Material is unprocessed. Please contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.
70 titles of music scores (with some parts), totaling roughly 460 p.
Material has been organized by performing forces: Piano music, Chamber music, Symphonic works, Choral works, Songs
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Material is unprocessed. Please contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.
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Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Gerald Christoff Music Collection; Box and Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.
Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library
A native of Rochester, New York, Gerald Christoff learned to play piano at age seven. His first teacher was his mother, Marie Alexandre Christoff, an artist and songwriter. He made his debut as a pianist at age 12 and introduced original compositions for piano in recital at 18. He held a BA in music and philosophy from Ohio Wesleyan University, an MA in music composition from the State University at Buffalo, and an EDM and Ed.D in music from Columbia University. As an undergraduate, he composed pop and rock songs to his mother's lyrics. In graduate school he studied with distinguished composers George Rochberg, Leo Smit and Mauricio Kagel. Christoff credited his mentor Rochberg, and a friendship with the great Canadian pianist Glenn Gould, with inspiring him to compose "serious" classical music. In the 1960s this meant avant-garde music that was complex and difficult to understand. Christoff was awarded a fellowship to the Bennington Composers' Conferences of 1967 and 1968, where his chamber works were performed, recorded, and broadcast nationally. These included "Quintet for Wind Instruments," "Metamorphosis" for flute, oboe and bassoon, and "Trilogy" for violin, trumpet, bassoon and piano. Following the conferences, he explored new harmonic and melodic systems to strike a balance between traditional musical expressiveness and contemporary techniques. One of his chief passions was philosophy, which played a key role in shaping his views on music's meaning and purpose and on his development as a musician, theorist and teacher. He vowed to write music that would appeal equally to the head, heart and ear. Christoff taught at the Hochstein School of Music and was accompanist for the Opera Theater of Rochester. He later chaired the music department at Cardinal O'Hara High School in Tonawanda. His works were performed at the Hochstein School, the Eastman School, and Juilliard. In 1976, he relocated to New York City where he taught for many years in the New York City public schools and the Adult Education system. He launched a second career at the City University of New York where he taught critical thinking.
From 1964 to 2013, he composed more than 100 works of classical music that included large symphonic, chamber, and choral works, as well as a commissioned oratorio on the life of St. Francis. "The Ecstasy of St. Francis" for mixed chorus, solo voices, and orchestra premiered at Stanford University in 1989. Gerald Christoff was one of the few contemporary composers to write extensively for solo piano. A characteristic of his more recent music was his fusion of classical modernism with free jazz, neo-romanticism, and snatches of boogie woogie. From 2011 to 2013, he recorded his piano works on five albums for Legacy Records: Existential Episodes, Odyssey, Secrets from an Attic,Raptures, and Dark Matter.
The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.
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| Subject | ||
|---|---|---|
| Composers -- United States | CLIO Catalog | ArchiveGRID |
| Composition (Music) -- 20th century | CLIO Catalog | ArchiveGRID |