Robert Moffat Palmer
Encyclopedia
Robert Moffat Palmer (b. June 2, 1915, Syracuse, New York; d. July 3, 2010, Ithaca, New York) was an American composer, pianist and educator. He composed more than 90 works, including two symphonies, Nabuchodonosor (an oratorio), a piano concerto, four string quartets, three piano sonatas and numerous works for chamber ensembles.
, he soon became a composition major. At Eastman he studied with Howard Hanson
and Bernard Rogers
, earning bachelor's (1938) and master's (1940) degrees in composition. He undertook additional studies with Quincy Porter
, Roy Harris
and, at the first composition class at the Tanglewood Music Center
in 1940, with Aaron Copland
.
Palmer came to national attention in an article titled "Robert Palmer and Charles Mills" published in 1943 by critic Paul Rosenfeld
in Modern Music. Rosenfeld hails two "new, impressive, distinctive works" by Palmer," noting "an impression of robustness and maturity." In the Concerto for Small Orchestra (1940), Rosenfeld discerns a "quite original opening movement, (whose) clash of melodies in contrary motion was magnificent and fierce," signaling "a new composer to be watched with happy expectation."
Further national attention came with the publication in 1948 by Aaron Copland
of an article in the New York Times titled "The New 'School' of American Composers." Copland's article singles out Palmer as one of seven composers "representative of some of the best we have to offer the new generation," adding that "Palmer happens to be one of my own particular enthusiasms." In Palmer's first two string quartets, Copland discerns "separate movements of true originality and depth of feeling," observing that "always his music has urgency—it seems to come from some inner need for expression."
Early in his career, Palmer taught music theory, composition and piano at the University of Kansas
from 1940 until 1943.
, where he was appointed Given Foundation Professor of Music in 1976. According to Pulitzer Prize
-winning composer Steven Stucky
, Chair of the Board of Directors of the American Music Center
and a former Palmer student, "(Palmer) founded the doctoral program in music composition at Cornell University, which was the first in the United States (and quite possibly the world)." Writing in Clavier magazine in 1989, pianist Ramon Salvatore observed that "(Palmer's) influence on two generations of Cornell composers has been enormous; many of his former students now hold university and college professorships throughout the United States" Additionally, Palmer served as visiting composer at Illinois Wesleyan University
in 1954 and as the George A. Miller Professor of Composition at the University of Illinois in 1955-56.
Many of Palmer's most distinctive works date from his Cornell period. Steven Stucky
remarks that Palmer "once seemed poised to become a leading national figure. A steady stream of first-rate pieces attracted top performers in concert and on recordings: the Second Piano Sonata (1942; 1948), championed by John Kirkpatrick; Toccata Ostinato (1945), a boogie-woogie in 13/8 written for pianist William Kapell
; the first Piano Quartet (1947); the Chamber Concerto No. 1 (1949); the Quintet for Clarinet, Piano, and Strings (1952). Most influential of these was the mighty Piano Quartet, which used to loom large as one of the major accomplishments of American chamber music."
Echoing this assessment, Robert Evett, in a review written in 1970 for the Washington Evening Star of Palmer's first Piano Quartet (1947), found it "one of the most engrossing works of a superb American composer . . . . At its premiere, it was a triumph. It was a triumph again last night."
Palmer's publishers include Elkan-Vogel, Peer International, C. F. Peters Corporation, G. Schirmer Inc., Valley Music Press, and Alphonse Leduc-Robert King, Inc. Palmer's students include Pulitzer Prize
-winning composers Steven Stucky
and Christopher Rouse
and composers Paul Chihara
, Bernhard Heiden
, Brian Israel
, David Conte
, John S. Hilliard
, Leonard Lehrman
, Daniel Dorff
, and Jack Gallagher.
, observes that "through recordings and published scores . . . (Palmer's) fairly large but scattered audience can now confirm the predictions of Paul Rosenfeld
and Aaron Copland
that Palmer would rank among the leading musical representatives of his generation." Austin notes "the works (Palmer) creates are taut and sturdy" and cites as characteristic Palmer's use of asymmetrical rhythm and meter, the octatonic scale
, "imitative counterpoint" and "expansion of phrases by varied repetition." Austin holds that "Palmer sings with a kind of devout serenity" of the "grim, divided, disappointed world of the 1940s and '50s, doggedly refusing to despair, no matter how often its hopes for liberty, equality and fraternity must be deferred. . . His best music ranks with the best means available for all who share this outlook."
