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About
Duke was born in Cumberland, Maryland, on July 30, 1899, the eldest of six children of literarily and musically inclined parents. Duke learned to read music from his mother, Matilda Hoffman, who was a singer of some accomplishment. He began piano lessons at age 11; and at 16 he entered the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, where he studied piano with Harold Randolph and composition with Gustav Strube. During World War I Duke served as a volunteer with the Student Army Training Corps at Columbia University in New York City, and he chose to continue his musical studies in that city when the war ended. His New York mentors included Howard Brockway and Bernard Wagenaar, both of whom were then publishing significant art songs.
In 1920 Duke debuted as a concert pianist. In 1922 he entered into a long and satisfying marriage with Dorothy Macon of Virginia, who sometimes wrote libretti for him, and in 1923 he accepted a professorship at Smith College in Northhampton, Massachusetts, where he taught piano until his retirement 44 years later. 1923 also marked G. Schirmer’s publication of Duke’s first songs, “I’ve Dreamed of Sunsets” and “Lullaby,” as well as a piano work, The Fairy Glen. Duke settled into college life, availing himself of his first sabbatical in 1929-30 to study abroad with Boulanger and Schnabel, whose influences could be felt in the works he composed in the 1930’s. Throughout his quiet academic career at Smith and at the Seagle Music Colony summer vocal camp, Duke continued to concertize and to compose over 265 songs, as well as a few chamber operas, choral pieces, and orchestral works. As a pianist, he made American composers a special programming interest, premiering works by Sessions, Piston, and Wagenaar, including Sessions’s first Piano Sonata at one of the historic Sessions-Copland concerts of contemporary music. As a composer, Duke was fascinated by the “strange and marvelous chemistry of words and music,” and in his master classes and writings he devoted a great deal of thought to the art of song and singing.
He believed that in a good song the words became assimilated with the music, and he wrote lovingly and knowledgeably for the voice, as well as for the piano accompaniment. In his choice of texts, he frequently gravitated to American poets, among them Frost, Teasdale, cummings, Van Doren, Millay, and E. A. Robinson, and his range of mood runs the gamut from sprightly wit (“Hist…Wist”) to biting irony (“Richard Cory”) to unabashed Romanticism (“Luke Havergal”) or meditative reflection (“Be Still as You Are Beautiful”).
Asked why, as a pianist, his compositions included so few piano works and so many songs, Duke replied: “I think it is because of my belief that vocal utterance is the basis of music’s mystery.”
–Thomas Hampson and Carla Maria Verdino-Süllwold, PBS I Hear America Singing
Related Information
Songs
Acquainted With The Night
John Woods Duke
Robert Frost
An Awful Tempest Mashed the Air
John Woods Duke
Emily Dickinson
Song Collection: Six Poems by Emily Dickinson
Bee! I'm Expecting You!
John Woods Duke
Emily Dickinson
Song Collection: Six Poems by Emily Dickinson
Calvary
John Woods Duke
Edwin Arlington Robinson
Song Collection: Four Poems by Edwin Arlington Robinson
Counting the Beats
John Woods Duke
Robert Graves
Four Poems by Edwin Arlington Robinson
Song CollectionJohn Woods Duke
Edwin Arlington Robinson
Four Poems by Emily Dickinson
Song CollectionJohn Woods Duke
Emily Dickinson
Give Me Your Hand
John Woods Duke
John Hall Wheelock
Good Morning: Six Songs for High Voice
Song CollectionJohn Woods Duke
Mark Van Doren
Good Morning, Midnight
John Woods Duke
Emily Dickinson
Song Collection: Six Poems by Emily Dickinson
Heart, We Will Forget Him
John Woods Duke
Emily Dickinson
Song Collection: Six Poems by Emily Dickinson
