Julia Amanda Perry (1924 – 1979)
Julia Perry was born in Lexington, Kentucky and grew up in Akron, Ohio. She studied music at several schools, including Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood and Juilliard. She later taught in Tallahassee and Atlanta.
Julia Perry’s compositions are not widely known or performed, but she wrote several operas (including operas based on Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado and Oscar Wilde’s The Selfish Giant), 12 symphonies, and works for choruses. She experimented with harmony and a technique she called “pantonal” that used all the notes of the octave without settling into a particular key.
The Stabat Mater (literally “mother standing”) is a 13th century hymn that portrays the mother of Christ standing at the Cross. Many composers have set it to music. Julia Perry’s setting for contralto and string orchestra is sometimes said to have been composed in 1947, sometimes 1951.
Julia Perry composed her Short Piece for Orchestra in 1952 and was much elevated in visibility in 1965 when it was performed and recorded by the New York Philharmonic. Although not overtly based on the rhythms of African music or jazz, it has a startling rhythmic intensity that grabs you by the shoulders but occasionally recedes to reveal an engaging chromatic lyricism.
This melancholy Pastoral for flute and string sextet is from 1962: