Claude T. Smith

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Claude Thomas Smith (March 14, 1932-December 13, 1987) was an American educator, conductor, and composer. He was born in Monroe City, Missouri, and he died in Kansas City, Missouri.

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[edit] Early years

Claude Thomas Smith was born to parents Claude Melvin and Harriet Thomas Smith. The family moved twice in Smith’s early years: to Kansas City shortly after his birth, and to Carrollton, Missouri around the time that he entered school. Smith took dancing lessons in both locations, and began piano lessons and participated in school music and theater productions while living in Carrollton. During this time, his grandmother, a piano teacher and organist, indirectly influenced him through informal musical contact. Smith first participated in band in the eighth grade after receiving a cornet for Christmas. Harold Arehart assumed the band directorship at the Carrollton Schools in 1947, and had a significant influence on Smith who studied cornet with him and served as his assistant. Smith’s conducting can be traced to this time, both at high school and with a local Boy Scout band.

[edit] Education

In 1950, Smith entered the Central Methodist College in Fayette, Missouri where he played under band director K. K. Anderson and switched his primary instrument from cornet to horn. He left that institution in 1952 to join the 371st US Army Band during the Korean War. Stationed in Leavenworth, Kansas, Smith served as both hornist and librarian for the band, the latter of which prompted him to begin arranging and composing. On October 5, 1952, he married Maureen Morrison. Smith returned to higher education in 1955 when entered the University of Kansas. There, he played horn in several ensembles, most notably in the band led by Russell Wiley who encouraged Smith’s interest in composition and arranging. Representative pieces from this period include Prelude and Allegro for brass choir and The World Freedom March for band. Smith graduated in 1958 with a Bachelor of Music Education degree.

[edit] Career

[edit] Teacher and Director

After college, Smith worked as an instrumental music educator in Nebraska and Missouri until 1976. From 1958 to 1963 he taught band in Cozad, Nebraska, conducted a local church choir, and composed pieces such as Honor Guard and Citation. Both pieces are band works that were published by Wingert-Jones Publications, a publisher with whom Smith would maintain a relationship throughout his life. Smith’s daughter, Pamela Kay, was also born during this time in August 1958. From 1963 until 1966, he taught at Center High School in Kansas City, Missouri. Particularly important from these years was the composition of Emperata Overture which was featured at the 1964 Mid-West Band and Orchestra Clinic and is one of Smith’s most performed and highly regarded works. Smith moved from Kansas City to Chillicothe, Missouri in 1966 where he stayed for ten years. During this time, he resumed his activities as a church choir director, began teaching a high school theory/composition course, and developed, with the help of his assistant Bill Maupin, the pedagogical system that was later codified in his band method books. Notably, Smith’s compositional output increased during these years, and he was inducted into ASCAP in 1970. Perhaps his most important composition from this time was Eternal Father Strong to Save which was commissioned in 1975 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Navy Band and premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.

In 1976, Smith left public school teaching to take a faculty position in Springfield, Missouri at Southwest Missouri State University where he taught composition, theory and horn, and conducted the University Symphony Orchestra. The demands placed on Smith by this position were such that his composition activities dropped off significantly until he left in 1978 and moved to Raytown, Missouri. The period from 1978 until his death was Smith’s most prolific; in which he wrote Festival Variations, thought to be one of the most challenging pieces ever written. Also, he conducted the Blue Ridge Presbyterian Church choir, but otherwise focused primarily of writing music. Smith became in educational consultant for Wingert-Jones, though he also began working for Jenson Publications as a staff writer. Noteworthy compositions from the last part of Smith’s life include Flight, commissioned by the Air Force Band in 1984 and adopted as the “official march” of the Smithsonian Institute’s National Air and Space Museum; Variations on a Hymn by Louis Bourgeois, commissioned by the Marine Band in 1986; and Variations on a Revolutionary War Hymn, commissioned by the Army Field Band. Smith died of a heart attack on December 13, 1987 shortly after conducting a Christmas concert. He is survived by his wife and daughter who, along with his son-in-law Jim Kelly, founded Claude T. Smith Publications Inc. in 1993 which publishes over sixty of Smith’s works, a method book, and several recordings.

[edit] Composer

Claude T. Smith was a prolific composer, having completed over 110 compositions for band, twelve orchestral works, and fifteen choral pieces. Smith’s music was succinctly described by one critic as “contemporary romantic.” His pitch language is essentially analogous to Western common practice traditions, with particular emphasis on striking melodic material and bass lines that articulate functional harmonic progressions. Multiple scholars have noted, however, that toward the end of his life, Smith was using “dissonances” with increasing frequency and postulated that had he continued writing, this aspect would have become a more pervasive characteristic of his music. Smith is perhaps best known for his rhythmic practice, particularly introducing asymmetrical meters into the band idiom in 1964 with the 7/8 and oddly subdivided 9/8 measures of Emperata Overture. Some of Smith’s other compositions feature continually changing meters, such the 3/4 – 6/8 – 1/4 – 7/8 – 3/4 metrical sequence found in Acclamation. On a more local level, Smith is also recognized for using triplet quarter notes and hemiola techniques. Taking these two facets in combination, it is apparent that through the majority of his career, Smith’s use of pitch was firmly rooted in 19th-century practice, while his rhythmic procedures owed much to certain composers of the early to mid 20th-century such as Igor Stravinsky and Aaron Copland. A final notion that is frequently cited regarding Smith’s music is his attention to all ensemble lines; partly stemming from his pedagogical perspective, Smith continually strove to write engaging parts for each member of the ensembles for which he composed, a facet that is particularly apparent in his percussion writing.

