Earl Wild (November 26, 1915January 23, 2010) was an American pianist known for his transcriptions of

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 m ...

and classical music.

Biography

Royland Earl Wild was born in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, in 1915. Wild was a musically precocious child and studied under Selmar Janson at the

Carnegie Institute of Technology Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

there, and later with

Marguerite Long Marguerite Marie-Charlotte Long (13 November 1874 – 13 February 1966) was a French pianist, pedagogue, lecturer, and an ambassador of French music. Life Early life: 1874–1900 Marguerite Long was born to Pierre Long and Anne Marie Antoin ...

Egon Petri Egon Petri (23 March 188127 May 1962) was a Dutch pianist. Life and career Petri's family was Dutch. He was born a Dutch citizen but in Hanover, Germany, and grew up in Dresden, where he attended the Kreuzschule. His father, a professional vio ...

, and Helene Barere (the wife of Simon Barere), among others. As a teenager, he started making transcriptions of romantic music and composition. In 1931, he was invited to play at the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

by President

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...

. The next five presidents (

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

and

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

), also invited him to play for them, and Wild remains the only pianist to have played for six consecutive presidents. In 1937, Wild was hired as a staff pianist for the NBC Symphony Orchestra. In 1939, he became the first pianist to perform a recital on U.S. television. Wild later recalled that the small studio became so hot under the bright lights that the ivory piano keys started to warp. In 1942, Arturo Toscanini invited him for a performance of Gershwin's ''

Rhapsody in Blue ''Rhapsody in Blue'' is a 1924 musical composition written by George Gershwin for solo piano and jazz band, which combines elements of classical music with jazz-influenced effects. Commissioned by bandleader Paul Whiteman, the work premiered i ...

'', which was, for Wild, a resounding success, although Toscanini himself has been criticized for not understanding the jazz idiom in which Gershwin wrote. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Wild served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

as a musician. He often travelled with

Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...

while she toured the United States supporting the war effort. Wild's duty was to perform the national anthem on the piano before she spoke. A few years after the war, he moved to the newly formed

American Broadcasting Company The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It is the flagship property of the ABC Entertainment Group division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, Cali ...

(ABC) as a staff pianist, conductor and composer until 1968. He performed for the

Peabody Mason Concert Benefactor The name Peabody Mason comes from Miss Fanny Peabody Mason, who until her death in 1948 was an active patron of music both in the United States and abroad. Her musical interests were piano, singing and chamber music. Concert series ...

series in Boston in 1952, 1968, and 1971 and three concerts of

Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

in 1986. Wild was renowned for his virtuoso recitals and master classes held around the world, from

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, and

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and throughout the United States. Wild created numerous virtuoso solo piano transcriptions, including 14 songs by

Rachmaninoff Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one o ...

(1981), and several works on themes by Gershwin, as well as transcriptions of Berlioz,

Buxtehude Buxtehude (), officially the Hanseatic City of Buxtehude (german: Hansestadt Buxtehude, nds, Hansestadt Buxthu ()), is a town on the Este River in Northern Germany, belonging to the district of Stade in Lower Saxony. It is part of the Hamburg ...

, Chopin, Fauré, Saint-Saëns, and

Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...

. His "Grand Fantasy on Airs from

Porgy and Bess ''Porgy and Bess'' () is an English-language opera by American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play '' Porgy'', it ...

" (1973), in the style of the grand opera fantasies of Liszt, is the first extended piano paraphrase on an American opera, and was recorded in 1976 with its concert premiere in

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. ...

on December 17, 1977. He also wrote two sets of "Virtuoso Etudes after Gershwin" (in 1954 and 1973) based on Gershwin songs such as " The Man I Love", " Embraceable You", "

Fascinating Rhythm "Fascinating Rhythm" is a popular song written by George Gershwin in 1924 with lyrics by Ira Gershwin. It was first introduced by Cliff Edwards, Fred Astaire and Adele Astaire in the Broadway musical '' Lady Be Good.'' The Astaires also recorded ...

" and "

I Got Rhythm "I Got Rhythm" is a piece composed by George Gershwin with lyrics by Ira Gershwin and published in 1930, which became a jazz standard. Its chord progression, known as the " rhythm changes", is the foundation for many other popular jazz tunes suc ...

