Donald Martino


Donald James Martino was a Pulitzer Prize winning American composer.

Biography

Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, Martino began as a clarinettist, playing jazz for fun and profit. He attended Syracuse University, where he studied composition with Ernst Bacon, who encouraged him in that direction. He then attended Princeton University as a graduate student, where he worked with composers Roger Sessions and Milton Babbitt. He also studied with Luigi Dallapiccola in Italy as a Fulbright Scholar.
He became a lecturer and teacher himself, working with students at Yale University, the New England Conservatory of Music, Brandeis University, and Harvard University.
He won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1974 for his chamber work Notturno.
In 1991, the journal Perspectives of New Music published a 292-page tribute to Martino.
Martino died in Antigua in 2005. A memorial concert was held at the New England Conservatory on May 8, 2007. A recording of the concert was released by Navona Records in 2009.

Music

Most of Martino's mature works were composed using the twelve-tone method; his sound world more closely resembled the lyrical Dallapiccola's than his other teachers'.
The pianist Easley Blackwood commissioned Martino's sonata Pianississimo, explicitly requesting that it be one of the most difficult pieces ever written. The resulting work is indeed of epic difficulty, but has been recorded several times.
Martino presented Milton Babbitt with at least two musical birthday cards: B,a,b,b,i,t,t on his 50th birthday and Triple Concerto on his 60th.

Musical compositions

Many of the instrumental pieces have extensive doublings, such as flute/piccolo/alto flute. Principal publishers: Ione, Dantalian, McGinnis & Marx.

Works for orchestra and concertos

  1. All day I hear the noise of waters
  2. The half-moon westers low, my love
  1. The Lion, the Tiger
  2. The Frog
  3. The Microbe
  1. Alone
  2. Tutto e sciolto
  3. A Memory of the Players in a Mirror at Midnight
  1. Die Laute
  2. Aus einem Sturmnacht VIII;