[edit] Other Works and Awards

Smith maintained a very active career throughout his life. In addition to the aforementioned and numerous other commissions, he wrote solo works for prominent performers such as Doc Severinsen, Brian Bowman, Gary Foster, and Rich Matteson. Smith was sought as a clinician throughout the United States, Australia, Canada, and Europe. He also received frequent awards including multiple ASCAP Composer’s Awards, a Missouri House of Representatives recognition resolution (1976), the Hall of Fame Award from the Missouri Bandmaster’s Association (1988), the National Band Association Award from the Academy of Wind and Percussion Arts (1988), and the Distinguished Service to Music Award from Kappa Kappa Psi (1989). Claude T. Smith memorial scholarships are given at Central Methodist College, Southwest Missouri State University, and Central Missouri State University. Smith’s music is still often performed, as demonstrated by studies published in the Journal of Band Research in 1987 and 2005, and both he and his work have profoundly affected musicians and music education throughout the United States and beyond. Many of Smith's sketches and scores are archived as part of the American Bandmasters Association Research Center in the Special Collections in Performing Arts division of the University of Maryland's Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Anderson, E. Ruth. “Claude T. Smith.” Contemporary American Composers: A Biographical Dictionary. Boston: G.K Hall & Co., 1976.
  • Claude T. Smith Publications. 2006. Accessed 20 Sept. 2006. <http://www.claudetsmith.net/>.
  • Fiese, Richard. “College and University Wind Band Repertoire, 1980-1985.” Journal of Band Research 23:1 (Fall 1987): 17-42.
  • Gabriel, Arnald. “Emparata Overture: A Second Look.” The Instrumentalist 41:6 (Jan. 1987): 48-54.
  • Haynes, Ronald. “Claude Smith Composer.” Kansas Music Review 41:1 (Feb. 1979): 42-44, 50.
  • Jones, Mary Louise. “Claude T. Smith: American Composer, Conductor, and Music Educator.” DMA Diss., University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, 1992.
  • Kish, David. “A Band Repertoire Has Emerged.” Journal of Band Research 41:1 (Fall 2005): 1-12.
  • Knight, John. “The Challenge of Asymmetric Meters.” The Instrumentalist 45:4 (Nov. 1990): 27-30, 38.
  • Miles, Richard, ed. Teaching Music through Performance in Band: Volume 5. Chicago: GIA Publications, Inc., 2004. 432-437.
  • “New Music Publisher.” Flute Talk 13 (Jul/Aug. 1994): 6.
  • “Obituary: Claude T. Smith.” The Instrumentalist 42:7 (Feb. 1988): 84-5.
  • “People in Music.” The School Musician/Director & Teacher 48 (June/July 1977): 24.
  • Prentice, Barbara. “Band Classics Revisited: Emperata Overture.” The Instrumentalist 45:11 (June 1991): 49.
  • Reed, Alfred. “A Fond Farewell.” The Instrumentalist 44:2 (Sept. 1989): 4.
  • Rehrig, William. “Claude T. Smith.” The Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music. ed. Paul Bierley. 2 vols. Westerville, OH: Integrity Press, 1991. 698-699.
  • ---. “Claude T. Smith.” Supplement to the Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music. ed. Paul Bierley. Westerville, OH: Integrity Press, 1996. 721-722.
  • Ruess, Thomas. “Claude Smith’s Variations of Hymn Tunes.” DMA Diss., University of Memphis, 2000.
  • Sheldon, Deborah. “Exploring Claude T. Smith’s Classic God of Our Fathers.” The Instrumentalist 55:1 (Aug. 2000): 32-39.
  • Smith, Claude T. “Emperata Overture: The Composer’s Thoughts on Interpretation.” The Instrumentalist 37:4 (Nov. 1982): 10-12.
  • Smith, Norman. “Claude T. Smith.” March Music Notes. Lake Charles, LA: Program Notes Press, 1986. 380.
  • ---. “Claude T. Smith.” Program Notes for Band. Chicago: GIA Publications, Inc., 2002. 545-547.
  • Smith, Norman and Albert Stoutamire. “Claude T. Smith.” Band Music Notes. San Diego: Neil A. Kjos, 1979. 208-209.
  • Thompson, John and James Warrick. “Claude T. Smith on Composing, Conducting, and the Art of Teaching.” The Instrumentalist 41:6 (Jan. 1987): 36-47.
  • “Vincent Persichetti and Claude Smith Deaths Announced.” T.U.B.A. Journal 16:1 (Fall 1988): 10.