Elliot Carter Biography

Elliot Carter was born in New York City on declination 11th, 1908. He really began to find interest in music once he started high school and was encouraged by a young musician named Charles Ives. His father was a line of merchandise man and his mother was the former Florence Chambers. Charles Ives also sold damages to his family for encouragement and such. He studied Music and English at Harvard University with professors Walter Piston and Gustav Holst. He became an English major piece examine at the Longy School of Music. He then studied for a few years in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. Carter also worked with Mlle Boulanger from 1932-1935 and in 1935 he received his doctorate in music from the Ecole Normale in Paris. Later on in that same year, he went bum to America to direct the Ballet Caravan. From 1940-1944, he then taught courses in physics, mathematics, and classical Greek, as well as music, at St. Johns College in Annapolis. Maryland. A little earlier, Carter met the go to bed of his life Helen Frost-Jones and got married on July 6th, 1939. They had one child, a son, David Chambers Carter. During World War II, he worked for the Office of War Information and held t each(prenominal)ing posts at numerous Universities. He and his family have lived in Greenwich Village ever since 1945.

Carter created a myriad of different work throughout his years. His earlier works were influenced by Stravinsky, Harris, Copland, and Hindermith and are mostly neoclassical in aesthetic. He went through strict training with Stravinsky in red-brick polyphony, which shows in his earliest works such as Pocahontas (1938-1939). Also, Carter decided to lay out away from neoclassicism around the same time Stravinsky did, claiming that it took away ? brisk areas of feeling?. Other earlier works of his orchestral news report included The Minotaur, the Harmony of Morning, Holiday Overture, and the First Symphony (J.Oteri). He also seemed to have had a thing for Jazz and envisioned it in a flowerpot of his works as well. In his recent 30?s, he began experimenting with creating harmonics using the chromatic collection plate and these techniques would soon become part of Carter?s original, yet progress style of chamber music. He somehow managed to make ?orchestral music that is chamber-like music in its meticulous detail while retaining the broad gestures of a symphonic palette? (J.Oteri).

The music of Carter?s middle period is difficult, yet real original with his unequaled technique. He was very able to make audiences? jaws drop with his modern day styles at the time. Much of his works including Double Concerto for Piano, the Concerto for Orchestras, and A Symphony for Three Orchestras all seemed to contain a disseminate of feeling and emotions, making the audience feel like so much is happening at one time. A lot of Carter?s music in this period was humanistic, meaning that ?each musician is an individual, and each instrument is an individual voice.?(Cole).

Carter?s late period works of are said to be his scoop out because he expanded his variety of music. He not scarcely worked on chambers, symphonies and orchestras, but moved on to string quartets and tear down vocal music.



He began a third stylistic mannequin and concentrated on the simpler, leaner tone to his works. Now, there is a whole new clarity to his works that have been very much refined over the decades. Carter has even written his very first opera after his 90th birthday called What?s Next? He has also created concertos for the violin, cello, oboe, and clarinet. A couple of his most famous works besides Pocahontas are his Asko Concerto and Boston Concerto. These are the only two works that included either fragment of the orchestra in oppositional relationships. Aaron Copland even nominated Carter for the gold medal of the field of study Institute of Letters for Eminence in Music, 1971. Although Carter expanded his love for music through different works, he still couldn?t help himself to put together a traditional orchestral masterpiece. In 1998, he composed the 50-minute Symphonia: sum fluxae pretium spei [I am the prize of flowing hope] (Boosey, Hawkes). Elliot Carter has received numerous awards for his dumbfounding masterpieces throughout his entire life and even though he just celebrated his 100th birthday, he still contributes every bit of himself towards his beloved music.

1.J.Oteri, Frank. Elliot Carters Century. www.carter100.com. 9 Jan 2009 .

2.Boosey, Hawkes, Elliot Carter. Biography 01 Jan 2007 9 Jan 2009 .

3 Cole, Tom. Elliot Carters Century of Music. www.npr.org. npr. 9 Jan 2009

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