Del Tredici, David (Walter)

Del Tredici, David (Walter), outstanding American composer and teacher; b. Cloverdale, Calif., March 16, 1937. He studied piano with Bernhard Abramowitsch (1954–60); also composition with Shifrin and Elston at the Univ. of Calif, at Berkeley (B.A., 1959). In the summer of 1958, he pursued training in piano at the Aspen (Colo.) Music School, where he also attended Milhaud’s composition seminar. He continued his studies in composition with Kim and Sessions at Princeton Univ. (M.F.A., 1963) and had private lessons with Helps in N.Y. In 1964 he completed his graduate studies at Princeton Univ., and also attended the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood that summer, returning there in 1965. In 1966–67 he held a Guggenheim fellowship, and during those summers he was composer-in-residence at the Marlboro (Vt.) Festival. From 1968 to 1972 he taught at Harvard Univ. In 1973 he taught at the S.U.N.Y. at Buffalo, and later that year became a teacher at Boston Univ. In the summer of 1975 he also was composer-in-residence at Aspen. In 1984 he became a teacher at City Coll. of the City Univ. of N.Y. He also was composer-in-residence at the American Academy in Rome in 1985, and from 1988 to 1990 he held that title with the N.Y. Phil. In 1991 he was made a prof, at the Manhattan School of Music in N.Y. In 1992 he was the featured composer at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan. Del Tredici has received various awards, commissions, and honors. In 1968 he received an award from the American Inst. of Arts and Letters. In 1973 and 1974 he held NEA grants. In 1980 he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music for his In Memory of a Summer Day for Amplified Soprano and Orch. His Happy Voices for Orch. won a Friedheim Award in 1982. In 1984 he was elected a member of the American Academy and Inst. of Arts and Letters. Among Del Tredici’s first scores to attract notice were those inspired by James Joyce, including I Hear an Army for Soprano and String Quartet (Tanglewood, Aug. 12,1964), which immediately caught the fancy of the cloistered but influential cognoscenti, literati, and illuminati, and Night Conjure-Verse for Soprano, Mezzo-soprano, and Chamber Ensemble, which Del Tredici conducted in its San Francisco premiere on March 2, 1966. In these and other Joyce-inspired WORKS, he plied a modified dodecaphonic course in a polyrhythmic context, gravid with meaningful pauses without fear of triadic encounters. However, Del Tredici achieved his greatest fame with a series of brilliant tone pictures after Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, in which he projected, in utter defiance of all modernistic conventions, overt tonal proclamations, fanfares, and pretty tunes that were almost embarrassingly attractive, becoming more melodious and harmonious with each consequent tone portrait. His Final Alice for Amplified Soprano, Folk Group, and Orch. (Chicago, Oct. 7,1976) secured his international reputation as a composer of truly imaginative gifts, whose embrace of tonality is evinced in scores replete with brilliant harmonies and resplendent colors.

Works

Soliloquy for Piano (Aspen, Colo., Aug. 1958); 4 Songs on Poems of James Joyce for Voice and Piano (1958–60; Berkeley, March 1, 1961); 2 Songs on Poems of James Joyce for Voice and Piano (1959; rev. 1978; Washington, D.C., Feb. 11, 1983); String Trio for Violin, Viola, and Cello (Berkeley, May 21, 1959); Fantasy Pieces for Piano (1959–60); Scherzo for Piano, 4-Hands (1960); String Quartet (1961–63; unfinished); / Hear an Army for Soprano and String Quartet (Tanglewood, Aug. 12, 1964); Night Conjure-Verse for Soprano, Mezzo- soprano or Countertenor, and Chamber Ensemble, after Joyce (1965; San Francisco, March 2, 1966); Syzygy for Soprano, Horn, and Orch., after Joyce (1966; N.Y., July 6, 1968); The Last Gospel for Woman’s Voice, Rock Group, Chorus, and Orch. (1967; San Francisco, June 15, 1968; rev. version, Milwaukee, Oct. 3,1984); Pop-Pourri for Amplified Soprano, Rock Group, Chorus, and Orch., after Carroll (La Jolla, Calif., July 28, 1968; rev. 1973); An Alice Symphony for Amplified Soprano, Folk Group, and Orch., after Carroll (1969; rev. 1976; movements 1 and 4, Illustrated Alice, for Amplified Soprano and Orch., San Francisco, Aug. 8, 1976; movements 2 and 3, In Wonderland, for Amplified Soprano, Folk Group, and Orch., Aspen, July 29, 1975; 1st complete perf., Tanglewood, Aug. 7,1991); Adventures Underground for Amplified Soprano, Folk Group, and Orch., after Carroll and Isaac Watts (1971; Buffalo, N.Y., April 13, 1975; rev. 1977); Vintage Alice: Fantascene on A Mad Tea Party for Amplified Soprano, Folk Group, and Orch., after Carroll, Jane Taylor, and God Save the Queen (Saratoga, Calif., Aug. 5, 1972); Final Alice for Amplified Soprano, Folk Group, and Orch., after Carroll, William Mee, and an unknown author (1974–75; Chicago, Oct. 7, 1976); Child Alice for Amplified Soprano(s) and Orch., after Carroll (1977–81; part 1, In Memory of a Summer Day, St. Louis, Feb. 23,1980; part 2, Quaint Events, Buffalo, Nov. 19, 1981, Happy Voices, San Francisco, Sept. 16, 1980, and All in the Golden Afternoon, Philadelphia, May 8, 1981; 1st complete perf., N.Y., April 27, 1986); Acrostic Song from Final Alice for High Voice and Piano (Lenox, Mass., Aug. 21,1982; also for Medium Voice and Piano, 1982; Chorus and Piano, N.Y., Nov. 19, 1983; Flute and Piano, N.Y., Feb. 12, 1985; Chorus and Piano or Harp, N.Y., May 16, 1986; Soprano and 10 Instruments, N.Y., Dec. 15, 1987; etc.); Acrostic Paraphrase for Harp, after the Acrostic Song from Final Alice (Tempe, Ariz., June 22, 1983); Virtuoso Alice, grand fantasy on a theme from Final Alice for Piano (1984; N.Y., Nov. 10,1987); March to Tonality for Orch. (Chicago, June 13, 1985); Haddock’s Eyes for Amplified Soprano and 10 Instruments, after Carroll and Thomas Moore (1985; N.Y., May 2, 1986); Tattoo for Orch. (1986; Amsterdam, Jan. 30,1987); Steps for Orch. (N.Y., March 8, 1990); Brass Symphony for Brass Quintet (1992); Dum Dee Tweedle for Voices and Orch., after Carroll (1993).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire