William Sydeman

William Jay Sydeman (New York, 8 May 1928) is an American composer whose career combines rigorous academic training with a personal quest of a philosophical and religious nature. His output, situated in the second half of the twentieth century, is of interest both for its compositional technique and for the evolution of his language over the decades.

He was trained at the Mannes College, where he took his bachelor's degree in 1955 with Felix Salzer and Roy Travis, and then at the Hartt School, from which he graduated in 1958 with Arnold Franchetti. Among his other teachers were Roger Sessions and Goffredo Petrassi. Between 1959 and 1970 he taught in the composition department of the Mannes College. Around 1970 he left New York and embarked on a period of roughly twelve years of travel and study of philosophy and religion, which took him to the desert of southern California, to England, Oregon, Hawaii and northern California. He taught at the Rudolph Steiner College in Fair Oaks, California, between 1980 and 1982, and afterwards maintained his connection with that institution.

In his works from 1955 to 1970 he employed linear, motivic material of intricate structure and complex, free rhythms. These are atonal pieces in which he also experimented with serial techniques, aleatoric episodes, tape music and amplified sound. Between 1965 and 1970 theatrical elements came to the fore, and even in instrumental works spoken texts written or adapted by him himself appeared. After 1980, his music became more lyrical and accessible, without relinquishing the compositional sophistication of earlier years. His titles include some two hundred pieces for various instrumental ensembles, as well as solo vocal works, choral works and orchestral pieces.

His work has received awards from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Pacifica Foundation and the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and commissions from institutions such as the Hopkins Center Festival of Dartmouth College, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Sacramento Symphony. His legacy lies in a broad catalogue that spans serialism, musical theatre and, in his final period, a writing closer to lyricism without abandoning rigour.