David Diamond

Composer, educator

The American composer and teacher David Diamond wrote in a wide variety of styles and in virtually every medium. The strength of his music lay in its imposing formal design and its serious expression, although it also embodied lyrical warmth and romanticism. Diamond was one of a group of composers who forged a distinctly American idiom of classical music in the middle of the twentieth century. He lived long enough to see his music fall out of favor due to the influence of the European-devised 12-tone system, and then to witness its revival during the more eclectic scene at the end of the twentieth century.

David Diamond was born on July 9, 1915, in Rochester, New York. He was the son of Austrian-Polish Jewish immigrants who could not afford to cultivate the musical aptitude that their son showed from about the age of six. Fortunately, the young boy's abilities also impressed others who were in a better position to help him. At a public school in Rochester, he received a violin and free lessons, and in 1927, when the family moved to Cleveland, André de Ribaupierre taught him violin and theory without remuneration at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Upon returning to Rochester in 1929, Diamond entered the preparatory department of the Eastman School of Music on a scholarship, studying violin with Effie Knauss and composition with Bernard Rogers. He continued at Eastman as an undergraduate after finishing high school in 1933, but left after one year to move to New York. Again on a scholarship, he studied the Dalcroze method of Eurhythmics with Paul Boepple and composition with Roger Sessions at the New School from 1934 to 1936, and continued privately with Sessions until 1937.

Diamond made three trips to Paris in the mid-to-late 1930s (the last through funds from the first of three Guggenheim Fellowships), where he studied with the famous French teacher Nadia Boulanger and met many of the great artists then living in Paris, such as Albert Roussel, Igor Stravinsky, Maurice Ravel, André Gide, and Charles Munch. Important compositions from these Paris years include the first of his three violin concertos (1936, 1947, and 1967); Psalm for orchestra (1936), his first work to receive wide attention and also the Juilliard Publication Award in 1938; a cello concerto (1938); and Heroic Piece (1938) for small orchestra. He applied for a job teaching at Columbia University in 1938 but was turned down, and he recalled to Chris Pasles of the Los Angeles Times that he was told he should "stop wearing turtleneck sweaters," which he believed was an indication that he should keep his homosexuality in the closet.

Germany's declaration of war on France in 1939 brought Diamond back to the United States for most of the next 12 years. At first he had to scramble financially, working the night shift at a soda counter and then landing a spot as violinist in the orchestra of the weekly Hit Parade radio show. During this time he composed both chamber and orchestral works, and their performance attracted financial support from foundations and other funders. Among his chamber works of the period are the first three of his eleven string quartets; a piano quartet for which he won the Paderewsky Prize (1938); a concerto for two solo pianos (1942); a sonata for piano (1947); and a Chaconne for violin and piano (1948). Orchestral works of the period include the first four of his eight symphonies; The Dream of Audubon, a ballet (1941); music for Shakespeare's The Tempest for orchestra (1944); Rounds for string orchestra (1944); music for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet for orchestra (1947); and a piano concerto (1950).

Diamond lectured on American music in Salzburg during the summer of 1949, and two years later went to Italy on a Fulbright Fellowship. His motivations for leaving were complex. Diamond's brand of accessible orchestral music was being temporarily eclipsed by the difficult, rigorously intellectual 12-tone method. He also pointed to anti-Semitism and resistance to his open homosexuality as reasons for a decline in the performance of his works in the United States, and he was dismayed by a subpoena to appear before the U.S. House of Un-American Activities Committee. He stayed in Italy, first in Rome and then in Florence, for 14 years, returning to the United States on two occasions (1961 and 1963) to teach at the State University of New York at Buffalo as Slee Professor of Music. The years in Italy proved musically productive for Diamond, who composed works including The Midnight Meditation, a cycle for voice and piano (1951); a piano trio (1951); string quartets 4-8; symphonies 5-8; sonatas for solo violin (1954) and for cello (1956); Sinfonia Concertante (1954–1956); The World of Paul Klee for orchestra (1957); a woodwind quintet (1958); The Sacred Ground for baritone, chorus, children's chorus, and orchestra (1962); and Elegies for flute, English horn, and strings (1963).

Returning to the United States in 1965, Diamond became chair of the composition department at the Manhattan School of Music; he resigned in 1967. A position as composer-in-residence at the American Academy of Rome drew him back to Italy during 1971 and 1972. After 1973 he was professor of composition at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. Some of his better-known compositions from the years 1964 to 1984 were We Two (1964), Hebrew Melodies (1967), and The Fall (cycles for voice and piano, 1970); Music for Chamber Orchestra (1969); The Noblest Game, (an opera, 1971–1975); a piano quintet (1972); and Ode to the Morning of Christ's Nativity for a cappella chorus (1980).

Several writers have suggested that the early 1950s marked a rather abrupt change to a dissonant and nontonal style, some even stating that Diamond had taken up the 12-tone method. Diamond himself refuted this last statement in an article appearing in the New York Times, saying, "I am not now and never have been a 12-tone composer." He even commented to Matt Schudel of the Washington Post: "I hated all that avant-garde stuff. It was all wrong. They don't write out of love." While his music became gradually less tonal in later years, he always commanded a variety of styles, which he used according to the function of the music. The music for Broadway productions of Shakespeare plays, for instance, was quite lush and tonal, while the more absolute works, such as the fourth symphony, frequently involved a more complicated language (here polytonality). As the grip of the 12-tone system over American compositional life began to loosen, Diamond's works enjoyed a revival in popularity. He was championed by conductors such as Leonard Bernstein and by Seattle Symphony music director Gerard Schwarz.

The 1980s and 1990s saw works such as the ninth symphony in a series that Diamond had begun nearly 45 years earlier. The symphonies were introduced steadily from 1940 until 1965, but it was not until 1985 that Diamond finally unveiled the ninth. In 1996, the Juilliard Orchestra performed the world premiere of Diamond's Concerto For String Quartet and Orchestra, which the Juilliard School commissioned from Diamond in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Juilliard Quartet. The performance met high praise, notably from the Village Voice's Leighton Kerner, who wrote, "American music boasts no composer more brilliant or more melodically imaginative, and this new concerto bears out the fact." Even at 81 years of age, Diamond seemed to have boundless reservoirs of creativity and energy.

Modern rhythmic complexities energized his later compositions such as Warning for chorus and tubular bells (1973). While thus embracing some of the innovations of the twentieth century, Diamond rejected others, most emphatically the aleatoric or chance music of John Cage and his followers. Reflecting on his career, Diamond commented, "One hopes the future will bring my music to a larger audience, one not interested in Trends and The Now, but music for All Time, for all humanity." He remained active into old age, completing his Symphony No. 11 in 1991 in response to a commission from the New York Philharmonic Orchestra on the occasion of its 150th anniversary. Diamond died in Rochester on June 13, 2005.

For the Record …

Born on July 9, 1915, in Rochester, NY; died on June 13, 2005, in Rochester, NY. Education: Attended Cleveland Institute of Music; Eastman School of Music; New School, New York City; studied composition privately with Roger Sessions and with Nadia Boulanger.

Worked night shift at soda counter, New York, 1939; played violin in Hit Parade radio orchestra, early 1940s; works widely performed by American symphony orchestras, 1940s; moved to Rome, 1951; taught at Rome University, early 1950s; lived in Florence, Italy, early 1950s–1965; taught at University of Buffalo, 1961, 1963; returned to U.S., taught at Manhattan School of Music, 1965–67; professor of composition, Julliard School, New York City, 1973–86.

Awards: Guggenheim Fellowship, 1938 (renewed, 1940s); New York Music Critics' Circle Award, for String Quartet No. 3, 1947; William Schuman Lifetime Achievement Award, 1986; American Academy of Arts and Letters, gold medal, 1991; National Medal of the Arts, 1995.

Selected works

Sinfonietta (for orchestra), 1935.
TOM, ballet, 1936.
Elegy in Memory of Ravel, for strings and percussion, 1937.
Psalm for Orchestra, 1937.
Elegy in Memory of Maurice Ravel, 1937.
Symphony No. 1, 1941.
Concerto for Two Solo Pianos, 1942.

String Quartet No. 2, 1943.
Symphony No. 2, 1943.
Rounds (for string orchestra), 1944.
Symphony No. 3, 1945.
String Quartet No. 3, 1946.
Sonata for Piano, 1947.
Chaconne for Violin and Piano, 1948.
String Quartet No. 4, 1951.
Symphony No. 5, 1965.
String Quartet No. 8, 1965.
To Music (for orchestra and chorus), 1967.
The Noblest Game (opera), 1975.
Symphony No. 11, 1991.

Sources

Books

Contemporary Composers, St. James, 1992.

Ewen, David, American Composers: A Biographical Dictionary, 1982.

Kimberling, Victoria, David Diamond: A Bio-Bibliography, Scarecrow, 1987.

Periodicals

Daily Telegraph (London, England), June 25, 2005.

Los Angeles Times, June 16, 2005, p. B11.

Music Journal, April 1964.

New York Times, April 22, 1965; June 15, 2005, p. C20.

South Florida Sun-Sentinel, June 24, 2005.

Times (London, England), July 1, 2005, p. 70.

Village Voice, October 22, 1996.

Washington Post, June 16, 2005, p. B6.

Online

"David Diamond," Peer Music Classical, http://www.peermusicclassical.com/composer/Diamond.cfm (March 10, 2006).

diamond a precious stone consisting of a clear and colourless crystalline form of pure carbon, the hardest naturally occurring substance, taken as a type of brilliance or excellence. The word is recorded from Middle English, and comes via Old French from medieval Latin diamas, diamant-, variant of Latin adamans, from the base of the English word ‘adamant’.

Diamond is also used for a figure with four straight sides of equal length forming two opposite acute angles and two opposite obtuse angles, a rhombus, and diamonds are thus one of the four suits in a conventional pack of playing cards, denoted by a red figure of such a shape.

Diamond was the name of Isaac Newton's dog, which according to a (probably apocryphal) story knocked over a candle which set fire to some papers and thereby destroyed the finished work of some years.
Affair of the Diamond Necklace a political scandal in 18th century France. Queen Marie Antoinette was said to have purchased a valuable necklace and subsequently denied any knowledge of the matter. Although the affair was an attempt by a French adventuress to acquire the necklace by a pretence of acting on behalf of the Queen, and Marie Antoinette was not involved, the Queen's innocence was not believed, and the scandal contributed materially to her unpopularity.
diamond cuts diamond only a diamond is hard enough to cut another diamond, used of persons who are evenly matched in wit or cunning. The saying is recorded from the early 17th century, but an earlier related usage is found in Nashe's Christ's Tears (1593), ‘An easie matter is it for any man to cut me (like a diamond) with my own dust.’
diamond jubilee the 60th anniversary of a notable event, especially a sovereign's accession or the foundation of an organization.
Diamond Sculls an annual single-scull race at Henley Royal Regatta, instituted in 1844, for which the prize was a gold pin ornamented with gold sculls and a drop diamond.
Diamond State an informal name for the state of Delaware, said to be so named because it was seen as small in size but of great importance.
diamond wedding the sixtieth anniversary of a wedding.

See also rough diamond.

diamonds Diamonds are for ever, or almost so. Most diamonds crystallize as the stable form of pure carbon in the deep subcontinental mantle, and are subsequently carried to the surface by rare volcanic eruptions of rocks known as kimberlites and lamproites. Once at the surface, diamond should change to graphite, but fortunately the conversion rate is negligible.

Diamonds sometimes contain minute inclusions of the minerals garnet, olivine, and pyroxene, which indicate formation in two major mantle rock-types, peridotite and eclogite. The inclusions crystallize at the same time as the host diamond and incorporate trace elements such as samarium and neodymium, which may be used for radiometric dating. Peridotitic diamonds are older (up to 3200 Ma) and eclogitic diamonds younger (e.g. 1000–1600 Ma). Both types may be stored in old continental mantle (at depths of 150 to 200 km) for long periods of geological time before being transported to the surface by kimberlites or lamproites of various ages (e.g. 20–1200 Ma).

Diamonds are mined from lamproite and kimberlite pipes, as well as from secondary ‘placer’ concentrations in river and marine gravels. While diamond is the hardest substance known and its status as a gemstone is legendary, it is not indestructible. Flawed diamonds are readily pulverized for use as abrasives.

