{{short description|American classical composer}} {{for|the American landscape painter|Charles Lewis Fussell}}
'''Charles Clement Fussell''' (born February 14, 1938, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina)<ref name=":0">Zullinger, Nathan. “A Guide to the Choral Music of Charles Fussell.” DMA diss., Boston University, 2012.</ref> is an American composer and conductor of contemporary classical music. He has composed six symphonies and three operas.<ref name=":1">Fussell, Charles. ''Charles Fussell: Wilde''. Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Gil Rose. BMOP/sound 1005, 2008, compact disc. Liner notes.</ref> His symphony ''Wilde'' for solo baritone and orchestra, based on the life of Oscar Wilde and premiered by the Newton Symphony Orchestra and the baritone Sanford Sylvan in 1990, was a finalist for the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Music.<ref>{{cite web |last=Dyer |first=Richard |title=Modern Orchestra is in fine voice |work=The Boston Globe |date=October 2, 2004 |url=http://archive.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2004/10/02/modern_orchestra_is_in_fine_voice/ |access-date=February 26, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Valdes |first=Lesley |title=Whitman's 'Days' Given Spin As Cantata "We Wanted This To Be A Portrait Of The Whole Man," Says Composer Charles Fussell. |work=The Philadelphia Inquirer |date=May 18, 1992 |url=http://articles.philly.com/1992-05-18/news/26015558_1_specimen-days-cantata-graham |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150918103528/http://articles.philly.com/1992-05-18/news/26015558_1_specimen-days-cantata-graham |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 18, 2015 |accessdate=February 26, 2016}}</ref> He received a citation and award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1992.<ref name=":1" /><ref>Fussell, Charles. ''Charles Fussell: Specimen Days; Being Music''. Sanford Sylvan; Cantata Singers. David Hoose. Koch International Classics 3-7338-2H1, 1997, compact disc. Liner notes.</ref><ref name=":2">Fussell, Charles. ''Charles Fussell: Cymbeline''. Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Gil Rose. BMOP/sound 1059, 2018, compact disc. Liner notes.</ref>
Fussell received advanced degrees in composition and conducting from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Thomas Canning and Bernard Rogers. He received a Fulbright grant to study at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik, where he worked with Boris Blacher. He also attended the Bayreuth masterclasses of Friedelind Wagner.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> In 1964 he received a Ford Foundation grant to be a composer-in-residence in the Newton, Massachusetts public school system.<ref>{{Cite news|date=March 6, 1964|title=$5,000 Ford Grants For 10 Composers|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/03/06/archives/5000-ford-grants-for-10-composers.html|access-date=November 2, 2021}}</ref> He was an assistant and close friend of the composer Virgil Thomson.<ref>{{cite web|date=January 14, 2007|title=Rustic Streams Hiding Complicated Traditions|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/arts/music/14tomm.html|accessdate=February 26, 2016|work=The New York Times}}</ref> He served as the president of the Thomson Foundation for many years.<ref name=":2" />
Fussell has served on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the North Carolina School of the Arts (1976–1977), Boston University (1983–2003), and Rutgers University.<ref name=":0" />
== Catalogue of works == '''Late 1950s'''
* ''Essay for Orchestra'' * ''Variations for Orchestra'' * ''Six Dances for Orchestra''
'''1962'''
* ''Caligula'', opera based on a play by Albert Camus * ''Trio'', for violin, cello, and piano
'''1963'''
* ''Dance Suite'', for flute, trumpet, viola, and two percussionists * Symphony in One Movement [No. I], for large orchestra
'''1964'''
* ''Sweelinck Liedvariationen Mein Junges Leben'', for solo string trio, marimba, mandolin, harp, and small orchestra * ''Saint Stephen and Herod'', drama for speaker, chorus, and winds
'''1965'''
* ''Poems for Chamber Orchestra and Voices after Hart Crane'', text by Hart Crane * ''Three Choral Pieces'' (rev. 1975), for chorus and piano ** I. ''Fancy's Knell'' (SA and piano) ** II. ''Three Epitaphs'' (TB and piano) ** III. ''I Saw a Peacock'' (mixed chorus and piano)
'''1967'''
* Symphony No. II, for soprano and large orchestra
'''1968'''
* ''Two Ballades'' (rev. 1976), for cello and piano * ''The Blessed Virgin's Expostulation'', realization after Henry Purcell for soprano and ten instruments
'''1970'''
* ''Voyages'', for soprano and tenor soloists, female chorus, piano, and solo wind instrument plus recorded speaker. Text by Hart Crane.
'''1971'''
* ''Julian'', drama in five scenes after the tale of Gustave Flaubert
'''1973'''
* ''Three Processionals for Orchestra''
'''1975'''
* ''Eurydice'', for soprano, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano, with obligato trumpet, horn, trombone, and bass-drum
'''1976'''
* ''Résumé'', cycle of nine songs for soprano, clarinet, string bass, and piano. Text by Dorothy Parker. * ''Greenwood Sketches, Music for String Quartet'' * ''A Prophecy'', for chorus and piano. Text by Allen Ginsberg.
