daughter of an English father and a mother from

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. Her family often referred to her as "Tui"; named for the eponymous bird native to

, where her mother was born. She attended

Eagle Rock High School Eagle Rock High School (ERHS) is a public school located in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of northeast Los Angeles, California. History The school opened its doors on September 12, 1927. It was in the Los Angeles City High School District until ...

in northeast

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, graduating in 1941. She then attended

Occidental College Occidental College (informally Oxy) is a private liberal arts college in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887 as a coeducational college by clergy and members of the Presbyterian Church, it became non-sectarian in 1910. It is one of the oldes ...

in Los Angeles from 1941 to 1944.

Career

Tucker relocated to central

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1946, working as a composer, conductor, and recorder player, and spending most of her professional life in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

. She had become a member of a circle of avant-garde composers living in the city, including

Lou Harrison Lou Silver Harrison (May 14, 1917 – February 2, 2003) was an American composer, music critic, music theorist, painter, and creator of unique musical instruments. Harrison initially wrote in a dissonant, ultramodernist style similar to his form ...

Virgil Thomson Virgil Thomson (November 25, 1896 – September 30, 1989) was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music. He has been described as a modernist, a neoromantic, a neoclassic ...

, and others. Her ''Indian Summer: Three Microtonal Antiphons on Psalm Texts'' written during this era, for two

baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...

s and

chamber ensemble Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numbe ...

, was among the first of her pieces to explore the use of

s. Tucker met the German-American poet and scholar Vera Lachmann (1904-1985) in 1946, who she would maintain a lifelong relationship with. From 1947 onward, she spent her summers at

Camp Catawba Camp Catawba was a summer camp for boys near the town of Blowing Rock in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. It was established in 1944 by Vera Lachmann (1904–1985), a poet, classicist and educator who emigrated from Germany in 1939. In ...

, located near the

Blue Ridge Parkway The Blue Ridge Parkway is a National Parkway and All-American Road in the United States, noted for its scenic beauty. The parkway, which is America's longest linear park, runs for through 29 Virginia and North Carolina counties, linking Shenand ...

on the Boone side of

Blowing Rock Blowing Rock may refer to: * The town of Blowing Rock, North Carolina ** The rocky outcropping Blowing Rock (land feature), near the town of the same name * Blowing Rock, Virginia, an unincorporated community * Caribbean island belonging to Anguil ...

. Lachmann founded the camp two years prior, and Tucker would serve as the camp's music director at Lachmann's behest. Under her guidance, the young campers would perform music ranging from medieval

plainsong Plainsong or plainchant (calque from the French ''plain-chant''; la, cantus planus) is a body of chants used in the liturgy, liturgies of the Western Church. When referring to the term plainsong, it is those sacred pieces that are composed in La ...

and

organum ''Organum'' () is, in general, a plainchant melody with at least one added voice to enhance the harmony, developed in the Middle Ages. Depending on the mode and form of the chant, a supporting bass line (or '' bourdon'') may be sung on the same ...

to works by contemporary American composers. Pianist

Grete Sultan Grete Sultan (born Johanna Margarete Sultan) (June 21, 1906June 26, 2005) was a German-American pianist. Born in Berlin into a musical Jewish family, she studied piano from an early age with American pianist Richard Buhlig, and later with Leonid ...

also worked there during several summers. Many of her best known compositions date from this era include the ''Peyote Sonata'' (1956), which experiments with

polyrhythm Polyrhythm is the simultaneous use of two or more rhythms that are not readily perceived as deriving from one another, or as simple manifestations of the same meter. The rhythmic layers may be the basis of an entire piece of music (cross-rhyth ...

s and experimental subdivisions, including a phrase in 15:16; a chamber piece dedicated to Polish composer

Krzysztof Penderecki Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki (; 23 November 1933 – 29 March 2020) was a Polish composer and conductor. His best known works include ''Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima'', Symphony No. 3, his '' St Luke Passion'', ''Polish Requiem'', ''A ...

, and the

cantata A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir. The meaning of ...

''Drum Taps'' (1973) in eight movements, set to a

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 ...

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among t ...

Personal life

In 1985, Tui inherited the camp grounds of Catawba from Lachmann after she died the same year. In accordance with Lachmann's

will Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and will ...

, Tucker sold the grounds to the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, while retaining a life estate and maintaining a residence on the grounds from 1985 until her death in 2004, continuing to conduct and compose for local instrumental ensembles.Elliston, John (2021)
"Renaissance Summers: At Camp Catawba, Boys Found an Artistic Escape From a World in Turmoil".
''Western North Carolina Magazine''. Retrieved 12 July 2022.

