Edgar Warren Williams
# Edgar Warren Williams

Edgar Warren Williams (born June 12, 1949) is an American composer, conductor, and music theorist.

Williams obtained a bachelor's degree in composition from Duke University in 1971, then obtained a master's degree at Columbia University in 1973, studying with Charles Wuorinen, Mario Davidovsky, and Harvey Sollberger. He then matriculated at Princeton, where he received a Master's in Fine Arts in 1977 and a Ph.D. in 1982 and studied with Milton Babbitt and James K. Randall. He was a faculty member and orchestral conductor at the College of William & Mary from 1979. Williams's compositional work is noted for its orchestrational and timbral complexity, and its use of pitch collections as melodic and thematic elements.

## Compositions

### Orchestral

* 1969 Of Orphalese
* 1984 Landscapes with figure
* 1998 Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror
* 1999 Suite on "Nosferatu"

### For concert band

* 1968 "To my Father" Prologue
* 1978 Across a Bridge of Dreams
* 1991 Into the dark
* 1993 Now showing!
* 2002 Music from behind the Moon
* Prologue

**Musicals**

* 1970 Music for In the Dark of the Moon
* 1982 Music for The Merry Wives of Windsor – text by William Shakespeare
* 1985 Music for Richard II – text by William Shakespeare

### Choral

* 1975 The mystic trumpeter, for mixed choir and orchestra
* 1976 Multum in parvo, for large mixed choir
* 1998 Star Spangled Banner, canon for choir
* Missa, For six-member men's choir, brass and piano

### Vocal music

* 1985 Three songs, for high voice and piano – text: Margaret Tongue
* 1985 The bawds of euphony, for high voice and piano – text: Wallace Stevens
* Two Lyrics, for middle voice and piano – text: James Agee

### Chamber music

* 1968 Chamber Piece Nr. 1
* 1968 Chamber Piece Nr. 2
* 1971 String Quartet Nr. 1
* 1980 Amoretti, for viola and piano
* 1985 Caprice, for violin
* 1996 String Quartet Nr. 2
* 1999 String Trio
* Fant'sy I (from "Hortus conclusus"), for 9 instruments
* Fant'sy II (from "Hortus conclusus"), for 12 instruments
* Fant'sy III (from "Hortus conclusus"), for 12 instruments

### Piano

* 1987 Six Studies
* 2005 Sonata

### Guitar

* 2002 Guitar quartet

### Electronic music

* 2000 Pentimenti

## Publications

* Edgar Warren Williams: Harmony and Voice Leading, New York: HarperCollins, 1992.
* Edgar Warren Williams: Introduction to Music, New York: HarperCollins, 1991. (Co-authored with Miller and Taylor.)
* Edgar Warren Williams: "Banqueting with the Emperor", in: Perspectives of New Music, vol. 35, no. 1 (1998)
* Edgar Warren Williams: "A View of Schoenberg's Opus 19, No. 2", in: College Music Symposium, vol. 25 (1985)
* Edgar Warren Williams: "In and About Some Measures of Beethoven", in: 19th-Century Music, November 1983
* Edgar Warren Williams: "On Complementary Interval Class Sets", in: In Theory Only, vol. 7 (June 1983)
