Wallingford Constantine Riegger ( ; April 29, 1885 – April 2, 1961) 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 Def ...

and

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

, best known for his orchestral and modern dance music. He was born in

Albany, Georgia Albany ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Georgia. Located on the Flint River, it is the seat of Dougherty County, and is the sole incorporated city in that county. Located in southwest Georgia, it is the principal city of the Albany, Georgia m ...

, but spent most of his career in

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 ...

, helping elevate the status of other American composers such as

Charles Ives Charles Edward Ives (; October 20, 1874May 19, 1954) was an American modernist composer, one of the first American composers of international renown. His music was largely ignored during his early career, and many of his works went unperformed ...

and

Henry Cowell Henry Dixon Cowell (; March 11, 1897 – December 10, 1965) was an American composer, writer, pianist, publisher and teacher. Marchioni, Tonimarie (2012)"Henry Cowell: A Life Stranger Than Fiction" ''The Juilliard Journal''. Retrieved 19 June 202 ...

.Encyclopædia Britannica, Wallingford Riegger
/ref>New Georgia Encyclopedia
/ref> Riegger is noted for being one of the first American composers to use a form of

serialism In music, serialism is a method of composition using series of pitches, rhythms, dynamics, timbres or other musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though some of his contemporaries were al ...

and the

twelve-tone technique The twelve-tone technique—also known as dodecaphony, twelve-tone serialism, and (in British usage) twelve-note composition—is a method of musical composition first devised by Austrian composer Josef Matthias Hauer, who published his "law o ...

Life

Riegger was born in 1885 to Constantine Riegger and Ida Riegger (née Wallingford). After his father's lumber mill burned down in 1888, his family moved to

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

, and later to

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

, finally settling in New York in 1900. A gifted

cellist The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G2, D ...

, he was a member of the first graduating class of the Institute of Musical Art, later known as the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a Private university, private performing arts music school, conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely ...

, in 1907, after studying under Percy Goetschius. He continued his studies at the Hochschule für Musik in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

for three years. After returning in 1910, he married Rose Schramm in 1911, with whom he later had three daughters. He returned to Germany and served in various conducting positions until the United States entered

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

in 1917, after which he moved back to America. From 1918 to 1922, he taught

music theory 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 (k ...

and violoncello at

Drake University Drake University is a private university in Des Moines, Iowa. It offers undergraduate and graduate programs, including professional programs in business, law, and pharmacy. Drake's law school is among the 25 oldest in the United States. Hist ...

.Iowa Center for the Arts
/ref> During the greater part of the time from 1930 to 1956, he continued to compose and publish while he taught at various colleges in

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. sta ...

, notably the Institute of Musical Art and

Ithaca College Ithaca College is a private college in Ithaca, New York. It was founded by William Egbert in 1892 as a conservatory of music and is set against the backdrop of the city of Ithaca (which is separate from the town), Cayuga Lake, waterfalls, and ...

.Art of the States: Wallingford Riegger
/ref> In 1957, he was called before the

House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative United States Congressional committee, committee of the United States House of Representatives, create ...

, which was investigating communism in the musical world. In 1958,

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...

honored him by conducting his ''Music for Orchestra'' with the

New York Philharmonic Orchestra The New York Philharmonic, officially the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc., globally known as New York Philharmonic Orchestra (NYPO) or New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, is a symphony orchestra based in New York City. It is ...

. He died in New York in 1961 when he tripped over the leashes of two fighting dogs, resulting in a fall and a head injury from which he did not recover despite treatment. Bernstein said of him in his eulogy, "All who knew Wally loved him." His students included

Robert Ashley Robert Reynolds Ashley (March 28, 1930 – March 3, 2014) was an American composer, who was best known for his television operas and other theatrical works, many of which incorporate electronics and extended techniques. His works often involve i ...

Louise Spizizen Louise Fleur Meyers Schlesinger Spizizen (August 24, 1928 - July 2, 2010) was an American composer, critic, harpsichordist/pianist, and singer. She is best remembered today for her research and controversial claim that pianist Johana Harris actually ...

, Alan Stout and

Merton Brown Merton Brown (May 5, 1913, Berlin, Vermont – February 20, 2001, Charlestown, Massachusetts) was a composer who studied with Wallingford Riegger and Carl Ruggles. He often collaborated with choreographers including former Martha Graham dancer M ...

Musical style

Riegger was known for his use of a twelve-tone system, related to that of

Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...

. He became familiar with the technique through Schoenberg's American student

Adolph Weiss Adolph Weiss (Baltimore, Maryland, November 12, 1891 – Van Nuys, California, February 21, 1971) was an American composer. A modernist, he was a pupil of Arnold Schoenberg in Vienna from 1924 to 1927; his father was a pupil of Ferruccio Busoni. He ...

