Douglas Allanbrook (1921-2003) was an American composer, concert pianist and harpsichordist. He was associated with a group of mid-twentieth century Boston composers who were students of Nadia Boulanger. A composer is a person who writes music. ... A pianist is a person who plays the piano. ... Harpsichord in the Flemish style A harpsichord is any of a family of European keyboard instruments, including the large instrument currently called a harpsichord, but also the smaller virginals, the muselar virginals and the spinet. ... Nickname: City on the Hill, Beantown, The Hub (of the Universe)1, Athens of America, The Cradle of Revolution, Puritan City, Americas Walking City Location in Massachusetts, USA Counties Suffolk County Mayor Thomas M. Menino(D) Area    - City 232. ... Nadia Boulanger (Paris, September 16, 1887 – Paris, October 22, 1979) was an influential French composer, conductor, and music professor. ...

Life and Work

Allanbrook was born on April 1, 1921 and raised in Melrose, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. He began taking piano lessons at eight. Within two years he was playing Bach, Haydn and Czerny. By thirteen, he started composing; his first serious piece was entitled On the Death of a Beautiful White Cat. By the time he was in high school he was churning out larger piano pieces and writing sketches for a Symphony in G Minor. Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School prior to its demolition in 2005 Melrose is a city located in the Greater Boston metropolitan area and Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. ... In music, the BACH motif is the sequence of notes B flat, A, C, B natural. ... (Franz) Joseph Haydn (in German, Josef; he never used the Franz) (March 31, 1732 – May 31, 1809) was a leading composer of the classical period. ... Carl Czerny (sometimes Karl; February 21, 1791 – July 15, 1857) was an Austrian pianist, composer and teacher. ...

After high school, Allanbrook studied at Boston University for one year. In 1939 he was hired as a music teacher at the Mary Wheeler finishing school in Providence. There, Gloria Vanderbilt was among his piano students. But the chief attraction for the young composer was the proximity of the WPA-funded Rhode Island Symphony. Within a year they would play his early orchestral works. Providence may mean: Divine Providence Providence College in Rhode Island, USA Providence, television series Providence, a 1977 film Providence, a 1991 film starring Keanu Reeves Providence, 1970s-era Providence may also refer to: Providence, Rhode Island (in Providence County) Providence, Alabama Providence, Kentucky Providence, New York It is also the... Gloria Vanderbilt, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1958. ... WPA is a three-letter abbreviation with multiple meanings: Washington Project for the Arts, an arts organization based in Washington, D.C. Walter Payton Award, in U.S. Division I-AA football War Powers Act, a U.S. federal law, also known as the Trading with the Enemy Act and...

In 1941, the exiled teacher Nadia Boulanger came to Providence to accept an honorary degree from Brown University. She heard some of Allanbrook's music and immediately took him under her wing. He began commuting regularly to Cambridge to study with her and to become part of her coterie of Boston composers, which included Harold Shapiro, Irving Fine, Paul Desmarais, and Daniel Pinkham. Brown University is a private university located in Providence, Rhode Island. ... Shown within Cambridgeshire Geography Status: City (1951) Region: East of England Admin. ... Harold Shapiro (born June 8, 1935) is a former president of Princeton University and the University of Michigan. ... Irving Fine (December 3, 1914–August 23, 1962) was a US composer. ... Paul Desmarais, Sr. ... Daniel Pinkham (born June 5, 1923 in Lynn, Massachusetts, died December 18, 2006 in Boston, Massachusetts) was an American composer, organist, and harpsichordist. ...

In the fall of 1942, the Army drafted Allanbrook. Serving as an infantryman for three years, he fought his way up the Italian peninsula, in the process earning a Bronze Star and starting his lifelong love affair with Italy. His time in Italy is recounted in his 1995 book, See Naples: A Memoir. The Army is the branch of the United States armed forces which has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. ... Infantry of the Royal Irish Rifles during the Battle of the Somme in World War I. Infantry are soldiers who fight primarily on foot with small arms in organized military units, though they may be transported to the battlefield by horses, ships, automobiles, skis, or other means. ... The Bronze Star Medal is a United States Armed Forces individual military decoration and is the fourth highest award for bravery, heroism or meritorious service. ...

