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William Schuman

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Composer

The Resume

    (August 4, 1910-February 15, 1992)
    Born in Manhattan, New York
    Composed the operas ‘The Mighty Casey’ (1953) and ‘A Question of Taste’ (1989) and the ballets ‘Undertow’ (1945), ‘Night Journey’ (1947), and ‘Judith’ (1949)
    Other works include ‘American Festival Overture’ (1939), ‘Symphony for Strings’ (1943), ‘A Prayer in Time of War’ (1943), ‘New England Triptych’ (1956), and ‘Symphony No. 10: American Muse’ (1976)
    President of Juilliard (1945-61) and Lincoln Center (1962-69)

Why he might be annoying:

    He was a relative late-comer to classical music, not even hearing his first concert by a symphony orchestra until he was twenty.
    He composed ‘eight symphonies, numbered Three through Ten.’ (He withdrew his first two symphonies.)
    In reviews of his early works, critics would often spell his name with a double-n (as in Robert Schumann).
    He said, ‘Someone once asked me whether I felt that I was out of fashion. I said it’s impossible for me to be out of fashion because I was never in fashion.’

Why he might not be annoying:

    He and his wife Frances were married for 55 years.
    Before going classical, he wrote the music for Frank Loesser’s first published song, ‘In Love with a Memory of You.’
    His ‘Cantata No. 2: A Free Song,’ based on the poems of Walt Whitman, won the first Pulitzer Prize given for music (1943).
    Aaron Copland said, ‘In Schuman’s pieces you have the feeling that only an American could have written them. . . . You hear it in the kind of American optimism which is at the basis of his music.’

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 14 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 164 Votes: 52.44% Annoying