Ernst Bacon (May 26, 1898 – March 16, 1990) was an American
composerA composer is a person who creates music, usually by musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of...
,
pianistA pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers....
, and conductor. A prolific author, Bacon composed over 250 songs over his career. He was awarded three
Guggenheim FellowshipGuggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
s and the
Pulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by Hungarian-American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City....
for his First Symphony.
Biography
Ernst Bacon was born in Chicago, Illinois, on May 26, 1898 to Maria von Rosthorn Bacon and Dr. Charles S. Bacon. At the age of 17, Bacon was enrolled at
Northwestern University{{Infobox university|name = Northwestern University|image_name = NU seal.png|motto = Quaecumque sunt vera |mottoeng =Whatsoever things are true |established = 1851|type = Private|calendar = Quarter...
where he pursued a degree in
mathematicsMathematics is the science and study of quantity, structure, space, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns, formulate new conjectures, and establish truth by rigorous deduction from appropriately chosen axioms and definitions....
. After three years of study, he moved to the
University of ChicagoThe University of Chicago is a private, coeducational research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by oil magnate and benefactor John D...
. Bacon finished his education at the University of California at Berkeley, where he received a
master's degreeA master's degree is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
for the composition of
The Song of the Preacher in 1935. His teachers there included
Ernest BlochErnest Bloch was a Swiss-born American composer.-Life:Bloch was born in Geneva and began playing the violin at age 9. He began composing soon afterwards. He studied music at the conservatory in Brussels, where his teachers included the celebrated Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe...
(composition),
Alexander RaabAlexander Raab was a Hungarian-American pianist and distinguished piano teacher.Alexander Raab was born in Győr , Hungary. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory under Hans Schmidt, Robert Fuchs and Teodor Leszetycki and became acquainted with Johannes Brahms...
(piano), and
Eugene GoossensSir Eugene Aynsley Goossens was an English conductor and composer.-Biography:He was born in Camden Town, London, the son of the conductor and violinist Eugène Goossens and the grandson of the conductor Eugène Goossens...
(conducting).
At the age of 19, Bacon wrote a complex
treatiseA treatise is a formal and systematic exposition in writing of the principles of a subject, generally longer and more detailed than an essay...
entitled "Our Musical Idiom," which explored all possible harmonies. However, when he began to compose music in his 20s, he rejected a purely cerebral approach. He took the position that music is an art, not a science, and that its source should be human and imaginative, rather than abstract and analytical.
Bacon was self-taught in composition, except for two years of study with
Karl WeiglKarl Ignaz Weigl was an Austrian composer. He was born in Vienna, being the son of a bank official who was also a keen amateur musician. Alexander Zemlinsky took him as a private pupil in 1896. Weigl went to school at the Franz-Joseph-Gymnasium and graduated from there in 1899...
in Vienna, Austria. Experiencing the depression of post-war Europe first hand, he understood that the
avant-gardeAvant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English, to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
movement reflected the pessimism of its origins. Bacon set out instead to write music that expressed the vitality and affirmation of his own country. Sometimes compared with
Béla BartókBéla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist, considered to be one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, and regarded, along with Liszt, as his country's greatest composer...
, Bacon incorporated into his music the history and folklore, as well as the indigenous music, poetry, folksongs, jazz rhythms, and the very landscape of America.
Like
Franz SchubertFranz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
, a large body of more than 250 art songs is at the heart of an oeuvre that also includes numerous chamber, orchestral, and choral works. According to Marshall Bialosky, Ernst Bacon was "one of the first composers to discover
Emily DickinsonEmily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life...
... and set a great number of her poems into some of the finest art song music, if not actually the very finest, of any American composer in our history." He was deeply drawn by
Walt WhitmanWalter Whitman was an American poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist. He was a part of the transition between Transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
's amplitude of vision, as well as by the poignant economy of Dickinson. Other poets with whom he felt an affinity included
Carl SandburgCarl Sandburg was an American writer and editor, best known for his poetry. He won three Pulitzer Prizes, two for his poetry and another for a biography of Abraham Lincoln. H. L. Mencken called Carl Sandburg "indubitably an American in every pulse-beat."-Biography:Sandburg was born in Galesburg,...
(who was a personal friend),
BlakeWilliam Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the...
,
Emily BrontëEmily Jane Brontë was an English novelist and poet, now best remembered for her only novel Wuthering Heights, a classic of English literature. Emily was the second eldest of the three surviving Brontë sisters, between Charlotte and Anne...
,
TeasdaleSara Teasdale , was an American lyrical poet. She was born Sarah Trevor Teasdale in St. Louis, Missouri....
, and
HousmanAlfred Edward Housman , usually known as A. E. Housman, was an English classical scholar and poet, best known for his cycle of poems A Shropshire Lad. Lyrical and almost epigrammatic in form, the poems were mostly written before 1900...
.
In addition to his musical and literary composition, Bacon held a number of positions that took him across the country. From 1925-28, Bacon was an opera coach at the
Eastman School of MusicThe Eastman School of Music is a music conservatory located in Rochester, New York, United States. The Eastman School is a professional school within the University of Rochester...
. In 1928 Bacon traveled from New York to
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
to take up a position at the
San Francisco Conservatory of MusicSan Francisco Conservatory of Music, founded in 1917, is a music school, with an enrollment of about 400 students. It was launched by Ada Clement and Lillian Hodgehead in the remodeled home of Lillian's parents on Sacramento Street. It was called the Ada Clement Piano School. It was within a few...
where he served until 1930. In 1935, Bacon was the guest conductor at the first Carmel Bach Festival in California. A year later he was supervising the
Works Progress AdministrationThe Works Progress Administration was the largest "New Deal" agency, employing millions of people and affecting almost every locality in the United States, especially rural and western mountain populations...
(WPA)
Federal Music ProjectThe Federal Music Project , part of the Federal government of the United States New Deal program Federal One, employed musicians, conductors and composers during the Great Depression. People in the music world had been particularly hard-hit by the era's economic downturn...
and conducting the
San Francisco SymphonyThe San Francisco Symphony is a leading orchestra based in San Francisco, California. The current music director is Michael Tilson Thomas, who has held the position since September 1995.-History:...
. From 1938-45, he was dean and professor of piano at
Converse CollegeConverse College is a liberal arts women's college in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Its 750 undergraduates come from throughout the United States and the world for the challenging liberal arts curriculum, century-old honor tradition, and Daniels Center for Leadership and Service. As of 2008, Paul...
, Spartanburg CA. From 1945-47 he was director of the school of music, then from 1947-63 he was professor and composer in residence at
Syracuse UniversitySyracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, U.S.A.. It was founded as a university in 1870, but its roots can be traced back to a seminary founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832 which eventually became Genesee College...
. He was professor emeritus from 1964. He continued to compose almost to the day he died, on March 16, 1990 in
Orinda, CaliforniaOrinda is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States. The population was 17,599 at the 2000 census. The town is located just east of the city of Oakland and home to many affluent professionals who commute to downtown Oakland, San Francisco, and Walnut Creek...
.
Research resources
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