Disciplines: Music Composition

Edward Miller

Disciplines: Music Composition
Region: Oberlin, OH
Residencies: 1963
Edward Miller (1930-2013) Miller earned his master’s degree in composition at the University of Hartford’s Hartt School of Music, where he studied with Arnold Franchetti and Isadore Freed, and served on the faculty for 12 years prior to his Oberlin appointment. Following his retirement, Miller stayed in Oberlin until 2005 when his wife Judi stepped down from her post as a professor of psychology. The couple then moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico. During his 27 years on the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music composition faculty (four as chair), he was stimulated by the talents of colleagues and students. His most frequently-performed composition, Piece for Clarinet and Tape, was written for clarinet professor Lawrence McDonald. Beyond the Wheel for violin and tape, a piece praised by New York Times music critic Allan Kozinn for its “shimmering otherworldly texture,” was inspired by a dramatic passage from the Book of Ezekiel and written for Oberlin faculty violinist Gregory Fulkerson. Both tapes were created in the Oberlin electronics studio, where Miller worked closely with composer Gary Nelson. Another fellow faculty composer, Randolph Coleman, came up with the title for Miller’s orchestral piece, Anacrusis. The musical term for “pick-up notes,” the title acknowledged the borrowing of fragments from works by Ravel and Mahler that followed the world premiere of Miller’s piece on a concert by the Hartford Symphony.