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EZRA SIMS
b January 16, 1928 in Birmingham, Alabama
d January 30, 2015, in Cambridge, Mass.
for information
Theodore Mook
533 Switch Road
Wood River Junction, RI 02894
contact
performing rights affiliation
BROADCAST MUSIC INC.
publishers
FROG PEAK MUSIC
P.O. Box 1052
Lebanon, N.H. 03763
contact
DIAPASON PRESS
Corpus Microtonale
Riddersborch 25
3992BG Houten
The Netherlands
contact

compositions (full listings at compositions link)

1961- 57+ 72-note microtonal orchestral, chamber, vocal. Performances in Boston, New York, San Francisco, Chicago,Tokyo, Darmstadt, Salzburg, Amsterdam, Haarlem, etc.
4 quarter-tone chamber, vocal. Performances in San Francisco, New York, Salzburg, Boston, etc.
1959-77 29 tape pieces 25 dance (Boston, N.Y.), 3 concert (Boston), 1 TV (Tokyo)
1951-75 35 12-note orchestra, theater music, vocal, chamber, piano. San Francisco, Boston, New York, etc.
recordings
Arizona Friends of Chamber Music
String Quartet #5
NWR 80709 - [ review in Fanfare]
Sonatine (1957)
Sonatina (1957)
AEDM in mem (1988)
If I Told Him (1996
Musing and Reminiscence (2003)
Concert Piece II (2005)
NW CR 784
String quartet #2 (1962)
Elegie nach Rilke
Third Quartet
NW CR 643
Quintet
Night Piece
Flight
Solo In Four Movements
Concert Piece
NW CR 578
Come Away
CRI 223
Third Quartet
NORTHEASTERN NR 224
All Done From Memory
Two for One
and, as I was saying
Sextet
NW CRL 186
Chamber Cantata on Chinese Poems

commissions

ARIZONA FRIENDS of CHAMBER MUSIC String Quartet #5
KOTO TAKASHI Kumo sudare
CHRISTINA ASCHER & CHRISTOPH von ERFFA If I Told Him
INTERNATIONAL MICROTONE SOCIETY, BERN Invocation
Theodore MOOK Duo (1992)
AEDM in mem.
Solo in Four Movements
ANNE BLACK/ PRO ARTE ORCH. of BOSTON Concert Piece
HANNEKE PROVILLY Flight
IAN GREITZER Quintet (1987)
ARIEL The Conversions
NEWBAND Brief Elegies
NEC JUNIOR YOUTH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA Pictures for an Institution
KOUSSEVITZKY FOUNDATION String Quartet #4
DINOSAUR ANNEX -- furthermore
Stanzas
Night Piece
Quartet (1982)
This Way To the Egress
JANET PACKER All Done From Memory
AARON PICHT and, as I was saying
KIJIMA MASATAKA Midorigaoka
GOETHE INSTITUTE of BOSTON Elegie nach Rilke
CAMBRIDGE ARTS COUNCIL The Owl and the Pussycat
The Walrus and the Carpenter
Longfellow Sparrow
BOSTON MUSICA VIVA String Quartet #2 (1962)
Phenomena
Musing and Reminiscence
Landscapes
KEVIN DEWEY including the
NEW ENGLAND DINOSAUR DANCE COMPANY Where the Wild Things Are
CAROL BECKWITH Museum Piece
ELINA MOONEY Elinas Piece
CLIFF KEUTER Warts & All
Real Toads
INA HAHN Cat's Cradle
TOBY ARMOUR After Lyle
Ground Cover
5 Toby Minutes
Interlope
Clement Wenceslaus
A Frank Overture
McDowell's Fault
Antimatter
THE ENDICOTT FUND Third quartet
CATHY BERBERIAN Cantata III
NHK-TV Music for Sakoku
THE ACTORS WORKSHOP (S.F.) The Ticklish Acrobat
WELLAND LATHROP Masque
ARCH LAUTERER Music for The Trojan Women


awards, grants, etc
AMERICAN MUSIC RESEARCH CENTER, Univ of Colo. DISTINGUISHED ACHIEVEMENT AWARD , 2009
MUSIC ON THE EDGE, Univ of Pittsburgh, 80th BIRTHDAY CONCERT, 2008
FULBRIGHT SENIOR RESEARCH GRANT, 1992
AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & LETTERS Award, 1985
KOUSSEVITSKY FOUNDATION Commission, 1983
MASS. ARTISTS FOUNDATION Fellowship, 1979
NEA Fellowships, 1976, 1978
MARTHA BAIRD ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION Recording Grant, 1977
GUGGENHEIM FOUNDATION Fellowship, 1962
COMPOSERS FORUM, NYC, 1959
MacDOWELL COLONY; DJERASSI, WURLITZER, CAMARGO FNDTNS
lectures, seminars
Hamburger Musikgespräch, 1994
Mozarteum, Salzburg (Gastdozent, Richter Herf Institut, 1993-94)
2. Naturton-Symposium, Heidelberg, 1992
3. & 4 Intl Symposia on Microtonal Music, Salzburg
Northeastern University
Schlumberger-Doll Research
Webster University 23d Annual Contemporary Music Festival, Illinois Wesleyan, 1977
International Christian University
odd jobs
President, Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble, 1977-81
Member, Theory Faculty, New England Conservatory, 1976-78
Music Director, New England Dinosaur Dance Theater, 1968-78
General dogsbody, Harvard University Music Library, 1958-62, 1965-74
School teacher, display designer, steel worker, mail clerk, 1948-58
general background
born 16 January 1928, Birmingham, Alabama
died 30 January 2015, Cambridge, Massachusetts
studies Mills College MA 1956
US Army Language School Diploma (Chinese) 1953
Yale University School of Music BMus 1952
Birmingham Conservatory of Music 1945-48
Birmingham Southern College BA 1947
principal teachers Darius Milhaud, Quincy Porter, G. Ackley Brower, Leon Kirchner
microtones Since 1961, most of what that Ive done all my major pieces that havent been tape music has been microtonal. At first, it was ¼-tone, but from 1964 it has been 72-note, using at any moment one transposition or another of an asymmetrical mode of 18 or 24 pitches drawn from a 72-note division of the octave, much as Tonal music used a 7-note mode drawn from a 12-note chromatic. The mode consist of a 8 pitches of superior importance, the 8-15th harmonics of the tonic of the moment, plus 10 (or 16) chromatic pitches also drawn from its harmonic series. The 72-note division permits an all-but-exact description of the sequialteran succession of Just ratios making up the mode (25/24–30/24 [or in the alternate version: 33/32 –5/4] followed by 21/16–31/16), while retaining the conceptual and modulatory convenience of a closed cyclic notation. I trust the performers naturally to play as near Just perfection as their musicality permits, but sometimes it helps to remind them.
computers In 1988, I began using David Rayna's RTMPII program and synthesizer to make demo tapes of new pieces and produce the electronic parts for the three pieces that have them.
I consulted with Stephen Smoliar on his EUTERPE system, developed in the AI Lab, MIT. The electronic parts of Elina's Piece were made using it, as well as a transcription of From an Oboe Quartet.
As programmer for Harvard Music Library, I worked with Mary Lou Little and Helen Black in the development of the MARC format for music scores and recordings, since amended as published by the Library of Congress.
electronic music 1988 - Three electro-acoustic pieces using RTMP II.
1959, 1968-1977 Tape pieces, mainly for dance and theater, largely tape collage or musique concrete or a combination of the two (combine tapes.)
1962-63 For several months observer and composer at the electronic music studio of NHK Tokyo Composed Music for Sakoku there.