Robert Suderburg is an American composer

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 pianist

Pianist

A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...

.

Biography

The son of a jazz trombonist (Richardson 1984, 885), Suderburg studied composition with Paul Fetler at the University of Minnesota

University of Minnesota

The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...

, where he received a BA in 1957. He did post-graduate studies with Richard Donovan at Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 (MM 1960), and with George Rochberg

George Rochberg

George Rochberg was an American composer of contemporary classical music.-Life:Rochberg was born in Paterson, New Jersey. He attended the Mannes College of Music, where his teachers included George Szell and Hans Weisse, and the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Rosario Scalero and...

 at the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

, where he received his PhD in 1966 with a dissertation, "Tonal Cohesion in Schoenberg's

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...

 Twelve-tone

Twelve-tone technique

Twelve-tone technique is a method of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg...

 Music".

After teaching at Bryn Mawr College

Bryn Mawr College

Bryn Mawr College is a women's liberal arts college located in Bryn Mawr, a community in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, ten miles west of Philadelphia. The name "Bryn Mawr" means "big hill" in Welsh....

, the Philadelphia Academy of Music, and the University of Pennsylvania, in 1966 he was appointed professor at the University of Washington

University of Washington

University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

 in Seattle, where he also became associate director of the University of Washington's Contemporary Group (Clarke 1967, 398), and taught there until 1974. From 1974 to 1984 he was chancellor of the North Carolina School of the Arts

North Carolina School of the Arts

The University of North Carolina School of the Arts , formerly the North Carolina School of the Arts, is a public coeducational arts conservatory in Winston-Salem, North Carolina that grants high school, undergraduate and graduate degrees. It is one of the seventeen constituent campuses of the...

, and in 1985 joined the music faculty of Williams College

Williams College

Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...

 in Williamstown, Massachusetts

Williamstown, Massachusetts

Williamstown is a town in Berkshire County, in the northwest corner of Massachusetts. It shares a border with Vermont to the north and New York to the west. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 7,754 at the 2010 census...

. He served as chair of the department from 1986 to 1995. In 1994 he was appointed to a named chair, and continued to teach until his retirement in 2001 (Anon. 2001).

Musical style

Suderburg's earlier compositions were serial

Serialism

In music, serialism is a method or technique of composition that uses a series of values to manipulate different musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though his contemporaries were also working to establish serialism as one example of...

, but in the late 1960s he abandoned twelve-tone technique

Twelve-tone technique

Twelve-tone technique is a method of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg...

 and turned to a highly personal, lyrical, basically neoromantic

Neoromanticism (music)

Neoromanticism in music is a return to the emotional expression associated with nineteenth-century Romanticism. Since the mid-1970s the term has come to be identified with neoconservative postmodernism, especially in Germany, Austria, and the United States, with composers such as Wolfgang Rihm and...

 style. His musical language is largely modal

Musical mode

In the theory of Western music since the ninth century, mode generally refers to a type of scale. This usage, still the most common in recent years, reflects a tradition dating to the middle ages, itself inspired by the theory of ancient Greek music.The word encompasses several additional...

, with Phrygian

Phrygian mode

The Phrygian mode can refer to three different musical modes: the ancient Greek tonos or harmonia sometimes called Phrygian, formed on a particular set octave species or scales; the Medieval Phrygian mode, and the modern conception of the Phrygian mode as a diatonic scale, based on the latter...

 and Lydian

Lydian mode

The Lydian musical scale is a rising pattern of pitches comprising three whole tones, a semitone, two more whole tones, and a final semitone. This sequence of pitches roughly describes the fifth of the eight Gregorian modes, known as Mode V or the authentic mode on F, theoretically using B but in...

 predominating, and occasionally adopts scale patterns characteristic of non-Western traditions, such as those of Japanese koto

Koto (musical instrument)

The koto is a traditional Japanese stringed musical instrument, similar to the Chinese guzheng, the Mongolian yatga, the Korean gayageum and the Vietnamese đàn tranh. The koto is the national instrument of Japan. Koto are about length, and made from kiri wood...

 music. Rising major sevenths and minor ninths are favoured melodic intervals

Interval (music)

In music theory, an interval is a combination of two notes, or the ratio between their frequencies. Two-note combinations are also called dyads...

, and his harmonies

Harmony

In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...

 frequently feature sounds derived from the major-seventh and major-seventh with added fourth chords. He tends to use moderate to slow underlying tempos, but with active and pliable surface rhythms, suggesting improvisation

Musical improvisation

Musical improvisation is the creative activity of immediate musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians...

 (Carlsen 2001).

Compositions (selective list)

• Concert Mass, for SATB choir (1960)
• Six Moments, for piano (1962)
• Cantata I (text: Revelations), for soprano and chamber orchestra (1963)
• Cantata II (text by the composer), for tenor and chamber orchestra (1964)
• Composition on Traditional Carols, SATB choir, congregation, brass choir (1965)
• Choruses on Poems of Yeats, soprano, tenor, SATB choir, and chamber orchestra (1966)
• Chamber Music I ("Entertainments"), for violin and cello (1967)
• Chamber Music II ("Dramatic Entertainments"), for string quartet (1967)
• Orchestra Music I (1969)
• Show, for child actor and orchestra (1970)
• Solo Music I, for violin (1971)
• Chamber Music III ("Night Set"), for trombone and piano (1972)
• Winds/Vents, for orchestra (1973)
• Concerto, Within the Mirror of Time, for piano and orchestra (1974)
• Chamber Music IV ("Ritual Series"), for percussion ensemble (1975)
• Chamber Music V ("Stevenson"), for solo voice, string quartet, and tape (1976)
• Percussion Concerto (1977)
• Voyage de nuit, concerto after Baudelaire, for solo voice and chamber orchestra (1978)
• Chamber Music VI ("Three Movements"), for violin and double bass (1980)
• Harp Concerto (1982, rev. 1989)
• Chamber Music VII ("Ceremonies"), for trumpet and piano (1984)
• Chamber Music VIII (Sonata for trumpet and piano) (1988)
• Solo Music II ("Ritual Cycle of Lyrics and Dances"), for viola (1989)
• Chamber Music IX ("Breath and Circuses"), for voice, trombone, and piano (1991)
• Chamber Music X ("Entertainment Sets"), for brass quintet (1992)
• Chamber Music XI ("Strophes of Night and Dawn after Baudelaire"), for brass quintet (1992)
• Ceremonial Music, for brass quintet (1993)
• Fanfare for Bowdoin, for brass quintet (1993)
• Solo Music III ("Bill at Colonus"), for clarinet (1997)
• Five Songs (Amerindian texts), for solo voice, children’s chorus, and piano (1997)
• Chamber Music XII ("Concerto Passages"), for brass quintet (1998)

Discography

• Chamber Music II ("Dramatic Entertainments for String Quartet"). Philadelphia String Quartet. The Contemporary Composer in the USA. [U.S.]: Turnabout, 1974. LP, TV-S 34524. With George Rochberg: String Quartet No. 2.
• Chamber Music III ("Night Set"), for trombone and piano; Chamber Music IV ("Ritual Series"), for percussion ensemble; Chamber music V ("Stevenson"), for voice, string quartet, and tape. Stuart Dempster, trombone; Robert Suderburg, piano; Elizabeth Suderburg, soprano; Ciompi String Quartet; University of Michigan Percussion Ensemble, cond. Charles Owen. Newark, N.J.: Delfcon Recording Society, 1990. CD, DRS 2127.
• Chamber music IV ("Ritual Series"). First Construction. Winthrop University Percussion Ensemble, cond. Adam Snow. [Rock Hill, S.C.]: Eagle Editions, 2002. CD. With works by Ronald Lo Presti, John Cage, Bob Becker, Camille Saint-Saëns, Charles Gounod, Manuel de Falla, and David Rose.
• Chamber Music VII ("Ceremonies"), for trumpet and piano. Mixed Doubles. Michael Hilton Tunnell, trumpet; Meme Tunnell, piano. Columbus, Ohio: Coronet, 1990. LP, LPS 3210. With works by Donald H. White, David Liptak.
• Chamber Music VII ("Ceremonies", and Chamber Music VIII (Sonata for trumpet in C and piano). Trumpet Works. Charles Schlueter, trumpet; Deborah DeWolf Emery, piano. White Plains, N.Y.: Kleos Classics, 2003. CD, KL5126. With Jean Hubeau
  Jean Hubeau
  Jean Hubeau was a French pianist, composer and pedagogue.- Biography :Admitted at the age of 9 years to the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, he studied composition with Paul Dukas, piano with Lazare Lévy, harmony with Jean Gallon, and counterpoint with Noël Gallon...
  
