H. Owen Reed
Encyclopedia
Herbert Owen Reed is an American composer
, conductor
, and author
.
, where his first exposure to music was his father's playing of the old-time
fiddle
(accompanied by his mother at the piano
). He was also attracted to the popular piano music of the 1920s (such as the novelty piano
tunes of Zez Confrey
), as well as his family's player piano
, which played popular tunes. He studied piano with Odessa's only piano teacher, Mrs. Felts, who attempted to interest him in the music of Bach
and Beethoven
.
Following high school, Reed studied music at the University of Missouri
beginning in 1929, transferring in 1933 to Louisiana State University
where he received his Bachelor of Music (1934) and Master of Music (1936) degrees, both in music composition (studying with Helen Gunderson), as well as a Bachelor of Arts (1937) degree in French. While a freshman at the University of Missouri, he became interested in jazz big band performance, later arranging for the university's big band. He also became a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia
while at Missouri.
In 1937 he enrolled at the Eastman School of Music
(studying composition with Howard Hanson
and Bernard Rogers
, conducting with Paul White, musicology with Howard Gleason, and music theory with Allen I. McHose), receiving a Ph.D. in composition in 1939. In 1942, at the Berkshire Music Center
(Tanglewood
), Massachusetts, he studied composition with Bohuslav Martinů
, and contemporary music with Aaron Copland
, Leonard Bernstein
, and Stanley Chappel. In the summer of 1947, he studied composition with Roy Harris
at Colorado Springs, Colorado
, and also attended lessons with Arnold Schoenberg
.
from 1939 to 1976, and since that year has served as professor emeritus.
Many of Reed's students have gone on to fame as composers and arrangers; these include Loris Chobanian
, Dinos Constantinides, Clare Fischer
, David Gillingham
, Adolphus Hailstork
, Jere Hutcheson, and David Maslanka
. Most of these former students reunited to celebrate Reed's 95th birthday at Michigan State University in the summer of 2005.
investigated the traditional music of Eastern Europe
, North Africa
, and Turkey
, using these as inspirations for his own original works, Reed has similarly devoted much study to the traditional music of North America. Many of his works feature material derived from the Mexican, Native American
, Anglo-American, and African American cultures, blended with contemporary idioms.
Reed's best known and most widely performed work is the three-movement concert band composition La Fiesta Mexicana (1949), composed with the support of a Guggenheim Fellowship. The work is based on Aztec
, Roman Catholic
, mariachi
, and other music Reed heard while in Mexico City
, Cuernavaca
, and Chapala, Mexico for six months (1948/49). He returned to Mexico in 1960 for a month's further study. He has also studied folk music in the Caribbean in February 1976, and in Norway in the summer of 1977.
Reed later studied Native American music
s in Taos, New Mexico
and Arizona, and eventually composed a trilogy of chamber operas based on Native American legends: Earth Trapped (Sioux, 1960), Living Solid Face (Algonquin, 1974), and Butterfly Girl and Mirage Boy (Hopi-Aztec, 1980). His band composition Missouri Shindig (1951) is based on the American fiddle tune "Give the Fiddler a Dram," which his father particularly enjoyed playing. Spiritual (1947), Reed's first composition for band, is based on his recollection of overhearing the exuberant religious expression of African American churchgoers while passing by their churches as a child.
Reed's music is published by G. Schirmer, Warner Brothers, Ballerbach Music, Harrock Hall Music, Triplo Press, Allyn & Bacon, Boosey & Hawkes, Edwin A. Fleisher, EMI Mills, Neil A. Kjos, Ludwig, and H. O. Reed Music.
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
, and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
.
Education
Reed was raised in rural Odessa, MissouriOdessa, Missouri
Odessa is a city in Lafayette County, Missouri, United States. The population was 4,818 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Odessa is located at ....
, where his first exposure to music was his father's playing of the old-time
Old-time music
Old-time music is a genre of North American folk music, with roots in the folk music of many countries, including England, Scotland, Ireland and countries in Africa. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dance, buck dance, and clogging. The genre also...
fiddle
Fiddle
The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
(accompanied by his mother at the piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
). He was also attracted to the popular piano music of the 1920s (such as the novelty piano
Novelty piano
Novelty Piano is a genre of piano music that was popular during the 1920s.A successor to ragtime and an outgrowth of the piano roll music of the teens, novelty piano can be considered a pianistic cousin of jazz, which appeared around the same time....
tunes of Zez Confrey
Zez Confrey
Edward Elzear "Zez" Confrey was an American composer and performer of piano music. His most noted works were "Kitten on the Keys," and "Dizzy Fingers."-Life and career:...