Stephen H. Richardson

dia·mond / ˈdī(ə)mənd/ • n. 1. a precious stone consisting of a clear and typically colorless crystalline form of pure carbon, the hardest naturally occurring substance. ∎  a tool with a small stone of such a kind for cutting glass. ∎  in extended and metaphorical use with reference to the brilliance, form, or hardness of diamonds: the air glitters like diamonds. 2. [often as adj.] a figure with four straight sides of equal length forming two opposite acute angles and two opposite obtuse angles; a rhombus: decorative diamond shapes. ∎  (diamonds) one of the four suits in a conventional pack of playing cards, denoted by a red figure of such a shape. ∎  a card of this suit: she led a losing diamond. ∎  the area delimited by the four bases of a baseball field, forming a square shape. ∎  a baseball field. PHRASES: diamond in the rough a person who is generally of good character but lacks manners, education, or style.DERIVATIVES: dia·mond·if·er·ous / ˌdī(ə)mənˈdifərəs/ adj.

Diamond

This gem was believed to possess the most marvelous virtues. It gave victory to whomever carried it on his left arm, whatever the number of his enemies. Panics, pestilences, enchantments were all said to fly before it; hence, it was good for sleepwalkers and for the insane. It deprived the lodestone of its virtue, and one variety, the Arabian diamond, was said to attract iron more powerfully than a magnet.

The diamond is the hardest substance known, a property referring to its resistance to being scratched, rather than its resistance to other forces, such as the strike of a hammer. Ancient peoples believed that neither fire nor blows would overcome its hardness, unless the diamond was macerated with fresh goat's blood. Cyprian, Austin, Isidore, and other church fathers, adopting this notion, used it to illustrate the method by which the blood of the Cross softens the heart of man.

If bound to a magnet, the diamond, according to the belief of the ancients, would deprive it of its magnetic property.

diamond Crystalline form of carbon (C). The hardest natural substance known, it is found in kimberlite pipes and alluvial deposits. Appearance varies according to its impurities. Bort, inferior in crystal and colour, carborondo, an opaque grey to black variety, and other non-gem varieties are used in industry. Industrial diamonds are used as abrasives, bearings in precision instruments such as watches, and in the cutting heads of drills for mining. Synthetic diamonds, made by subjecting graphite, with a catalyst, to high pressure and temperatures of c.3000°C (5400°F) are fit only for industry. Diamonds are weighed in carats (0.2gm) and points (1/100 carat). The largest producer is Australia. Hardness 10; r.d. 3.5.

diamond mineral, one of two crystalline forms of the element carbon (see allotropy ), the hardest natural substance known, used as a gem and in industry.

Properties

Diamonds crystallize in the isometric system (see crystal ) commonly as transparent to translucent white, colorless, yellow, green, blue, or brown octahedrons (the familiar diamond shape). The extraordinary brilliancy of diamonds after faceting is due to their very high refractive index, which is greater than that of any other naturally occurring gemstone. In addition to the gem varieties there are bort, which is poorly crystallized or of inferior color and in fragmentary condition, and carbonado (black diamond), which is gray to black and opaque, with poor cleavage. Bort and carbonado are used as abrasives, in the cutting of diamonds, and for the cutting heads of rock drills. Diamond abrasives may have been used as early as 2500 BC in China.

Natural Occurrence and Processing

Diamonds are found in alluvial (loose earthy material deposited by running water) formations and in volcanic pipes, filled for most of their length with blue ground or kimberlite, an igneous rock consisting largely of serpentine . At the surface the blue ground is weathered to a clay called yellow ground. Diamantiferous (or diamondiferous), or diamond-yielding, earth is mined both by the open-pit method and by underground mining. After being removed to the surface, it is crushed and then concentrated. Sorting is done by passing the concentrated material in a stream of water over greased tables. The diamond, being largely water repellent, sticks to the grease, but the other minerals retain a film of water, which prevents them from adhering to the grease. The diamonds are then removed from the grease, cleaned, and graded for sale.

