Mennin (real name, Mennini), Peter
Mennin (real name, Mennini), Peter
Mennin (real name, Mennini), Peter, eminent American composer and music educator, brother of Louis (Alfred) Mennini; b. Erie, Pa., May 17, 1923; d. N.Y., June 17, 1983. His family stemmed from Italy; his brother did not cut off the last letter of his name as Peter did. His early environment was infused with music, mostly from phonograph recordings. He studied piano with Tito Spampani. In 1940 he enrolled in the Oberlin (Ohio) Cons., where he took courses in harmony with Normand Lockwood. He quickly learned the basics of composition, and at the age of 18 wrote a sym. and a string quartet. In 1942 he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force; was discharged in 1943, and resumed his musical studies at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., where his teachers were Hanson and Rogers. He worked productively; wrote another sym. in 1944; a movement from it, Symphonic Allegro, was performed by the N.Y. Phil., Leonard Bernstein conducting, on March 27, 1945. His 3rd Sym. was performed by Walter Hendl with the N.Y Phil, on Feb. 27, 1947. Mennin progressed academically as well; he obtained his Ph.D. from the Eastman School of Music in 1947. He received a Guggenheim fellowship grant in 1948; a 2nd Guggenheim grant followed in 1956. From 1947 to 1958 he taught composition at the Juilliard School of Music in N.Y.; in 1958 he assumed the post of director of the Peabody Cons, of Music in Baltimore. In 1962 he received his most prestigious appointment, that of president of the Juilliard School of Music, serving in that capacity until his death. Despite his academic preoccupations, he never slackened the tempo of his activities as a composer; he diversified his syms. by adding descriptive titles; thus his 4th Sym. was subtitled The Cycle and was scored for chorus and orch.; his 7th Sym. was called Variation Symphony; the 4 movements of his 8th Sym. bore biblical titles. Increasingly also, he began attaching descriptive titles to his other works; his Concertato for Orch. was named Moby Dick; there followed a Canto for Orchestra, a Cantata de Virtute, Voices, and Reflections of Emily, after Emily Dickinson. Mennin’s musical mind was directed toward pure structural forms; his music is characterized by an integrity of purpose and teleological development of thematic materials, all this despite the bold infusion of dissonant sonorities in contrapuntal passages.
Works
orch.: 9 syms.: No. 1 (1941; withdrawn), No. 2 (1944; Rochester, N.Y, March 27, 1945), No. 3 (1946; N.Y., Feb. 27, 1947), No. 4, The Cycle, for Chorus and Orch. (1948; N.Y, March 18, 1949), No. 5 (Dallas, April 2, 1950), No. 6 (Louisville, Nov. 18, 1953), No. 7, Variation Symphony (1963; Cleveland, Jan. 23, 1964), No. 8 (1973; N.Y, Nov. 21, 1974), and No. 9, Sinfonia capricciosa (Washington, D.C, March 10, 1981); Concertino for Flute, Strings, and Percussion (1944); Folk Overture (Washington, D.C, Dec. 19, 1945); Sinfonia for Chamber Orch. (1946; Rochester, N.Y, May 24, 1947); Fantasia for Strings (1947; N.Y, Jan. 11, 1948); Canzona for Band (1951); Concertato, Moby Dick (Erie, Pa., Oct. 20, 1952); Cello Concerto (N.Y, Feb. 19, 1956); Piano Concerto (Cleveland, Feb. 27, 1958); Canto for Orchestra (San Antonio, March 4, 1963); Symphonic Movements, renamed Sinfonia (1970; Minneapolis, Jan. 21, 1971; withdrawn); Flute Concerto (1983; N.Y, May 25, 1988). chamber: Organ Sonata (1941; withdrawn); 2 string quartets (1941, withdrawn; 1951); 5 Pieces for Piano (1949); Sonata concertante for Violin and Piano (Washington, D.C, Oct. 19, 1956); Piano Sonata (1963). vocal:4 Songs for Soprano and Piano (1941; withdrawn); Alleluia for Chorus (1941); 4 Chinese Poems for Chorus (1948); 2 choruses for Women’s Voices and Piano (1949); The Christmas Story for Soprano, Tenor, Chorus, Brass Quintet, Timpani, and Strings (1949); Cantata de Virtute: Pied Piper of Hamelin for Narrator, Tenor, Bass, Mixed Chorus, Children’s Chorus, and Orch. (Cincinnati, May 2, 1969); Voices for Voice, Piano, Harp, Harpsichord, and Percussion, after Thoreau, Melville, Whitman, and Emily Dickinson (1975; N.Y, March 28, 1976); Reflections of Emily[Dickinson] for Boy’s Chorus, Harp, Piano, and Percussion (1978; N.Y, Jan. 18, 1979).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire