Special Collections
Paul Creston Collection
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Biographical
Sketch
Paul
Creston was born Giuseppe Guttovergi on October 10, 1906 in New York City
to Italian immigrant parents, Gaspare Guttovergi and Carmela Collura. At age
eight, he began taking piano lessons and teaching himself how to play his
brother's violin. Creston also pursued an interest in literature, writing
his first poem at age twelve, and starting a novel a year later. Because of
poor family finances, Creston's formal education ended after two and one-half
years of high school. During high school, he was nicknamed 'Cress' after a
character he portrayed in a play. Later in life, he lengthened this name to
Creston, chose Paul for a first name, and legally changed his name to Paul
Creston in 1944. Creston worked at various businesses, banks, and insurance
companies to pay for organ and piano lessons, while studying English, foreign
languages, mysticism, music composition, and orchestration on his own. His
piano teachers during this period included Gaston Dethier, Carlo Stea, and
G. Aldo Randegger.
Although
Creston had been composing as a diversion or past-time since age eight, his
development as composer increased during the 1920's until 1932, when he finally
decided to choose composition as his career. Creston learned how to improvise
by working as a theater organist from 1926-1929, and eventually became the
organist at St. Malachy's Church in New York City from 1934 to 1967. In July
of 1927, Creston married a dancer, Louise Gotto (1903-1989), who influenced
Creston in his ideas on rhythm and dance. His first premiere was in 1933 with
the incidental music to a play "Iron Flowers." The Crestons' first child,
Paul Julian, survived only six weeks and was buried on the Crestons' tenth
wedding anniversary, July 1, 1937. But on Thanksgiving Day, 1938, the Crestons
were blessed with Joel Anthony, and four years later, they had their third
and last child, Timothy.
The
success of Creston's early compositions created many new opportunities for
him. From 1944 to 1950, Creston conducted a quartet on the radio program "The
Hour of Faith," which aired each Sunday morning. Creston also worked
as a composition instructor at over fourteen colleges and universities from
1940 to 1962. In 1960, Creston received a U. S. State Department grant as
an American specialist, which enabled him to lecture about American music
for over a month in Turkey and Israel. He served as Professor of Composition
and Orchestration at the New York College of Music between 1963 and 1967,
and in 1968, he became artist-in-residence at Central Washington State College
in Ellensburg, Washington. 
During this time, he appeared as guest conductor
and lecturer at many colleges and universities across the country. In 1975,
he retired from Central Washington State College and moved to Rancho Bernardo,
California, which lies on the outskirts of San Diego. Creston was diagnosed
with cancer in 1984, and died on August 24, 1985.
Creston
wrote 120 compositions with opus numbers including piano pieces, songs, chamber
music for various instruments, choral works,
symphonic band works, and over 35 orchestral works including 6 symphonies.
He is especially recognized for his contributions to the literature of neglected
instruments such as the marimba, trombone, harp, accordion, and saxophone.
His works have been widely performed by major orchestras and performing artists.
In an orchestral survey prepared by Robert Sabin in the late 1950's, Creston
and Aaron Copland shared first place in regard to the number of orchestral
compositions performed by major American symphony orchestras.
Creston
also composed works without opus numbers, especially for radio, television,
and film. He composed for the children's radio program "Storyland Theatre"
and for the dramatic portions of the radio program, "Philco Hall of Fame."
Creston also contributed scores to the CBS-TV series "The Twentieth Century,"
receiving a Christopher Award for the segment, "Revolt in Hungary." 
The documentary
on poet William Carlos Williams, "In the American Grain," earned Creston an
Emmy award. In addition, Creston wrote numerous articles for music journals
and authored two published books: Principles of
Rhythm and Rational Metric Notation.
Among Creston's awards and honors are: two Guggenheim Fellowships (1938, 1939); the New York Music Critics' Circle Award (1943 - right) for his First Symphony; the Citation of Merit from the National Association for American Composers and Conductors (1941); the Music Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1943); and the Citation of Honor from the National Catholic Music Educators Association (1956).
"Creston's music has always been full of lyrical melody and
strong rhythms and thoroughly accessible to most listeners. Much of it has
an exuberance and optimism that is not present in most modern music. This
is especially true of the early First Symphony."
-- Audiophile Audition, May, 2000
Additional Library Resources
A subject search for Paul Creston Collection using the library's online catalog will provide a list of print material and sound recordings from the collection that are cataloged in Special Collections, Marr Sound Archives, and the Music/Media Library. Other excellent resources about Paul Creston
and his music at the Miller Nichols Library include:
Voices in the Wilderness : Six American Neo-Romantic Composers (Simmons, 2004)
The
Choral Compositions of American Composer Paul Creston: A Historical Perspective,
Style Analysis and Descriptive Survey (St. Pierre, UMKC Dissertation,
1999)
A
Stylistic Analysis of Paul Creston's Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra, Opus
32, and Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Opus 43 (Higdon, UMKC Dissertation,
1998)
The
Development of the Saxophone Compositions of Paul Creston (Morris, UMKC
Dissertation, 1996)
The Dances for Solo Piano of Paul Creston: A Pedagogical and Performance Overview (Leach, University of Oklahoma Thesis, 1994)
Paul
Creston: A Bio-Bibliography (Slomski, 1994)
Paul
Creston: The Man and His Music with an Annotated Bibliography of his Works
(Slomski, UMKC Dissertation, 1987)
