Russell, William (real name, Russell William Wagner)

Russell, William (real name, Russell William Wagner) , American composer; b. Canton, Mo., Feb. 26, 1905; d. New Orleans, Aug. 9, 1992. When he began to study music he eliminated his patronymic as possibly invidious, and placed his first Christian name as a surname. He was fascinated with the sounds of drums, and wrote music almost exclusively for percussion instruments; his first important work in this category was the Fugue for 8 Percussion Instruments (1932). Another work of importance was 3 Dance Movements (N.Y., Nov. 22, 1933); the scoring is for tone clusters and piano strings activated with a fork, and a cymbal sounded by drawing the teeth of a saw across its edge; the ensemble also includes a bottle which must be broken at the climax. His other percussion works include Ogou Badagri (1933; based on Voodoo rites); 3 Cuban Pieces (1935); Made in America (1936; the scoring calls for firecrackers); March Suite (1936); Concerto for Trumpet and Percussion (1937). Giving up composition, he moved to New Orleans in 1940, and from 1944 to 1957 he recorded historic jazz on his own label; from 1958 he was the jazz-archive curator at Tulane Univ. As late as age 85 he continued playing violin with the New Orleans Ragtime Orch. For a retrospective concert of his works in N.Y. on Feb. 24, 1990, he broke his compositional silence by writing a percussion Tango to accompany his 3 Dance Movements; the concert included the premiere performances of his Trumpet Concerto and Ogou Badagri.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire