William Schuman: American composer/Teacher/Visionary

The New York Times makes note of an upcoming celebration of a life that truly mattered, that still impacts the world for good.


William Schuman was an American composer of the same generation as Copland, Bernstein, Barber, Menotti, and other luminaries that have become household names, and whose music is imprinted deep in the cultural memory. Everyone has heard (in order of the composers) 'Rodeo' from Billy the Kid('Beef: It's What's For Dinner!), 'One Hand, One Heart'West Side Story, Adagio for Strings, and Amahl and the Night Visitors. Many fewer have heard the music of Schuman, although every child who participated in a good high-school or college band program since about 1960 has played his New England Triptych. This is a small excerpt of one movement:



He was a first-rate composer, without dispute. But his greater contribution was in transforming how music was taught in the United States in his day, as he ran the Juilliard School in New York, and later oversaw the early years of Lincoln Center, making certain the School formed an integral part of that crucial institution.

Schuman’s educational credo was and remains an enlightened ideal, namely, “to make responsible adults of musicians,” as he put it in a 1945 essay for Time magazine assessing the overall state of the field. “Right now,” he added, “when we need musical leaders in every community, we are concerned only with training virtuosi for a nonexistent market. Musical education has to be ventilated. We must develop educated people who are musicians in order to develop music.”


This excerpt from 'What's My Line?' in the 1960's is revealing. Self-effacing, good-humored, articulate, Schuman banters with with the likes of Bennett Cerf, and ends up bolstering the cause of Lincoln Center, and Juilliard, and composition, and ultimately himself(although that appears to be far down his list!) It's nine minutes of remembering an entire cast of mind that we would do well to recover.




The 'Tryptich' is still performed, hundreds of times a year, in school bands across the country. That class, humility, craftmanship, and good humor make themselves felt every time the band plays.

GreenShoots Award, and a contribution in his honor.