John Vincent (composer)

John Vincent (17 May 1902 Birmingham, AL- 21 Jan 1977 Santa Monica, CA) was an American composer, conductor, and music educator. He studied at the New England Conservatory of Music under Frederick Converse and George Chadwick graduating with a diploma in 1927. He continued his studies at George Peabody College where he earned a bachelors and a masters degree followed by doctoral studies at Harvard University from 1933–1935. While at Harvard he studied under Walter Piston and he won the John Knowles Paine Traveling Fellowship for two years of study with Nadia Boulanger. He transfered to Cornell University earning his PhD in 1942. He was head of the music department at Western Kentucky University from 1937–1945 and Schoenberg’s successor as professor of composition at UCLA, a position he held from 1946–1969.

As a composer Vincent's music is known for its rhythmic vitality and lyricism. ALthough his music is essentially classical in form it is distinctly individual. The free tonality of his work makes use of what he calls ‘paratonality’: the predominance of a diatonic element in a polytonal or atonal passage. Vincent wrote numerous orchestral works, chamber music pieces, art songs, and choral works. He also wrote one ballet, "3 Jacks" (1942), a film score, "Red Cross" (1948), and an opera, "Primeval Void" (1969).

In 1951 his book "The Diatonic Modes in Modern Music" was published. He also conducted orchestras throughout the USA and South America, and he was a director of the Huntington Hartford Foundation from 1952–1965.

ources

*W. Thomas Marrocco. The "New Grove Dictionary of Opera", edited by Stanley Sadie (1992). ISBN 0-333-73432-7 and ISBN 1-56159-228-5