Ben Weber
Born
William Jennings Bryan Weber

(1916-07-23)July 23, 1916
St. Louis
DiedJune 16, 1979(1979-06-16) (aged 62)
New York City)
OccupationComposer

William Jennings Bryan "Ben" Weber (July 23, 1916 in St. Louis[1] – June 16, 1979 in New York City) was an American composer.

Weber He was "one of the first Americans to embrace the 12-tone techniques of Schoenberg, starting in 1938";[1] he was largely self-taught.[1] He worked initially as a copyist and only came to recognition in the 1950s.[citation needed]

Weber used the twelve-tone technique but, rather than avoid tonality, he worked with it and achieved a virtuoso Romantic style: "Weber could not stifle his bent for expansive lyricism and bold gestures," wrote music critic Anthony Tommasini, adding: "One gets the sense that his adaptation of the 12-tone technique was his way of ensuring that his music would keep its cutting edge and not slip into Romanticism. There is a rather Brahmsian spirit trying to emerge here."[1] He composed chamber music for various combinations of instruments, orchestral music including concertos for violin and piano, piano music, and songs.

Weber also wrote an unpublished memoir, How I Took 63 Years to Commit Suicide (as told to Matthew Paris).[2]

Awards

Weber was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1950.[3] He received a Thorne Music Award in 1965,[citation needed]. which was given to composers of “mature years and recognized accomplishments".[4]

Compositions

(in chronological order)

References

  1. ^ a b c d Tommasini, Anthony (December 4, 1999). "MUSIC REVIEW; A Serialist With a Penchant for Lyricism". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-07-19.
  2. ^ Son, Jeeyoung; D.M.A (2008). "Twelve-tone writing in the piano music of Ben Weber (1916–1979)". Retrieved 2015-07-19. [T]here are hardly any secondary sources found on the subject of Ben Weber and his music; however there is a very important primary source in addition to the scores, which is an unpublished memoir titled, "How I took 63 years to commit suicide by Ben Weber (as told to Matthew Paris)." Although there is not much explanation of his music, it is still very significant in terms of understanding Weber's character, personality, and philosophy.
  3. ^ "Ben Weber". gf.org. Retrieved 2015-07-19.
  4. ^ "Francis Thorne". Theodore Presser Company. Archived from the original on 2019-04-23. Retrieved 2015-07-19. [F]or seven years, he ran the Thorne Music Fund which awarded three-year fellowships to American composers of "mature years and recognized accomplishments." Recipients of these fellowships included Stefan Wolpe, Ben Weber, Lou Harrison, David Diamond, Jacob Druckman, Lucia Dlugoszewski, and Henry Brant among others.

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