Irving Gifford Fine (December 3, 1914 – August 23, 1962) was an American composer. Fine's work assimilated neoclassical, romantic, and serial elements. Composer

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 neoclass ...

described Fine's "unusual melodic grace" while

Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Com ...

noted the "elegance, style, finish and...convincing continuity" of Fine's music. Fine was a member of a close-knit group of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

composers in the mid-20th century who were sometimes called the " Boston School." Other members of the Boston School included Arthur Berger, Leonard Bernstein,

Lukas Foss Lukas Foss (August 15, 1922 – February 1, 2009) was a German-American composer, pianist, and conductor. Career Born Lukas Fuchs in Berlin, Germany in 1922, Foss was soon recognized as a child prodigy. He began piano and theory lessons with J ...

, and Harold Shapero.

Life

Fine was born in Boston, Massachusetts, where he studied piano, and received both bachelor's and master's degrees from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, where he was a pupil of

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 ...

. Fine was a conducting pupil of Serge Koussevitzky, served as pianist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and studied composition with

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 ...

at the Fontainebleau School of Music in Paris and at Radcliffe College. From 1939 until 1950, he taught music theory at Harvard and conducted its

Glee Club A glee club in the United States is a musical group or choir group, historically of male voices but also of female or mixed voices, which traditionally specializes in the singing of short songs by trios or quartets. In the late 19th century it w ...

, becoming a close associate of Leonard Bernstein, Igor Stravinsky and

. From 1950, he taught at

Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , ...

, where he was Walter S. Naumburg Professor of Music and founded the School of Creative Arts. Between 1946 and 1957, he also taught composition at the

Tanglewood Music Festival The Tanglewood Music Festival is a music festival held every summer on the Tanglewood estate in Stockbridge and Lenox in the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts. The festival consists of a series of concerts, including symphonic music, c ...

in the

Berkshires The Berkshires () are a highland geologic region located in the western parts of Massachusetts and northwest Connecticut. The term "Berkshires" is normally used by locals in reference to the portion of the Vermont-based Green Mountains that ex ...

. Irving Fine died in Natick, Massachusetts in August 1962. He was 47 years of age. The cause of death was heart disease.

Educational legacy

Notable composition students of Irving Fine include Gustav Ciamaga,

Noël Lee Noël Lee (December 25, 1924 – July 15, 2013) was an American classical pianist and composer. Born in 1924 in Nanjing, China, Lee studied music in Lafayette, Indiana, then attended Harvard University, studying with Walter Piston, Irving Fine, ...

, Ann Loomis Silsbee,

Halim El-Dabh Halim Abdul Messieh El-Dabh ( ar, حليم عبد المسيح الضبع, ''Ḥalīm ʻAbd al-Masīḥ al-Ḍab''ʻ; March 4, 1921 – September 2, 2017) was an Egyptian-American composer, musician, ethnomusicologist, and educator, who had ...

, and

Richard Wernick Richard Wernick (born January 16, 1934, in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American composer. He is best known for his chamber and vocal works. His composition ''Visions of Terror and Wonder'' won the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for Music. Career Wernick b ...

. Towards the end of his life, Fine notably collaborated with Wernick on the musical ''Maggie'', a work based on the

Stephen Crane Stephen Crane (November 1, 1871 – June 5, 1900) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. Prolific throughout his short life, he wrote notable works in the Realist tradition as well as early examples of American Naturalism an ...

novel of the same name. A Professorship of Music at Brandeis University is named in Fine's honor. The composer Arthur Berger served as Irving G. Fine Professor of Music from 1969 to 1980 (and as Emeritus Professor until his death in 2003). The current Irving G. Fine Professor of Music is Eric Chasalow. Brandeis University is also home to the Irving Fine Society, founded in 2006 by music director Nicholas Alexander Brown. The society comprises the Irving Fine Singers and the Gifford 5, a woodwind quintet. The society "acts as a producing organization for concerts, educational programs and scholarly activities related to the legacy of composer Irving Gifford Fine and the global impact of American culture in the twentieth century."

Works

Orchestra

* ''Toccata concertante'', 1947 * ''Serious Song: A Lament'', strings, 1955 * ''Blue Towers'', 1959 * ''Diversions'', 1959–60 * Symphony, 1962

Chorus

* ''Three Choruses from Alice in Wonderland'', 3–4 voices, piano, 1942; arrangement with orchestra, 1949 * ''The Choral New Yorker'', S, A, Bar, 3–4 voices, piano, 1944 * ''A Short Alleluia'', SSA, 1945 * ''In gratio jubilo'', hymn, small orchestra, 1949 * ''The Hour-Glass'' (B. Jonson), song cycle, SATB, 1949 * ''Old American Songs'' (trad.), 2–4 voices, piano, 1952 * ''An Old Song'' (Yehoash, trans. M. Syrkin), SATB, 1953 * ''Three Choruses from Alice in Wonderland'' (L. Carroll), 2nd ser., SSA, piano, 1953 * ''McCord's Menagerie'' (McCord), TTB, 1957

Songs

* ''Mutability'' (I. Orgel), cycle, Mez, piano, 1952 * ''Childhood Fables for Grown-ups'' (G. Norman), Mez/Bar, piano/orchestra, 1954–5

Chamber and solo instrument

* Sonata, violin, piano, 1946 * ''Music for Piano'', 1947 * Partita, wind quintet, 1948 * Notturno, strings, harp, 1950–51 * String Quartet, 1952 * ''Children's Piano Pieces'', 1956 * Fantasia, string trio, 1956 * ''Hommage à Mozart'', piano, 1956 * Romanza, wind quintet, 1958

Reading

A biography, ''Irving Fine: An American Composer in His Time'', by author, composer, and pianist Phillip Ramey, was published in 2005 by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

and Pendragon Press, and received the 2006 Nicolas Slonimsky Award for Outstanding Musical Biography from ASCAP.

References

* Anderson, E. Ruth. ''Contemporary American Composers. A Biographical Dictionary'', 2nd edition. G. K. Hall, 1982. * Butterworth, Neil. ''A Dictionary of American Composers''. Garland, 1984. * Pollack, Howard Joel. ''Harvard Composers: Walter Piston and His Students, from Elliott Carter to Frederic Rzewski''. Scarecrow Press, 1992. * Press, Jaques Cattell (Ed.). ''ASCAP Biographical Dictionary of Composers, Authors and Publishers'', 4th edition. R. R. Bowker, 1980. * Sadie, Stanley; Hitchcock, H. Wiley (Ed.). ''The New Grove Dictionary of American Music''. Grove's Dictionaries of Music, 1986. * Villamil, Victoria Etnier; Hampson, Thomas. ''A Singer's Guide to the American Art Song 1870–1980'', foreword by

Thomas Hampson Thomas Walter Hampson (born June 28, 1955) is an American lyric baritone, a classical singer who has appeared world-wide in major opera houses and concert halls and made over 170 musical recordings. Hampson's operatic repertoire spans a range ...

. Scarecrow Press, 1993.

External links

The Irving Fine Collection at the Library of CongressIrving Fine Collection
at th
Library of Congress

Boosey & Hawkes biography

"A Fine Centennial" by Ethan Iverson
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fine, Irving 1914 births 1962 deaths 20th-century classical composers 20th-century American composers Twelve-tone and serial composers American classical composers American male classical composers Jewish American classical composers Brandeis University faculty Harvard University alumni Musicians from Boston Pupils of Walter Piston 20th-century American male musicians Nonesuch Records artists