Emma Lou Diemer

Emma Lou Diemer – a composer who successfully combines a classicist’s interest in form with a fresh, contemporary, harmonic vocabulary – has produced a diverse, sophisticated, and largely unheralded opus, including three hundred and fifty works composed for orchestra, symphonic band, chamber ensemble, keyboard, chorus, voices, and solo and electronic instruments. This complete guide to her extensive work examines her influences and her unique musical style, reveals her philosophy of composing, and offers the reader access to detailed information about her work. Though her organ psalm settings and hymn preludes are considered standard repertoire, as are a number of her choral compositions, Diemer has not received her due attention or acclaim-an oversight fully corrected by this valuable addition to music scholarship. Beginning with a brief biography that outlines Diemer’s life and art, this thoroughly cross-referenced book goes on to enumerate the composer’s many works and performances in a section divided by style and instrument. A complete discography and bibliography round out the volume, along with alphabetical, chronological, and genre-specific indexes.

Author Biography

ELLEN GROLMAN SCHLEGEL is a Professor of Music at Frostburg State University in Maryland. She is a founding member of the Chamberlain Trio and principal cellist of the Chamber Orchestra of the Alleghenies, and has published extensively on the subject of women composers, most recently as a contributor to the Encyclopedia of American Women Musicians Since 1900.