i carry your heart
John Woods Duke
E. E. Cummings
Just-Spring
John Woods Duke
E. E. Cummings
Eight Songs of Translations of Latin & Greek
Song CollectionJohn Woods Duke
Edwin Arlington Robinson
Howard Mumford Jones
From the Sea: Five Songs for Soprano
Song CollectionJohn Woods Duke
Sara Teasdale
I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed
John Woods Duke
Emily Dickinson
Song Collection: Four Poems by Emily Dickinson
I Watched the Lady Caroline
John Woods Duke
Walter De la Mare
In a Burying Ground
John Woods Duke
Sara Teasdale
Song Collection: Songs Out of Sorrow: Six Songs for Mezzo
Lessons
John Woods Duke
Sara Teasdale
Song Collection: Songs Out of Sorrow: Six Songs for Mezzo
Let Down the Bars, O Death
John Woods Duke
Emily Dickinson
Song Collection: Six Poems by Emily Dickinson
Little Elegy
John Woods Duke
Elinor Wylie
Luke Havergal
John Woods Duke
Edwin Arlington Robinson
Song Collection: Four Poems by Edwin Arlington Robinson
Mastery
John Woods Duke
Sara Teasdale
Song Collection: Songs Out of Sorrow: Six Songs for Mezzo
Merry-go-round
John Woods Duke
Mark Van Doren
Song Collection: Good Morning: Six Songs for High Voice
Midcentury Love Letter
John Woods Duke
Phyllis McGinley
Miniver Cheevy
John Woods Duke
Edwin Arlington Robinson
Song Collection: Four Poems by Edwin Arlington Robinson
Night Coming Out of a Garden
John Woods Duke
Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas
Nobody Knows This Little Rose
John Woods Duke
Emily Dickinson
Song Collection: Six Poems by Emily Dickinson
O, It Was Out By Donnycarney
John Woods Duke
James Joyce
Refuge
John Woods Duke
Sara Teasdale
Song Collection: Songs Out of Sorrow: Six Songs for Mezzo
Renouncement
John Woods Duke
Alice Meynell
Reveille
John Woods Duke
A. E. Housman
Richard Cory
John Woods Duke
Edwin Arlington Robinson
Song Collection: Four Poems by Edwin Arlington Robinson
Six Poems by Emily Dickinson
Song CollectionJohn Woods Duke
Emily Dickinson
Songs Out of Sorrow: Six Songs for Mezzo
Song CollectionJohn Woods Duke
Sara Teasdale
Spirit's House
John Woods Duke
Sara Teasdale
Song Collection: Songs Out of Sorrow: Six Songs for Mezzo
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
John Woods Duke
Robert Frost
Survivor
John Woods Duke
Archibald MacLeish
The Better Part
John Woods Duke
George Santayana
The Black Panther
John Woods Duke
John Hall Wheelock
The Dark Hills
John Woods Duke
Edwin Arlington Robinson
Velvet Shoes
John Woods Duke
Elinor Wylie
Walking in the Rain
John Woods Duke
Mark Van Doren
Song Collection: Good Morning: Six Songs for High Voice
Water That Falls and Runs Away
John Woods Duke
Mark Van Doren
Song Collection: Good Morning: Six Songs for High Voice
When the Rose is Brightest
John Woods Duke
Nathaniel Parker Willis
Wild Swans
John Woods Duke
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Wood Song
John Woods Duke
Sara Teasdale
Song Collection: Songs Out of Sorrow: Six Songs for Mezzo
Videos
Recordings
American Art Songs and Their Poetry
(John Woods Duke, Richard Hundley, Carrie Jacobs-Bond, Hall Johnson, Dorothy Rudd Moore and Oley Speaks)
2017
Out of the Shadows: Rediscovered American Art Song
(Paul Bowles, John Woods Duke, Stephen Paulus and Randall Thompson)
2016
stopping by
(Mark Abel, Samuel Barber, Amy Marcy Beach, Leonard Bernstein, Charles Wakefield Cadman, Elliott Carter, Aaron Copland, Celius Dougherty, John Woods Duke, Stephen Foster, Charles Griffes and Ned Rorem)
2013
An American Kaleidoscope
(William Bolcom, John Woods Duke and Ned Rorem)
2012
Between the Bliss and Me. . . Songs to Poems of Emily Dickinson
(Ernst Bacon, Aaron Copland, John Woods Duke, Arthur Farwell, Lee Hoiby, Lori Laitman and Richard Pearson Thomas)
2009
Dwell in Possibility: Dickinson in Song
(Ernst Bacon, Aaron Copland, Celius Dougherty, John Woods Duke, Lee Hoiby, Richard Hundley, Jake Heggie, Lori Laitman, Libby Larsen, Etta Parker, Simon Sargon, Leo Smit and Richard Pearson Thomas)
