Milton Adolphus
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Irving Milton Adolphus (January 27, 1913 - August 16, 1998) was an American classical music composer.
Milton Adolphus was born January 27, 1913, in the Bronx, New York. His classical compositions include over 200 orchestral, vocal and chamber works, including 13 symphonies and 31 string quartets. Under contract to Victor Records, in 1930 or 1931 he composed the music for the popular song Dream a Little Dream of Me. In 1935 he moved to Philadelphia where he studied composition with Rosario Scalero. He was also a founding member of the American Composers Alliance, with Aaron Copland as its first president, involved extensively with The Curtis Institute of Music and active in the US civil rights movement. The BMI Foundation gives an annual award in his name.
During the 1920s and early 1930s, he played with many jazz bands and orchestras in New York City and the Vaudeville circuit in New York's Catskill Mountains, including Ving Merlin. During the 1930s, he was an arranger for Glen Gray's Casa Loma Orchestra, and arranged their theme song, "Smoke Rings."
In 1938, he moved to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania where he worked for the Department of Labor and Industry of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania until his retirement.
Some of his works show a measure of sophisticated humor: "Bitter Suite" for oboe, 4 clarinets and strings, 1955; "Petits Fours," for cello and piano, 1960; "Trio Prosaico," for violin, horn and piano, Opus 147.
Adolphus died August 16, 1988 in West Harwich, Massachusetts.
[edit] Major Classical Works
- Birthday Suite, Op 87
- Bitter Suite, Op 98
- Bouncettino, Op 73
- Bouncettino [for] viola and piano, Op 78
- Cape Cod Suite, Op 200
- Dream World, Op 90
- Elegy, Op 46
- Elegy, Op 81
- Five Vignettes, for Piano, Op 94
- Improvisation For Vla & Pf, Op 61
- Interlude, Op 96
- Lilacs, Op 95
- Opus 93
- Opus 99, For Piano, With Flute Or Clarinet
- Septet, Op 39
- Septet in F# minor for oboe (or flute), 3 violins, 2 violas, 1 v-cello, Op 39a
- String Octet #2, Op 175
- String Quartet #8, in E Minor, Op 41
- String Quartet 10, Op 4
- String Quartet 13, Op 63
- String Quartet 14, Op 65
- String Quartet 15, Op 67
- String Quartet 16 (Indian), Op 69
- String Quartet 17, Op 70
- String Quartet 18, Op 72
- String Quartet 20, Op 80
- String Quartet 21, Op 84
- String Quartet 23, Op 91
- Tribach, Op 101
- Wind Quartet, Op 20
