Colin McPhee

Canadian-American composer and ethnomusicologist Colin Carhart McPhee was born in Montréal on 15 March 1900 into a family of Scottish and German ancestry. He studied at the Peabody Institute - composition with  Gustav Strube and piano with Harold Randolph. Later he took composition lessons with Edgard Varèse.

He was a member of the 'ultra-modernists' along with John Joseph Becker, Henry Cowell and Lou Harrison.

He was interested in World Music, lived in Bali for a time, and famously introduced Benjamin Britten to Balinese music, influencing several of Britten's works.

He taught ethnomusicology at UCLA and also worked as a jazz critic.

Colin McPhee died in Los Angeles on 7 January 1964, aged sixty-three, and became better known posthumously, when several recordings of his orchestral works were released.

 

A selection of articles about Colin McPhee

Resounding Echoes by Robert McCarney - Total Control