Cone, Edward T(oner)

Cone, Edward T(oner), American composer, pianist, teacher, and writer on music; b. Greensboro, N.C., May 4, 1917. He studied composition with Sessions at Princeton Univ. (B.A., 1939; M.F.A., 1942), and also took piano lessons with Jeffrey Stoll, Karl Ulrich Schnabel, and Eduard Steuermann. He joined the faculty of Princeton Univ. in 1946, being made an assoc. prof, in 1952 and a full prof, in I960, retiring in 1985. He received a Guggenheim fellowship in 1947. In addition to composing and teaching, he gave piano recitals. He was also active as a writer, and ed. of the periodical Perspectives of New Music (1966–72).

Works

orch.:Sym. (1953); Elegy (1953); Nocturne and Rondo for Piano and Orch. (1955–57); Violin Concerto (1959); Music for Strings (1964); Variations (1967–68); Cadenzas for Violin, Oboe, and Strings (1979). chamber: 2 string quartets (1939–49); 2 violin sonatas (1940, 1948); Rhapsody for Viola and Piano (1947); Piano Trio (1951); Piano Quintet (1960); Funereal Stanzas for Wind Quintet (1965); String Sextet (1966); Capriccio for String Quartet (1981); Piano Quartet (1983). keyboard piano:Fantasy (1950); Prelude, Passacaglia and Fugue (1957); Fantasy for 2 Pianos (1965). vocal:Scarabs for Soprano and String Quartet (1948); Philomela for Soprano and Chamber Ensemble (1954–70); Around the Year for Madrigal Group and String Quartet (1956); songs.

Writings

Musical Form and Musical Performance (N.Y., 1968); The Composer’s Voice (Berkeley, 1974); co-ed, (with B. Boretz), Perspectives on Schoenberg and Stravinsky (Princeton, 1968), Perspectives on American Composers (N.Y., 1971), and Perspectives on Notation and Performance (N.Y., 1975); ed. Roger Sessions on Music (Princeton, 1979); P. Morgan, ed., Music: AView from Delft: Selected Essays (Chicago, 1989).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire