Ernst Bacon facts for kids

Ernst Lecher Bacon (born May 26, 1898 – died March 16, 1990) was an American composer, pianist, and conductor. He wrote over 250 songs during his career. Bacon won three Guggenheim Fellowships. He also received a Pulitzer Scholarship in 1932 for his Second Symphony.

About Ernst Bacon's Life

Ernst Bacon was born in Chicago, Illinois, on May 26, 1898. His parents were Marie von Rosthorn Bacon and Dr. Charles S. Bacon.

When he was 19, he started studying mathematics at Northwestern University. After three years, he moved to the University of Chicago. He finished his studies at the University of California at Berkeley. There, he earned a special degree called a master's degree in 1935. This degree was for a musical piece he composed called The Song of the Preacher.

Bacon was married four times and had children. His first wife was Mary Prentice Lillie, whom he married in 1927. They had two children, Margaret and Joseph. His second wife was a cellist named Analee Camp. They had two sons, Paul and Arthur. Sadly, Paul passed away at age 18, which greatly affected Bacon.

In 1952, he married his third wife, Peggy Camp. Later, in 1971, he married his fourth wife, Ellen Wendt. She was a soprano singer. They met during a trip in Kings Canyon National Park. Even with a big age difference, they both loved classical music and writers like Emerson. Their son, David, was born in 1973.

Ernst Bacon passed away in 1990 in Orinda, California, when he was 91 years old.

Ernst Bacon's Music Career

At age 19, Ernst Bacon wrote a detailed paper called "Our Musical Idiom." This paper explored different ways music could be put together. However, when he started writing music in his 20s, he changed his mind. He believed music was an art, not just a science. He thought music should come from human feelings and imagination, not just from rules.

Bacon taught himself how to compose music. He only studied for two years with Karl Weigl in Vienna, Austria. He saw how sad Europe was after the war. He felt that the new, experimental music of that time, called avant-garde, showed this sadness. Instead, Bacon wanted to write music that showed the energy and hope of his own country, America.

He wrote many art songs, which are songs for a singer and piano. He also composed music for orchestras, choirs, and small groups of instruments.

Besides writing music and books, Bacon worked in many places across the country. From 1925 to 1927, he was an opera coach at the Eastman School of Music. In 1928, he moved to California to work at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music until 1930.

In 1935, Bacon was a guest conductor at the first Carmel Bach Festival in California. A year later, he helped lead the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Music Project. He also conducted the San Francisco Symphony.

From 1938 to 1945, he was a dean and piano professor at Converse College in South Carolina. Then, from 1945 to 1963, he was a professor and composer at Syracuse University. He became a Professor Emeritus in 1964, meaning he was still honored after retiring. Some of his students became famous composers, like Carlisle Floyd. He kept working on music until shortly before he died in 1990.

Musical Settings by Ernst Bacon

Ernst Bacon composed music for the words of many famous writers. Here are some of them:

• Matthew Arnold
• William Blake
• Emily Brontë
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning
• Witter Bynner
• Robert Burns
• Helena Carus
• Emily Dickinson
• Benjamin Franklin
• Goethe
• Heinrich Heine
• Paul Horgan
• A. E. Housman
• Nicolaus Lenau
• Cornel Lengyel
• Herman Melville
• Carl Sandberg
• William Shakespeare
• Robert Louis Stevenson
• Sara Teasdale
• Walt Whitman

Ernst Bacon's Recordings

Here are some recordings of Ernst Bacon's music:

• ERNST BACON THE COMPLETE WORKS FOR SOLO GUITAR Azica Records, ACD-71294, Bradley Colten, Guitar.
• FORGOTTEN AMERICANS, Arabesque Recordings Z6823, Includes: "A Life," Joel Krosnick, cello and Gilbert Kalish, piano.
• ABRAHAM LINCOLN PORTRAITS, Naxos 8.559373-74, Nashville Symphony, Leonard Slatkin, conductor, Includes: "Ford’s Theatre: A Few Glimpses of Easter Week, 1865."
• THE BACK OF BEYOND, Music for Flute and Piano, Lea Kibler, Flute; Irina Viritch, Piano, Includes: "Buncombe County, N.C.," "Burnt Cabin Branch," "Holbert's Cove."
• FOND AFFECTION, CRI CD 890 (now at New World Records), 25 Bacon settings: Janet Brown, soprano; Herbert Burtis piano, Willam Sharp, baritone; John Musto, piano, Amy Burton, soprano; John Musto, piano, Sonata for Violin and Piano (1983) - Ronald Copes, violin; Alan Feinberg, piano.
• REMEMBERING ANSEL ADAMS AND OTHER WORKS, CRI CD 779 (now at New World Records), Remembering Ansel Adams (1985) - Richard Stoltzman, clarinet; Warsaw Philharmonic, Jerzy Swoboda, conductor, Sonata for Cello and Piano (1948) - Bernard Greenhouse, cello; Menahem Pressler, piano, Collected Short Piano Works (1950 -1965) - Emily Corbato, piano, Tumbleweeds (1979) Dorothy Bales, violin; Allan Sly, piano.
• SONGS OF CHARLES IVES AND ERNST BACON, CRI CD 675 (now at New World Records), Contains 21 Bacon settings, Recorded in 1954 and 1964 with Helen Boatwright, soprano and Ernst Bacon at the piano for his own songs.
• ROSI & TONI GRUNSCHLAG PIANO DUO, CRI CD 606 (now at New World Records), Includes: "Coal-Scuttle Blues," (by Bacon and Otto Lueining).
• THE LISTENERS, New World Records, William Parker, baritone, Includes: "Billy in the Darbies."
• SHAKESPEARE AND THE MODERN COMPOSER, Soundmark, The Louisville Orchestra, Robert Whitney, Jorge Mester, "The Enchanted Isle/The Tempest."
• TRIOS FROM THE CITY OF BIG SHOULDERS, Cedille CDR90000203 (2021), Lincoln Trio, includes Trio no. 2 for violin, cello, and piano (1987)