The previous year (1955), Herbert Livingston described the premiere performance of Palmer's String Quartet No. 3 at the University of Michigan
as "the most recent addition to the distinguished series of works commissioned by the University for the Stanley Quartet (others cited by Livingston included quartets and quintets by Walter Piston
, Quincy Porter
, Wallingford Riegger
, Darius Milhaud
, and Heitor Villa-Lobos
). It is both a significant contribution to the repertory of contemporary American chamber music and a work that reveals new developments in the composer's style." Livingston adds, "every refinement of its complex structure contributes positively to the expressiveness of the music."
The premiere performance in 1963 of Palmer's oratorio, Nabuchodonosor, lasting 40 minutes, was greeted by The Musical Quarterly
's William C. Holmes as "a culminating point in Robert Palmer's more than twenty-five years as an active composer. . . It is his largest and most ambitiously conceived work to date. It is a forceful, rough-hewn cry of defiance against tyranny in all forms and, as such, cannot help but move anyone who shares Palmer's views on this subject." Holmes takes note of "the exciting forcefulness that carries one with it to the climax" and of the coda that follows—intended, says Holmes, "to convey a serene greeting of peace to mankind."
Arthur Cohn, surveying four works by Palmer in The Literature of Chamber Music (1997), detects "brilliant contrapuntalism" in Palmer's "vitally communicative music." Cohn notes that "in Palmer's hands repetition is always paralleled by change" and finds "positive tonalism, broadened and colored by contemporary expansion" in the music of "this American composer of virile voice."
In a eulogy written in 2010 for the American Music Center
, AMC Chair of the Board of Directors and former Palmer student Steven Stucky
noted that "Austin captures the grave lyricism that makes Palmer memorable, but no less important was his lively rhythmic language, which owed a debt in equal parts to American vernacular music, jazz, and Renaissance polyphony." Stucky concludes that "Palmer's music is ripe for rediscovery by a wider public, and it lives on in those who knew him, and those who celebrate him now for a life well and generously lived."
According to Daniel Aioi, Palmer's "body of work resides at Cornell in the Sidney Cox Library of Music and Dance and in the University Archives in Olin Library."
Education and Early Career
Born in Syracuse, New York, Palmer began, at age 12, piano studies with his mother. He attended Syracuse's Central High School, undertaking pre-college studies in piano and additional study of violin and music theory at the Syracuse Music School Settlement. Awarded a piano scholarship to the Eastman School of MusicEastman 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...
, he soon became a composition major. At Eastman he studied 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...
, earning bachelor's (1938) and master's (1940) degrees in composition. He undertook additional studies with Quincy Porter
Quincy Porter
Quincy Porter was an American composer and teacher of classical music.Born in New Haven, Connecticut, he went to Yale University where his teachers included Horatio Parker and David Stanley Smith. Porter received two awards while studying music at Yale: the Osborne Prize for Fugue, and the...
, 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...
and, at the first composition class at the Tanglewood 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...
in 1940, 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"...
.
Palmer came to national attention in an article titled "Robert Palmer and Charles Mills" published in 1943 by critic Paul Rosenfeld
Paul Rosenfeld
Paul Leopold Rosenfeld was an American journalist, best known as a music critic.He was born in New York City into a German-Jewish family...
in Modern Music. Rosenfeld hails two "new, impressive, distinctive works" by Palmer," noting "an impression of robustness and maturity." In the Concerto for Small Orchestra (1940), Rosenfeld discerns a "quite original opening movement, (whose) clash of melodies in contrary motion was magnificent and fierce," signaling "a new composer to be watched with happy expectation."
