Wallace Berry (10 January 1928 – 16 November 1991) was an American

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 ( ...

and composer who taught at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

and later at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top three ...

. Mid-way through his career, Berry shifted focus from music composition, and became a leading figure in the research and teaching of music theory.

Life and career

Berry was born in

La Crosse, Wisconsin La Crosse is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of La Crosse County. Positioned alongside the Mississippi River, La Crosse is the largest city on Wisconsin's western border. La Crosse's population as of the 2020 census w ...

. Berry was educated at the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $ ...

(BMus 1949, PhD 1956), where he studied with Halsey Stevens. His composition ''Spoon River'', on texts by

Edgar Lee Masters Edgar Lee Masters (August 23, 1868 – March 5, 1950) was an American attorney, poet, biographer, and dramatist. He is the author of '' Spoon River Anthology'', ''The New Star Chamber and Other Essays'', ''Songs and Satires'', ''The Great ...

(1952), won him national recognition. In 1953-54, he studied under

Nadia Boulanger Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher and conductor. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organist. From a ...

in Paris. He taught at the University of Michigan (1957–77), becoming chair of music theory in 1968. He was chair of the music department in the University of British Columbia from 1978–84, and thereafter taught theory. Berry was the founding Vice President of the

Society for Music Theory The Society for Music Theory (SMT) is an American organization devoted to the promotion of music theory as a scholarly and pedagogical discipline. It currently has a membership of over 1200, primarily in the United States. In the 1970s, few school ...

from 1977-1982, and then became the society's president from 1982-85. Berry was awarded the Society for Music Theory's "Outstanding Publication" Award posthumously in 1992 for his book ''Musical Structure and Performance''. Berry's papers are deposited at the Library and Archives of Canada.

Research

Berry's music theory research and publication focuses on musical form, beginning with a traditional textbook ''Form in Music'' (1966; 2d edition 1986). In two subsequent books, ''Structural Functions in Music'' (1976) and ''Musical Structure and Performance'' (1989) Berry identifies different formal functions and examines how these functions can be created by combinations of pitch, textural, and rhythmic-metric elements. The three chapters of ''Structural Functions in Music'' thus are titled "Tonality," "Texture," and "Rhythm and Meter." Reviewing ''Musical Structure and Performance'', music theorist Rebecca Jemian characterizes the primary focus of Berry's work as an investigation into structural processes in music: "The various structural elements f a piece which include introduction, exposition, transition, development, and closure, are characterized by different functions; these diverse functions work to shape the musical whole. Circumstances of progression, recession, or stasis also contribute to musical shaping." The clearest and most concise presentation of Berry's theoretical ideas is the article "Metric and Rhythmic Articulation in Music." The different musical elements create hierarchical streams that interact in cumulative processes of progression - accent - recession, where progression leads toward an accent and recession moves away from an accent. "Rhythm" thus refers to the individual streams, "meter" to their cumulative effects. As Berry puts it, "In thus suggesting that there are many interacting or cohering streams of rhythm in any individual structure, one acknowledges as well some ultimate rhythmic composite of all events. . . . Meter I regard as rising fromsuch a punctuation of time.""Metric and Rhythmic Articulation," 7.

Wallace Berry Award

After Berry's death in 1991, the

established the "Wallace Berry Award," an annual citation recognizing outstanding books recently published in the field of music theory. A list of winners of the Wallace Berry Award is included on the SM
Past Publication Awards
page.

Compositions (selected)

*Five pieces for small orchestra. New York: Fischer, 1965 *Quartet no. 2, for strings. Philadelphia, Elkan-Vogel, 1967 *No man is an island: for mixed chorus (S.A.T.B.) and piano. New York: Southern Music; Hamburg: Peer Musikverlag, 1968 *Threnody: for violin alone. New York: Southern Music, 1968 *Canto lirico: viola and piano. New York: Carl Fischer, 1970 *Trio, piano, violin, and cello. New York, N.Y.: Carl Fischer, 1977 *Fantasy on Vom Himmel hoch: organ solo. New York: Carl Fischer, 1978 *Variations on a "Martyrs' tune": organ solo. New York: Carl Fischer, 1978 *Anachronisms: violin and piano. New York: Carl Fischer, 1984

Publications (selected)

Books

*''Form in Music'' (Prentice-Hall, 1966; 2d edition 1986). * ''Eighteenth-century Imitative Counterpoint: Music for Analysis'', co-authored with Edward Chudacoff (Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1969). *''Structural Functions in Music'' (Prentice-Hall, 1976; reissued by Dover, 1987). *''Musical Structure and Performance'' (Yale University Press, 1989).

Articles

* "The Music of Halsey Stevens," ''The Musical Quarterly'' 54/3 (1968): 287-308. * "On Structural Levels in Music," ''Music Theory Spectrum'' 2 (1980): 19-45. * "Text and Music in the Alto Rhapsody," ''Journal of Music Theory'', 27/2 (1983): 239-253. *"Metric and Rhythmic Articulation in Music," ''Music Theory Spectrum'' 7 (1985): 7-33.

References

External links

. Includes a list of compositions. {{DEFAULTSORT:Berry, Wallace Canadian composers Canadian male composers American emigrants to Canada American music theorists 1928 births 1991 deaths University of British Columbia faculty University of Michigan faculty 20th-century American musicologists University of Southern California alumni American expatriates in France 20th-century Canadian male musicians