  , Sonata for trumpet and piano; Paul Hindemith, Sonata for trumpet and piano.
• Chamber Music VII ("Ceremonies"), for trumpet and piano. The International Trumpet Guild Presents Terry Everson. Terry Everson, trumpet; Susan Nowicki, piano. International Trumpet Guild. CD, ITG 001. Issued with the Journal of the International Trumpet Guild 16, no. 1 (1991). With works by Peter Maxwell Davies, Robert Henderson, Jacques Castérède, Fisher Tull, and Aaron Copland.
• Chamber Music VII: ("Ceremonies"), and Chamber Music VIII (Sonata for trumpet in C and piano). Bravura Trumpet. Charles Schlueter, trumpet; Robert Suderburg, piano. Englewood Cliffs, NJ : Vox Classics, 1995. CD, VOX 7513.
• Chamber Music VIII (Sonata for trumpet in C and piano). Parable. Terry Everson, trumpet; Susan Nowicki, piano. Heerenveen, Holland: De Haske Classical, 1997. CD, DHR 197.006. With music by Joseph Turrin, Norman Dello Joio, Vincent Persichetti, Jan Krzywicki, and Augusta Read Thomas.
• Chamber Music XI ("Strophes of Night and Dawn after Baudelaire"), for brass quintet. Strophes of the Night and Dawn. Florida State Brass Quintet. Camus, WA: Crystal Records, 1997. CD, 566. With music by J. S. Bach, Richard Peaslee, John Cheetham, Gwyneth Walker, Steven Everett, and Jan Koetsier.
• Concerto Within the Mirror of Time, for piano and orchestra. Béla Siki, piano; Seattle Symphony Orchestra, cond. Milton Katims. New York: Odyssey, 1976. LP, Y 34140. With William Schuman: Symphony no. 8.
• “Sanctus”, from the Concert Mass. Portland State University Chamber Choir, cond. Bruce Brown. Albany Records. CD, TROY 243. With works by Bryan Johanson, Tomas Svoboda, Salvador Brotons, Vijay Singh, and Norman Dinerstein. Reissued online, New York: DRAM, 2007. Streaming audio, TR243. (Subscription access)
• Solo Music I, for unaccompanied violin, and Solo music II: Ritual Cycle of Lyrics and Dance, for unaccompanied viola. 20th Century Bravura Chamber Music. Elizabeth Suderburg, soprano; Timothy Baker, violin; Donald McInnes, viola; Russell Miller, piano. Pleasantville, N.Y.: Kleos Classics, 2000. CD, KL 5106. With Charles Martin Loeffler: Quatre poèmes, for voice, viola and piano, op. 5; Paul Hindemith: Sonata for viola and piano, op. 11 no. 4.
• Voyage de nuit (Concerto d'après Baudelaire). Elizabeth Suderburg, soprano; Piedmont Chamber Orchestra, cond. Nicholas Harsanyi. Turnabout, 1981. LP, TV 34776. With Benjamin Britten: Les illuminations, op. 18.

Sources

• Anon. 2001. "Five Williams College Faculty Retire". Williams College press release.
• Carlsen, Philip. 2001. "Suderburg, Robert". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. New York: Grove's Dictionaries.
• Clarke, Henry Leland. 1967. "Current Chronicle: United States: Seattle". Musical Quarterly 53, no. 3 (July): 397–400.
• Richardson, William. 1984. [untitled review], MLA Notes second series, 40, No. 4 (June): 884–85.

External links

• "Robert Suderburg" at publisher's website, Theodore Presser Company
  Theodore Presser Company
  The Theodore Presser Company is an American music publishing and distribution company located in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania and formerly based in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. It is the oldest continuing music publisher in the United States.-Theodore Presser:...