. However, he did not use it in all of his compositions and his usage varied from that of Schoenberg, for example in not always using rows with twelve tones and not using transposed forms of the rows. Riegger's ''Dance Rhythms'', for example, did not use these techniques. Aside from Schoenberg, Riegger was also significantly influenced by his friends

and

Early period

Early on in his career as a composer, the style of his compositions was markedly different from that of his later work, which mostly used the twelve-tone system. His compositions, following those of Goetschius, were somewhat

romanticist Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

.Morton, Lawrence. ''The Musical Quarterly'', Vol. 44, No. 2 (Apr., 1958), pp. 267-269
/ref>

Later period

Starting in the mid-1930s, Riegger began to write

contemporary dance Contemporary dance is a genre of dance performance that developed during the mid-twentieth century and has since grown to become one of the dominant genres for formally trained dancers throughout the world, with particularly strong popularity in ...

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

. Later, as his career progressed, he began to use Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique more and more often, though he did occasionally revert to his earlier styles. From 1941 on, he focused almost solely on instrumental music. His Symphony No. 3 received the New York Music Critics' Circle Award and a Naumburg Foundation Recording Award.

Selected works

;Orchestral * Fantasy and Fugue, Op. 10 (1930) * ''Dichotomy'', Op. 12 (1931) * ''Consummation'', Op. 31 (1939) * Passacaglia and Fugue, Op. 34a (1942) * Symphony No. 1 (1944) * Symphony No. 2 (1945) * Symphony No. 3, Op. 42 (1946–1947, revised 1960) * ''Music for Orchestra'', Op. 50 (1958) * ''Suite for Younger Orchestras'', Op. 56 (1953) * ''Romanza'' for string orchestra, Op. 56a (1953); ''Lullaby'' from the ''Suite for Younger Orchestras'' * ''Dance Rhythms'', Op. 58 (1954) * Overture, Op. 60 (1955) * ''Preamble and Fugue'', Op. 61 (1955) * Symphony No. 4, Op. 63 (1956) * ''Festival Overture'', Op. 68 (1957) * ''Quintuple Jazz'', Op. 72 (1958) * Sinfonietta, Op. 73 (1959) * ''Canon and Fugue'' for string orchestra ;Concert band and wind ensemble * ''Ballet for Band'', Op. 18 (1935) * Passacaglia and Fugue, Op. 34 (1942) * ''Processional'', Op. 36 (1943) * ''Music for Brass Choir'', Op. 45 (1949) * ''Prelude and Fugue'', Op. 52 (1953) * ''Dance Rhythms'', Op. 58a (1954); original for orchestra ;Concertante * ''Elegy'' for cello and orchestra (1916) * Concerto for piano with wind quintet, Op. 53 (1953) * Variations for piano and orchestra, Op. 54 (1952–1953) * Variations for violin and orchestra, Op. 71 (1959) * Introduction and Fugue for cello and concert band, Op. 74 (1960) ;Chamber music * ''Elegy'' for viola and piano (1915) * Piano Trio in B minor, Op. 1 (1919) * ''Revery'' for cello (or viola) and piano (1920) * Lullaby for cello (or viola) and piano (1922) * ''Study in Sonority'' for 10 violins or any multiple thereof, Op. 7 (1927) * Suite for flute solo, Op. 8 (1929) * String Quartet No. 1, Op. 30 (1938–1939) * ''Duos for Three Woodwinds'' for flute, oboe, clarinet, Op. 35 (1944) * Sonatina for violin and piano, Op. 39 (1948) * String Quartet No. 2, Op. 43 (1948) * Piano Quintet, Op. 47 (1951) * Nonet for Brass, Op. 49 (1951) * Woodwind Quintet, Op. 51 (1952) * Variations for violin and viola (soli or in choirs), Op. 57 (1956) * Etudes for clarinet solo (1957) * String Quartet No. 3 (1957) * ''Movement'' for 2 trumpets, trombone and piano, Op. 66 * Introduction and Fugue for 4 cellos or cello orchestra, Op. 69 (1962) ;Piano * ''Blue Voyage'', Rhapsody, Op. 6 (1927) * ''New Dance'' for 2 pianos (1932) * ''The Cry'' for piano 4-hands, Op. 22 (1935) * ''Four Tone Pictures'' (1939) * ''New and Old'', Op. 38 (1944) * ''Petite Étude'', Op. 62 (1956) * ''Evocation'' for piano 4-hands, Op. 17 * Scherzo for 2 pianos * ''Skip to My Lou'', Duet for 2 pianos * ''The Galway Piper'', Duet for 2 pianos * ''The Harold Flammer Duet Album'', Folk Songs arranged for piano 4-hands ;Accordion * ''Cooper Square'' ;Vocal * ''La Belle Dame sans Merci'' (setting of

John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculos ...

poem Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meaning ...

, for two sopranos, contralto, tenor, violin, viola, cello, double bass, oboe (English horn), clarinet and French horn; premiered 19 September 1924, at the 7th Berkshire Festival of Chamber Music) Choral * ''Dark Eyes'', Russian Folksong, SSA, piano * Veni Jesu (arrangement)

Life

Musical style

Early period

Later period

Selected works

References

Further reading