Ruth Shaw Wylie facts for kids

Ruth Shaw Wylie (born June 24, 1916 – died January 30, 1989) was an American composer and music teacher. A composer is someone who writes music, and a music educator teaches music. She once said she was a "typical Midwestern composer." This meant she focused on making great music, even if it didn't always get famous across the country. She believed that important creative work happens everywhere, not just in big cities like New York City. Her music helped American "serious" music become known as its own special style.

About Ruth Shaw Wylie

Ruth Shaw Wylie was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. She grew up in Detroit, Michigan. There, she earned her first college degree and a master's degree in music at Wayne State University (WSU).

In 1939, she went to the Eastman School of Music to study for her PhD in music composition. She learned from famous composers like Bernard Rogers and Howard Hanson. She earned her PhD in 1943. After that, she taught at the University of Missouri until 1949.

In 1947, she also studied with other well-known composers. These included Arthur Honegger, Samuel Barber, and Aaron Copland. She studied with them at the Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts.

Ruth Wylie returned to Detroit to teach at WSU. She taught there for twenty years. She retired in 1969 as a Professor Emerita, which is a special title for retired professors. Later, she moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, and then to Estes Park, Colorado in 1973. She kept writing music even after she retired.

Her Work at Wayne State University

At WSU, Ruth Wylie taught music theory and composition. She was also in charge of the composition program. For one year, she even led the entire music department.

In the early 1960s, she started a group called the WSU Improvisation Chamber Ensemble. She led this group and also performed with them. They focused on making up music on the spot. She felt this work was one of her most important contributions.

Ruth Wylie received several awards for her music. These included "Friends of Harvey Gaul" and the ASCAP Standard Award. She was also a special guest at places like the Huntington Hartford Foundation and the MacDowell Colony. These are places where artists can live and work on their projects.

She wrote a piece called The Long Look Home. The Michigan Council for the Arts asked her to write it for a special Bicentennial Celebration. This was a big event celebrating 200 years of American history.

Ruth Wylie's Music

Ruth Wylie wrote about 60 pieces of music in her lifetime. Her early works, from the 1940s to the 1960s, included sonatas, symphonies, and string quartets. She also wrote teaching pieces for the piano. In these works, she created her own style of American neoclassicism. This means her music was new but also used ideas from older, classical music.

Some examples of her early music are Five Madrigals from William Blake (1950) and Concerto Grosso (1952). She also wrote String Quartet No. 3 (1954) and a Sonata for Viola and Piano (1954).

Her later works were mostly for instruments. They were much more free and experimental. This was because she was exploring avant-garde ideas from the 1960s and 1970s. Avant-garde music is very modern and often tries new sounds and structures.

In 1985, Ruth Wylie explained her approach. She said she studied all the new music trends. This included styles like twelve-tone, electronic, aleatory (music with chance elements), and computer music. She would then use parts of these trends that she found beautiful and honest.

Examples of her later works include Involution (1967) for orchestra and Psychogram for piano (1968). She also wrote The Long Look Home (1975), which was a multimedia work. It combined an orchestra with poetry and slides. Other pieces include Incubus (1973) and Flights of Fancy (1984).

Her Legacy

Ruth Wylie's important papers are kept at the University Library. They are at California State University, Northridge. These papers include her notes, original music sheets, and performance scores. They show almost all of her musical compositions.

Types of Compositions

Ruth Shaw Wylie wrote many different kinds of music.

Ballet Music

• Spring Madness (1951)
• Façade, Op. 18 (1956)
• The Ragged Heart, Op. 21 (1961)

Orchestral Music

She wrote several pieces for full orchestras.

• Suite for string orchestra (1941)
• Symphony No. 1 "Archaic" (1943)
• Involution for small orchestra (1967)
• The Long Look Home for speaker and orchestra (1975)
• Views from Beyond (1978)

Concertos

These are pieces for a solo instrument with an orchestra.

• Concerto Grosso for string orchestra and seven solo woodwinds (1952)
• Concerto for flute and strings orchestra (1986)

Chamber Music

This is music for a small group of instruments.

• String Quartet No. 1 (1941)
• Sonata for viola and piano (1954)
• Sonata for flute and piano (1960)
• Incubus for flute, clarinet, percussion, and cellos (1973)
• Music for Three Sisters for flute, clarinet, and piano (1981)
• Flights of Fancy for flute solo (1984)

Piano Music

She composed many pieces for the piano.

• Five Easy Pieces (1942)
• Sonata No. 1 (1945)
• Psychogram (1968)
• The White Raven (1984)

Vocal Music

These pieces were written for a singer with piano.

• The Wanderer (1940)
• God's Grandeur (1950)

Choral Music

She also wrote music for choirs.

• I Sing of a Maiden for mixed chorus (1942)
• Five Madrigals for mixed chorus (1950)
• Echo for female chorus and string orchestra (1965)