), as well as his family's player piano
Player piano
A player piano is a self-playing piano, containing a pneumatic or electro-mechanical mechanism that operates the piano action via pre-programmed music perforated paper, or in rare instances, metallic rolls. The rise of the player piano grew with the rise of the mass-produced piano for the home in...
, which played popular tunes. He studied piano with Odessa's only piano teacher, Mrs. Felts, who attempted to interest him in the music of Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
and Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
.
Following high school, Reed studied music at the University of Missouri
University of Missouri
The University of Missouri System is a state university system providing centralized administration for four universities, a health care system, an extension program, five research and technology parks, and a publishing press. More than 64,000 students are currently enrolled at its four campuses...
beginning in 1929, transferring in 1933 to Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...
where he received his Bachelor of Music (1934) and Master of Music (1936) degrees, both in music composition (studying with Helen Gunderson), as well as a Bachelor of Arts (1937) degree in French. While a freshman at the University of Missouri, he became interested in jazz big band performance, later arranging for the university's big band. He also became a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia
Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia
Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia is an American collegiate social fraternity for men with a special interest in music...
while at Missouri.
In 1937 he enrolled at the Eastman School of Music
Eastman School of Music
The Eastman School of Music is a music conservatory located in Rochester, New York. The Eastman School is a professional school within the University of Rochester...
(studying composition with Howard Hanson
Howard Hanson
Howard Harold Hanson was an American composer, conductor, educator, music theorist, and champion of American classical music. As director for 40 years of the Eastman School of Music, he built a high-quality school and provided opportunities for commissioning and performing American music...
and Bernard Rogers
Bernard Rogers
Bernard Rogers was an American composer.Rogers was born in New York City. He studied with Arthur Farwell, Ernest Bloch, Percy Goetschius, and Nadia Boulanger. He taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music, The Hartt School, and the Eastman School of Music...
, conducting with Paul White, musicology with Howard Gleason, and music theory with Allen I. McHose), receiving a Ph.D. in composition in 1939. In 1942, at the Berkshire Music Center
Tanglewood Music Center
The Tanglewood Music Center is an annual summer music academy in Lenox, Massachusetts, United States, in which emerging professional musicians participate in performances, master classes and workshops designed to provide an intense training and networking experience...
(Tanglewood
Tanglewood
Tanglewood is an estate and music venue in Lenox and Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It is the home of the annual summer Tanglewood Music Festival and the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, and has been the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home since 1937. It was the venue of the Berkshire Festival.- History...
), Massachusetts, he studied composition with Bohuslav Martinů
Bohuslav Martinu
Bohuslav Martinů was a prolific Czech composer of modern classical music. He was of Czech and Rumanian ancestry. Martinů wrote six symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. Martinů became a violinist in the Czech Philharmonic...
, and contemporary music with Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
, Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
, and Stanley Chappel. In the summer of 1947, he studied composition with Roy Harris
Roy Harris
Roy Ellsworth Harris , was an American composer. He wrote much music on American subjects, becoming best known for his Symphony No...
at Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and most populous city of El Paso County, Colorado, United States. Colorado Springs is located in South-Central Colorado, in the southern portion of the state. It is situated on Fountain Creek and is located south of the Colorado...
, and also attended lessons with Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
.
College teaching
Reed taught at Michigan State UniversityMichigan State University
Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...
from 1939 to 1976, and since that year has served as professor emeritus.
Many of Reed's students have gone on to fame as composers and arrangers; these include Loris Chobanian
Loris Ohannes Chobanian
Loris Ohannes Chobanian is an accomplished Armenian-American composer of classical music, expert conductor, and guitar and lute teacher and performer. A naturalized US citizen, he served as Professor of Composition as well as Composer-in-Residence at Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory.-Early...
, Dinos Constantinides, Clare Fischer
Clare Fischer
Clare Fischer is an American composer, arranger, pianist and organist. His parents were of German, French, Irish-Scot, and English backgrounds.-Early years:...
, David Gillingham
David Gillingham
David R. Gillingham is a contemporary composer. He attended the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh for his undergraduate degree in Music Education and Michigan State University for his PhD in Music Composition/Theory. He currently serves as professor of music theory and composition at Central...
