Gunther Alexander Schuller (November 22, 1925 – June 21, 2015)[1] was an American composer, conductor,horn player, author, historian, educator, publisher, andjazz musician.
Schuller was born inQueens, New York City,[1] the son of German parents Elsie (Bernartz) and Arthur E. Schuller, a violinist with theNew York Philharmonic.[2] He studied at theSaint Thomas Choir School and became an accomplishedFrench horn player and flute player. At age 15, he was already playing horn professionally with theAmerican Ballet Theatre (1943) followed by an appointment as principal hornist with theCincinnati Symphony Orchestra (1943–45), and then theMetropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York, where he stayed until 1959.[3] During his youth, he attended the Precollege Division at theManhattan School of Music, later going on to teach at the school.[4] But, already a high school dropout because he wanted to play professionally, Schuller never obtained a degree from any institution.[5] He began his career in jazz by recording as a horn player withMiles Davis (1949–50).[6]
In 1955, Schuller and jazz pianistJohn Lewis founded the Modern Jazz Society,[6] which gave its first concert atTown Hall, New York, the same year and later became known as the Jazz and Classical Music Society. While lecturing atBrandeis University in 1957, he coined the term "Third Stream" to describe music that combinesclassical and jazz techniques.[7] He became an enthusiastic advocate of this style and wrote many works according to its principles, among themTransformation (1957, for jazz ensemble),[8]Concertino (1959, for jazz quartet and orchestra),[9]Abstraction (1959, for nine instruments),[10] andVariants on a Theme of Thelonious Monk (1960, for 13 instruments) utilizingEric Dolphy andOrnette Coleman.[10] In 1966, he composed the operaThe Visitation.[11] He also orchestratedScott Joplin's only known surviving operaTreemonisha for theHouston Grand Opera's premiere production of this work in 1975.[12]
In 1959, Schuller largely gave up performance to devote himself to composition, teaching and writing. He conducted internationally and studied and recorded jazz with such greats asDizzy Gillespie and John Lewis among many others.[6] Schuller wrote over 190 original compositions in many musical genres.[13]
In the 1970s and 1980s Schuller founded the publishers Margun Music and Gun-Mar and the record label GM Recordings.[15][16] Margun Music and Gun-Mar were sold toMusic Sales Group in 1999.[17]
Schuller recorded the LPCountry Fiddle Band with the Conservatory's country fiddle band, released byColumbia Records in 1976. Reviewing inChristgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981),Robert Christgau wrote: "The melodies are fetchingly tried-and-true, the (unintentional?) stateliness of the rhythms appropriatelynineteenth-century, and the instrumental overkill (twenty-four instruments massed on 'Flop-Eared Mule') both gorgeous and hilarious. A grand novelty."[18]
Schuller was editor-in-chief of Jazz Masterworks Editions, and co-director of theSmithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra[19] in Washington, D.C. Another effort of preservation was his editing and posthumous premiering atLincoln Center in 1989 ofCharles Mingus's immense final work,Epitaph, subsequently released on Columbia/Sony Records.[20] He was the author of two major books on the history of jazz,Early Jazz (1968)[21] andThe Swing Era: The Development of Jazz, 1930-1945.[22]
From 1993 until his death, Schuller served as Artistic Director for the Northwest Bach Festival inSpokane, Washington state. Each year the festival showcased works byJ.S. Bach and other composers in venues around Spokane. At the 2010 festival, Schuller conducted theMass in B minor atSt. John's Cathedral, sung by the Bach Festival Chorus, composed of professional singers in Eastern Washington, and the BachFestival, composed of members of theSpokane Symphony and others. Other notable performances Schuller conducted at the festival include theSt Matthew Passion in 2008 and Handel'sMessiah in 2005.
Schuller's association with Spokane began with guest conducting the Spokane Symphony for one week in 1982.[26] He then served asMusic Director from 1984 to 1985[27] and later regularly appeared as a guest conductor. Schuller also served as Artistic Director to the nearby Festival at Sandpoint.[28]
In 2005, the Boston Symphony, New England Conservatory, and Harvard University presented a festival of Schuller's music, curated byBruce Brubaker, titled "I Hear America." At the time, Brubaker remarked, "Gunther Schuller is a key witness to American musical culture."[29] His modernist orchestral workWhere the Word Ends, organized in four movements corresponding to those of a symphony, was premiered by theBoston Symphony Orchestra in 2009.[7]
In 2011 Schuller published the first volume of a two-volume autobiography,Gunther Schuller: A Life in Pursuit of Music and Beauty.[30]
In 2012, Schuller premiered a new arrangement, theTreemonishasuite from Joplin's opera. It was performed as part ofThe Rest is Noise season at London's South Bank in 2013.[31]
Schuller died on June 21, 2015, inBoston, from complications fromleukemia. He married Marjorie Black, a singer and pianist, in 1948, and the marriage lasted until her death in 1992.[32][1] His sonsEd (born 1955), a jazz bassist, andGeorge (born 1958), a jazz drummer, survived him, as did his brother Edgar.
^abMathieson, Kenny (2002).Cookin' Hard Bop and Soul Jazz, 1954–65. Edinburgh: Canongate.ISBN9780857866165.
^Price, Emmett G. (2010).Encyclopedia of African American Music. Oxford: Greenwood.ISBN9780313341991.
^Erlewine, Michael; Bogdanov, Vladimir; Woodstra, Chris; Yanow, Scott, eds. (2002).All Music Guide to Jazz (4th ed.). San Francisco: Backbeat.ISBN9780879307172.
^Schuller, Gunther (1999).Musings (1st Da Capo Press ed.). New York: Da Capo.ISBN9780306809026.
^Kirchner, Bill (2005).The Oxford companion to jazz. New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN9780195183597.
^Cooke, Mervyn; Horn, David (2002).The Cambridge Companion to Jazz. Cambridge Companions to Music (1 ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press.ISBN9780521663205.
Bruce Brubaker. "Surrounded by this Incredible Vortex of Musical Expression: A Conversation with Gunther Schuller",Perspectives of New Music, Volume 49, Number 1 (Winter 2011), pp. 172-181
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