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Jon Howard Appleton (January 4, 1939 – January 30, 2022) was an American composer, an educator and a pioneer inelectro-acoustic music. His earliest compositions in the medium, e.g. "Chef d'Oeuvre" and "Newark Airport Rock" (1967) attracted attention because they established a new tradition some have calledprogrammaticelectronic music. In 1970, he wonGuggenheim,[1]Fulbright andAmerican-Scandinavian Foundation fellowships. When he was twenty-eight years old, he joined the faculty ofDartmouth College where he established one of the first electronic music studios in the United States. He remained there intermittently for forty-two years. In the mid-1970s, he left Dartmouth to briefly become the head ofElektronmusikstudion (EMS)(sv) in Stockholm, Sweden. In the late 1970s, together withSydney Alonso andCameron Jones, he helped develop the first commercialdigitalsynthesizer called theSynclavier.[2] For a decade he toured around the United States andEurope performing the compositions he composed for this instrument. In the early 1990s, he helped found theTheremin Center for Electronic Music at theMoscow Conservatory of Music. He also taught atKeio University (Mita) in Tokyo,Japan,CCRMA atStanford University and theUniversity of California Santa Cruz. In his later years, he devoted most of his time to the composition of instrumental andchoral music in a quasi-Romantic vein which has largely been performed only in France, Russia and Japan.
Appleton was born inLos Angeles, California, on January 4, 1939, toJewish parents: Helen Jacobs Appleton (born inPhiladelphia, 1908) and Charles Leonard Appleton (born Chaim Epelboim inKishinev,Bessarabia, July 14, 1900). His mother was employed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer and his father byTwentieth Century Fox film studios. His father left his family the year Appleton was born and he spent his first years in Mrs. Bell's (an orphanage) and with his brother (Michael Charles Appleton, born 1932) at PalomarMilitary Academy. When he was six years old his mother married Alexander "Sasha" Walden (born inUfa,Russia, in 1897), adouble-bass player in theLos Angeles Philharmonic orchestra. He was the greatest musical influence in Appleton's young life seeing that he studied piano, encouraging him to compose music and taking him to multiple concerts. Appleton's parents were true believers in theSoviet Union and active members of the multipleleft-wing organizations including theCommunist party. In the 1950s both his parents wereblacklisted by theHouse Un-American Activities Committee and lost their jobs. As a child Appleton studied piano withJacob Gimpel andTheodore Saidenberg but preferred composing his own music rather than playing the works assigned to him (e.g.Chopin,Scarlatti,Prokofiev). However, he developed a deep, lifelong affection forRussian music.
From 1957 to 1961 Appleton was a student atReed College inPortland, Oregon. These years shaped his future life: he composed for his fellow students who performed everything he composed, he decided to become a college professor and in 1959 he married his first wife, a fellow student, Georganna Towne. Following his graduation from Reed College, Appleton moved toSan Francisco, California, where his first child was born (Jennifer Appleton). Simultaneously he studied composition withAndrew Imbrie at theUniversity of California, Berkeley, collaborated with writerWillard S. Bain (1938–2000) writing musical comedies and was employed at theMacy's department store as an assistant buyer.
In 1962–1963 Appleton was the music teacher at theVerde Valley School inSedona, Arizona, where he conducted thechoir andorchestra, taughtmusic theory,history andpiano lessons.
From 1963 to 1966 Appleton was a graduate student at theUniversity of Oregon inEugene, Oregon, where he studied withHomer Keller,Henri Lazarof,Felix Salzer andRobert Trotter. It was there that he assembled a primitiveelectronic music studio and composed his first works in this genre. His thesis was an orchestral work,After "Nude Descending a Staircase". Most of the instrumental and vocal music he composed at this time usedserial technique that he loved to compose. During his years in Eugene he became a lifelong friend of the pianistGabriel Chodos.
In 1966, on the basis of his early electronic music, he was invited byVladimir Ussachevsky atColumbia University to study in theColumbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. He became an advocate for electronic music and became friends with fellow composersCharles Dodge,Emmanuel Ghent andRichard Taruskin.