", and "Theme and Variations on George Gershwin's Someone to Watch Over Me" (1989). Other notable piano arrangements include an "Air and Variations" on Handel's "

The Harmonious Blacksmith ''The Harmonious Blacksmith'' is the popular name of the final movement, ''Air and variations'', of George Frideric Handel's Suite No. 5 in E major, HWV 430, for harpsichord. This instrumental air was one of the first works for harpsichord p ...

" (1993), a loose arrangement of the sarabande from Bach's Partita for Keyboard No. 1, BWV 825 in the style of Poulenc entitled "Hommage à Poulenc" (1995), and another Liszt-style fantasy "Reminiscences of Snow White" (1995), based on music from the animated Disney film. In 2004, he made several piano transcriptions of popular songs of the 1920s. There is also a piano and orchestra arrangement of music from Richard Rodgers' ''

Slaughter on Tenth Avenue ''Slaughter on Tenth Avenue'' is a ballet with music by Richard Rodgers and choreography by George Balanchine. It occurs near the end of Rodgers and Hart's 1936 Broadway musical comedy '' On Your Toes''. ''Slaughter'' is the story of a hoofer who ...

'' (1967). He also wrote a number of original works. These include a large-scale Easter oratorio ''Revelations'' (1962), a work for chorus and percussion ''The Turquoise Horse'' (1975) based on an American Indian poem and legend, the ''Doo-Dah Variations'' on a theme by

Stephen Foster Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826January 13, 1864), known also as "the father of American music", was an American composer known primarily for his parlour and minstrel music during the Romantic period. He wrote more than 200 songs, inc ...

, "

Camptown Races "Gwine to Run All Night, or De Camptown Races" (popularly known simply as "Camptown Races") is a minstrel song by Stephen Foster (1826–1864). () It was published in February 1850 by F. D. Benteen of Baltimore, Maryland, and Benteen published ...

" (1992), a 27-minute composition in several colorfully-titled movements, for piano and orchestra as well as a two-piano version (1995), "Adventure" (1941) for piano and orchestra, an early piano concerto (1932), and an early ballet "Persephone" (1934). His ''Sonata 2000'', written that year, had its first performance by

Bradley Bolen Bradley is an English surname derived from a place name meaning "broad wood" or "broad meadow" in Old English. Like many English surnames Bradley can also be used as a given name and as such has become popular. It is also an Anglicisation of t ...

in 2003 and was recorded by Wild for Ivory Classics. In 2004, he wrote a suite of Belly-Dances for piano. In the mid-1950s, he wrote music for many silent movie and opera sketches for

Sid Caesar Isaac Sidney Caesar (September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2014) was an American comic actor, comedian and writer. With a career spanning 60 years, he was best known for two pioneering 1950s live television series: ''Your Show of Shows'' (1950� ...

's television shows, and in the 1960s, he composed music for several television documentaries, television plays, and an off-broadway play by

Harold Robbins Harold Robbins (May 21, 1916 – October 14, 1997) was an American author of popular novels. One of the best-selling writers of all time, he wrote over 25 best-sellers, selling over 750 million copies in 32 languages. Early life Robbins was b ...

, '' A Stone for Danny Fisher'' (1960). Wild recorded for several labels, including

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

, where he recorded an album of Liszt and a collection of music by George Gershwin, including ''Rhapsody in Blue'', ''

Cuban Overture ''Cuban Overture'' is a symphonic overture or tone poem for orchestra composed by American composer George Gershwin. Originally titled ''Rumba'' (named for the Cuban rumba musical genre), it was a result of a two-week holiday which Gershwin took ...

'',

Concerto in F Concerto in F is a composition by George Gershwin for solo piano and orchestra which is closer in form to a traditional concerto than his earlier jazz-influenced ''Rhapsody in Blue''. It was written in 1925 on a commission from the conductor an ...

, and "I Got Rhythm" Variations, all with the

Boston Pops Orchestra The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, specializing in light classical and popular music. The orchestra's current music director is Keith Lockhart. Founded in 1885 as an offshoot of the Boston Symp ...

and

Arthur Fiedler Arthur Fiedler (December 17, 1894 – July 10, 1979) was an American conductor known for his association with both the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops orchestras. With a combination of musicianship and showmanship, he made the Boston Pops one ...

