Joseph Schillinger

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Joseph Schillinger (1895-1943) was a composer, music theorist, and composition teacher. He was born into a Jewish family in Kharkiv, Ukraine (at that time, part of Russian Empire). He graduated from the Classical College in 1914 and the St. Petersburg Imperial Conservatory of Music.

Schillinger came to the United States of America in 1928 and received his citizenship in 1936. He remained in America until his untimely death from lung cancer in 1943 at age 47.

He was a teacher of music at Columbia Teachers College and also gave private lessons in music composition from his home, during which time he developed the Schillinger System of music. This was later published as the Schillinger System of Musical Composition by Joseph Schillinger, compiled by Lyle Dowling and Arnold Shaw. This work was published posthumously and is still deemed incomplete by his original students. In 1932, he joined with composer-theorist Henry Cowell to publicly introduce the Rhythmicon, the first electronic drum machine, which Cowell and Léon Theremin had collaborated in inventing.

One of Schillinger's students, Lawrence Berk, founded the Schillinger House of Music, later to be named the Berklee College of Music at Boston, Massachusetts. Schillinger's students also included George Gershwin, Glenn Miller, Robert Emmett Dolan, Carmine Coppola, Vic Mizzy, and Leith Stevens. There has been debate surrounding how many teachers were certified by Schillinger himself. The numbers cited range from seven to twelve certified teachers. Yet, to date, only seven certified teachers of the Schillinger System have been substantiated.