George Perle

Lately, I have been getting into a composer who goes by the name of George Perle. I've recently listened to his work Sonata a quattro for flute/alto flute, clarinet/bass clarinet, violin and cello. What strikes me about this composer is that while influences such as prokofiev and Stravinsky are evident, he gives them a much "modern" twist with what seems as influences from "12 tone" music. However, Sonata a quattro composed in 1982, when composers like Arvo Part and new minimalism was all the rage, his work stood out and seemed "old school" yet very very original, fresh and new, especially for the time it was conceived.

Does anybody have insight on this terrific composer?:toothygrin:

Certainly heard of this guy and a couple of works. Sadly he seems to be one of America's composers in the process of being forgotten, along with Persichetti, Piston and others.

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I think he studied with Krenek. My school's wind ensemble played a piece of his last year, and I really liked it. He used Schoenberg's 12-tone system, but in contrast to Schoenberg's approach (a Method of Composing with Twelve Tones Which are Related Only with One Another), Perle tried to create heirarchies of tones within his rows (analogous to tonal heirarchies of tonics, dominants, subdominants, and so on) and other such relations between notes, reminiscent of tonal practice.

He also wrote a book, Serial Composition and Atonality, which I started reading and never finished...:D If I have time when I get back to school, I may start reading it again, and if I find anything else out, I'll certainly post it here.