Further national attention came with the publication in 1948 by 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"...
of an article in the New York Times titled "The New 'School' of American Composers." Copland's article singles out Palmer as one of seven composers "representative of some of the best we have to offer the new generation," adding that "Palmer happens to be one of my own particular enthusiasms." In Palmer's first two string quartets, Copland discerns "separate movements of true originality and depth of feeling," observing that "always his music has urgency—it seems to come from some inner need for expression."
Early in his career, Palmer taught music theory, composition and piano at the University of Kansas
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas is a public research university and the largest university in the state of Kansas. KU campuses are located in Lawrence, Wichita, Overland Park, and Kansas City, Kansas with the main campus being located in Lawrence on Mount Oread, the highest point in Lawrence. The...
from 1940 until 1943.
Later Career and Founder of First U. S. Doctoral Program in Music Composition
From 1943 until his retirement in 1980 Palmer served as a member of the faculty at Cornell UniversityCornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
, where he was appointed Given Foundation Professor of Music in 1976. According to Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning composer Steven Stucky
Steven Stucky
Steven Stucky is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer.Stucky was born in Hutchinson, Kansas. At age 9, he moved with his family to Abilene, Texas, where, as a teenager, he studied music in the public schools and, privately, viola with Herbert Preston, conducting with Leo Scheer, and...
, Chair of the Board of Directors of the American Music Center
American Music Center
The American Music Center is a non-profit organization which aims to promote the creating, performing, and enjoying new American music. The organization was founded in 1939 by composers Marion Bauer, Aaron Copland, Howard Hanson, Harrison Kerr, Otto Luening, and Quincy Porter.The organization has a...
and a former Palmer student, "(Palmer) founded the doctoral program in music composition at Cornell University, which was the first in the United States (and quite possibly the world)." Writing in Clavier magazine in 1989, pianist Ramon Salvatore observed that "(Palmer's) influence on two generations of Cornell composers has been enormous; many of his former students now hold university and college professorships throughout the United States" Additionally, Palmer served as visiting composer at Illinois Wesleyan University
Illinois Wesleyan University
Illinois Wesleyan University is an independent undergraduate university located in Bloomington, Illinois. Founded in 1850, the central portion of the present campus was acquired in 1854 with the first building erected in 1856...
in 1954 and as the George A. Miller Professor of Composition at the University of Illinois in 1955-56.
Many of Palmer's most distinctive works date from his Cornell period. Steven Stucky
Steven Stucky
Steven Stucky is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer.Stucky was born in Hutchinson, Kansas. At age 9, he moved with his family to Abilene, Texas, where, as a teenager, he studied music in the public schools and, privately, viola with Herbert Preston, conducting with Leo Scheer, and...
remarks that Palmer "once seemed poised to become a leading national figure. A steady stream of first-rate pieces attracted top performers in concert and on recordings: the Second Piano Sonata (1942; 1948), championed by John Kirkpatrick; Toccata Ostinato (1945), a boogie-woogie in 13/8 written for pianist William Kapell
William Kapell
William Kapell was an outstanding American pianist who was killed in the crash of a commercial airliner.-Biography:...
; the first Piano Quartet (1947); the Chamber Concerto No. 1 (1949); the Quintet for Clarinet, Piano, and Strings (1952). Most influential of these was the mighty Piano Quartet, which used to loom large as one of the major accomplishments of American chamber music."
Echoing this assessment, Robert Evett, in a review written in 1970 for the Washington Evening Star of Palmer's first Piano Quartet (1947), found it "one of the most engrossing works of a superb American composer . . . . At its premiere, it was a triumph. It was a triumph again last night."
Palmer's publishers include Elkan-Vogel, Peer International, C. F. Peters Corporation, G. Schirmer Inc., Valley Music Press, and Alphonse Leduc-Robert King, Inc. Palmer's students include Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning composers Steven Stucky
Steven Stucky
Steven Stucky is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer.Stucky was born in Hutchinson, Kansas. At age 9, he moved with his family to Abilene, Texas, where, as a teenager, he studied music in the public schools and, privately, viola with Herbert Preston, conducting with Leo Scheer, and...
and Christopher Rouse
Christopher Rouse
Christopher Rouse is an American composer.-Biography:Rouse studied with Richard Hoffmann at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, graduating in 1971, and later completed graduate degrees under Karel Husa at Cornell University in 1977. In between, Rouse studied privately with George Crumb...
and composers Paul Chihara
Paul Chihara
Paul Seiko Chihara is an American composer.Chihara was born in Seattle, Washington in 1938. A Japanese American, he spent several years of his childhood with his family in an internment camp in Minidoka, Idaho....