'''1977'''
* ''Etudes and Portraits'', for solo organ
'''1979'''
* ''Northern Lights'', two portraits for chamber orchestra ** I. ''Leós Janacek'', for two flutes, four solo violins, timpani, and strings ** II. ''Edvard Munch'', for two flutes, string quartet, timpani, and string orchestra * ''A Joyful Fugue'', transcription for band of an orchestral score by Virgil Thomson
'''1981'''
* ''Landscapes'', Symphony No. III, for chorus and large orchestra ** I. ''A Prophecy'' (Allen Ginsberg) ** II. ''A Night Battle'' (Walt Whitman) ** III. ''Moment Fugue 1929'' (Hart Crane) ** IV. ''Landscape'' (Alberta Phillips) * ''Four Fairy Tales After Oscar Wilde'', for orchestra ** I. ''The Young King'' ** II. ''The Nightingale and the Rose'' ** III. ''The Happy Prince'' *** A. ''Prelude'' *** B. ''Romance of the Sparrow and Reed'' *** C. ''Coda'' ** IV. ''The Remarkable Rocket''
'''1982'''
* Overture to ''Paul Bunyan'', transcription for band of an orchestral score by Benjamin Britten
'''1983'''
* ''Song of Return'', for SATB chorus with piano. Text by W. H. Auden.
'''1985'''
* ''Cymbeline'', drama after Shakespeare for soprano and tenor soli, narrator, plus chamber ensemble (11 players)
'''1986'''
* ''The Gift'', for SATB chorus with soprano solo. Text by William Carlos Williams. * ''Three Portraits for Chamber Orchestra'' ** I. ''Virgil Thomson'' (1981) *** Version for solo piano composed in 2015 ** II. ''Maurice Grosser'' (1983) ** III. ''Jack Larson'' (1986)
'''1988'''
* ''Free-fall'', for chamber ensemble (seven players)
'''1989'''
* ''A Song of Return'', cantata for small chorus and orchestra. Text by W. H. Auden. * ''The Gift'', for chorus, soprano solo, and orchestra
'''1990'''
* ''Wilde'' [Symphony No. IV], for baritone and orchestra. Runner-up for the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Music.
'''1991'''
* ''Goethe Lieder'', cycle of five songs with an epilogue ** 1. Soprano or tenor and piano ** 2. Version for seven players ** 3. Version for orchestra * ''Last Trombones'', for five percussionists, two pianos, and six (or twelve) trombones
'''1992'''
* ''Specimen Days'', cantata for baritone solo, chorus, and orchestra. Text by Will Graham, based on the life and writings of Walt Whitman.
'''1993'''
* ''Being Music'', for baritone solo and string quartet. Text by Walt Whitman. * ''Song and Dance'', for violin and piano * ''Invocation'', for chorus (SA and accompaniment or SATB). Text by May Sarton.
'''1994'''
* ''Sonata-Duo'', for flute and piano
'''1995'''
* Symphony No. V, for orchestra * ''Night Song'', for solo piano
'''1996'''
* ''Comrade'' and ''The Journey'', two songs for baritone and piano
'''1997'''
* ''The Astronaut's Tale'', chamber opera. Text by Jack Larson. * ''Mists'', three pieces for a cappella chorus. Texts by Hart Crane.
'''1998'''
* ''November Leaves'', four songs for mezzo-soprano and orchestra. Texts by Alfred Corn. * ''Sonnet'', for baritone solo, flute, and organ. Text by Elizabeth Bishop. * ''Trio'', for violin, cello, and piano
'''1999'''
* ''From A Pioneer Songbook'', for a cappella chorus '''2000'''
* ''A Walt Whitman Sampler'', for TTBB chorus and piano. Text by Will Graham. * ''Venture'', four songs for baritone and piano on poems by Toni Mergentime Levi ** Version for baritone and orchestra was composed in 2016 '''2002'''
* ''Right River'', Variations on an Original Theme for 'cello and string orchestra
'''2003'''
* ''Infinite Fraternity'', for SATB chorus, baritone solo, flute, and viola. Texts by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Will Graham. * ''High Bridge'' (rev. 2008), A Choral Symphony [No. VI] after poems of Hart Crane, for soprano, alto, tenor, baritone solos, chorus and orchestra '''2008'''
* ''Moonshine'', for double bass and vibraphone
'''2011'''
* ''Marion in Memory'', for flute, clarinet, horn, violin, cello, piano, and marimba
'''2018'''
* ''K.G. in Space and Time'', for flute, clarinet, horn, marimba (and vibraphone), piano (and celesta), violin, and cello
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fussell, Charles}} Category:Living people Category:American male classical composers Category:20th-century American classical composers Category:20th-century American male composers Category:Place of birth missing (living people) Category:1938 births