Kent Wheeler Kennan (April 18, 1913,

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...

– November 1, 2003,

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

) was an American composer, author, educator, and professor. He learned to play the organ and the piano and received degrees in composition and music theory from 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 the

Eastman School of Music The Eastman School of Music is the music school of the University of Rochester, a private research university in Rochester, New York. It was established in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman. It offers Bachelor of Music ...

. At the age of 23, he was awarded the

Rome Prize The Rome Prize is awarded by the American Academy in Rome, in Rome, Italy. Approximately thirty scholars and artists are selected each year to receive a study fellowship at the academy. Prizes have been awarded annually since 1921, with a hiatus ...

, which allowed him to study for three years in Europe, primarily at the

American Academy in Rome The American Academy in Rome is a research and arts institution located on the Gianicolo (Janiculum Hill) in Rome. The academy is a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers. History In 1893, a group of American architects, ...

. He was the half brother of the diplomat and historian

George F. Kennan George Frost Kennan (February 16, 1904 – March 17, 2005) was an American diplomat and historian. He was best known as an advocate of a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War. He lectured widely and wrote scholarly hist ...

. For most of his career, Kennan was a professor at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...

, also teaching briefly at

Kent State University Kent State University (KSU) is a public research university in Kent, Ohio. The university also includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio and additional facilities in the region and internationally. Regional campuses are located in ...

. His work as a professor was briefly interrupted by

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 ...

, when he served as a bandmaster for the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

. Upon his release, he taught for two years (1947-1949) at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

before returning to the University of Texas. His compositions include works for

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

, chamber ensemble and solo instrument as well as songs and choral music. His ''Sonata for

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 ...

and

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 keybo ...

'' is part of the standard repertoire for many collegiate trumpet studios. His ''Night Soliloquy'' was written in 1936 and is set for solo flute, piano and strings. Kennan composed his last major work in 1956 at the age of 43 and largely abandoned composition, writing only occasional small pieces and devoting himself to teaching and educational writing. His books ''Counterpoint'' and ''The Technique of Orchestration'' have been widely used as classroom texts. On May 5, 1957,

Howard Hanson Howard Harold Hanson (October 28, 1896 – February 26, 1981)''The New York Times'' – Obituaries. Harold C. Schonberg. February 28, 1981 p. 1011/ref> was an American composer, conductor, educator, music theorist, and champion of American class ...

and the Eastman-Rochester Orchestra recorded Kennan's ''Three Pieces for Orchestra'', a work composed in Rome in 1936 and premiered in 1939 by Hanson and the Rochester orchestra. It was released by

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it i ...

on LP (SR90147) and CD (434307-2). The three movements are "Promenade," "Nocturne," and "Il Campo dei Fiori". On December 30, 2003, ''Kent Kennan: Chamber Music'' was released by Pierian on CD (0017). Featuring Felicity Coltman on piano, with the Austin Chamber Music Center, the album includes "Sonata for Violin and Piano," composed 1937, "Night Soliloquy," composed 1936, "Scherzo, Aria and Fugato for Oboe and Piano," composed 1949, "Threnody for Violin and Piano," composed 1992, and "Quintet for Piano and Strings," composed 1935. These last two tracks, "Threnody" and "Quintet" were performed in the presence of the composer. Austin Chamber Music ensemble performers included Richard Kilmer, violin, Megan Meisenbach, flute, Kathleen Turner, oboe, Adrianna Hulscher, violin, Jennifer Bourianoff, violin, Ames Asbell, viola, and Margaret Coltman-Smith, cello.Liner notes for Pierian 0017

Books

*Kennan, Kent. ''The Technique of Orchestration''. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1952, 1970, 1983, 1990, 1996, 2002. . . . *Kennan, Kent. ''Counterpoint''. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1987. . .

References

External links

Interview with Kent Kennan
March 29, 1987
Bryce Jordan Collection of Kent Kennan
at the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...

Recordings

Giuseppe Galante - Kent Kennan: Sonata for Trumpet and Piano: I. With strength and vigorGiuseppe Galante - Kent Kennan: Sonata for Trumpet and Piano: II. Rather slowly and with freedomGiuseppe Galante - Kent Kennan: Sonata for Trumpet and Piano: III. Moderately fast, with energy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kennan, Kent 20th-century classical composers 1913 births 2003 deaths American male classical composers American classical composers Kent State University faculty Ohio State University faculty Musicians from Milwaukee Musicians from Austin, Texas University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance alumni 20th-century American composers University of Texas at Austin faculty Classical musicians from Texas Classical musicians from Wisconsin 20th-century American male musicians