Rachel Amelia Eubanks (September 12, 1922 – April 8, 2006) was an American composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist.[1][2]
Rachel Eubanks | |
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 Eubanks in 1996 | |
| Born | Rachel Amelia Eubanks September 12, 1922 |
| Died | April 8, 2006 (aged 83) Los Angeles, California |
| Alma mater |
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Life and career
editRachel Amelia Eubanks was born on September 12, 1922 in San Jose, California, US.[2] Her parents, Joseph Sylvester and Elizabeth Amelia Eubanks, struggled during the Great Depression, still managing to take Rachel and her brothers Jonathan and Joseph to the concerts of numerous musicians: Roland Hayes, Paul Robeson and Marian Anderson.[2] Settling in Oakland, California, Eubanks attended Roosevelt Junior High School and later Oakland High School.[3] Eubanks learned both clarinet and alto horn in elementary school, later taking piano lessons.[2] She wrote her first composition at 11 years old; after finishing a poem for Mother's Day, Eubanks considered it incomplete and decided to set it to music.[4] Other early pieces include the works Just You and I and Memories of Mother of Mine.[4] Her first serious work came at age 14: the Waters of the Ganges for piano, inspired by the stories of a family friend who went to India as a missionary.[4]
Eubanks married Mac MacDonald, a Baptist minister, in 1950.[4] Her future plans did not align with the traditional responsibilities for the wife of a pastor and the two divorced in 1952.[4] Eubanks studied at a number of American universities, beginning with University of California, Berkeley, where she studied under Charles Cushing receiving a Bachelor of Arts in composition and music theory in 1945.[3] She then received a Master of Arts, studying composition under Douglas Moore, Otto Luening and Normand Lockwood.[3] Further study included the Eastman School of Music in 1947; Berkeley with Roger Sessions in 1948; organ study at Capitol University from 1949–1950; economics, philosophy and religion at Ohio State University from 1950–1951; film scoring at the University of Southern California with Miklós Rózsa; education and language at California State University, Los Angeles in 1954; various subjects at the University of California, Los Angeles; ethnomusicology at California State University, Long Beach in 1975; music administration at Westminster Choir College in 1976; and a DMA in composition at Pacific Western University.[3] In 1977 Eubanks studied in Paris, France with Nadia Boulanger through the American Conservatory there.[5][n 1] She received a DMA from the Pacific Western University (1980).[4][3]
Eubanks headed the Albany State University, Georgia,[2] and she later taught theory and composition and was head of the music department at Wilberforce University 1949–50.[6][7] After settling in Los Angeles (LA), she began offering piano lessons out of her apartment.[2]
Eubanks founded the Eubanks Conservatory of Music and Art in 1951 as its first director.[8] Based in LA, it "began in modest accommodations on 47th and Figueroa Streets", later upsizing for increased enrollment.[7] In its heydays, the conservatory offered Associate and Masters degrees in music performance, composition, theory and history.[7] Initially a nonprofit organization, the Conservatory diminished in enrollment during the 1990s, repeatedly moved locations and has "never returned to its glory days".[2]
Eubanks died on April 8, 2006 in Los Angeles, California from colon cancer.[2]
Music
editEubanks' compositional œuvre includes piano music, songs, orchestral and choral works.[9]
The Guide to the Pianist's Repertoire included her Five Interludes (1984), describing it as "Tense atonal writing, contrapuntal textures, unified by similar intervals in all pieces."[1] The Canadian pianist Helen Walker-Hill recorded the first and last of the Five Interludes for the 1995 Kaleidoscope: Music by African-American Women album.[9]
Her other works include the Symphonic Requiem for orchestra and four solo voices (1980) as well as a cantata, written for choir and orchestra.[9]
List of compositions
edit- Prelude (1942), piano
- Five Interludes (1982), piano
References
editNotes
edit- ^ Euabnks was part of numerous African-American women composers who studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, including Maude Wanzer Layne, Julia Perry, Evelyn LaRue Pittman, Irene Britton Smith, Dorothy Rudd Moore and possibly Nora Douglas Holt[5]
Citations
edit- ^ a b Hinson & Roberts 2007, p. 363.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Stewart 2006.
- ^ a b c d e f Walker-Hill 1999, p. 433.
- ^ a b c d e f Eubanks Conservatory.
- ^ a b Walker-Hill 2007, p. 363.
- ^ a b Cohen 1987, p. 224.
- ^ a b c Price III, Kernodle & Maxile 2011, p. 228.
- ^ Walker-Hill 2007, p. 368.
- ^ a b c Hildegard Publishing.
Sources
edit- Cohen, Aaron I. (1987) [1981]. International Encyclopedia of Women Composers. Vol. 1 (2nd ed.). Chatham: R. R. Bowker. ISBN 978-0-9617485-2-4. OCLC 16714846.
- Hinson, Maurice; Roberts, Wesley (2007) [2002]. Guide to the Pianist's Repertoire. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-01023-0.
- Price III, Emmett G.; Kernodle, Tammy L.; Maxile, Horace, eds. (2011). Encyclopedia of African American Music. Vol. 1. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0-313-34200-4.
- Stewart, Jocelyn Y. (May 13, 2006). "Rachel Eubanks, 83; Music Teacher Set High Standards for Her Students for 50-Plus Years". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 9, 2024.
- Walker-Hill, Helen (1999). Floyd Jr., Samuel A. (ed.). International Dictionary of Black Composers. Vol. 1. Chicago: Center for Black Music Research. ISBN 978-1-884964-27-5. OCLC 41333249.
- Walker-Hill, Helen (2007) [2002]. From Spirituals to Symphonies: African-American Women Composers and Their Music (2nd ed.). Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-07454-7. OCLC 71369367.
- "About Us". Eubanks Conservatory. Retrieved August 10, 2024.
- "Eubanks, Rachel". Hildegard Publishing Company. Retrieved August 10, 2024.