, Bernhard Heiden
Bernhard Heiden
Bernhard Heiden was a German and American composer and music teacher, who studied under and was heavily influenced by Paul Hindemith...
, Brian Israel
Brian Israel
Brian Israel , was an American composer, pianist, and conductor. He was a faculty member of the Syracuse University School of Music from 1975 until his death, at age 35, from leukemia...
, David Conte
David Conte
David Conte is an American composer. He has been a Professor of Composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music since 1985, and Composer-in-Residence with Thick Description since 1990....
, John S. Hilliard
John S. Hilliard
John Stanley Hilliard is an American composer.Born into a family of musical amateurs, John Hilliard began his musical training by studying piano at the age of 6 from his cousin, a local piano teacher...
, Leonard Lehrman
Leonard Lehrman
Leonard J[ordan] Lehrman was born in Kansas, on August 20, 1949, but grew up in Roslyn, NY, becoming the youngest private composition student of Elie Siegmeister . Since Aug...
, Daniel Dorff
Daniel Dorff
Daniel Dorff is an American composer, and is regarded as one of the most influential of his generation...
, and Jack Gallagher.
Style and Reception
William Austin, writing in 1956 in The Musical QuarterlyThe Musical Quarterly
The Musical Quarterly is the oldest academic journal on music in America. Originally established in 1915 by Oscar Sonneck, the journal was edited by Sonneck until his death in 1928...
, observes that "through recordings and published scores . . . (Palmer's) fairly large but scattered audience can now confirm the predictions of Paul Rosenfeld
Paul Rosenfeld
Paul Leopold Rosenfeld was an American journalist, best known as a music critic.He was born in New York City into a German-Jewish family...
and 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"...
that Palmer would rank among the leading musical representatives of his generation." Austin notes "the works (Palmer) creates are taut and sturdy" and cites as characteristic Palmer's use of asymmetrical rhythm and meter, the octatonic scale
Octatonic scale
An octatonic scale is any eight-note musical scale. Among the most famous of these is a scale in which the notes ascend in alternating intervals of a whole step and a half step, creating a symmetric scale...
, "imitative counterpoint" and "expansion of phrases by varied repetition." Austin holds that "Palmer sings with a kind of devout serenity" of the "grim, divided, disappointed world of the 1940s and '50s, doggedly refusing to despair, no matter how often its hopes for liberty, equality and fraternity must be deferred. . . His best music ranks with the best means available for all who share this outlook."
The previous year (1955), Herbert Livingston described the premiere performance of Palmer's String Quartet No. 3 at the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
as "the most recent addition to the distinguished series of works commissioned by the University for the Stanley Quartet (others cited by Livingston included quartets and quintets by Walter Piston
Walter Piston
Walter Hamor Piston Jr., , was an American composer of classical music, music theorist and professor of music at Harvard University whose students included Leroy Anderson, Leonard Bernstein, and Elliott Carter....
, Quincy Porter
Quincy Porter
Quincy Porter was an American composer and teacher of classical music.Born in New Haven, Connecticut, he went to Yale University where his teachers included Horatio Parker and David Stanley Smith. Porter received two awards while studying music at Yale: the Osborne Prize for Fugue, and the...
, Wallingford Riegger
Wallingford Riegger
Wallingford Constantine Riegger was a prolific American music composer, well known for orchestral and modern dance music, and film scores...
, Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as The Group of Six—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions are influenced by jazz and make use of polytonality...
, and Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos was a Brazilian composer, described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the best-known and most significant Latin American composer to date. He wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works...
). It is both a significant contribution to the repertory of contemporary American chamber music and a work that reveals new developments in the composer's style." Livingston adds, "every refinement of its complex structure contributes positively to the expressiveness of the music."