2004
The Poetess Sings
(Ernst Bacon, Aaron Copland, John Woods Duke, Lee Hoiby, Otto Luening and William Roy)
2002
John Woods Duke: Lieder
(John Woods Duke)
2000
Just-Spring: Art Songs of John Duke
(John Woods Duke)
1998
American Songs (Jennifer Larmore)
(Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, John Woods Duke, Jake Heggie, Lee Hoiby, Charles Ives, Charles Naginski and John Jacob Niles)
1997
Paul Sperry Sings an American Sampler
(Samuel Barber, Robert Beaser, William Bolcom, William Billings, Elliott Carter, Celius Dougherty, John Woods Duke, Stephen Foster, Charles Griffes, John Musto, Ned Rorem, May Swenson, Louise Talma, Hugo Weisgall and Kurt Weill)
1995
American Song Recital
(Leonard Bernstein, William Bolcom, Paul Bowles, John Corigliano, John Woods Duke, Richard Hundley, Lori Laitman, John Musto and Richard Pearson Thomas)
1992
An Old Song Re-Sung: American Concert Songs
(Walter Damrosch, John Woods Duke, Stephen Foster, Vittorio Giannini, Charles Griffes, John Jacob Niles and Oley Speaks)
1990
But Yesterday is Not Today
(Samuel Barber, Paul Bowles, Theodore Chanler, Aaron Copland, John Woods Duke, Robert Helps and Roger Sessions)
1977
Books
Sheet Music
Richard Cory & Selected Songs
Composer(s): John Duke
Song(s): Richard Cory
Calvary
Luke Havergal
Miniver Cheevy
Bells in the Rain
Velvet Shoes
Viennese Waltz
Evening
Just-Spring
When I Set Out for Lyonnesse
Yellow Hair
Morning in Paris
In the Fields
The Mountains Are Dancing
Spring Thunder
Be Still As You Are Beautiful
One Red Rose
O World
The Song of Wandering Aengus
Brown Penny
Voice Type: Mixed
Buy via Carl Fischer MusicThe Songs of John Duke
Composer(s): John Duke
Song(s): The Babe
The Bird
Little Elegy
Loveliest of Trees
February Twilight
A Piper
I Watched The Lady Caroline
Peggy Mitchell
When I Was One-And-Twenty
April Elegy
Elaine
Fragment
The Grunchin' Witch
Here In This Spot With You
I Can't Be Talkin' Of Love
I Carry Your Heart
I Ride The Great Black Horses
The Last Word Of A Bluebird
Shelling Peas
The White Dress
Voice Type: High
Buy via Hal LeonardThe Songs of John Duke
Composer(s): John Duke
Song(s): The Babe
The Bird
Little Elegy
Loveliest of Trees
February Twilight
A Piper
I Watched The Lady Caroline
Peggy Mitchell
When I Was One-And-Twenty
April Elegy
Elaine
Fragment
The Grunchin' Witch
Here In This Spot With You
I Can't Be Talkin' Of Love
I Carry Your Heart
I Ride The Great Black Horses
The Last Word Of A Bluebird
Shelling Peas
The White Dress
Voice Type: Low
Buy via Hal LeonardSongs By John Duke, Vol. 1
Composer(s): John Duke
Song(s): 1. When the Rose Is Brightest (Nathaniel Parker Willis)
2. Stopping by Woods on а Snowy Evening (Robert Frost)
3. The Puritan's Ballad (Elinor Wylie)
4. Midcentury Love Letter (Phyllis McGinley)
5. All Beauty Calls You to Me (Sara Teasdale)
6. Listen, I Love You (Sara Teasdale)
7. I am so weak а Thing (Sara Teasdale)
8. All Things in the World Can Rest, But I (Sara Teasdale)
9. Oh, My Love (Sara Teasdale)
10. Renouncement (Alice Meynell)
11. Noonday (Traditional Chinese)
12. Through Your Window (Traditional Chinese)
13. The Shoreless Sea (Traditional Chinese)
14. New Feet within My Garden Go (Emily Dickinson)
15. The Rose did Caper on Her Cheek (Emily Dickinson)
16. Have You Got а Brook in Your Little Heart? (Emily Dickinson)
17. I Taste а Liquor Never Brewed (Emily Dickinson)
18. The Better Part (George Santayana)
Voice Type: High
Buy via Keiser / Southern MusicSongs By John Duke, Vol. 2
Composer(s): John Duke
Song(s): 1. Reveille (А.Е. Housman)
2. O, It Was out by Donneycarney (James Joyce)
3. Bread and Music (Conrad Aiken)
4. Stop All the Clocks (W.H. Auden)
5. Counting the Beats (Robert Graves)
6. Survivor (Archibald MacLeish)
7. Give Me Your Hand (John Wheelock)
8. The Black Panther (John Wheelock)
9. Spirit's House (Sara Teasdale)
10. Mastery (Sara Teasdale)