. In 1965, he recorded for ''

Reader's Digest ''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wif ...

'' the four Rachmaninoff piano concertos and Paganini Rhapsody in London with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jascha Horenstein, originally issued as a set of vinyl LPs. These were later reissued on CD by Chesky and Chandos. Later in his career, Wild recorded for Ivory Classics. Under his teacher Selmar Janson, Wild had learned

Xaver Scharwenka Theophil Franz Xaver Scharwenka (6 January 1850 – 8 December 1924) was a German pianist, composer and teacher of Polish descent. He was the brother of Ludwig Philipp Scharwenka (1847–1917), who was also a composer and teacher of music. Life ...

's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, which Janson had studied directly with the composer, his own teacher. When, over 40 years later,

Erich Leinsdorf Erich Leinsdorf (born Erich Landauer; February 4, 1912 – September 11, 1993) was an Austrian-born American conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, earning a ...

asked Wild to record the concerto, he was able to say "I've been waiting by the phone for forty years for someone to ask me to play this". In 1997, he was the first pianist to stream a performance over the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

. Wild, who was openly

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

, lived in Columbus, Ohio, and Palm Springs, California, with his

domestic partner A domestic partnership is a legal relationship, usually between couples, who live together and share a common domestic life, but are not married (to each other or to anyone else). People in domestic partnerships receive benefits that guarantee ...

of 38 years, Michael Rolland Davis. He was also an atheist. He died aged 94 of congestive heart disease at home in Palm Springs.

Harold C. Schonberg Harold Charles Schonberg (29 November 1915 – 26 July 2003) was an American music critic and author. He is best known for his contributions in ''The New York Times'', where he was chief music critic from 1960 to 1980. In 1971, he became the fi ...

called him a "super-virtuoso in the

Horowitz Horowitz ( he, הוֹרוֹביץ, yi, האָראָװיץ) is a Levitical Ashkenazi surname deriving from the Horowitz family, though it can also be a non Jewish surname as well. The name is derived from the town of Hořovice, Bohemia. Other ...

class".Harold C. Schonberg, ''The Great Pianists from Mozart to the Present'', Simon & Schuster, 1963/1987 Wild's memoirs ''A Walk on the Wild Side'' were published posthumously by Ivory Classics.

Discography

* ''Earl Wild at 30 – Live Radio Broadcasts from the 1940s'' ( Ivory Classics) * Frédéric Chopin: The Ballades ( Concert Hall, 1951) * ''Earl Wild plays Gershwin '' (Coral) *

Walter Piston Walter Hamor Piston, Jr. (January 20, 1894 – November 12, 1976), was an American composer of classical music, music theorist, and professor of music at Harvard University. Life Piston was born in Rockland, Maine at 15 Ocean Street to Walter Ha ...

: Piano Quintet (WCFM, 1953) * George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue; An American in Paris ( RCA Victor, 1960) * George Gershwin: Piano Concerto; 'I Got Rhythm' Variations (RCA Victor, 1962) * Franz Liszt: Piano Extravaganzas On Operatic Themes (RCA Victor, 1962) * ''The Virtuoso Piano'' (

Vanguard Classics Vanguard Recording Society is an American record label set up in 1950 by brothers Maynard and Seymour Solomon in New York City. It was a primarily classical label at its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, but also has a catalogue of recordings by a nu ...

, 1964) * ''The Fire and Passion of Spain'' (

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

, 1965) * Sergei Rachmaninoff: Piano Concertos Nos. 1–4; Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (

, 1966, later RCA and Chesky, now Chandos Records) * Sergei Rachmaninoff /

Zoltán Kodály Zoltán Kodály (; hu, Kodály Zoltán, ; 16 December 1882 – 6 March 1967) was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is well known internationally as the creator of the Kodály method of music edu ...

