John Diercks

John Diercks was born in Montclair, New Jersey, in 1927. He holds degrees in composition from Oberlin, the Eastman School, and the University of Rochester (PhD). His composition teachers included Howard Hanson and Alan Hovhaness. For Asian music and dance he studied with Dorothy Kahananui and Halla Huhm.

Dr. Diercks taught piano at the College of Wooster (1950-54), then began a long tenure at Hollins University, teaching theory and composition. He served as department chair from 1962 until 1990. His songs were frequently promoted by baritone Oscar J. McCullough, also a Professor at Hollins.

Among many grants and awards he has received are those from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon and Danforth foundations, and ASCAP. As a composer he has enjoyed residence at the MacDowell Colony, Wolf Trap Farm, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

Much of Diercks’ music is influenced by exoticism, including microtonality and “unconventional” musical sounds. An early work, Cave Music for vocalise and three players on prepared piano, accompanied a dance performed in Virginia’s Dixie Caverns and broadcast on NBC-TV’s Today Show.

His Twelve Sonatinas, performed by pianist Marthanne Verbit, are in the catalog of Albany Records. In 2009 the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America published his Fugue in C (for Elizabeth Graves Vitu) and Fantasia (commissioned by the University of Iowa-Ames).

Now living in Honolulu, Diercks served as president of the Hawaii Music Teachers Association from 1992-94.

Compositions

• About a lamb: four poems by Blake, for voice and piano (songs)
• Alleluia, for SSAA a cappella chorus
• The Bee Caresses the Flower as the Elephant Destroys the Stable, for piano four hands
• Clap your hands!, for voices and piano or organ, SATB choir optional (unison anthem)
• Concertino for oboe and band
• Concertino for piano and woodwind quintet
• Diversion for two clarinets and piano
• Diversion for two clarinets and strings
• Dove of Peace, and other early American hymns for unison voices with organ and handbells
• Fantasy, for horn and piano
• Figures on China, for horn, trombone, and tuba
• For a time and place, for two pianos
• He is risen, alleluia, Easter anthem for two-part mixed choir (with brass)
• Horn quartet
• How long, O Lord: Psalm eighty, for SATB choir and organ (anthem)
• Jesus is my sure defense (Jesu meine Zuversicht), chorale prelude
• Kongai: The soul of the great bell, for carillon
• A Little JSB Suite, for two pianos
• Lord, I cry unto thee, Lenton and general anthem for SATB voices
• Lyric suite, for violin, B-flat clarinet or viola, and cello
• A mighty fortress (chorale prelude)
• Mirror of brass, for brass septet (2 B-flat trumpets, horn 1 or trumpet 3, horn 2 or trombone 3, trombones 1 and 2, tuba or tenor-bass trombone)
• Moonspell (or Moon Spell), for piano four hands
• Night vision, for two pianos
• O Christ, thou lamb of God (chorale prelude)
• O how fleeting, how deceiving (chorale prelude)
• O sacred head (chorale prelude)
• Prelude to Manvantara, for carillon
• Quartet, for 2 B-flat trumpets, F horn, and trombone
• Quintet for strings and piano
• Reminiscences, for two quarter-tone pianos
• Six Sacred Compositions, for organ (pipe organ and Hammond registration)
• Sonata for oboe and piano
• A star arises, Op. 52 (cantata)
• Suite for alto saxophone and piano
• Suite for flute and organ
• Suite for flute and piano /
• Suite for Strings, for string orchestra with optional piano
• Suite no. 1, for piano, four hands
• Theme and variations, for piano
• Twelve Sonatinas for piano
• Two Psalms: Psalm 23, Psalm 150
• Variations on a theme of Gottschalk, for tuba and piano
• Three Diversions, for flute (alto recorder) and piano (or harpsichord)
• Two Israeli dances /
• Wind Quintet
• Variations on a Flower Drum Song, for two pianos
• Variations on a Flower Drum Song, for two pianos
• Why do the nations rage? (Psalm 2), general anthem for unison voices

External links

• John Diercks page