Wood, Joseph

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Wood, Joseph

Wood, Joseph, American composer and teacher; b. Pittsburgh, May 12,1915. He was a student of Wagenaar at the Juilliard School of Music (graduated, 1949) and of Luening at Columbia Univ. (M.A., 1950) in N.Y. From 1950 to 1985 he was a prof. of composition at the Oberlin (Ohio) Coll. Cons, of Music. He composed in a generally accessible vein with some excursions into serialism.

Works

dramatic: The Mother, opera (1945); The Progression, ballet-cantata (1968); incidental music. ORCH.: 4 syms. (1939, 1952, 1958, 1983); Divertimento for Piano and Chamber Orch. (1959); Violin Concerto (1961); Concerto for Chamber Orch. (1973-74). CHAMBER: Piano Trio (1937); Viola Sonata (1938); 3 string quartets (1942, 1965, 1975); Violin Sonata (1947); Piano Quintet (1956); piano pieces. VOCAL: Te Deum for Chorus and Orch. (1982); choruses; songs.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire