Peter Westergaard

Peter Talbot Westergaard (born 1931) is an American composer and music theorist. He is Professor Emeritus of music at Princeton University.

Biography

Westergaard was born in 1931 in Champaign, Illinois. He pursued undergraduate studies at Harvard University, graduating in 1953, and in 1956 obtained an M.F.A. degree from Princeton University. He studied with Roger Sessions, Walter Piston, Darius Milhaud, Edward Cone, Milton Babbitt and Wolfgang Fortner (Pratt 2001) in Freiburg/Germany.

He taught at Columbia University, Amherst College, and Princeton University before retiring in 2001. Westergaard continues to be active as a composer, mainly of opera and chamber music.

Composer and theorist

Amongst former pupils of Babbitt, Westergaard stands out for his contributions to serial theory, as well as for his compositions, which are characterized by a delight in symmetry and mirror relationships, together with a concern for the systematic and integrated use of all the parameters of music, producing multileveled, clear, beautiful, and audible patterns (Griffiths 1981, 160–61).

Music

Operas

Film version of Alice in Wonderland published by Albany records http://www.albanyrecords.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=AR&Product_Code=TROY1198

Vocal music

Instrumental music

Writings

Sources

External links

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