Walter Hamor Piston, Jr. was born on January 20, 1894, and died on November 12, 1976. He was an American composer who wrote music for orchestras and other groups. He also studied and wrote about music theory. Additionally, he taught music at Harvard University.

Life

Walter Piston was born on Ocean Street in Rockland, Maine, to Walter Hamor Piston, a bookkeeper, and Leona Stover. He was the second of four children. His father’s father, Antonio Pistone, was a sailor who changed his name to Anthony Piston when he moved to Maine from Genoa, Italy. In 1905, Walter Piston Sr. moved his family to Boston, Massachusetts.

Walter Jr. first studied engineering at the Mechanical Arts High School in Boston but was interested in art. After graduating in 1912, he enrolled at the Massachusetts Normal Art School, where he completed a four-year program in fine art in 1916.

During the 1910s, Piston earned money by playing piano and violin in dance bands and later played violin in orchestras led by Georges Longy. During World War I, he joined the U.S. Navy as a band musician after quickly learning to play the saxophone. He later said, “When it became obvious that everybody had to go into the service, I wanted to go in as a musician.” While playing in a service band, he taught himself to play most wind instruments. “They were just lying around,” he later said, “and no one minded if you picked them up and found out what they could do.”

Piston was admitted to Harvard College in 1920, where he studied counterpoint with Archibald Davison, canon and fugue with Clifford Heilman, advanced harmony with Edward Ballantine, and composition and music history with Edward Burlingame Hill. He often worked as an assistant for music professors and conducted the student orchestra.

In 1920, Piston married artist Kathryn Nason, who had been a fellow student at the Normal Art School. The marriage lasted until her death in February 1976, a few months before his own.

After graduating summa cum laude from Harvard, Piston received a John Knowles Paine Traveling Fellowship. He chose to live in Paris from 1924 to 1926, where he studied composition and counterpoint with Nadia Boulanger, composition with Paul Dukas, and violin with George Enescu at the Ecole Nationale de Musique. His Three Pieces for Flute, Clarinet and Bassoon of 1925 was his first published score.

Piston taught at Harvard from 1926 until his retirement in 1960. His students included Samuel Adler, Leroy Anderson, Leonard Bernstein, Elliott Carter, and many others.

In 1936, the Columbia Broadcasting System asked six American composers, including Piston, to write works for radio. Piston composed his Symphony No. 1, which the Boston Symphony Orchestra performed on April 8, 1938.

Piston’s only dance work, The Incredible Flutist, was written for the Boston Pops Orchestra and premiered with Arthur Fiedler conducting on May 30, 1938. The dancers were Hans Weiner and his company. Later, Piston arranged a concert suite from the ballet, which the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra performed in 1940.

Piston studied Arnold Schoenberg’s twelve-tone technique and used aspects of it in works like his Sonata for Flute and Piano (1930) and First Symphony (1937). His first fully twelve-tone work was the Chromatic Study on the Name of Bach for organ (1940). He used twelve-tone elements more frequently in later works, such as the Eighth Symphony (1965) and others.

In 1943, the Alice M. Ditson Fund commissioned Piston’s Symphony No. 2, which premiered with the National Symphony Orchestra in 1944 and won a prize from the New York Music Critics’ Circle. His Third Symphony and Seventh Symphony earned Pulitzer Prizes. His Viola Concerto and String Quartet No. 5 also received Critics’ Circle awards.

Piston was awarded the Edward MacDowell Medal in 1974 for his contributions to the arts.

Piston wrote four books on music theory: Principles of Harmonic Analysis, Counterpoint, Orchestration, and Harmony. His Harmony book introduced new concepts, such as harmonic rhythm and secondary dominant, and was widely used.

He died at his home in Belmont, Massachusetts, on November 12, 1976.

His library and desk are displayed in the Piston Room at the Boston Public Library.

Works

• The Incredible Flutist (1938)
• Symphonies
• – Symphony No. 1 (1937)
• – Symphony No. 2 (1943)
• – Symphony No. 3 (1946–1947) (commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation)
• – Symphony No. 4 (1950) (composed for the 100th anniversary of the University of Minnesota)
• – Symphony No. 5 (1954)
• – Symphony No. 6 (1955) (composed for the 75th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra)
• – Symphony No. 7 (1960)
• – Symphony No. 8 (1965)
• Symphonic Piece (1927)
• Suite, for orchestra (1929)
• Concerto for Orchestra (1934)
• Suite from The Incredible Flutist (1940) (The suite was transcribed for symphonic wind ensemble by MSgt Donald Patterson and recorded by Col. Michael Colburn with "The President's Own" United States Marine Band.)
• Sinfonietta (1941)
• Fugue on a Victory Tune, for orchestra (1944)
• Variation on a Tune by Eugene Goosens (1944)
• Suite No. 2, for orchestra (1947)
• Toccata, for orchestra (1948)
• Serenata for Orchestra (1956)
• Three New England Sketches (1959)
• Symphonic Prelude (1961)
• Lincoln Center Festival Overture (1962)
• Variations on a Theme by Edward Burlingame Hill (1963)
• Pine Tree Fantasy (1965)
• Ricercare for Orchestra (1967)
• Bicentennial Fanfare, for orchestra (1975)

• Fanfare for the Fighting French, for brass and percussion (1942)
• Tunbridge Fair, for symphonic band (1950) (Commissioned by the American Bandmasters Association)
• Ceremonial Fanfare, for brass (1969) (Commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to accompany its Centennial exhibition "The Year 1200")

• Flute Concerto (1971)
• Clarinet Concerto (1967)
• Capriccio for Harp and String Orchestra (1963)
• Piano Concertino (1937)
• Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra (1959)
• Violin Concerto No. 1 (1939)
• Violin Concerto No. 2 (1960)
• Fantasia for Violin and Orchestra (1970)
• Viola Concerto (1957)
• Variations for Cello and Orchestra (1966)
• Prelude and Allegro for Organ and Strings (1943)
• Fantasy for English Horn, Harp, and Strings (1953)
• Concerto for String Quartet, Wind Instruments and Percussion (1976)

• String quartets
• – String Quartet No. 1 (1933)
• – String Quartet No. 2 (1935)
• – String Quartet No. 3 (1947)
• – String Quartet No. 4 (1951)
• – String Quartet No. 5 (1962)
• Three Pieces, for flute, clarinet, and bassoon (1925)
• Sonata for Flute and Piano (1930)
• Suite for Oboe and Piano (1931)
• Piano Trio No. 1 (1935)
• Sonata for Violin and Piano (1939)
• Sonatina for Violin and Harpsichord (1945)
• Interlude, for viola and piano (1942)
• Flute Quintet (1942)
• Partita, for violin, viola, and organ (1944)
• Divertimento, for nine instruments (1946)
• Duo for Viola and Cello (1949)
• Piano Quintet (1949)
• Wind Quintet (1956)
• Piano Quartet (1964)
• String Sextet (1964)
• Piano Trio No. 2 (1966)
• Souvenirs, for flute, viola, and harp (1967)
• Duo, for cello and piano (1972)
• Three Counterpoints, for violin, viola, and cello (1973)

• Piano Sonata (1926) [unpublished, withdrawn]
• Passacaglia (1943)
• Improvisation (1945)
• Variation on Happy Birthday (1970)

• Chromatic Study on the Name of BACH (1940)

• Carnival Song, for male chorus and brass (1938)
• March (1940)
• Psalm and Prayer of David, for mixed chorus and seven instruments (1959)
• "O sing unto the Lord a new