The premiere performance in 1963 of Palmer's oratorio, Nabuchodonosor, lasting 40 minutes, was greeted by The Musical Quarterly
The Musical Quarterly
The Musical Quarterly is the oldest academic journal on music in America. Originally established in 1915 by Oscar Sonneck, the journal was edited by Sonneck until his death in 1928...
's William C. Holmes as "a culminating point in Robert Palmer's more than twenty-five years as an active composer. . . It is his largest and most ambitiously conceived work to date. It is a forceful, rough-hewn cry of defiance against tyranny in all forms and, as such, cannot help but move anyone who shares Palmer's views on this subject." Holmes takes note of "the exciting forcefulness that carries one with it to the climax" and of the coda that follows—intended, says Holmes, "to convey a serene greeting of peace to mankind."
Arthur Cohn, surveying four works by Palmer in The Literature of Chamber Music (1997), detects "brilliant contrapuntalism" in Palmer's "vitally communicative music." Cohn notes that "in Palmer's hands repetition is always paralleled by change" and finds "positive tonalism, broadened and colored by contemporary expansion" in the music of "this American composer of virile voice."
In a eulogy written in 2010 for the American Music Center
American Music Center
The American Music Center is a non-profit organization which aims to promote the creating, performing, and enjoying new American music. The organization was founded in 1939 by composers Marion Bauer, Aaron Copland, Howard Hanson, Harrison Kerr, Otto Luening, and Quincy Porter.The organization has a...
, AMC Chair of the Board of Directors and former Palmer student Steven Stucky
Steven Stucky
Steven Stucky is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer.Stucky was born in Hutchinson, Kansas. At age 9, he moved with his family to Abilene, Texas, where, as a teenager, he studied music in the public schools and, privately, viola with Herbert Preston, conducting with Leo Scheer, and...
noted that "Austin captures the grave lyricism that makes Palmer memorable, but no less important was his lively rhythmic language, which owed a debt in equal parts to American vernacular music, jazz, and Renaissance polyphony." Stucky concludes that "Palmer's music is ripe for rediscovery by a wider public, and it lives on in those who knew him, and those who celebrate him now for a life well and generously lived."
According to Daniel Aioi, Palmer's "body of work resides at Cornell in the Sidney Cox Library of Music and Dance and in the University Archives in Olin Library."
Commissioned Works
- Concerto for Small Orchestra (1940); commissioned by CBSCBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
and the League of ComposersLeague of ComposersThe League of Composers/International Society for Contemporary Music is a society whose stated mission is "to produce the highest quality performances of new music, to champion American composers in the United States and abroad, and to introduce American audiences to the best new music from around... - Second String Quartet (1943; rev. 1947); commissioned by the Sergei Koussevitzky Music Foundation
- Variations, Chorale and Fugue for orchestra (1947; rev. 1954); commissioned by Dimitri Mitropoulos and the Minneapolis Symphony
- Quintet for Piano and Strings(1950); commissioned by the Elizabeth Sprague CoolidgeElizabeth Sprague CoolidgeElizabeth Sprague Coolidge aka Liz Coolidge , born Elizabeth Penn Sprague, was an American pianist and patron of music, especially of chamber music....
Foundation - Quintet for Clarinet, Piano and Strings (1952; rev. 1953); commissioned by the Quincy, Illinois Chamber Music Society
- String Quartet No. 3 (1954); commissioned by the Stanley Foundation of the University of MichiganUniversity of MichiganThe University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
- Of Night and the Sea (1956); commissioned by the Paul FrommPaul FrommFrederick Paul Fromm , known as Paul Fromm, is a Canadian neo-Nazi and Holocaust denier, based in Port Credit, Ontario. He hosts a radio show on the Stormfront web site and has ties to former Ku Klux Klan members David Duke and Don Black...
Music Foundation - Centennial Overture (1965); commissioned by Cornell UniversityCornell UniversityCornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
and Lincoln Center for the Performing ArtsLincoln Center for the Performing ArtsLincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of New York City's Upper West Side. Reynold Levy has been its president since 2002.-History and facilities:... - Quartet No. 2 for Piano and Strings (1974); commissioned by the Galzio Quartet, Caracas, Venezuela
- Piano Sonata No. 3 (1979); commissioned by Ramon Salvatore
- Cello Sonata No. 2 (1983); commissioned by the Hans KindlerHans KindlerJohannes Hendrikus Philip "Hans" Kindler was an American cellist and conductor.Kindler was born in Rotterdam, The Netherlands where he attended the Rotterdams Conservatorium....
