Walter Hamor Piston was an American composer and teacher.
Background
He was born on January 20, 1894 in Rockland, Maine, United States, the son of Walter Hamor Piston, a bookkeeper, and Leona Stover. All of his ancestors were of Yankee origin except for his paternal grandfather, Antonio Pistone, who left Italy to resettle in New England. Neither of Piston's parents was particularly musical, nor did he express an interest in music until his early teens.
In 1905 the Piston family moved to Boston.
Education
In 1908 Walter entered the Mechanic Arts High School, where he studied mechanical drafting and woodworking, all the while hoping to become a painter. He also developed an interest in music, taking piano and violin lessons and playing in the school orchestra, his graduation was in 1912.
Torn between a career in music and art, he decided to study at the Normal Art School instead of the New England Conservatory of Music since the tuition was free. There he majored in painting and took courses in architectural design and the humanities. He continued his studies in violin and piano and supported himself (as he would for the next ten years) playing both instruments in bands at dance halls, restaurants, and hotels, and at social events. Piston graduated from the Normal Art School in 1916. He also found time to study piano at the Boston Musical Association.
In 1919, after deciding not to pursue a career as an orchestral violinist, Piston enrolled at Harvard University as a special student and a year later, at the age of twenty-six, as a regular student. There he majored in music (taking courses in theory, counterpoint, composition, harmony, and orchestration) and conducted the student orchestra. (He also took courses in English, French, Italian, Greek, European history, and aesthetics. )
He received a John Knowles Paine Traveling Fellowship and spent the next two years with his wife in Paris, studying composition at the École Normale de Musique.
Career
At the age of eighteen Piston worked briefly as a draftsman for the Boston Elevated Railway.
He enlisted in the United States Navy in 1917, and played saxophone in the Aeronautics Division Band for the next two years. (He learned enough of the instrument in three days to pass the audition. ) Stationed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he also found time to play violin in its orchestra.
After returning to the United States in 1926, Piston settled in Belmont, Massachussets, and accepted a teaching position at Harvard, where he remained until 1960, becoming a full professor in 1944 and Walter Naumburg Professor of Music (a newly endowed chair) seven years later.
Averaging three major works every two years, Piston produced a diverse body of masterfully structured compositions (primarily in large classical instrumental forms), including eight symphonies, a ballet titled The Incredible Flutist (the suite from which is his most popular work), two violin concertos, five string quartets, and many other chamber pieces for various combinations. Most of his music was commissioned; the Boston Symphony Orchestra premiered eleven of his works between 1927 and 1971.
Piston, who has been called a neoclassicist, developed a modern harmonic and rhythmic vocabulary within classical structures. One music historian wrote, "Having assimilated the most important trends in the musical art of our time, he has combined them into a style that bears the imprint of his own personality. "
In his later works, especially after 1965, Piston became increasingly personal, lyrical, and complex (especially harmonically). One historian described his music as "poised and refined on the outside and brooding and passionate on the inside. " Another commented on the sense of struggle in Piston's music - "the conflict between clarity and confusion, restraint and sensuality, wit and gloom, and humanity and loneliness. "
He was elected a member to the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1938, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1940, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1955.
Personality
He was noted for his wide-ranging intellect, wit, and pragmatism. In late years he struggled with the physical difficulties, including diabetes, failing sight and hearing, and a broken hip.
Connections
On September 14, 1920, he married Kathryn Nason, a talented artist and classmate at the Normal Art School. Childless by choice, they remained married for fifty-six years.