Edward Burlingame Hill

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Description

Breaking with the Teutonic tradition of his predecessors, composer Edward Burlingame Hill was among the first Americans to study composition in Paris. His music, in which he incorporated new harmonic, instrumental, and textural devices, helped foster acceptance for many early twentieth-century innovations.

Hill also shared his predilection for French music with students at Harvard, where he taught from 1908 until 1940. Through his courses in orchestration and music history, Hill's students were exposed first-hand to modern French compositional techniques and the latest European musical trends. As a writer, Hill served as a Boston music critic, authored many journal articles on contemporary music, and wrote the first systematic English-language study of French musical thought from Chabrier to Les Six.

This volume charts Hill's life and career as a composer, educator, and writer in the context of early twentieth-century American culture. The first section consists in a biographical and interpretive essay that details his multifaceted career and identifies his contributions to American music. Subsequent chapters provide the first complete listing of his musical and prose writings, a bibliography of writings about him, and a discography of commercially produced recordings.

This bio-bibliography represents the first study of Edward Burlingame Hill to appear in print, and it offers an in-depth look at this important musical figure through annotated citations of his works and their performances, writings by and about him, and his recorded works. It illustrates the significance of his role in the early twentieth-century musical scene as composer, influential mentor, and early music historian.

A useful guide to further research as well, this work will serve as an important resource for musicologists, music historians, and students of American music. Review: Edward Burlingame Hill emerges in this volume of Greenwood's series as a key link in the development of music of the United States through his influence on important figures who studied under him at Harvard University...

The effort expended on this volume will be rewarded with a feeling for Hill, what he did, and why he warrants some attention. Tyler's writing style in the biography section flows easily as she sums up significant points about his life and musical style, particularly the freshness of his creativity and its freedom from pedantry. - Sonneck Society Bulletin