Editing Arthur Berger (composer)

{{short description|American composer and music critic (1912-2003)}}
'''Arthur Victor Berger''' (May 15, 1912 – October 7, 2003) was an American composer and music critic who has been described as a [[New Mannerist]].<ref>John Mac Ivor Perkins, "Arthur Berger: The Composer as Mannerist", ''Perspectives of New Music'' 5, no. 1 (Autumn–Winter, 1966), pp.75-92; citation on p.76. Reprinted in ''Perspectives on American Composers'', edited by Benjamin Boretz and Edward T. Cone,{{Page needed|date=February 2014}}<!--Inclusive page numbers needed.--> The Perspectives of New Music Series; Norton Library, no. 549 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1971): p.231.</ref>

==Biography==
Born in [[New York City]], of Jewish descent,<ref>Robert Morse Crunden (2000). ''Body & Soul: The Making of American Modernism'', p.42-3. {{ISBN|978-0-465-01484-2}}.</ref> Berger studied as an undergraduate at [[New York University]], during which time he joined the [[Young Composer's Group]], as a graduate student under [[Walter Piston]] at [[Harvard]], and with [[Nadia Boulanger]] and at the [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]] under a [[Paine Fellowship]].

He taught briefly at [[Mills College]] and [[Brooklyn College]], then worked briefly at  the ''[[New York Sun (historical)|New York Sun]]'' and then for a longer period of time at the ''[[New York Herald Tribune]]''. In 1953 he left the paper to teach at [[Brandeis University]] where he was eventually named the [[Irving Fine]] Professor Emeritus. His notable students there included [[Gustav Ciamaga]] and [[Richard Wernick]]. He taught occasionally at the [[New England Conservatory]] during his retirement.

He co-founded (with Benjamin Boretz), in 1962, ''[[Perspectives of New Music]]'', which he edited until 1964. He was elected a Fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1971.<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter B|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterB.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=June 16, 2011| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110725002054/http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterB.pdf| archive-date= 25 July 2011 | url-status= live}}</ref> He wrote the first book on [[Aaron Copland]] (reprinted 1990, Da Capo Press), and coined the terms ''[[octatonic scale]]'' and ''[[pitch centricity]]'' in his "Problems of Pitch Organization in Stravinsky". He died in [[Boston]], Massachusetts, age 91.

==Works==
{{unreferenced section|date=November 2015}}
His works show a preoccupation with vertical and horizontal musical space (see [[pitch space]]). His musical influences include [[Igor Stravinsky]], [[Arnold Schoenberg]], and later [[Anton Webern]]. In the forties he composed neoclassical works including ''Serenade Concertante'' (1944) and ''Three Pieces for Strings'' (1945), and embraced the twelve-tone technique in the 1950s. His later works moved away from [[serialism]] but continued to use tone cluster 'cells' whose [[pitch class]]es are displaced by [[octave]]s. [[George Perle]] has described his "keen and sophisticated musical intellect" and praised "his serial music [for being] as far removed from current fashionable trends as his [[diatonic]] music was a few years ago."{{citation needed|date=November 2015}}

Perle further praises his ''String Quartet'': "in the quartet, as in Berger's earlier works, and in most of the great music of our Western heritage, timbre, texture, dynamics, rhythm, and form are elements of a musical language whose syntax and grammar are essentially derived from pitch relations. If these elements never seem specious and arbitrary, as they do with so many of the dodecaphonic productions that deluge us today from both the left and right, it is precisely because of the authenticity and integrity of his musical thinking at this basic level."<ref>(1980). "[http://www.newworldrecords.org/linernotes/80308.pdf Liner notes: ''Form''] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320003528/http://www.newworldrecords.org/linernotes/80308.pdf |date=March 20, 2012 }}", newworldrecords.org; accessed 22 November 2015.</ref>

His works include ''Ideas of Order'', ''Polyphony'', ''Quartet for Winds'', described by Thomson as "one of the most satisfactory pieces for winds in the whole modern repertory", ''String Quartet'' (1958), ''Five Pieces for Piano'' (1969) and ''Septet'' (1965–66). He was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Berger is grouped in the "[[Boston School (music)|Boston school]]" along with [[Lukas Foss]], [[Irving Fine]], [[Alexei Haieff]], [[Harold Shapero]], and [[Claudio Spies]].

