Donald Grantham

Donald Grantham

Biography

Donald Grantham (b. 9 November 1947 in Duncan, Oklahoma) is an American composer and educator.

He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Oklahoma, and a master’s degree from the University of Southern California. Grantham went on to study at the American Conservatory in France with Nadia Boulanger.

Grantham is highly regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential composers for winds working today. Grantham is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes in composition, including the Prix Lili Boulanger, the Nissim/ASCAP Orchestral Composition Prize, First Prize in the Concordia Chamber Symphony's Awards to American Composers, a Guggenheim Fellowship, three grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, three First Prizes in the NBA/William Revelli Competition, two First Prizes in the ABA/Ostwald Competition, and First Prize in the National Opera Association's Biennial Composition Competition.

His music has been praised for its "elegance, sensitivity, lucidity of thought, clarity of expression and fine lyricism" in a citation awarded by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. In recent years his works have been performed by the orchestras of Cleveland, Dallas, Atlanta and the American Composers Orchestra among many others, and he has fulfilled commissions in media from solo instruments to opera. His music is published by Piquant Press, Peer-Southern, E. C. Schirmer and Mark Foster, and a number of his works have been commercially recorded. Along with Kent Kennan he is co-author of The Technique of Orchestration, published by Prentice-Hall.

Donald Grantham is the Frank C. Erwin Centennial Professor in Music at the University of Texas at Austin Butler School of Music, where he teaches composition.

Works for Winds

• After Hafiz (2016)
• Amber Sky
• Baron Cimetiere's Mambo (2004)
• Baron Piquant on Pointe (2011)
• Baron La Croix's Shuffle (2007)
• Baron Samedi's Sarabande (and Soft Shoe) (2005)
• Bum's Rush (1994)
• Chant and Hymn for Our Lady
• Circa 1600 (2018)
• Cloudless Day, Bitter Sky (2002)
• "Come Memory..." (2002)
• Concerto in One Movement for Bass Trombone (1979)
• Court Music (2005)
• Don't You See? (2001)
• Effulgent Light (2017)
• Exhilaration and Cry (2008)
• Fantasy on "In Dulci Jubilo" (2015)
• Fantasy on "La Golondrina" (2003)
• Fantasy on Mr. Hyde's Song (1998)
• Fantasy Variations (1927/1998)
• Farewell to Gray (2001)
• Fayetteville Bop (2002)
• From "An Alabama Songbook" (2007)
  • Honey in the Rock (2008)
• JS Dances (2003)
• J'ai été au bal (1999)
• Kentucky Harmony (2000)
• Let Evening Come (Grantham) (2014)
• Lone Star Twister (2008)
• Music for the Blanton (2006)
• Northern Celebration (2001)
• Phantasticke Spirites (2002)
• Shenandoah (2017)
• Southern Harmony (1998)
  • Wondrous Love (2008)
• Sol y Sombra (2014)
• Spangled Heavens (2010)
• Starry Crown (2007)
• Symphony for Winds and Percussion (2009)
  • Stomp (Grantham) (2009)
• Summer of 2008 (2008)
• Thunderbird
• Trumpet Gloria (2006)
• Tuba Concerto (Grantham) (2012)
• An Uneasy Mrch
• Variations on an American Cavalry Song (2001)
• What Comes Around... (2017)
• A Winter Sky (2022)

Resources

• Camphouse, Mark, editor. (2004) Composers on Composing for Band. Volume 2. Chicago: GIA Publications. pp. 97–124.
• Davis, Paul Gordon (2007). The historical and musical correlation of "The southern harmony and musical companion" with Donald Grantham's "Southern harmony". University of Texas at Austin, Doctoral Dissertation.
• Donald Grantham website (Piquant Press)
• Feagin, T. André. "Let Evening Come." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 10, Compiled and edited by Richard Miles, 635-641. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2015.
• Ginocchio, John F. "Baron Piquante on Pointe." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 9, edit. & comp. by Richard Miles, 297-307. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2013.
• Glaser, Kyle R. "Sol y Sombra." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 10, Compiled and edited by Richard Miles, 470-476. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2015.
• Hamilton, Craig V. "Shenandoah." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 12, Compiled and edited by Andrew Trachsel, 455-459. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2021.
• Kitelinger, Shannon. "JS Dances." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 6, edit. & comp. by Richard Miles, 652-659. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2007.
• McCallum, Wendy Zander. "Symphony No. 2: "after Hafiz"." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 11, Compiled and edited by Richard Miles, 1026-1039. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2018.
• McCallum, Wendy. "Baron La Croix's Shuffle." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 9, edit. & comp. by Richard Miles, 496-504. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2013.
• McCallum, Wendy Zander. "Circa 1600." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 12, Compiled and edited by Andrew Trachsel, 521-531. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2021.
• McCutchen, Mathew G. (2009) An Examination of the History and Winning Pieces of the National Band Association's Composition Contest: 1977-2008. Florida State University, Doctoral Dissertation.
• Miles, Richard B. 2000. Teaching Music Through Performance in Band. Volume 3. Chicago: GIA Publications. pp. 666.
• Morehouse, Christopher. "Fantasy on 'In Dulci Jubilo'." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 11, Compiled and edited by Richard Miles, 549-556. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2018.
• Popejoy, James. "Court Music." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 6, edit. & comp. by Richard Miles, 775-782. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2007.
• Schallert, Gary. "Spangled Heavens." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 9, edit. & comp. by Richard Miles, 404-415. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2013.
• Speck, Gary A. "Baron Cimetiére's Mambo." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 6, edit. & comp. by Richard Miles, 753-761. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2007.