Mark Wessel (composer)

Mark Wessel (March 26, 1894 – May 9, 1973) was an American pianist and composer.

Life

Wessel was born in Coldwater, Michigan, and graduated from Northwestern School of Music, now known as Bienen School of Music; he later taught piano and theory there. When Wessel left Northwestern, he became a professor of piano and composition at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

Wessel was a former pupil of Arnold Schoenberg. He was twice awarded Guggenheim Fellowships, in 1930 and 1932. He was also the recipient in 1930 of a Pulitzer Scholarship to further his education in Europe.^[1] In the 1938 contest of the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Society his choral-orchestral work The King of Babylon won honorable mention, while his former student David Van Vactor won the competition with his Symphony in D.^[2][3]

He died on May 9, 1973, in Orchard Lake, Oakland County, Michigan.^[4]

Selected compositions

• Adagio, for orchestra
• Allegro pomposo, for two pianos (pub. 1982)
• The Amorous Peacock, for piano
• Ballade, for solo violin, solo oboe, string orchestra (1931)
• Ballade, for violin and piano (1937)
• Concertino, for flute or violin and chamber orchestra (1928)
• Concerto, for piano and orchestra (1941)
• The Day Is No More (words by Rabindranath Tagore), for voice and piano (1919)
• The Departure, for orchestra (1922)
• Etude in G Minor, for piano (before 1947)
• Feminine Conversations and Promenade of Respectable People, for piano (pub. 1931)
• The King of Babylon, for mixed chorus and orchestra (1933)
• Holiday, overture for orchestra (1932)
• The Hour Comes When One May Question Fate, for orchestra (1922)
• Lento Fantasia, for horn and piano (pub. 1941)
• Meerestille (words by Nicolaus Lenau), for voice, viola, violoncello (or horn in C), and piano
• 1945, for orchestra
• Nocturne, for piano
• Original Theme and Four Fantasies, for horn (1979)
• Plains and Mountains, for violin, cello, and piano
• Poem, for orchestra and piano solo (1924)
• Prelude and Fugue, for string quartet (1931)
• Prisms, for two pianos
• Quintet
• Sacred Dances, for piano
• Scherzo, for horn and piano (pub. 1941)
• Scherzo burlesque, for piano and orchestra (ca. 1931)
• Seven Ages of Man, for orchestra
• Sextet, for woodwind and piano (ca. 1931)
• Sonata, for four horns
• Sonata, for violin and piano
• Sonata, for cello and piano (before 1947)
• Sonatine, for piano (before 1937)
• Song and Dance, for orchestra (1933)
• Southern Tour, for piano (pub. 1982)
• String Quartet no. 1 (1931)
• String Quartet no. 2 (ca. 1938)
• String Serenade, for solo violin and string orchestra
• Suite, for large orchestra (and baritone voice in second movement) (1928)
• Symphony (1932)
• Symphony Concertante, for piano and horn with orchestra (1929)
• Theme and Variations on "I've Got a Gal in Summer School", for two pianos, organ, and orchestra
• Two Concert Pieces for the Piano, "Green River" (Symmetrical Toccata) and "Isle Of Death" (pub. 1926)

Discography

• Leonardo De Lorenzo, flautista e compositore: registrazioni storiche 1928–1935 (includes Mark Wessel, Concertino for flute and orchestra, together with works by Ary van Leeuwen, Charles Tomlinson Griffes, and Gian-Luca Petrucci). 1 CD. [n.p.]: Valdom, 2000.