John J. Becker

John J. Becker, "The Musical Crusader of Saint Paul," was a figure among the group of early modernists making up the so-called "American Five," along with <a href="spotify:artist:73s17iW5LTtXRMVoofi9sU">Charles Ives</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:6IXC5tnl1tMnV3noIdHlfM">Carl Ruggles</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:4cDPEJmDtBaknA6lyowPLr">Wallingford Riegger</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:0AMoPrd9OLxMC38dQPnSQA">Henry Cowell</a>. A 1905 graduate of the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Becker studied with Carl Busch and <a href="spotify:artist:4QxyjQ2W04CajT8eBNSJaj">Wilhelm Middelschulte</a> and taught at an obscure Conservatory in North Texas until the outbreak of World War I. Afterward Becker continued his education and, in 1923, achieved a doctorate in Music from Wisconsin University and taught music at a number of Catholic universities in the American Midwest. Becker's early compositions are Romantic in style and gradually absorbed the influence of <a href="spotify:artist:1Uff91EOsvd99rtAupatMP">Debussy</a>, but after meeting <a href="spotify:artist:0AMoPrd9OLxMC38dQPnSQA">Henry Cowell</a> in 1928, Becker became a tireless advocate of new music and active in the Pan-American Association of Composers; his music became more acrid, dissonant, and contrapuntal, as well.

Becker's most remarkable cycles of works included some pieces, widely divergent in terms of scoring, entitled "Soundpieces" and a number of "Stageworks," the latter including the all-percussion ballet Abongo (1933) and A Marriage with Space (1935), said to be the first multimedia work in American history. Altogether Becker composed seven symphonies, five concertos -- including two for violin and the Concerto Arabesque (1929) -- eight of the Soundpieces and seven of the Stageworks, other operas, choruses, songs, string quartets, and other works. Although he conducted the Midwestern premieres of some of the music written by his contemporaries in the Pan-American Association, Becker's own music remains little known and, for the most part, unheard. Becker is best remembered for his work assisting his friend <a href="spotify:artist:73s17iW5LTtXRMVoofi9sU">Charles Ives</a> in preparing the vocal-orchestral score of the song General William Booth Enters Into Heaven and in creating a clear copy of <a href="spotify:artist:73s17iW5LTtXRMVoofi9sU">Ives</a>' Symphony No. 4.