Biographical Sketches

Walter Piston

Composer

Piston was born in Rockland, Maine in 1894 and died in Belmont, Massachusetts in 1976. Along with Aaron Copland, he was an influential teacher and Pulitzer Prize winning composer. Piston literally wrote the book on music composition and technique as a teacher of theory, harmony, and composition at Harvard. His book on harmony is still the standard reference book on the subject. Piston also has close ties to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which premiered many of his orchestral pieces. (WMT)

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