Roger (Huntingdon) Sessions - Books

Composer, born in New York City, USA. He studied at Harvard and Yale universities, and also under Ernest Bloch, then spent some time in Europe. He later taught in the USA, working at the universities of Princeton (1935–45, 1953–65) and California, Berkeley (1945–52), and at the Juilliard School, New York City (from 1965). His compositions include eight symphonies, a violin concerto, piano and chamber music, two operas, and a Concerto for Orchestra (1981, Pulitzer).

Roger Huntington Sessions (28 December 1896 – 16 March 1985) was an American composer, critic and teacher of music.

Born in Brooklyn, New York to a family that could trace its roots back to the American revolution, Sessions studied music at Harvard University from the age of 14.

Returning to the United States in 1933, he taught at Princeton University until retiring in 1965, although he continued to teach on a part‐time basis at the Juilliard School until 1983. 1 (1936) Duo for Violin and Piano (1942) From my Diary (1940) Piano Sonata No. 2 (1946) Symphony No. 2 (1951) Sonata for Solo Violin (1953) Idyll of Theocritus (1954) Piano Concerto (1956) Symphony No. 3 (1957) Symphony No. 4 (1958) String Quintet (1958) Divertimento for Orchestra (1959) Montezuma (1963), An opera in three acts Symphony No. 3 (1965) Symphony No. 6 (1966) Six Pieces for Violoncello (1966) Symphony No. 7 (1967) Symphony No. 8 (1968) Rhapsody for Orchestra (1970) Concerto for Violin, Violoncello, and Orchestra (1971) When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d (1971) Concertino for Chamber Orchestra (1972) Five Pieces for Piano (1975) Symphony No. 9 (1978) Concerto for Orchestra (1981) Duo for Violin and Violoncello (1981), incomplete

His works from the Solo Violin Sonata of 1953 on are almost all serial. The opening minutes of the Second and Third Symphonies, the one nominally in D minor, the other serial though still somewhat tonal, might be contrasted in this connection, the former chaotic and over the map, the latter birdsong influenced, at peace; (Then again, the opening movement of the Fourth Symphony, a Burlesque, quotes the aforementioned passage from the Second, in agitation not least, and matters are put to rights.)

Books

Cone, Edward, ed. Roger Sessions on Music: Collected Essays. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press. Conversations with Roger Sessions. Boston: Northeastern University Press. The Correspondence of Roger Sessions. Boston: Northeastern University Press. Reflections on the Music Life in the United States. New York: Merlin Press. The Musical Experience of Composer, Performer, Listener. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Questions About Music. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.