Whear, Paul William

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Whear, Paul William

Whear, Paul William, American composer; b. Auburn, Ind., Nov. 13, 1925. He studied engineering at Marquette Univ. (B.N.S.), DePauw Univ. (B.A.), and Case Western Reserve Univ. (Ph.D.), then made a 180° turn toward the art of music and attended classes of Gardner Read at Boston Univ. and of Wayne Barlow at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. From 1960 to 1969 Whear served as chairman of the music dept. at Doane Coll.; in 1969 he was appointed a prof. of music and chairman of the theory and composition dept. at Marshall Univ. He wrote 4 syms., including No. 2, The Bridge (1971), No. 3, The Galleries (1975), and No. 4 for Band (1979), as well as overtures, chamber music, and choral works.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire