Berger, Arthur (Victor)

Berger, Arthur (Victor), respected American composer and writer on music; b. N.Y., May 15, 1912. He studied piano (1923–28) and began composing while still in high school. After attending the City Coll. of N.Y. (1928–30), he studied composition with Vincent Jones at N.Y. Univ. (B.S., 1934). He then continued his training at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Mass. (1935–37), and concurrently was a pupil of Piston, Davison, and Leichtentritt at Harvard Univ. (M.A., 1937). After further studies with Boulanger at the École Normale de Musique in Paris (1937–39), he taught at Mills Coll. in Oakland, Calif. (1939–42), where he also had composition lessons with Milhaud; then taught at Brooklyn Coll. (1942–43), the Juilliard School of Music in N.Y., Brandéis Univ. (1953–80), and at the New England Cons, of Music in Boston (from 1979). He served as ed. of the Musical Mercury (1934–37) and as co-founder and ed. of Perspectives of New Music (1962–63); also was a music critic for the Boston Transcript (1943–47), N.Y. Sun (1943–46), and N.Y. Herald Tribune (1946–53). In addition to many articles in journals, he publ. a monograph on Copland (N.Y., 1953). In 1960 he held a Fulbright fellowship and in 1975–76 a Guggenheim fellowship. His musical idiom reveals the influence of divergent schools, including a sui generis serialism and the neoclassical pragmatism of Stravinsky. His works, in whatever idiom, are characterized by strong formal structures; the title of one of his most cogent scores, Ideas of Order (1952), is a declaration of principles.