: Cello Sonatas ( Nonesuch, 1967) * ''The Demonic Liszt'' (Vanguard Classics, 1968) *

: Works for Piano and Orchestra (RCA, 1969) *

Ignacy Paderewski Ignacy Jan Paderewski (; – 29 June 1941) was a Polish pianist and composer who became a spokesman for Polish independence. In 1919, he was the new nation's Prime Minister and foreign minister during which he signed the Treaty of Versaill ...

: Piano Concerto (RCA, 1971) * Franz Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 1; Hungarian Fantasy (

His Master's Voice His Master's Voice (HMV) was the name of a major British record label created in 1901 by The Gramophone Co. Ltd. The phrase was coined in the late 1890s from the title of a painting by English artist Francis Barraud, which depicted a Jack Russ ...

, 1973) *

Peter Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...

: Piano Concerto No. 1 (RCA, 1976) *

Edward MacDowell Edward Alexander MacDowell (December 18, 1860January 23, 1908) was an American composer and pianist of the late Romantic period. He was best known for his second piano concerto and his piano suites '' Woodland Sketches'', ''Sea Pieces'' and '' ...

: Piano Concerto (Quintessence, 1977) * Frédéric Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1 (RCA, 1977) *

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...

: Music for two pianos (RCA Red Seal, 1978) * Music by César Franck, Gabriel Fauré and Maurice Ravel (Audiofon, 1982) * ''The Art Of The Transcription • Live From Carnegie Hall'' (Audiofon, 1982) * ''Earl Wild Plays Liszt (The 1985 Sessions)'' ( Ivory Classics, 2001) * Franz Liszt: Sonata In B Minor / Polonaise No. 2 / Etudes De Concert / Transcendental Etudes / Hungarian Rhapsodies Nos 4, 12 & 2 (Etcetera, 1986) * ''Earl Wild Plays Beethoven'' (dell'Arte, 1986) * Gabriel Fauré: Cello Sonatas (dell'Arte, 1986) * Franz Liszt: Transcriptions & Paraphrases ( Etcetera, 1987) * ''Earl Wild's Schumann Recital'' (dell'Arte, 1988) * ''The Piano Music of Nikolai Medtner'' ( Chesky, 1988) * ''Earl Wild Plays His Transcriptions of Gershwin'' (Chesky, 1989) * Earl Wild – Chopin: Scherzos & Ballades (Chesky, 1990) * Chopin: The Complete Etudes (Chesky, 1992) * Sergei Rachmaninoff: Sonata No.2 / Preludes (Chesky, 1994) * ''The Romantic Master - Virtuoso Piano Transcriptions'' (

Sony Classical Sony Classical is an American record label founded in 1924 as Columbia Masterworks Records, a subsidiary of Columbia Records. In 1980, the Columbia Masterworks label was renamed as CBS Masterworks Records. The CBS Records Group was acquired by ...

, 1995) *

Reynaldo Hahn Reynaldo Hahn (; 9 August 1874 – 28 January 1947) was a Venezuelan-born French composer, conductor, music critic, and singer. He is best known for his songs – '' mélodies'' – of which he wrote more than 100. Hahn was born in Caracas ...

: ''Le rossignol éperdu'' (Ivory Classics, 2001) * ''Earl Wild at 88'' (Ivory Classics, 2003) * ''Earl Wild Performs his own Compositions and Transcriptions'' (Ivory Classics, 2010)

References

External links

Earl Wild's web page

About the pianist

About the pianist

– Daily Telegraph obituary * , WNCN-FM, 14-Nov-1980 * , WNCN-FM, 21-Nov-1980 * , WNCN-FM, 9-Feb-1986 *

by Bruce Duffie, March 9, 1989
Earl Wild collections
at the University of Maryland Libraries {{DEFAULTSORT:Wild, Earl 1915 births 2010 deaths Musicians from Pittsburgh 20th-century American composers American atheists American classical pianists American male classical pianists American male composers American male conductors (music) American jazz pianists American gay musicians Carnegie Mellon University College of Fine Arts alumni Grammy Award winners LGBT people from Pennsylvania 20th-century American conductors (music) Musicians from Palm Springs, California Pupils of Egon Petri RCA Records artists Chesky Records artists 20th-century classical pianists 20th-century American pianists Jazz musicians from Pennsylvania American male jazz musicians 20th-century American male musicians Jazz musicians from California