Fine Arts Library Archival Collections

About the Collection

The collection includes gallery proofs, original manuscripts, and copied works by Professor Pisk.

Biography

Paul Amadeus Pisk was born on May 16, 1893, in Vienna, Austria, and died on January 12, 1990 in Los Angeles. He earned his doctorate in musicology from Vienna University in 1916, studying under Guido Adler. Afterwards he studied conducting at the Imperial Academy of Music and the Performing Arts graduating in 1919. His teachers there included Franz Schreker (counterpoint). Pisk also studied privately with Arnold Schoenberg from 1917 to 1919. He then taught at the Vienna Academy and gave adult education lectures, especially at the Volkshochschule Volksheim Ottakring, where from 1922 to 1934 he was director of the music department. He also taught at the New Vienna Conservatory from 1925 to 1926 and the Austro-American Conservatory near Salzburg from 1931 to 1933.

He was also a board member, secretary, and pianist in Schoenberg's Society for Private Musical Performances. He was among the founding members of the International Society for Contemporary Music and from 1920 to 1928 was coeditor of Musikblätter des Anbruch and music editor of the Arbeiter-Zeitung.

Dr. Pisk immigrated to the United States in 1936. He taught at the University of Redlands, where he served four years as director of the music school. He joined the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin in 1951, teaching until his retirement in 1963. After that he was a visiting professor at Washington University in St. Louis until 1972.

An internationally renowned composer, he completed thirty-six opuses between 1920 and 1936. The String Quartet, Op. 8, was awarded the Composition Prize of the City of Vienna in 1925. Twenty-four critically acclaimed works were premiered in Europe. He also published operatic, orchestral, ballet, folk dances, ballads, and works for piano and chorus.

In addition to his work as a composer, Pisk was a music critic. He co-authored A History of Music and Musical Style, a music theory book.

Paul A. Pisk: Essays in his Honor, a collection of 26 pieces written by colleagues and noted musicologists, was published by the College of Fine Arts in 1966. He was awarded a golden doctoral diploma by the University of Vienna in 1967. A prize named in his honor is the highest award for a graduate student paper at the annual meeting of the American Musicological Society.

Citation

Duffie, Bruce. "Composer Paul Pisk: A Conversation with Bruce Duffie." 2013. Web.