Mildred Couper
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mildred Couper (1887–1974), prominent American composer and pianist, was one of the first musicians to experiment with quarter-tone music. She was based in Santa Barbara, California, but her music and influence were felt around the world. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as Mildred Cooper; educated in Italy, France and Germany; married to American expatriate artist Richard Hamilton Couper; she spent her early married life in Rome, Italy. At the outbreak of World War One she and her family fled to New York City. Here she taught piano for nine years at the David Mannes Music School. She came to California in 1927. Establishing a studio in Santa Barbara she started her quarter-tone experiments, the first work in this medium being a ballet, Xanadu, which was performed in the production of Eugene O'Neill's Marco Millions in the Lobero Theatre. Besides quarter-tone works, Mildred Couper has written incidental music for plays at the Lobero, and also a Dance-Opera And on Earth Peace, to words by Scottish-Argentine artist Malcolm Thurburn.
[edit] References
- Catherine Parsons Smith. "Mildred Couper", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (accessed November 27, 2006), grovemusic.com (subscription access).
[edit] External links
- Her music collections are stored in the University of California, Santa Barbara, special collections library archives, at: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/speccoll/pa/pamss45.html
