Theodore Chanler

Theodore Ward Chanler (April 29, 1902 in Newport, Rhode Island – July 27, 1961) was an American composer.

Biography

Theodore was the son of Major Winthrop Astor Chanler and Margaret Ward Terry Chanler, author and musician. Chanler studied piano while a youngster in Boston, and then studied piano under Buhling and counterpoint under Goetschius at the Institute of Musical Art in New York. From 1920 to 1923, he studied at the Cleveland Institute, and between 1924 and 1927 in Europe (Oxford, then Paris under Nadia Boulanger). He became a music critic for the Boston Herald in 1934, and taught in Massachusetts in the 1940s and 50s.

Chanler's best-known works are his songs, which number about 50. He also composed a ballet, an opera (The Pot of Fat, 1955), choral pieces, works for chamber ensemble, and piano solo pieces.

References

• Don Randel, The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music. Harvard, 1996, p. 152.
• David Mason Greene, Greene's Biographical Encyclopedia of Composers: "Theodore Ward Chanler," p. 1321.