Edgar Warren Williams

Edgar Warren Williams (born June 12, 1949) is an American composer, conductor, and music theorist.

Williams obtained a bachelor's degree in composition from Duke University in 1971, then obtained a master's degree at Columbia University in 1973, studying with Charles Wuorinen, Mario Davidovsky, and Harvey Sollberger. He then matriculated at Princeton, where he received a Master's in Fine Arts in 1977 and a Ph.D. in 1982 and studied with Milton Babbitt and James K. Randall. He was a faculty member and orchestral conductor at the College of William & Mary from 1979. Williams's compositional work is noted for its orchestrational and timbral complexity, and its use of pitch collections as melodic and thematic elements.

Compositions

Orchestral

• 1969 Of Orphalese
• 1984 Landscapes with figure
• 1998 Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror
• 1999 Suite on "Nosferatu"

For concert band

• 1968 "To my Father" Prologue
• 1978 Across a Bridge of Dreams
• 1991 Into the dark
• 1993 Now showing!
• 2002 Music from behind the Moon
• Prologue

Musicals

• 1970 Music for In the Dark of the Moon
• 1982 Music for The Merry Wives of Windsor – text by William Shakespeare
• 1985 Music for Richard II – text by William Shakespeare

Choral

• 1975 The mystic trumpeter, for mixed choir and orchestra
• 1976 Multum in parvo, for large mixed choir
• 1998 Star Spangled Banner, canon for choir
• Missa, For six-member men's choir, brass and piano

Vocal music

• 1985 Three songs, for high voice and piano – text: Margaret Tongue
• 1985 The bawds of euphony, for high voice and piano – text: Wallace Stevens
• Two Lyrics, for middle voice and piano – text: James Agee

Chamber music

• 1968 Chamber Piece Nr. 1
• 1968 Chamber Piece Nr. 2
• 1971 String Quartet Nr. 1
• 1980 Amoretti, for viola and piano
• 1985 Caprice, for violin
• 1996 String Quartet Nr. 2
• 1999 String Trio
• Fant'sy I (from "Hortus conclusus"), for 9 instruments
• Fant'sy II (from "Hortus conclusus"), for 12 instruments
• Fant'sy III (from "Hortus conclusus"), for 12 instruments

Piano

• 1987 Six Studies
• 2005 Sonata

Guitar

• 2002 Guitar quartet

Electronic music

• 2000 Pentimenti

Publications

• Edgar Warren Williams: Harmony and Voice Leading, New York: HarperCollins, 1992.
• Edgar Warren Williams: Introduction to Music, New York: HarperCollins, 1991. (Co-authored with Miller and Taylor.)
• Edgar Warren Williams: "Banqueting with the Emperor", in: Perspectives of New Music, vol. 35, no. 1 (1998)
• Edgar Warren Williams: "A View of Schoenberg's Opus 19, No. 2", in: College Music Symposium, vol. 25 (1985)
• Edgar Warren Williams: "In and About Some Measures of Beethoven", in: 19th-Century Music, November 1983
• Edgar Warren Williams: "On Complementary Interval Class Sets", in: In Theory Only, vol. 7 (June 1983)