Sources

The earliest sources of gem diamonds were India and Borneo, where they were found in river alluvium. All famous diamonds of antiquity were Indian diamonds, including the Great Mogul, the Orlov, the Koh-i-noor, and the Regent or Pitt. Other famous diamonds are the Hope (blue), Dresden (green), and Tiffany (yellow). In the early 18th cent., deposits similar to those in India were found in Brazil, mainly of carbonados, though they may have been known as early as 1670. In 1867, a stone found in South Africa was recognized as a diamond. Within a few years, this began a wild search for diamonds, both in river diggings and inland. In 1870–71, dry diggings, including most of the celebrated mines, were discovered. Well-known South African diamond mines are the Dutoitspan, Bultfontein, De Beers, Kimberley, Jagersfontein, and Premier. Russia, Botswana, Congo (Kinshasa), Australia, and South Africa are now the world's major diamond-producing nations; other important countries include Canada, Angola, Namibia, Ghana, and Brazil. The use of diamonds to finance African rebel groups and fuel civil strife led, in 2001 and 2002, to international agreements (the Kimberley Process) designed to certify legitimately mined diamonds, but in 2011 the permitted sale of diamonds from Zimbabwe, where the army has been accused of brutality and human rights violations in diamond mines and diamond revenues support an autocratic government, led to criticism of the certification process.

Synthetic diamonds were successfully produced in 1955; a number of small crystals were manufactured when pure graphite mixed with a catalyst was subjected to pressure of about 1 million lb per sq in. and temperature of the order of 5,000°F (3,000°C). Synthetic diamonds are now extensively used in industry.

The Diamond Cartel

The discoveries of 1870–71 in South Africa led to a great number of prospectors staking out claims and securing the diamonds by open-pit or quarry mining. The damage caused by floods and mudslides, unavoidable when there were so many different claims, was an important factor in the series of amalgamations carried on by Cecil Rhodes and Barnett Barnato . Rhodes brought about the merging of their interests in the De Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd., which established (1889) an effective monopoly over the diamond industry. Loss of diamonds by theft was reduced through the passage of the so-called I.D.B. (Illicit Diamond Buying) Act, which limited the trade to licensed buyers and imposed penalties for the possession of uncut stones without a license. Thefts were further curtailed by the institution of compounds in which the workers live while employed by the company and which they leave only after being thoroughly searched.

Most of the major diamond producers belong to, or have cooperated with, the De Beers–led marketing cartel, formed to maintain the price of diamonds at a high level. De Beers, under Harry Oppenheimer's leadership (1957–84), maintained its dominant position in the industry by using its numerous worldwide companies to buy up new sources of diamonds and to control distribution of industrial diamonds and production of synthetic ones. In the last decades of the 20th cent., however, De Beers' hold over the unpolished diamond market decreased, and in 2000 the company announced it would end to its policy of controlling diamond prices through hoarding and shift its focus to increasing sales.

Bibliography

See V. Argenzio, Diamonds Eternal (1974); A. N. Wilson, Diamonds: From Birth to Eternity (1982); R. Newman, Diamonds: Fascinating Facts (1990); S. Kanfer, The Last Empire (1993).

David Diamond 1915–2005, American composer, b. Rochester, N.Y. Diamond was trained at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Eastman School; he also studied with Roger Sessions in New York and Nadia Boulanger in Paris. He composed in a variety of styles, beginning with neoclassical works in the 1930s and later developed an intensely lyrical neoromanticism. Diamond wrote much chamber music, including 10 string quartets; many preludes and fugues; songs and other vocal pieces; 11 symphonies; ballets and film scores; music for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, and Timon of Athens; and Rounds (1944), for strings, his best-known work.

diamond Crystalline form of carbon that is the hardest naturally occurring material (hardness 10 on Mohs's scale); sp. gr. 3.5; cubic; white or colourless, sometimes yellow, green, red, and rarely blue or black; crystals octahedral; cleavage perfect {111}; of igneous origin and frequently associated with kimberlites.

diamond XIII. ME. diama(u)nt — (O)F. diamant — medL. diamas, diamant-, alt. of L. adamās ADAMANT, by assoc. with words in DIA-.

Diamond ♀ Mainly U.S.: one of the most recent of the girls' names adopted from the vocabulary of gemstones.

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