Walter Piston

Walter Piston (1894-1976), influential American composer, who was chiefly a composer of orchestral and chamber works and often wrote for unusual combinations of instruments. Born in Rockland, Maine, he studied at the Massachusetts School of Art and began working as an artist. He later studied music at Harvard University and composition in Paris with the eminent French teacher Nadia Boulanger and the composer Paul Dukas. In Paris he came under the influence of the Russian-born composer Igor Stravinsky. Returning to the United States, Piston taught music at Harvard from 1926 to 1960. Prime representatives of American musical Neo-Classicism, his compositions are characterized by harmonies often approaching the limits of tonality and by rigorously logical formal structure. Among his compositions are eight symphonies; the ballet The Incredible Flutist (1938); concertos for violin (1939, 1960) and viola (1958); and chamber music, including string quartets, the Sonata for Flute and Piano (1930), and the Violin Sonata (1943). Two of his symphonies (no. 3 and no. 7) won Pulitzer Prizes. His books Principles of Harmonic Analysis (1933), Harmony (1941), Counterpoint (1947), and Orchestration (1955) are standard texts.