Biography
Walter Piston distinguished himself both as an American composer of singular tonal sensibility and as a pedagogue whose textbook Harmony attained canonical status throughout the United States. His output centered on orchestral works cast in a tonal language that fused neoclassical discipline with nationalist impulses. A melody might open in folk-like simplicity only to veer abruptly into unsettling, shadowy sonic worlds, a trajectory audible in Symphony no. 2, or else unfold toward spacious lyricism and radiant major-key affirmation, as occurs in Symphony no. 6. Piston's idiom remains bracing, whether evoking expansive terrain or the disorientation of woodland solitude, an effect comparable to crossing the breadth of the US. ~ Blue Gene Tyranny