Robert Ceely

Biography

"To me music is organized sound in time. Whether my music is instrumental, vocal, electronic or a combination, the impetus is the idea; the medium chosen is a result of the idea." - Robert Ceely (1930-2015), was a composer and an educator. His compositions include solo, chamber, and orchestral music as well as music for tape and tape with instruments. He attended the New England Conservatory where he studied with Francis Cooke and completed further studies with Darius Milhaud and Leon Kirchner at Mills College, with Roger Sessions, and with Edward Cone and Milton Babbitt at Princeton University.

From 1963-64, he composed music in the Electronic Music Studio in Milan as a guest of The Italian Government. His ballet “Beyond the Ghost Spectrum”, commissioned by the Fromm Music Foundation with choreography by James Waring, was performed at Tanglewood with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting and the opera, “Automobile Graveyard”, after a play by Fernando Arrabal, was presented at the New England Conservatory in 1995. He has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ditson Fund, the Manon Jarrof dancers, the Massachusetts Arts Council, the Fromm Music Foundation and others. He has taught at the Naval School of Music, The Lawrenceville School, Robert College in Istanbul, and for thirty-eight years at the New England Conservatory where he established and directed the Electronic Music Studio and taught composition. In 1995, he was honored with an Outstanding Alumni Award. He retired from teaching in 2003 and continued to devote his time and energy to composition.

 

Robert Ceely, ACA Festival rehearsal, 2010Robert Ceely

ACE Publications

52 title(s)
Composer Title SCORING/INSTRUMENTATION Year
Robert Ceely MUSIC FOR TEN INSTRUMENTS pic, cl(a), cbsn, hn, tpt, btbn, hp, vln, vc, cb
Robert Ceely NEGATIVES
piano solo
Robert Ceely OH ONE TO FIVE Brass Quintet
2 Trumpets, Horn, Trombone, Tuba
Robert Ceely ONTOGENY
prerecorded fixed media
Robert Ceely PIANO MISCELLANY Seven (not so easy) pieces for piano solo piano
Robert Ceely PIANO PIECE
Robert Ceely PIANO VARIATIONS pf
Robert Ceely POST HOC, ERGO PROPTER HOC BsCl
Robert Ceely REMEMBERING GEORGE
big band: 2asax, 2tsax, barsax, 4tpt, 4tbn, pf, cb, drums
Robert Ceely RITUALS for 40 flutes 40 flutes
Robert Ceely ROUNDELS
wind ens: 2pic-4-2-eh-Ebcl-2clA-2cl-Ebacl-bcl-cbcl-Ebcbcl-sax(satbar)-2bsn-cbsn; 4-bassett hn-4-4-1; timp, pf/cel, mrmba, vib, xyl, glock, perc
Robert Ceely SEVEN ETUDES FOR PIANO Solo Piano
Robert Ceely SLIDE MUSIC 4 tbn
Robert Ceely SPECULATION - MUSIC FOR THE FILM BY JOHN MCKEE fl, ob, cl in A, bscl, vcl
Robert Ceely STRING TRIO violin, viola, cello
Robert Ceely SYNOECY clarinet, fixed media audio
Robert Ceely THREE SATIRES FOR ORCHESTRA Picc, 2 Fl, 2 Ob, Eng Hn, 2 Cl, Bass Cl, 2 Bsn, Contra Bsn, 4 Hns, 2 tpt, tbn, bass tbn, tba, hp, pf/cel, 5 perc, timp, Strings
Robert Ceely THREE SONGS FOR BARITONE AND PIANO Baritone and Piano
Robert Ceely TIMESHARES 8 perc
Robert Ceely TOTEMS oboe, fixed media audio
Robert Ceely Trio for Horn, Flugelhorn, and Trombone
hn, flghn, tbn
Robert Ceely TRIPLE DOUBLE ob, eh, bsn, tape
Robert Ceely TWO PIECES FOR STRING QUARTET string quartet
Robert Ceely WHITMAN: FIVE SONGS FOR SOPRANO AND PIANO
Sop, pf

Additional Works