When the war ended, he returned to Boston to enter Harvard on the G.I. bill. His major professor was composer Walter Piston, with whom he studied harmony, counterpoint, and orchestration. Among his fellow students were Peter Davison, who was to become a poet and publisher, and John Clinton Hunt, also to become a writer. Allanbrook composed prolifically, including two three-movement piano sonatas, and a cantata to T.S. Eliot's poem "Ash Wednesday." He completed his B.A. degree in May 1948. He was awarded a Paine Traveling Fellowship from Harvard, which he used to spend the next two years (1948-1950) in Paris honing his composing and performing skills, once again studying under Nadia Boulanger. He formed close musical friendships within her Paris circle, which included such promising composers as Ned Rorem, Noel Lee, Leo Preger and Georges Auric. Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and a member of the Ivy League. ... Walter Hamor Piston Jr. ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) Paris Eiffel tower as seen from the esplanade du Trocadéro. ... Ned Rorem (born October 23, 1923) is a noted American composer and diarist. ... Georges Auric (February 15, 1899 – July 23, 1983) was a French composer, born in Lodève, Hérault, Languedoc-Roussillon, France. ...

In the summer 1950 on a Fulbright scholarship, he returned to Italy to study harpsichord under the great Ruggero Gerlin, longtime associate of Wanda Landowska, at the Naples Conservatory. Under Gerlin's tutelage, he learned to perform the partitas and the two books of the Well-Tempered Clavier of J.S. Bach, the ordres of Francois Couperin, and various sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti. Allanbrook spent two extraordinarily creative years in Italy. He composed many works during this period, including his first opera, a brilliant setting of Edith Wharton’s classic novel, Ethan Frome. Wanda Landowska (July 5, 1879 – August 16, 1959), harpsichordist whose performances, teaching, recordings and writings played a large role in reviving the popularity of that instrument in the early 20th century. ... Edith Wharton (January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and designer. ... Ethan Frome is a 1912 novel by Edith Wharton. ...

In 1952 he returned to the U.S. to become a tutor at St. John’s College in Annapolis in its Great Books Program. Although he taught part-time at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore from 1953 through 1956, he chose to stay at St. John's for the duration of his teaching career. Although he retired from the college in May 1986, he continued to teach and perform there until his death. For many years, he was a member of the board at the Yaddo artists colony near Saratoga Springs, NY He died on January 29, 2003, from a heart attack at the age of 81. St. ... City nickname: Americas Sailing Capital Location in the state of Maryland Founded 1649 Mayor Ellen O. Moyer (Dem) Area  - Total  - Water 19. ... Great Books refers to a curriculum and a book list. ... Yaddo was founded as a nonprofit organization in 1900 by the financier Spencer Trask and his wife Katrina, herself a poet, Nichols Trask, and philanthropist George Foster Peabody. ...

His catalog contains 63 mature musical compositions, from his Te Deum (1942) to his String Quartet no. 6 (2002. His main works include seven symphonies, two operas, Ethan Frome and Nightmare Abbey (based on the novel by Thomas Love Peacock), choral works, four string quartets, numerous chamber pieces, and innumerable piano and harpsichord works. During his lifetime, his orchestral works were performed by orchestras across America and Europe, including the National Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Munich Radio Orchestra. He had a warm and creative collaboration with the Annapolis Brass Quintet from 1975 until its disbandment in 1991. Other performers who gave premieres of his music under his supervision include harpsichordist Ralph Kirkpatrick, violinist Robert Gerle, and the Kronos Quartet. Thomas Love Peacock (October 18, 1785 - January 23, 1866) was an English satirist and author. ... The Hall of Nations in the Kennedy Center, with the banner of the NSO. The National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) in Washington DC is a major American symphony orchestra that performs at the Kennedy Center. ... The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Baltimore, Maryland. ... The Annapolis Brass Quintet was a brass quintet founded by trumpet player David Cran and trombone player Robert Posten in 1971 as Americas first full-time performing brass ensemble. ...

Publications

See Naples: A Memoir, Houghton Mifflin, 1995. ISBN 0-395-74585-3