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Carlton Gamer
Carlton Edwin Wesley Gamer (February 13, 1929 – July 14, 2023) was an American composer and music theorist. Gamer composed more than seventy works in a variety of genres, including songs, music for dance, solo piano pieces, chamber music, choral works, orchestral works, and computer music. His compositional approach has been fundamentally shaped by his theoretical interests, the latter influenced by an interest in mathematics.
He taught at Colorado College, Princeton University, and the University of Michigan; he studied at Northwestern University and Boston University and later privately with Roger Sessions.
Gamer was born in Chicago on February 13, 1929. He grew up in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, where his father taught at the University of Illinois. At the age of eight he began to study piano with Tanya Kessler and composition with her husband Hubert Kessler.
From 1942 to 1946, Gamer attended University High School in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois. Simultaneously, he studied piano with two faculty members of Illinois Wesleyan University, first Stefan Bardas and then Chester Barris. In 1946, he graduated as valedictorian.
Gamer studied at Northwestern University, (achieving a bachelor of music in 1950), theory and composition with Frank Cookson and Anthony Donato, and piano with Louis Crowder and Pauline Manchester Lindsey. He obtained his Master's degree in music at Boston University in 1951, after studies of composition with Gardner Read and of musicology with Karl Geiringer. He then worked there as a graduate assistant, teaching a course in orchestration, and served as research assistant for Read's Thesaurus of Orchestral Devices.
In New York City, from 1951 to 1953, Gamer founded a workshop of composer-performers ("The Seven") who met regularly at his home to read through and critique each other's music; they occasionally performed in public. The members were Sheldon Harnick, violin; Gerard Jaffe, viola; Juliette White, cello; Robert Dorough, recorder, flute, and piano; Eric Katz, recorder, Noel Stevens, clarinet, and himself, piano. He was also the pianist, composer, and music director for dancer and choreographer Ilka Suarez and her company.
Gamer taught music at Colorado College from 1954. In 1954 and 1955, he was the accompanist for Hanya Holm's summer dance workshops there. After studying composition privately with Roger Sessions in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1957, Gamer was invited to be a fellow at the Princeton Seminars in Advanced Musical Studies in 1959 and 1960. His recollection of these seminars is found in his article, "Milton at the Princeton Seminars". On leave from Colorado College, Gamer was an Asia Society Fellow at the University of California and in Kyoto, Japan, in 1962–63.
Gamer taught at Princeton University as a visiting lecturer in music in 1974, then as a visiting professor of music in 1976 and 1981. In 1976 he was appointed a Senior Fellow of the Council of Humanities at Princeton. The same year, Gamer received a MacDowell Colony Fellowship.
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Carlton Gamer
Carlton Edwin Wesley Gamer (February 13, 1929 – July 14, 2023) was an American composer and music theorist. Gamer composed more than seventy works in a variety of genres, including songs, music for dance, solo piano pieces, chamber music, choral works, orchestral works, and computer music. His compositional approach has been fundamentally shaped by his theoretical interests, the latter influenced by an interest in mathematics.
He taught at Colorado College, Princeton University, and the University of Michigan; he studied at Northwestern University and Boston University and later privately with Roger Sessions.
Gamer was born in Chicago on February 13, 1929. He grew up in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, where his father taught at the University of Illinois. At the age of eight he began to study piano with Tanya Kessler and composition with her husband Hubert Kessler.
From 1942 to 1946, Gamer attended University High School in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois. Simultaneously, he studied piano with two faculty members of Illinois Wesleyan University, first Stefan Bardas and then Chester Barris. In 1946, he graduated as valedictorian.
Gamer studied at Northwestern University, (achieving a bachelor of music in 1950), theory and composition with Frank Cookson and Anthony Donato, and piano with Louis Crowder and Pauline Manchester Lindsey. He obtained his Master's degree in music at Boston University in 1951, after studies of composition with Gardner Read and of musicology with Karl Geiringer. He then worked there as a graduate assistant, teaching a course in orchestration, and served as research assistant for Read's Thesaurus of Orchestral Devices.
In New York City, from 1951 to 1953, Gamer founded a workshop of composer-performers ("The Seven") who met regularly at his home to read through and critique each other's music; they occasionally performed in public. The members were Sheldon Harnick, violin; Gerard Jaffe, viola; Juliette White, cello; Robert Dorough, recorder, flute, and piano; Eric Katz, recorder, Noel Stevens, clarinet, and himself, piano. He was also the pianist, composer, and music director for dancer and choreographer Ilka Suarez and her company.
Gamer taught music at Colorado College from 1954. In 1954 and 1955, he was the accompanist for Hanya Holm's summer dance workshops there. After studying composition privately with Roger Sessions in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1957, Gamer was invited to be a fellow at the Princeton Seminars in Advanced Musical Studies in 1959 and 1960. His recollection of these seminars is found in his article, "Milton at the Princeton Seminars". On leave from Colorado College, Gamer was an Asia Society Fellow at the University of California and in Kyoto, Japan, in 1962–63.
Gamer taught at Princeton University as a visiting lecturer in music in 1974, then as a visiting professor of music in 1976 and 1981. In 1976 he was appointed a Senior Fellow of the Council of Humanities at Princeton. The same year, Gamer received a MacDowell Colony Fellowship.