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Anderson, E. Ruth. ''Contemporary American Composers. A Biographical Dictionary'', 2nd edition, G. K. Hall, 1982.
* Butterworth, Neil. ''A Dictionary of American Composers'', Garland, 1984.
* Coppock, Jane. "A Conversation with Arthur Berger". ''Perspectives of New Music'' 17, no. 1 (1978), pp.&nbsp;40–67.
* Cummings, David M.; McIntire, Dennis K. (Ed.). ''International who's who in music and musician's directory. In the classical and light classical fields'', 12th edition 1990/91, International Who's Who in Music 1991.
* Gordon, Stewart. ''A History of Keyboard Literature. Music for the Piano and its Forerunners'', Schirmer Books, 1996.
* Jones, Pamela. "A Bibliography of the Writings of Arthur Berger". ''Perspectives of New Music'' 17, no. 1 (1978), p.&nbsp;83-89.
* Jones, Robert Frederick. ''A List of Works by Arthur Berger.'' Perspectives of New Music. 17, 1 (1978), p.&nbsp;90-91.
* Lister, Rodney. "Arthur Berger: The Progress of a Method", ''American Music'', 13-1, 1995, pp.&nbsp;56–95.
* Lyman, Darryl. ''Great Jews in Music'', J. D. Publishers, 1986.
* Northcott, Bayan. "Arthur Berger: An Introduction at 70", ''Musical Times'', 123 (1982), pp.&nbsp;323–326.
* Pollack, Howard Joel. ''Harvard composers. Walter Piston and his students, from Elliott Carter to Frederic Rzewski'', Scarecrow Press, 1992.
* Press, Jaques Cattell (Ed.). ''Who's who in American Music. Classical'', 1st edition. R. R. Bowker, 1983.
* Silver, Sheila. "Pitch and Registral Distribution in Arthur Berger's Music for Piano", ''Perspectives of New Music'' 17, no. 1 (1978), p.&nbsp;68-76.
* Sadie, Stanley; Hitchcock, H. Wiley (Ed.). ''The New Grove Dictionary of American Music''. Grove's Dictionaries of Music, 1986.

==External links==
* [https://necmusic.edu/faculty/arthur-berger Arthur Berger Official Website]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070708193326/http://www.nypl.org/research/lpa/mus/pdf/MUSBERG.pdf Arthur Berger papers] in the [http://www.nypl.org/musicdiv Music Division] of [https://web.archive.org/web/20091016095314/http://www.nypl.org/research/lpa/lpa.html The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts]
* The online music review [http://www.lafolia.com/ La Folia] has an article about Berger: [http://www.lafolia.com/archive/covell/covell200504berger.html Remembering Arthur Berger]
* [https://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/10/arts/arthur-berger-composer-and-music-critic-is-dead-at-91.html?scp=1&sq=Arthur+Berger&st=nyt ''Arthur Berger, Composer and Music Critic, Is Dead at 91''], [[The New York Times]], October 10, 2003 (retrieved January 31, 2010)
* [http://www.bruceduffie.com/arthurberger.html Interview with Arthur Berger], March 28, 1987

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Berger, Arthur}}
[[Category:1912 births]]
[[Category:2003 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American classical composers]]
[[Category:Twelve-tone and serial composers]]
[[Category:American male classical composers]]
[[Category:Jewish American classical composers]]
[[Category:American expatriates in France]]
[[Category:Composers from New York City]]
[[Category:Brandeis University faculty]]
[[Category:Brooklyn College faculty]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]
[[Category:Mills College faculty]]
[[Category:New England Conservatory faculty]]
[[Category:New York University alumni]]
[[Category:University of Paris alumni]]
[[Category:Pupils of Darius Milhaud]]
[[Category:Pupils of Walter Piston]]
[[Category:20th-century American male musicians]]