Foundation, Washington, DC
Notable Performances
- Piano Sonata No. 1 (1938) premiered March 26, 1940 in New York by pianist John Kirkpatrick
- Concerto for Small Orchestra (1940) premiered in 1941 by the CBSCBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
Orchestra - Toccata Ostinato (1944) for piano commissioned, premiered, dedicated to and recorded by William KapellWilliam KapellWilliam Kapell was an outstanding American pianist who was killed in the crash of a commercial airliner.-Biography:...
- Quartet for Piano and Strings (1947) Premiered in 1947 by John Kirkpatrick, pianist, and members of the Walden Quartet
- Quintet for Piano and Strings (1950) premiered in 1951 at the Library of CongressLibrary of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
by the Juilliard String QuartetJuilliard String QuartetThe Juilliard String Quartet is a classical music string quartet founded in 1946 at the Juilliard School in New York. The original members were violinists Robert Mann and Robert Koff, violist Raphael Hillyer, and cellist Arthur Winograd; Current members are Joseph Lin and Ronald Copes violinists,...
and pianist Erich Itor KahnErich Itor KahnErich Itor Kahn was a German composer of Jewish descent, who emigrated to the United States during the years of National Socialism.-Biography:... - String Quartet No. 3 (1954) premiered July 12, 1955 by the Stanley Quartet at the University of MichiganUniversity of MichiganThe University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
- Centennial Overture (1965) premiered March 12, 1965 at Lincoln Center for the Performing ArtsLincoln Center for the Performing ArtsLincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of New York City's Upper West Side. Reynold Levy has been its president since 2002.-History and facilities:...
and broadcast nationally by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by George Cleve. - Organon II (1975), for string orchestra, premiered April 4, 1975 by the Rochester Philharmonic OrchestraRochester Philharmonic OrchestraThe Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra is an American orchestra based in the city of Rochester, Monroe County, New York. Its primary concert venue is the Eastman Theatre at the Eastman School of Music....
conducted by David ZinmanDavid ZinmanDavid Zinman is an American conductor and violinist.After early violin studies at the Oberlin Conservatory, Zinman studied theory and composition at the University of Minnesota and took up conducting at Tanglewood...
.
Awards
- National Academy of Arts and Letters, 1946
- Guggenheim FellowshipGuggenheim FellowshipGuggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
, 1952 - Guggenheim FellowshipGuggenheim FellowshipGuggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
, 1960 - Fulbright Grant, 1960
- National Endowment for the ArtsNational Endowment for the ArtsThe National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
grant, 1980
Orchestral
- Poem for violin and chamber orchestra (1938)
- Concerto for Small Orchestra (1940)
- K 19, symphonic elegy for Thomas Wolfe
- Variations, Chorale and Fugue (1947; rev. 1954)
- Chamber Concerto for violin, oboe and string orchestra (1949)
- Symphony No. 1 (1953)
- Memorial Music (1960)
- Centennial Overture (1965)
- Symphony No. 2 (1966)
- Piano Concerto (1971)
- Symphonia concertante for nine instruments (1972)
- Organon II for string orchestra (1975)
- Concerto for two pianos, two percussion, strings and brass (1984)
Choral
- Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight for chorus and orchestra (1948)
- Slow, Slow, Fresh Fount for SATB chorus (1953; rev. 1959)
- The Trojan Women for women's chorus, winds and percussion (1955)
- And in That Day for chorus (1963)
- Nabuchodonosor for tenor and bass soloists, TTBB chorus, winds, percussion, and two pianos (1964)
