George Perle

George Perle (May 6, 1915 – January 23, 2009) was a composer and
George Perle
music theorist.[1]

Contents
Biography
Works
Partial bibliography
See also
References Perle in 1991
External links Background information
Birth name George Perle

Biography Born May 6, 1915

Bayonne, New Jersey, United
Perle was born in Bayonne, New Jersey. He graduated from DePaul States
University, where he studied with Wesley LaViolette and received
Died January 23, 2009 (aged 93)
private lessons from Ernst Krenek. Later, he served as a technician
New York City, New York,
fifth grade in the United States Army during World War II.[2][3] He
United States
earned his doctorate atNew York University in 1956.[4]
Occupation(s) Musician, composer, music
Perle composed with a technique of his own devising called "twelve- theorist
tone tonality". This technique was different from, but related to, the
twelve-tone technique of the Second Viennese School,[5] of which he was an "early admirer" and whose techniques he used aspects
of but never fully adopted.[4] Perle's former studentPaul Lansky described Perle's twelve-tone tonality thus:

Basically this creates a hierarchy among the notes of the chromatic scale so that they are all referentially related to
one or two pitches which then function as a tonic note or chord in tonality. The system similarly creates a hierarchy
among intervals and finally, among larger collections of notes, 'chords.' The main debt of this system to the 12-tone
system lies in its use of an ordered linear succession in the same way that 12-tone
a set does".[6]

In 1968, Perle cofounded the Alban Berg Society with Igor Stravinsky and Hans F. Redlich, who had the idea (according to Perle in
his letter to Glen Flax of 4/1/89). Perle's important work on Berg includes documenting that the third act of Lulu, rather than being an
unfinished sketch, was actually three-fifths complete and that the Lyric Suite contains a secret program dedicated to Berg's love-
affair.[4]

After retiring from Queens College in 1985, he became a professor emeritus at the Aaron Copland School of Music.[4] In 1986, Perle
was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Musicfor his Fourth Wind Quintet and also a MacArthur Fellowship.[4] In about 1989 Perle became
composer-in-residence for the San Francisco Symphony, a three-year appointment. It was also around this time that he had published
his fourth book entitledThe Listening Composer.

He died aged 93 in his home in New York City in January 2009.[4] He was subsequently buried in Calverton National Cemetery. On
his headstone are inscribed the words "An die Musik."[3]
A growing number of younger artists have come to appreciate Perle as a composer ahead of his time. In the run-up to his 100th
[7]
birthday celebrations the composer-pianist Michael Brown released a well received CD of a sampling of Perle's work for piano.

Perle was married to the sculptor Laura Slobe from 1940 to 1952; the couple were members of the Socialist Workers Party.[8] His
second wife, Barbara Philips, died in 1978. Perle was survived at his death by his third wife, the former Shirley Gabis Rhoads, two
daughters, and a stepdaughter.[9]

Works
Swift differentiates between Perle's 'free' or 'intuitive', tone-centered, and twelve-tone modal music.[10] He lists Perle's tone-centered
compositions:

Sonata for Solo Viola (1942)

Three Sonatas for Solo Clarinet (1943)
Hebrew Melodies for Solo Cello (1945)
Sonata for Solo Cello (1947)
Quintet for Strings (1958)
Sonata I for Solo Violin (1959)
Wind Quintet I (1959)
Wind Quintet II (1960)
Monody I for Flute (1962)
Monody II for Double Bass (1962)
Three Inventions for Bassoon (1962)
Sonata II for Solo Piano (1963)
Solo Partita for Violin and Viola (1965)
Wind Quintet III (1967)

Partial bibliography
Perle, George (1962, reprint 1991).Serial Composition and Atonality: An Introduction to the Music of Schoenberg,
Berg, and Webern. University of California Press.
Perle, George (1978, reprint 1992).Twelve-Tone Tonality. University of California Press..
Perle, George (1980). The Operas of Alban Berg. Vol. 1: Wozzeck. California: University of California Press.
Perle, George (1984). "Scriabin's Self-Analysis",Musical Analysis III/2 (July).
Perle, George (1985). The Operas of Alban Berg. Vol. 2: Lulu. California: University of California Press.
Perle, George (1990). The Listening Composer. California: University of California Press.
Perle, George (1992). "Symmetry, the Twelve-Tone Scale, and Tonality", Contemporary Music Review6 (2), pp. 81–
96.

See also
Interval cycle

References
1. Lansky, Paul (July 2, 2009). "Perle, George" (http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/2134
5). grove. Oxford Music Online.
2. Perle, George (2007). "Biography" (http://www.georgeperle.net/biography/). georgeperle.net. Retrieved 11 May
2012.
3. Find a Grave, memorial page for George Perle (1915–2009).(https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/72375644&ref=
acom) Find a Grave Memorial #72,375,644. Calverton National Cemetery , Calverton, Suffolk County, New York,
USA.
 4. Kozinn, Allan (January 24, 2009). "George Perle, a Composer and Theorist, Dies at 93"(https://www.nytimes.com/20
09/01/24/arts/music/24perle.html). New York Times. Retrieved 2017-12-08.
5. Perle (1992).
6. Chase, Gilbert (1992).America's Music: From the Pilgrims to the Present
, p. 587. University of Illinois Press,ISBN 0-
252-06275-2.
7. Schweitzer, Vivien (May 11, 2014). "Paying Homage, Vivaciously and Somberly:From Michael Brown, an Evening of
George Perle" (https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/10/arts/music/from-michael-brown-an-evening-of-george-perle.htm
l?_r=0). New York Times. Retrieved 2017-12-08.
8. "Guide to the Laura Gray Political Cartoons GRAPHICS.013"(http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/tamwag/graphics_0
13/bioghist.html). Retrieved 26 February 2017.
9. Pasles, Chris (January 31, 2009)."George Perle dies at 93; theorist and composer championed atonal music" (http://
www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-george-perle31-2009jan31-story.html). Los Angeles Times. Retrieved
2017-12-09.
10. Swift, Richard. "A Tonal Analog: The Tone-Centered Music of George Perle(https://www.jstor.org/stable/832876)",
p.258-259 & 283. Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 21, No. 1/2, (Autumn, 1982 – Summer , 1983), pp. 257–284.

External links
George Perle's homepage
George Perle's page at Theodore Presser Company
ENCOUNTERS: George Perleby George Sturm
New Music and Listener Expectation: A commencement address given at San Francisco Conservatory of Musicby
George Perle
Reflections by George Perle
Those Were The Days. Or Were They?: Three Living Legends of Contemporary Music Co mpare Yesterday and
Today by Mic Holwin (also George Crumb and David Diamond)
NewMusicBox In the 1st Person : Three Generations of eaching
T Music CompositionPart One: George Perle and
Paul Lansky – February 19, 2002 – Upper West Side, New York, NY
Michael Brown plays George Perle's Six Celebratory Inventions on Classical Connect
Interview with George Perle, May 20, 1986
David Dubal interview with George Perle, WNCN-FM, 9-Dec-1983

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