Donald Martino

Biography

Donald James Martino (May 16, 1931 – December 8, 2005) was a Pulitzer Prize winning American composer.

Biography

Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, Martino attended Plainfield High School. He began as a clarinetist, playing jazz for fun and profit. He attended Syracuse University, where he studied composition with Ernst Bacon, who encouraged him in that direction. He then attended Princeton University as a graduate student, where he worked with composers Roger Sessions and Milton Babbitt. He also studied with Luigi Dallapiccola in Italy as a Fulbright Scholar.
He became a lecturer and teacher himself, working with students at Yale University, the New England Conservatory of Music (where he became chair of the composition department), Brandeis University, and Harvard University.
He won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1974 for his chamber work Notturno.
In 1991, the journal Perspectives of New Music published a 292-page tribute to Martino.
Martino died in Antigua in 2005. A memorial concert was held at the New England Conservatory on May 8, 2007. A recording of the concert was released by Navona Records in 2009.

Music

Most of Martino's mature works (including pseudo-tonal works such as Paradiso Choruses and Seven Pious Pieces) were composed using the twelve-tone method; his sound world more closely resembled the lyrical Dallapiccola's than his other teachers'.
The pianist Easley Blackwood commissioned Martino's sonata Pianississimo, explicitly requesting that it be one of the most difficult pieces ever written. The resulting work is indeed of epic difficulty, but has been recorded several times. (Blackwood declined to perform it.)
Martino presented Milton Babbitt with at least two musical birthday cards: B,a,b,b,i,t,t on his 50th birthday and Triple Concerto on his 60th.

Musical compositions

Many of the instrumental pieces have extensive doublings, such as flute/piccolo/alto flute. Principal publishers: Ione, Dantalian, McGinnis & Marx.

Works for orchestra and concertos

Sinfonia, 1953, withdrawn, unpublished
Contemplations, 1956
Piano Concerto, 1965
Mosaic for Grand Orchestra, 1967
Cello Concerto, 1972
Ritorno, 1976, arr. for band, 1977
Triple Concerto, clarinet, bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet, 1977
Divertisements for Youth Orchestra, 1981
Alto Sax Concerto, 1987
Violin Concerto, 1996
Concertino (clarinet and orchestra), 2004
Concerto for Orchestra, 2005

Chamber music

Clarinet Sonata (clarinet, piano), 1950–51
String Quartet No. 1, withdrawn, unpublished
String Quartet No. 2, 1952, withdrawn, unpublished
String Quartet Mo. 3, 1954, withdrawn, unpublished
Violin Sonata (violin, piano), 1954
Seven Canoni Enigmatici, canons with resolutions (2 violas, 2 ‘cellos/2 bassoons, 1955; string quartet, 1962; 2 clarinets, alto clarinet/basset horn, bass clarinet, 1966, may be combined with version of 1955)
String Trio, 1955, withdrawn, unpublished
Quartet (clarinet and string trio), 1957
Trio (clarinet, violin, piano), 1959
Five Frammenti (oboe, double bass), 1961
Concerto (wind quintet), 1964
Notturno (piccolo/flute/alto flute, clarinet/bass clarinet, violin, viola, ‘cello, piano, percussion), 1973
String Quartet [No. 4], 1983
Canzone e Tarantella sul Nome Petrassi (clarinet, ‘cello), 1984
From the Other Side (flute, ‘cello, piano, percussion), 1988
Three Sad Songs (viola, piano), 1991
Octet (flute, clarinet, flugelhorn, trombone, percussion, piano, violin, ‘cello), 1998
Serenata Concertante (flute, clarinet, flugel horn, French horn, percussion, piano, violin, ‘cello), 1999
Violin Sonata No. 2 (violin, piano), 2004
String Quartet No. 5, 2004
Trio (violin, cello, piano), 2004
Trio (clarinet, cello, piano), 2004

Works for solo instrument

Suite of Variations on Medieval Melodies (‘cello), 1952, rev. 1954
A Set (clarinet), 1954, rev. 1974
Harmonica Piece, 1954
Quodlibets (flute), 1954
Fantasy (piano), 1958
Fantasy-Variations (violin), 1962
Parisonatina al’dodecafonia (‘cello), 1964
B, A, B, B, IT, T (clarinet with extensions), 1966
Strata (bass clarinet), 1966
Pianississimo, piano sonata, 1970
Impromptu for Roger (piano), 1977
Fantasies and Impromptus (piano), 1980
Quodlibets II (flute), 1980
Suite in Old Form (Parody Suite) (piano), 1982
Twelve Preludes (piano), 1991
15, 5, 92, A.B. (clarinet), 1992
A Birthday Card for Alea III (clarinet), 1997
Romanza (violin), 2000
Sonata (violin), 2003

Vocal works

Separate Songs (high voice and piano), 1951
All day I hear the noise of waters (James Joyce)
The half-moon westers low, my love (A. E. Housman)
From "The Bad Child’s Book of Beasts" (Hilaire Belloc) (high voice and piano), 1952
The Lion, the Tiger
The Frog
The Microbe
Portraits: a Secular Cantata (Edna St. Vincent Millay, Walt Whitman, E. E. Cummings) (mezzo-soprano and baritone solos, chorus, orchestra), 1954
Arrangement of Anyone lived in a pretty how town (SATB chorus, piano 4 hands, optional percussion, 1955
Three Songs (James Joyce) (soprano/tenor or bass, piano), 1955
Alone
Tutto e sciolto (in English)
A Memory of the Players in a Mirror at Midnight
Two Rilke Songs (mezzo-soprano and piano), 1961
Die Laute
Aus einem Sturmnacht VIII;
Seven Pious Pieces (Robert Herrick) (chorus with optional piano/organ), 1972
Paradiso Choruses (Dante) (solo voices, chorus, orchestra, tape), 1974
The White Island (SATB chorus and chamber orchestra), 1985

Film scores

The White Rooster, c1950, unpublished
The Lonely Crime, 1958, unpublished

Other works

Augenmusik, a Mixed Mediocritique (actress/danseuse/uninhibited female percussionist, tape), 1972
Many popular songs and jazz arrangements, all unpublished

Articles by Martino

Martino, Donald. 1961. "The Source Set and Its Aggregate Formations." Journal of Music Theory 5: 224-273.
Martino, Donald. 1964. "Claudio Spies: 'Tempi'." Perspectives of New Music 2/2: 112-124.
Martino, Donald. 1966. "Notation in General - Articulation in Particular." Perspectives of New Music 4/2: 47-58.
Martino, Donald, and Ricci, Robert. 1968. "Wherefore Modern Music?" Music Educators Journal 55: 94-96.
Martino, Donald. 1971. "In Memoriam Stravinsky." Perspectives of New Music 9/2-10/1: 64.
Martino, Donald. 1972. "Exotic Winds." The Musical Times 113/1555: 865.
Martino, Donald. 1974. "In Memoriam Dallapiccola." Perspectives of New Music 13/1: 240-245.

Interview with Martino

Martino, Donald, and Boros, James. 1991. "A Conversation with Donald Martino." Perspectives of New Music 29/2 (Summer): 212-278.