Luening, Otto Clarence

▪ 1997

      U.S. composer, conductor, and flutist (b. June 15, 1900, Milwaukee, Wis.—d. Sept. 2, 1996, New York, N.Y.), created more than 300 musical pieces in a wide variety of styles but was perhaps best remembered for his innovations in electronic music. His experimental collaborations with Russian-born composer Vladimir Ussachevsky, including Rhapsodic Variations for Tape Recorder and Orchestra (1953), won him widespread praise. Luening was active in the music industry, helping to found the American Composers Alliance, the American Music Center, and the record label Composers Recordings Inc. His father, an immigrant German pianist and conductor, moved the family in 1912 from Milwaukee to Munich, Ger., and then, in 1917, to Zürich, Switz., where Luening studied under the Italian-born composer Ferruccio Busoni. After returning to the U.S. in 1920, he launched a teaching career that took him to successive posts at the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, N.Y., the University of Arizona, Bennington (Vt.) College, Barnard College, Columbia University, and Juilliard School, the latter three all in New York City. At Columbia he was co-director of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center (1959-80). He began experimenting with the magnetic tape recorder in Fantasy in Space (1952), in which he played flute to a recorded accompaniment. Among his major nonelectronic works were Symphonic Fantasia No. 1 (1922-24), Louisville Concerto (1951), and A Wisconsin Symphony (1975). His autobiography, The Odyssey of an American Composer, appeared in 1980.

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