Edward Burlingame Hill

Synopsis

Today is the birthday of American composer and teacher Edward Burlingame Hill, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1872.

Hill studied at Harvard, which was not surprising, since his grandfather had been President of the college, and his father taught chemistry there. “My father sang the songs of Schubert, and was a great admirer of Bach. Thus at an early age I was imbued with a deep love for serious music,” he recalled. Hill studied with 19th-century American composer John Knowles Paine, who had established at Harvard the first music department in any American university. After he took all of Paine’s courses, he went on to study in Paris with Charles Widor.

Hill’s early works were in the French style, and you might say that he “wrote the book on the subject” — literally. In 1924, he published a study, French Music, and was awarded the French Legion of Honor for his efforts. During his lifetime, major American orchestras performed his music, but today, if he’s remembered at all, it’s as a teacher at Harvard. Toward the end of tenure, one his students was Leonard Bernstein, who, in 1953, made a recording of his teacher’s Prelude for Orchestra. Hill died at 88 in New Hampshire in 1960.

Music Played in Today's Program

Edward Burlingame Hill (1872-1960): Prelude for Orchestra; Columbia Symphony; Leonard Bernstein, conductor; CBS/Sony 61849

On This Day

Births

• 1872 - American composer Edward Burlingame Hill, in Cambridge, Massachusetts

• 1937 - American composer Olly Wilson, in St. Louis

Deaths

• 1965 - Mexican composer Julián Carrillo, 90, in Mexico City

Premieres

• 1825 - Beethoven: String Quartet, at a private performance for an audience of fourteen at the Tavern Zum Wilden Mann (The Wild Man) in Vienna, by the Schuppanzigh Quartet. The same players gave the first public performance in Vienna on November 6 that year.

• 1973 - Frank Martin: Polyptyque (Six Passiontide Images for Violin and Two Small String orchestras), in Lausanne, by the Zurich Chamber Orchestra conducted by Edmond de Stoutz, with Yehudi Menuhin the soloist

• 1995 - Michael Torke: Telephone Book for chamber ensemble (consisting of The Yellow Pages from 1985 and two new pieces: The Blue Pages and The White Pages composed in 1995), at the Milwaukee Art Museum by the Present Music ensemble, Kevin Stalheim conducting.