Paul Creston

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Paul Creston (born Giuseppe Guttoveggio, October 10, 1906 – August 24, 1985, California) was an American composer of classical music.

Born in New York City, Creston was self‐taught as a composer. His work tends to be fairly conservative in style, firmly tonal (as opposed to atonal) in style, and with a strong rhythmic element. His pieces include six symphonies, a number of concerti, including two for violin, one for marimba, one for two pianos, one for accordion and one for alto saxophone, a fantasia for trombone and orchestra (composed for and premiered by Robert Marsteller), and a Rhapsody (rapsodie) again for alto saxophone - written for famous virtuoso Jean-Marie Londeix. Several of his works were inspired by the poetry of Walt Whitman. Creston was the most performed american composer of the 1940s.

Creston was also a notable teacher, with the composers John Corigliano and Charles Roland Berry, and the jazz musicians Rusty Dedrick and Charlie Queener among his pupils. He wrote the theoretical books Principles of Rhythm (1964) and Rational Metric Notation (1979).