Otto Luening

Biography

"In American music today there's a terrific amount of differentiation, a variety of styles and approaches. And that's the American story: this enormous, broad thing." - Otto Luening

A noted opera conductor, Otto Luening (b. 1900 - d. 1996) was also a pioneer in the field of electronic music. He was born in Milwaukee and began composing in 1906, moving to Munich with his family in 1912 and later studying at a conservatory and university in Zurich. Luening became an accomplished flautist and played in a local orchestra and opera company there before making his debut as a composer-conductor in 1917. He returned to the United States in 1920 and continued conducting in addition to teaching at various colleges and universities. In the early 1930s he authored an opera of his own, Evangeline. Luening went on to teach at Columbia for many years, also serving the American Academy in Rome as a trustee and, occasionally, as composer-in-residence. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and received numerous other cultural awards.

After retiring from Columbia in 1970, he taught briefly at the Juilliard School, and in 1980 he wrote a comprehensive autobiography, The Odyssey of an American Composer. In 1944 Luening became chairman of the music department at Barnard and music director of Columbia's Brander Matthews Theatre; in this capacity he conducted the premieres of Gian Carlo Menotti's The Medium (1946) and Virgil Thomson's The Mother of Us All (1947). In 1949 he was appointed professor of music at Columbia. Under his leadership, the University continued to present many important operatic works, among them the world premiere of Benjamin Britten and W. H. Auden's Paul Bunyan.

Following years of experimentation with electronic, or electroacoustic, music—Fantasy in Space (1952) was an early effort—in 1959 Luening founded the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, now the Computer Music Center, along with Vladimir Ussachevsky. The center was the first in the United States devoted to the music described by Grove Music Online as that "in which electronic technology . . . is used to access, generate, explore, and configure sound materials," and provided a home for early electroacoustic composers.

From the late 1940s until his retirement, Luening served as Columbia's principal instructor in musical composition; among his students were Marvin David Levy, Charles Dodge, Harvey Sollberger, and John Corigliano. In 1965, with Jack Beeson and then-provost Jacques Barzun, he inaugurated the University's doctoral program in composition. In recognition of his many achievements, Luening received an honorary degree from the University in 1981.

  • solo keyboard
  • ACE Publications

    93 title(s)
    Composer Title SCORING/INSTRUMENTATION Year
    Otto Luening ACH WER BRINGT DIE SCHÖNEN TAGE Soprano, fl, pf (or harp)
    Otto Luening AH! SUNFLOWER voice, pf
    Otto Luening AT CHRISTMAS TIME voice and piano
    Otto Luening BEHOLD THE TABERNACLE OF GOD SATB, organ or piano
    Otto Luening BELLS OF SPENCE cb, pf
    Otto Luening CANON PER TRE FLAUTI 3fl
    Otto Luening CANONIC VARIATIONS FOR SOLO FLUTE fl
    Otto Luening CANONICAL VARIATIONS FOR STRING QUARTET str qrt
    Otto Luening CANON WITH VARIATIONS cb
    Otto Luening CHORDS AT NIGHT pf
    Otto Luening CONCERT PIECE FOR CELLO cello, orchestra 1111 1110 perc(2) piano strings
    Otto Luening DECLAMATION sop solo
    Otto Luening DIVERTIMENTO ob,pf
    Otto Luening DIVERTIMENTO ob,vln,vla,vcl
    Otto Luening DIVERTIMENTO orch:1-1-1-1,1-1-1-0, 2perc,timp,str
    Otto Luening DIVERTIMENTO cl,vln,pf
    Otto Luening DIVERTIMENTO ww qnt:fl,ob,cl,bsn,hn
    Otto Luening DUO FOR FLUTE & VIOLA fl,vla
    Otto Luening EIGHT PIANO PIECES solo piano
    Otto Luening ELEGY FOR THE LONESOME ONES 1 or 2 cl (or tpts or vlns or vlas),str orch or qnt
    Otto Luening FANFARE FOR FOUR FLUTES 4fl
    Otto Luening FANFARE FOR THOSE WE HAVE LOST band:pic-2-2-ehn-2-bcl- 2-cbsn,3-4-2-btbn-1,2perc
    Otto Luening FANTASIA AND DANCE IN MEMORIAM MAX POLLIKOFF violin solo
    Otto Luening FANTASIA ETUDES Piano
    Otto Luening FANTASIA-FLUTE SOLO fl

    Additional Works