Mary McCarty Snow

Last updated

Mary Helen Snow McCarty (26 August 1928 - 14 October 2012) was an American composer, [1] organist/pianist, and publisher who wrote The Waveform Music Book: Composing, Teaching, Performing Electronic Music with the ARP 2600 Synthesizer in 1977. She published most of her work under the names Mary Snow or Mary McCarty Snow. [2] [3]

Contents

Life

Snow was born in Brownsville, Texas, [4] to Carrie Beth Sewell and Harry Evans Snow. She married Darrell Keith McCarty in 1951. They had four children before divorcing in 1981. She and her husband formed the Lariken Press publishing company, which published her Waveform Music Book. [2]

Snow earned a B.A. at Indiana University and a M.M. at the University of Illinois. [5] Her teachers included Anis Fuleihan and Burrill Philips. She gave private piano lessons, taught at Texas Technological University, and served as an organist at several churches in Lubbock, Texas: the First Christian Church, First Covenant Presbyterian Church, Forrest Heights Methodist Church, and St. Christopher's Episcopal Church. She also established the Lubbock chapter of People Against Violent Crimes, and created a fundraiser for the organization called the “Bach-a-Thon.” [6]

Snow received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1977 and 1980, as well as a grant from Texas Technological University to compose a work based on desert land cultures. [6] She composed electronic music for university theatre productions (listed below). Her works were published by the American Music Center, [7] I. E. Clark, [8] and Lariken Press. [2] They include:

Band

Book

Chamber

Dance

Electronic

Theatre

Related Research Articles

Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means. Pure electronic instruments depended entirely on circuitry-based sound generation, for instance using devices such as an electronic oscillator, theremin, or synthesizer. Electromechanical instruments can have mechanical parts such as strings, hammers, and electric elements including magnetic pickups, power amplifiers and loudspeakers. Such electromechanical devices include the telharmonium, Hammond organ, electric piano and the electric guitar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electronic musical instrument</span> Musical instrument that uses electronic circuits to generate sound

An electronic musical instrument or electrophone is a musical instrument that produces sound using electronic circuitry. Such an instrument sounds by outputting an electrical, electronic or digital audio signal that ultimately is plugged into a power amplifier which drives a loudspeaker, creating the sound heard by the performer and listener.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ARP Instruments</span> Manufacturer of electronic musical instruments

ARP Instruments, Inc. was a Lexington, Massachusetts manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, founded by Alan Robert Pearlman in 1969. It created a popular and commercially successful range of synthesizers throughout the 1970s before declaring bankruptcy in 1981. The company earned a reputation for producing excellent sounding, innovative instruments and was granted several patents for the technology it developed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ARP 2600</span> Analog synthesizer

The ARP 2600 is a semi-modular analog subtractive audio synthesizer produced by ARP Instruments, Inc.

Herbert Brün was a composer, pioneer of electronic and computer music, and cybernetician. Born in Berlin, Germany, he taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1962 until he retired, several years before his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Synthesizer</span> Electronic musical instrument

A synthesizer is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and frequency modulation synthesis. These sounds may be altered by components such as filters, which cut or boost frequencies; envelopes, which control articulation, or how notes begin and end; and low-frequency oscillators, which modulate parameters such as pitch, volume, or filter characteristics affecting timbre. Synthesizers are typically played with keyboards or controlled by sequencers, software or other instruments, and may be synchronized to other equipment via MIDI.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carla Scaletti</span> Musical artist

Carla Scaletti is an American harpist, composer, music technologist and the inventor of the Kyma Sound Design Environment as well as president of Symbolic Sound.

Betty Ann Wong is an American author, composer, and multi-media musician.

Alliene Gibbons Brandon Webb was an American composer, singer, and teacher who was born in Palestine, Texas, to Blanche and George Thomas Brandon. She married Robert Barron Webb in 1934.

Sylvia Pengilly is a British-American musician and music professor. She is known for composing music by converting brain waves to electrical data that combines music with graphics. Pengilly continued lecturing and composing after semi-retiring in 1995.

Mildred Lund Tyson was an American choral director, composer, organist, and soprano.

Mary Lynn Twombly Aprahamian is an American composer, conductor, and pianist who publishes under the name Mary Lynn Twombly.

Myra Brooks Turner was an American composer, music educator, and writer, who composed for television commercials as well as for musical theatre, piano, and voice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anice Potter Terhune</span> American author, composer, music educator and church organist

Anice Potter Terhune was an American author, composer, music educator, and church organist, who composed over 100 children's songs. She was known as "Annie," and sometimes published under the pseudonym Morris Stockton.

Anne Gannet Stratton Miller Holden was an American composer who is best remembered today for her song “Boats of Mine,” which was widely performed and recorded during her lifetime. She published her music under the name Anne Stratton.

Helen Camille Stanley Hartmeyer Gatlin is a composer, pianist, and violist who began working with electronic and microtonal music in the 1960s.

Louise E. Simpson Stairs was an American composer, organist, and pianist, who sometimes published under the pseudonym Sidney Forrest. She composed several cantatas, as well as piano and vocal works for children.

Mildred Elizabeth Thomson Souers was an American composer who wrote music for ballets and ballet studios, as well as for chamber ensembles, piano, and voice.

Margaret Lee Scoville was an American composer of chamber, electronic and piano music.

Elizabeth Anne Schwerdtfeger was an American composer, choral conductor, educator, and Fulbright scholar who spent several years as a Dominican nun and was also known as Sister Mary Ernest O.P.. She was known professionally as E. Anne Schwerdtfeger.

References

  1. Anderson, Ruth (1976). Contemporary American composers : a biographical dictionary. Boston: G.K. Hall. ISBN   0-8161-1117-0. OCLC   2035024.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Office, Library of Congress Copyright (1979). Catalog of Copyright Entries. Third Series: 1977: July-December. Copyright Office, Library of Congress.
  3. Snow, Mary (1977-01-01). The waveform music book: Composing, teaching, performing electronic music with the Arp 2600 synthesizer. Lariken Press.
  4. Stern, Susan (1978). Women composers : a handbook. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press. ISBN   0-8108-1138-3. OCLC   3844725.
  5. campus), University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign (1951). Report of the Board of Trustees.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Cohen, Aaron I. (1987). International Encyclopedia of Women Composers. Books & Music (USA). ISBN   978-0-9617485-1-7.
  7. Stewart-Green, Miriam (1980). Women composers : a checklist of works for the solo voice. Boston, Mass.: G.K. Hall. ISBN   0-8161-8498-4. OCLC   6815939.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Ashby, Sylvia (1976). Shining Princess of the Slender Bamboo. I. E. Clark Publications. ISBN   978-0-88680-266-0.
  9. My Bands and I: A Love Story, 45 Years of Concert and Marching Band History, Indiana, Cleveland Heights, Illinois, Air Force, Illinois by My Attentive and Perpetuative Press. M. Hindsley. 1984.
  10. Composers, American Women (1979). AWC News. American Women Composers, Incorporated.