11. Lessons (Sara Teasdale)
12. In а Burying Ground (Sara Teasdale)
13. Wood Song (Sara Teasdale)
14. Refuge (Sara Teasdale)
15. At the Aquarium (Max Eastman)
16. Dirge (Adelaide Crapsey)
17. Night Coming out of а Garden (Lord Alfred Douglas)
18. The Dark Hills (Е.А. Robinson)
Voice Type: Medium
Buy via Keiser / Southern MusicSongs by John Duke, Vol. 3
Composer(s): John Duke
Song(s): 1. Bredon Hill (А.Е. Housman)
2. Reality (Dorothy Duke)
3. Penguin Geometry (Donald Wheelock)
4. Good Morning (Mark Van Doren)
5. Walking in the Rain (Mark Van Doren)
6. Those Great Clouds There (Mark Van Doren)
7. Water that Falls and Runs Away (Mark Van Doren)
8. Listen to Us, the Leaves Say (Mark Van Doren)
9. Merry-go-round (Mark Van Doren)
10. Stillness (Karen Duke)
11. Lovely (Mary L. Fortson)
12. The Sheaves (E.A. Robinson)
13. А Winter Night (Sara Teasdale)
14. The Return from Town (Edna St. Vincent Millay)
15. When, in Disgrace with Fortune (William Shakespeare)
16. Politics (W.B. Yeats)
17. Old Ben Golliday (Mark Van Doren)
18. Tiger! Tiger! (William Blake)
19. She's Somewhere in the Sunlight Strong (Richard LeGallienne)
20. I Lost My Heart (A.E. Housman)
21. The Wind Has Changed (Mark Van Doren)
Voice Type: Mixed Voice, High/Medium
Buy via Keiser / Southern MusicSongs By John Duke, Vol. 4
Composer(s): John Duke
Song(s): 1. My Soul is an Enchanted Boat (Percy В. Shelley)
2. White in the Moon (A.E. Housman)
3. XXth Century (Robert Hillyer)
4. The End of the World (Archibald MacLeish)
5. Rapunzel (Adelaide Crapsey)
6. Wild Swans (Edna St. Vincent Millay)
7. To Karen, Singing (John Duke)
8. So Simple (Mark Van Doren)
9. Dunce's Song (Mark Van Doren)
10. Slowly, Slowly Wisdom Gathers (Mark Van Doren)
11. Kennst du das Land? (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
12. Heiss mich nicht reden (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
13. So lasst mich scheinen (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
Voice Type: Mixed Voice
Buy via Keiser / Southern MusicThe John Duke Collection
Composer(s): John Duke
Song(s): Voices
On a March Day
Capri
Central Park at Dusk
Spray
Only for Me
There Will Be Stars
I Love the Lord
The Door
Love's Secret
Voice Type: Medium
Buy via Boosey & HawkesEight Songs of Translations of Latin and Greek Poets
Composer(s): John Duke
Buy via Recital PublicationsEight Songs of Translations of Latin and Greek Poets (WorldCat)
Composer(s): John Duke
Find at your local library15 Art Songs by American Composers (High Voice)
Composer(s): Dominick Argento, Leonard Bernstein, Theodore Chanler, Aaron Copland, John Duke, Richard Hundley, Ned Rorem
Voice Type: High
Buy via Sheet Music Plus15 Art Songs by American Composers (Low Voice)
Composer(s): Dominick Argento, Leonard Bernstein, Theodore Chanler, Aaron Copland, John Duke, Richard Hundley, Ned Rorem
Voice Type: Low
Buy via Sheet Music Plus28 Songs by American and British Composers
Composer(s): John Duke
Song(s): Barber: Must the Winter Come so Soon?
Bernstein: Two Love Songs (Extinguish My Eyes, When My Soul Touches Yours)
Bowles: Heavenly Grass
Carpenter: When I Bring to You Colour'd Toys
Corigliano: Christmas at the Cloisters, The Unicorn
Dougherty: Sound the Flute!
Duke: Peggy Mitchell
Hoiby: An Immorality
Moore: The Dove Song (The Wings of the Dove)
Sargent: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Thomson: English Usage, The Tiger
Vaughan Williams: Hugh's Song of the Road
Wells: Everyone Sang
Songs by 22 Americans
Composer(s): Samuel Barber
Leonard Bernstein
Paul Bowles
John Alden Carpenter
Celius Dougherty
John Duke
Charles Tomlinson Griffes
Richard Hageman
Charles Naginski
William Roy
Gladys Rich
Virgil Thomson
Elinor Remick Warren
Voice Type: High
Buy via Sheet Music PlusSongs Through the Centuries: 41 Vocal Repertoire Pieces from the 17th Century Through the 20th Centuries
Composer(s): John Duke
Buy via Sheet Music Plus