- Portents of Aquarius for narrator, SATB chorus and organ (1975)
Chamber Ensemble
- String Quartet No. 1 (1939)
- Concerto for five instruments (1943)
- String Quartet No. 2 (1943; rev. 1947)
- Piano Quartet No. 1 (1947)
- Piano Quintet (1950)
- Sonata for viola and piano (1951)
- Quintet for clarinet, string trio, and piano (1952; rev. 1953)
- String Quartet No. 3 (1954)
- Sonata for violin and piano (1956)
- Piano Trio (1958)
- String Quartet No. 4 (1960)
- Organon I for flute and clarinet (1962)
- Sonata for trumpet and piano (1972)
- Piano Quartet No. 2 (1974)
- Organon II for violin and viola (1975)
- Sonata No. 1 for cello and piano (1978)
- Sonata No. 2 for cello and piano (1983)
Vocal
- Two Songs (Walt Whitman) for voice and piano (1940)
- Carmina Amoris for soprano, clarinet, violin and piano (1951)
- Of Night and the Sea, chamber cantata for soprano and bass soloists and orchestra (1956)
Keyboard
- Piano Sonata No. 1 (1938; rev. 1946)
- Three Preludes for piano (1941)
- Piano Sonata No. 2 (1942; rev. 1948)
- Sonata for two pianos (1944)
- Toccata Ostinato for piano (1944)
- Sonata for piano four hands (1952)
- Evening Music for piano (1956)
- Seven Epigrams for piano (1957)
- Epithalamium for organ (1968)
- Morning Music for piano (1973)
- Piano Sonata No. 3 (1979)
Sources
- Aioi, Daniel. "Retired music professor Robert Palmer dies at age 95", Cornell Chronicle Online, July 8, 2010. Retrieved 2011-06-07.
- Anderson, E. Ruth. "Palmer, Robert M." Contemporary American Composers: A Biographical Dictionary (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1976), ISBN 978-0-8161-1117-6. Digitized by the Internet Archive, 2010. Retrieved 2011-05-15.
- Austin, William. "The Music of Robert Palmer", The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 42, No. 1 (Jan. 1956), pp. 35–50.
- Austin, William W. 1986. "Palmer, Robert (Moffat)". The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, Vol. 3, edited by H. Wiley Hitchcock and Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan.
- Austin, William W. 2001. "Palmer, Robert (Moffett)". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan.
- Austin, William W., Music in the 20th Century (NY: W. W. Norton, 1966), ISBN 978-0-393-09704-7, p. 441.
- Cohn, Arthur. The Literature of Chamber Music (Chapel Hill, NC: Hinshaw Music, 1997), ISBN 978-0-937276-16-7, Vol. 3, pp. 2067–2069.
- Copland, Aaron. "The New School of American Composers", The New York Times, March 4, 1948.
- Ewen, David. American Composers: A Biographical Dictionary (NY: Putnam, 1982), ISBN 978-0-399-12626-0, pp. 487–489.
- Holmes, William C. "Current Chronicle", The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 50, No. 3 (Jul. 1964), pp. 367–370.
- Livingston, Herbert. "Current Chronicle", The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 41, No. 4 (Oct. 1955), pp. 511–514.
- "Robert M. Palmer", Ithaca Journal obituary, Robert M. Palmer Obituary: View Robert Palmer's Obituary by Ithaca Journal July 5–7, 2010. Retrieved 2011-06-07.
- Rosenfeld, Paul. "Robert Palmer and Charles Mills", Modern Music, XX, May–June 1943, pp. 264–266.
- Salvatore, Raymond. "The Piano Music of Robert Palmer", Clavier, April 1989, Vol. 28, No. 4: 22–30.
- Slonimsky, Nicholas. 1958. "Palmer, Robert." Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 5th ed. (NY: G. Schirmer, 1958), pp. 1203–1204.
- Stucky, Steven. "Remembering Robert Moffat Palmer (1915-2010)."
External links
- "Remembering Robert Moffat Palmer (1915-2010)"
- "Retired music professor Robert Palmer dies at age 95"
- "Robert M. Palmer" obituary, Ithaca Journal
- MP3 download of Toccata Ostinato at Rhapsody.com
- MP3 download of Quartet No. 1 for Piano and Strings at mediafire.com
- MP3 download of Quintet for A-Clarinet, String Trio and Piano at Amazon.com