During 1966–1968 he was hired byOakland University inRochester, Michigan, to establish an electronic music studio. When the university officials reneged on their promise, he resigned and accepted a position atDartmouth College. It was during this year that his son,Jon Jason Appleton was born (a.k.a. JJ Appleton; born April 19, 1967).
AtDartmouth College Appleton's work in electronic music was generously encouraged by the administration of PresidentJohn G. Kemeny and by a generous donation from Gerald Bregman '54. The Bregman Electronic Music studio was one of the pioneering studios at American universities and became a center for many visiting composers. Two of these,Lars-Gunnar Bodin (1935,Stockholm, Sweden – 2021) andJean-Claude Risset (born 1938, LePuy,France) became important colleagues throughout Appleton's life. In 1970 Appleton also was influenced by the work of the "father" of computer music,Max V. Mathews and by French composersFrançois Bayle, Beatriz Ferreyra and Michel Redolfi.
It was at this time that he initiated the first competition for electronic music that was held for three years at Dartmouth College.
In 1969 Appleton's first recordings were published (Syntonic Menagerie and Human Music – the latter in collaboration with jazz musicianDon Cherry – on theFlying Dutchman label,[3] produced byBob Thiele.
In 1973 Appleton began his collaboration with engineers Sydney Alonso and Cameron Jones, which led to the creation of theDartmouth Digital Synthesizer and ultimately theSynclavier.[2] However, it was not until the 1980s that Appleton composed his best works for thisdigitalsynthesizer and on which he gave concerts of his own music for the following decade.
His love ofSweden led Appleton to leaveDartmouth College in 1976–1977 and become the director of Elektronmusikstudion, Sweden's national center for electronic music. His difficulty with the Swedish bureaucracy led to his resignation and he returned toNorwich, Vermont, as a partner, for one year, in the newly formed firmNew England Digital Corporation that had begun to manufacture theSynclavier. The following year he returned to the faculty of Dartmouth College.
It was also during this time in his life that Appleton developed a serious interest in the music ofPolynesia andMicronesia. He led a group of Dartmouth students to the Kingdom ofTonga and later received a grant from theNational Endowment for the Arts to train radio personnel on the Micronesian islands ofChuuk andPohnpei to record and broadcast their own music.
It was during this period that Appleton began to compose his best computer music and live-electronic music. Many of his works for this genre were first premiered at the annual festival held by theGroupe de Musique Experimentale de Bourges (France) and atFylkingen inStockholm, Sweden.
During his time inBourges, Appleton became a founding member of theInternational Confederation for Electro-Acoustic Music ([1]). His stimulating interaction with composers from many nations led him to believe that a similar organization in the United States might help raise the profile of electro-acoustic music in his own country. In 1984, together with a small group of like-minded composers, Appleton helped establish theSociety for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS). He ultimately served for a time as president of the society.
In the summer of 1984 Appleton helpedMoses Asch, founder ofFolkways Records, release its first recordings ofelectro-acoustic music. According to Asch's wishes, these recordings have remained in print under the Smithsonian/Folkways auspices.
The decade of the 1990s saw Appleton spending increasing amount of time abroad: teaching atKeio University (Mita) inTokyo, Japan, for three years and frequently visitingMoscow, Russia, where he was inspired by the enthusiasm of young composers. He encouraged the composer/engineer Andre Smirnov to establish theTheremin Center at theMoscow Conservatory of Music. Appleton was first introduced to Russian musicians and artists by the choral conductor/ethnologistDmitri Pokrovsky (1944–1996) and this began his compositional return to instrumental and choral music, much of it composed for the pianistJulia Turkina and cellistAlexander Zagorinsky. In an essay entitled "How I Became a Russian Composer" (2009) Appleton explains his love of Russian music and culture that he believes his stepfather, Alexander Walden, instilled in him.[4]
Also in this decade Appleton composed two full-lengthoperas for a choir of 1500 children and professional orchestra. The works,HOPI: La naissance de Desert andLe Dernier Voyage de Jean-Gallup de la Perouse, were conducted byAlain Joutard and commissioned by the Delegation Departmental à la Musique et à la Danse of the Conseil General des Alpes-Maritimes inNice, France.
Appleton died on January 30, 2022, at his home in Vermont, at the age of 83.[5]