, Adolphus Hailstork
Adolphus Hailstork
Adolphus Hailstork is an American composer and educator. He grew up in Albany, New York, where he studied violin, piano, organ, and voice....
, Jere Hutcheson, and David Maslanka
David Maslanka
David Maslanka is a U.S. composer who writes for a variety of genres, including works for choir, wind ensemble, chamber music and symphony orchestra....
. Most of these former students reunited to celebrate Reed's 95th birthday at Michigan State University in the summer of 2005.
Compositions
Just as Béla BartókBéla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
investigated the traditional music of Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
, North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
, and Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, using these as inspirations for his own original works, Reed has similarly devoted much study to the traditional music of North America. Many of his works feature material derived from the Mexican, Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
, Anglo-American, and African American cultures, blended with contemporary idioms.
Reed's best known and most widely performed work is the three-movement concert band composition La Fiesta Mexicana (1949), composed with the support of a Guggenheim Fellowship. The work is based on Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
, Roman Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
, mariachi
Mariachi
Mariachi is a genre of music that originated in the State of Jalisco, in Mexico. It is an integration of stringed instruments highly influenced by the cultural impacts of the historical development of Western Mexico. Throughout the history of mariachi, musicians have experimented with brass, wind,...
, and other music Reed heard while in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
, Cuernavaca
Cuernavaca
Cuernavaca is the capital and largest city of the state of Morelos in Mexico. It was established at the archeological site of Gualupita I by the Olmec, "the mother culture" of Mesoamerica, approximately 3200 years ago...
, and Chapala, Mexico for six months (1948/49). He returned to Mexico in 1960 for a month's further study. He has also studied folk music in the Caribbean in February 1976, and in Norway in the summer of 1977.
Reed later studied Native American music
Native American music
American Indian music is the music that is used, created or performed by Native North Americans, specifically traditional tribal music. In addition to the traditional music of the Native American groups, there now exist pan-tribal and inter-tribal genres as well as distinct Indian subgenres of...
s in Taos, New Mexico
Taos, New Mexico
Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico, incorporated in 1934. As of the 2000 census, its population was 4,700. Other nearby communities include Ranchos de Taos, Cañon, Taos Canyon, Ranchitos, and El Prado. The town is close to Taos Pueblo, the Native American...
and Arizona, and eventually composed a trilogy of chamber operas based on Native American legends: Earth Trapped (Sioux, 1960), Living Solid Face (Algonquin, 1974), and Butterfly Girl and Mirage Boy (Hopi-Aztec, 1980). His band composition Missouri Shindig (1951) is based on the American fiddle tune "Give the Fiddler a Dram," which his father particularly enjoyed playing. Spiritual (1947), Reed's first composition for band, is based on his recollection of overhearing the exuberant religious expression of African American churchgoers while passing by their churches as a child.
Reed's music is published by G. Schirmer, Warner Brothers, Ballerbach Music, Harrock Hall Music, Triplo Press, Allyn & Bacon, Boosey & Hawkes, Edwin A. Fleisher, EMI Mills, Neil A. Kjos, Ludwig, and H. O. Reed Music.
Writings
In addition to his compositions, Reed has published eight books on the subjects of musical composition and music theory. His scores, recordings, correspondence, and other papers have been deposited in the Michigan State University Manuscript Collection, in the Special Collections Unit of the Michigan State University Libraries.Sources
- Anon. 2005. "H. Owen Reed Music". Lilaclane.com website. (Accessed 12 November 2010)
- H O Reed Music Publications [n.d.]
- James, Richard S. 2001. "Reed, H(erbert) Owen". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
- Michigan State University Libraries. [n.d.] "H. Owen Reed Collection"
- Reed, H. Owen. 2009. "Welcome to the Home Page of H. OWEN REED, Composer Author Conductor". Michigan State University website. (Accessed 12 November 2010)
- Steinke, Greg A. 2010. "Greg Steinke, biography Greg A. Steinke: Biography". Tierra Del Mar Music. (Accessed 12 November 2010)
- Syler, James. 2001. "Interview with Dr. H. Owen Reed". Ballerbach.com (July). (Accessed 24 August 2009)
External links
- CV, Compositions, Biography, links
- H. Owen Reed Collection page from Michigan State University Manuscript Collection, Special Collections Unit, Michigan State University Libraries website
- List of contents of H. Owen Reed Collection
- H. Owen Reed biography
- Berz, William L. 2004. "Considering H. Owen Reed. Tempo [magazine of the New Jersey Music Educators Association] 59, no. 1 (October): 22–24.