Gertrude Price Wollner

Gertrude Price Wollner (May 15, 1900 – March 1985) was an American writer and composer.^[1] Her teachers included Albert Stossel, E. Robert Schmitz, and Emile Jacques Dalcroze. She married Herbert J. Wollner on April 2, 1926 and they had a daughter named Zelda.^[2] She published several articles about music education^[3] and one book, Improvisation in Music: Ways Toward Capturing Musical Ideas and Developing Them (1963).^[4] Wollner taught at Boston University, New England Conservatory of Music, and New York University. She believed that "For any age, a childlike attitude and tenacity of search are essential, and rewarding. Not all “creative” music-making needs to be great music that lasts forever. Through the doing, something genuine occurs which enhances all future music experience for the individual."^[5]

Wollner was an honorary member of Sigma Alpha Iota, the international music fraternity for women.^[6]

Selected works

Her compositions include:^[7]

Chamber

• Allegro (oboe and bassoon; 1950)
• Cello Sonata (1946)
• Quartet (English horn, violin, viola, and cello)
• Trio (clarinet, violin, cello; 1950)

Orchestra

• Exaggerated Impressions (string orchestra and percussion)
• Suite (string orchestra)

Piano

• A Dance to My Daughter
• Impressions of Tour of Old Marblehead

Theatre

• After Paul Draper (1944)
• Caesar and Cleopatra
• Music-Narration-Pantomime-Dance
• Reed Drum (1940)
• Scarlet Letter

Vocal

• "Poem" (text by Rabindranath Tagore; 1937)
• "These August Nights" (text by Melville Henry Cane; 1935)
• We Catch a Fish (voice and orchestra)