Pisk, Paul A(madeus)

(b Vienna, 16 May 1893; d Los Angeles, 12 Jan 1990). American composer and musicologist of Austrian birth. His teachers included Schreker (counterpoint) and Schoenberg (composition). After receiving the doctorate in musicology from the University of Vienna (1916) and a diploma in conducting from the Vienna Conservatory (1919), he served as secretary of Schoenberg's Society for Private Musical Performances (1918--21). He went on to champion contemporary music as co-editor (with Alban Berg and Paul Stefan) of the Musikblatter des Anbruch (1920--28), and as a founding member and secretary of the Austrian section of ISCM (1922). He was music editor of the Wiener Arbeiter-Zeitung (1921--34) and active in the ACA (founded in 1927). He also served as director of the music department of the Volkshochschule, Vienna (1922--34), and taught theory at the New Vienna Conservatory (1925--6) and the Austro-American Conservatory near Salzburg (1931--3).

Pisk's connections with ISCM led to acquaintances with American composers such as Cowell and Sessions. Through Frederick Jacobi, he was invited to New York to play Austrian music on CBS and hear performances, sponsored by the League of Composers, of his own works. He emigrated to the USA in 1936, where he renewed contact with Schoenberg, Milhaud and Hindemith. In 1937 he joined the faculty of the University of Redlands, California, becoming head of the music department in 1948. He was later appointed professor at the University of Texas, Austin (1951--63), and Washington University in St Louis (1963--72).

Pisk's compositions tend towards atonality, but do not employ 12-note techniques. His thematic and motivic construction reveals a concern for linear relationships that develop contrapuntally within traditional forms and procedures. Harmonies are based on intervallic structures derived from the melodic contour. Many of his works, while chromatic, employ folk melodies.

WORKS
(selective list)

stage
Der grosse Regenmacher (ballet-pantomime), 1927; Schattenseite (monodrama, 1, A. Paquet), op.25, 2 solo vv, chorus, orch, 1930--31; Ballet Music, op.32, 1934

instrumental
Orch: Sym. Ov., op.1, 1914; Partita, op.10, 1924; Little Suite, chbr orch, op.11a, 1932; Divertimento, op.31, 1933--5; Music for Str, op.49, 1936; Passacaglia, op.50, 1944; Buccolic Suite, str orch, op.55, 1946; Adagio and Fugue, op.63, 1948--54; Canzona, chbr orch, op.84, 1954; 3 Ceremonial Rites, op.90, 1957--8; Elegy, str orch, op.93, 1958; Sonnet, chbr orch, op.98, 1960
Chbr: Sonata no.1, op.5, vn, pf, 1921; Str Qt, op.8, 1924; Phantasy, op.13, cl, pf, 1925; Trio no.1, op.18, ob, cl, bn, 1926; Sonata no.2, op.22, vn, pf, 1927; Pf Trio, op.30, 1933--5; Sonata no.3, op.43, vn, pf, 1938--9; Little Ww Music, op.53a, ob, 2 cl, bn, 1943--5; Cortege, op.53b, brass choir, 1945; Sonata, op.59, cl, pf, 1947; Suite, op.60, ob, pf, 1947; Introduction and Rondo, op.61, fl, pf, 1948; Qt, op.72, hn, 2 tpt, trbn, 1951; Suite, ob, cl, pf, 1954--5; Ww Qnt, op.96, 1958; Trio no.2, op.100, ob, cl, bn, 1960; Envoi, op.104, ob, cl, bn, str trio, 1964; 13 Variations on an 8-bar Theme, op.107, pf, 1967; Perpetuum mobile, op.109, brass, org, 1968; Discussions, op.116, ob, cl, bn, va, vc, 1974; Brass Qnt, 1976; many other chbr works
Pf: 4 Pf Pieces, op.3, 1920; 6 Concert Pieces, op.7, 1922; Little Suite, op.11, 1922; Second Suite (Speculum), op.17, 1927; Dance Suite, op.24, 1930; Ballet Music, op.32, 1934, arr. pf, chbr orch, 1954; 5 Sketches, op.39, 1936; Death Valley Sonatina, op.49, 1942; 5 2-Part Studies on Semitone Progressions, op.65, 1949; Sesquitone Sonata, op.66, 1949; Rondo Scherzoso, op.74/1, 1951; Essay, op.74/2, 1952; Sonatina, E, op.94, 1958

