Quincy Porter
May 26th, 2008
Porter's music really intrigues me. It seems that he explores different styles in his composition, yet he still manages to sound like himself. You can read the more staid remarks about his career in the generic biography I wrote on my site (Who is Quincy Porter?), but while researching him, I found some interesting bits of information that described his personality. A good reference is the 1970 dissertation by Willard Kent Hall called Quincy Porter: His Life and Contributions as a Composer and Educator (1897-1966), University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Porter was a serious and disciplined student, from all accounts, but he also seemed interested in creating venues and opportunities for musicians to play and new music to be heard. (As I get know more living composers, I see that their creativity and cleverness in developing opportunities is a necessity for survival.) When Porter was an undergrad at Yale, he revived and conducted the Yale orchestra. At Vassar he maintained the Composer's Club which met weekly to perform student works. As his career as an educator took over his life in the 1940's-50's, he became dedicated to the well being of his students. Porter was the director of New England Conservatory during World War II, and became concerned about veterans returning to school. He sent out questionnaire to 100 colleges and music schools asking about the effects of the war on students, what the schools were doing about it, the enrollment numbers of veterans, wartime projects, hospital visits, etc. Only 56 of the colleges responded to the survey, but Porter published a summary of his thoughts, which in a nutshell were to do as much as possible to reintegrate the veterans on an individual basis, give them scholarships, redevelop and nurture their talent, and try to provide the best educational opportunities. It may seem like common sense, but these are issues we seem to grapple with today.
Categories: Quincy Porter Project
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