Legacy

Her works have been performed by people and ensembles including the Kohon Quartet, pianists

and Loretta Goldberg, and

player

Pete Rose Peter Edward Rose Sr. (born April 14, 1941), also known by his nickname "Charlie Hustle", is an American former professional baseball player and manager. Rose played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1963 to 1986, most prominently as a membe ...

. Her ''Little Pieces for Quartertone Piano'' is a standard work in the instrument's repertoire.

Music

List of selected works

Sorted chronologically: *''Trio for Brass'' (1940) for two B flat

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

s and F horn *''Duo Sonata'' (1946) for two

soprano recorder The soprano recorder in c2, also known as the descant, is the third-smallest instrument of the modern recorder family and is usually played as the highest voice in four-part ensembles (SATB = soprano, alto, tenor, bass). Since its finger spa ...

s *''Partita'' (1946) for

viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...

solo *''First Piano Sonata'' (1947; rev. 1979) for piano solo *''The Voice of the Lord'' (1949) for

boy soprano A boy soprano (British and especially North American English) or boy treble (only British English) is a young male singer with an unchanged voice in the soprano range, a range that is often still called the treble voice range (in North America ...

and medieval

lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lute" can ref ...

*''Peyote Sonata'' (1956) for piano solo *''Sonata for Solo Recorder (The Bullfinch)'' (1960) for soprano recorder *''Passacaglia for White Sunday'' (1964) for

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

solo *''Second Sonata for Solo Recorder (The Hypertonic)'' (1967) for soprano recorder *''Drum Taps'' (1973),

for men's voices and chamber orchestra *''Quartertone Carol'' (1980) for female voice and recorder trio *''Quartertone Lullaby'' (1981) for recorder trio *''Second Quartertone Lullaby'' (1982) for recorder trio *''Catawba'' (1984) for

and piano *''Adoramus Te'' (1985) for mixed chorus and piano *''Ave Verum Corpus'' (1988) for SATB

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

*''All Colors of Light'' (1990) for chorus and piano *''Amoroso 2'' (1990) for

tenor recorder The tenor recorder is a member of the recorder family. It has the same form as a soprano (or descant) recorder and an alto (or treble) recorder, but it produces a lower sound than either; a still lower sound is produced by the bass recorder and ...

(or

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

) *''The Lydian Sonata'' (1995) for

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

and piano *''Laudate'' (1996) for SATB choir *''But Parting is Return'' (1999) for SATB choir

Discography

*''Indian Summer: Three Microtonal Antiphons on Psalm Texts''. LP. Greenville, Maine: Opus One, 984? *''String Quartet No. 1''. LP. Greenville, Maine: Opus One, 986? *''Herzliebster Jesu''. CD. Harriman, New York: Spectrum, 1988. (Title of disc: ''Buxtehude, Moondog & Co.'', performed by Paul Jordan, Schuke organ.) *''Piano Sonata No, 2, "The Peyote"''. CD. Greenville, Maine: Opus One, 991? (Title of disc: ''Soundbridge'', performed by pianist Loretta Goldberg.) *''The Music of Tui St. George Tucker'' (1998). Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Centaur.

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

External links

The official Tui St. George Tucker website
(launched in 2005) - includes her scores for download, contact information for the use of her scores, biography, photo gallery, and other memorabilia *
"High Country Loses Artist, Composer Tui St. George Tucker 1924–2004"
by Jay Brown, ''The Mountain Times'' (Boone, North Carolina), April 29, 2004
"Tui St. George Tucker’s Requiem To Premiere April 30: Blue Ridge Composer Honored with Concert at ASU"
Jeff Eason, from ''The Mountain Times'' (Boone, North Carolina), April 14, 2005 {{DEFAULTSORT:Tucker, Tui St. George 1924 births 2004 deaths 20th-century American composers 20th-century American inventors 20th-century American women musicians 20th-century classical composers 20th-century American LGBT people 20th-century women composers 21st-century American composers 21st-century American women musicians 21st-century classical composers 21st-century American LGBT people American classical composers American classical musicians American contemporary classical composers American experimental musicians American lesbian writers American multi-instrumentalists American music theorists American musical instrument makers American people of English descent American recorder players American women classical composers Choral composers Classical musicians from California Composers for cello Composers for pipe organ Composers for piano Composers for violin Contemporary classical music performers Electroacoustic music composers Experimental composers Inventors of musical instruments Lesbian feminists American LGBT songwriters LGBT classical composers LGBT classical musicians American lesbian musicians LGBT people from California LGBT people from North Carolina Lesbian songwriters Microtonal composers Microtonal musicians Modernist composers Music theorists Musicians from Fullerton, California Musicians from Los Angeles Occidental College alumni Outsider musicians Lesbian composers Watauga County, North Carolina 20th-century American musicologists 20th-century flautists 21st-century flautists