vocal
Choral: 2 Choruses, women's chorus, orch, op.2, 1918; 3 Choruses (J.P. Jacobsen), op.19, men's chorus, 1927; Die neue Stadt, solo vv, chorus, orch, 1926; 2 Pss, op.45, men's chorus, 1939--40; 2 Choruses, op.52, solo vv, women's chorus, pf, 1944; 4 Choruses, op.71, 1950--51; 3 Mixed Choruses, op.67, chorus, pf, 1950; Sunset (E. Dickinson), chorus cycle, op.81, 1954; The Trail of Life (cant., after Amerindian poems), op.88, 2 solo vv, spkr, chorus, orch, 1956; The Prophecy of Zacharia (Bible: Zech), op.89, chorus, org, 1957; God's Omnipotence (Bible: Job), op.99, chorus, org, 1960; 2 Shakespeare Sonnets, op.103, 1964
Solo: Gesange eines fahrenden Spielmanns (S. George), op.6, 1v, pf, 1920--21; 4 Orch Songs (G. Falke, E. Lasker-Schuler, George, A. Platen), op.4, S, orch, 1920; Der Tod (cant., C. Morgenstern, A. Adij, J. Galsworthy), op.14, Bar, orch, 1923--34; Concert Aria 'Ach, Liebe' (Byron: Childe Harold), op.20, Bar, orch, 1928--9; Gesang vom Rundfunk (H. Infield), 2 solo vv, chbr orch, 1929; Zwischendeck (J. Ringelnatz, B. Traven), op.23c, 1v, cl, chbr orch/pf, 1930; Campanella (cant., after 11 poems of the Monk [Luitpold]), op.28, 1v, orch, 1932; A Toccata of Galuppi (R. Browning), op.58, spkr, orch, 1947; The Labyrinth (J.L. Borges, J. Updike), 1v, pf, 1969; over 150 other songs
Principal publishers: Universal, Composers Facsimilie Edition

WRITINGS
Die Messen des Jacobus Gallus (diss., U. of Vienna, 1916; extracts in SMw, v (1918), 35--48
'Die Moderne seit 1880: Deutsche', Handbuch der Musikgeschichte, ed. G. Adler (Frankfurt, 1924, 2/1930/R), 1002--38
'End of the Tonal Era', MM, iii/3 (1925--6), 3--7
'Schoenberg's Twelve-Tone Opera', MM, vii/3 (1929--30), 18--21; repr. in Schoenberg, ed. M. Armitage (New York, 1937/R), 187--94
'Alban Berg's Leven en Werken', De Muziek (7 Oct 1930)
'Ernst Toch', MQ, xxiv ( 1938), 438--50
'Lazare Saminsky: a Musical Portrait', The Chesterian, xx (1938--9), 74--83
'Die Folklore in der modernen Musik', AMz, Jg.58 (1939), 655--8
'Schoenberg: the Influence on My Musical Youth', The Canon: Australian Journal of Music, iii/2 (1949), 94--6
'Anton Webern's Early Orchestral Works', Anton von Webern: Perspectives: Seattle 1966, 43--52
'Die melodische Struktur der unstilisierten Tanzsatze in der Klaviermusik des deutschen Spatbarock', SMw, xxv (1962), 397--405
with H. Ulrich: A History of Music and Musical Style (New York and London, 1963)
'Arnold Schoenberg as Teacher', Proceedings of the American Society of University Composers, ii (1967), 51--3
'Elements of Impressionism and Atonality in Liszt's Last Piano Pieces', Radford Review, xxiii (1969), 170--76
'Boiled-Down Music for Schoenberg's Private Audience', St Louis Post-Dispatch (11 Dec 1983)
 

EDITIONS
Jacob Handl: Sechs Messen, DTO, lxxviii, Jg.xlii/1 (Vienna, 1935/R); Funf Messen zu acht und sieben Stimmen, DTO, xciv--xcv (1959); Drei Messen zu sechs Stimmen, DTO, cxvii (1967); Funf Messen zu vier bis sechs Stimmen, DTO, cxix (1969)
Guillaume Costelay: Three French Chansons (New York, 1958)
 

BIBLIOGRAPHY
J. Glowacki, ed.: Paul A. Pisk: Essays in his Honor (Austin, 1966) [incl. H. Moldenhauer: 'Paul Amadeus Pisk and the Viennese Triumvirate', 208--16; K. Kennan: 'Paul A. Pisk', 217--26; W. Reich: 'Paul A. Pisk on Alban Berg', 227 only; and L.P. Farrar: 'The Scholarly Writings and Compositions of Paul Amadeus Pisk', 279--94]
T.W. Collins: The Instrumental Music of Paul A. Pisk (diss., U. of Missouri,1972)
E. Antokoletz: 'A Survivor of the Vienna Schoenberg Circle: an Interview with Paul A. Pisk', Tempo, no.154 (1985), 15--21
H.-B. Dietz: 'Paul A. Pisk: Eulogy', Newsletter: the American Musicological Society, xx/11 (1990), 8
 

ELLIOTT ANTOKOLETZ