Paul Creston (born Giuseppe Guttoveggio; October 10, 1906 – August 24, 1985) was a prolific American composer of classical music and an organist. His catalogued works number over 120 compositions in several major musical genres. They include six symphonies, several concertante and virtuoso works for violin, piano, accordion, marimba, saxophone and trombone. He has been described as a leading American Neo-Romantic composer of his time whose music was performed widely during the 1940s and 1950s.
Born in New York City to Sicilian immigrants, Gaspare Guttovergi and Carmela Collura from the village of Prizzi, Creston was self-taught as a composer and received formal training on both the piano and organ. Along with Samuel Barber, Ernest Bloch, Nicolas Flagello, Vittorio Giannini and Howard Hanson, he has been cited as one of several leading American Neo-Romantic composers whose, "body of work is characterized by an overall seriousness of purpose ... (which) attempt(s) to address the fundamental existential and spiritual concerns of humanity". His work tends to be fairly conservative in style, with a strong rhythmic element.
Like many early Italian immigrants to the United States, Creston's father Gaspare (1883–1965) was a proud and industrious man who attained employment as a painter, plasterer, butcher and traveling salesman to support his growing family. His mother Carmela (1886–1947) would secretly contribute to his efforts from time to time by taking in sewing projects at their home on East 17th Street in Gramercy Park, Manhattan. The family included Creston's older brother Charles who was born three years before Creston in Italy.
Creston credits both his parents for recognizing his musical talents and encouraging his early musical development. At the age of four, his father instructed him in the performance of Sicilian folk tunes while providing accompaniment on the guitar. He was also exposed to the clarinet by his uncle Cola in an Italian circus band several years later and would frequently pretend to play the piano at the family's dinner table. This inspired Creston's parents to purchase a neighbor's piano and to arrange for the start of formal piano lessons.
At the early age of eight, Creston began formal studies on the piano while studying operatic overtures. In addition, he diligently taught himself on his brother's violin while improvising tunes which he heard in performances on a hurdy-gurdy outside the family's apartment. While studying in elementary school and at DeWitt Clinton High School in 1919 he also exhibited an interest in literature and writing poetry. He even commenced work on a novel while continuing to compose music based upon his own improvisations. He soon received the nickname "Cress” from his fellow students after a character he portrayed in a play The Fan. In later years, he would modify the nickname to Creston and legally adopted it for his surname in 1944.
While in high school, Creston developed some doubts about the future of his musical training. His subsequent exposure to performances of Chopin's piano compositions and the operatic orchestration of Puccini soon provided additional inspiration. Yet Creston was still too poor to purchase musical scores directly for his own studies or to attend performances of classical music. Undaunted, he spent hours after school in the public libraries of New York City studying musical scores and comparing their structure to music programmed on WNYC's Masterworks Hour program on the radio. With the urging of a high school friend, Creston subsequently undertook additional studies on the piano over the course of several years with several instructors including Gaston Dethier, Carlo Stea and G. Aldo Randegger.
Creston soon encountered financial difficulties at the age of fifteen, however. After completing two and one half years of high school, he was compelled to abandon his formal education in order to pursue employment. In 1921 he acquired a clerical position at MacFadden Publications but continued his studies in music after work. By 1923 he acquired a clerical position as a bank clerk for the Foreign Exchange Department of the Irving Bank and from 1924 to 1926 as a claims examiner with the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. During this time he also studied English, foreign languages, philosophy and mysticism on his own. His personal studies in music composition and orchestration continued as he focused on the works of Bach, Scarlatti, Chopin, Debussy, and Ravel. With the assistance of a fellow parishioner at St. Malachy's Church in Manhattan, Creston also acquired free practice time on the pipe organ and undertook lessons in 1925 with Pietro Yon who was the organist at St. Patrick's Cathedral as well as an honorary organist at the Vatican. From 1926 to 1929 he also mastered the art of musical improvisation while performing as a theater organist at several venues in New York including the New York Coliseum Theater, the Cassello Theater and the landmark Lynbrook Theater, on Long Island.
In 1927 Creston married the dancer, Louise Gotto (1903–1989) while she was employed as a secretary at McFadden Publications in New York City. Louise was one of twelve children born to Joseph Gotto and Rosario Filpi from Solerno, Italy. Louise's family was poor and she aspired to a career as a professional dancer. She was a student of Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn and subsequently an initial member of the Martha Graham dance company in New York City. In addition to performing in Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring at the Radio City Music Hall in the early 1930s, Louis choreographed a work by Creston for the Martha Graham troupe. Louise was also gifted musically and had an influence on Creston's use of rhythm and dance in music he composed for other members of Graham's company. Their first child Paul Julian died only six weeks after childbirth in 1937. In subsequent years the couple raised two additional sons Joel Anthony in 1938 and Timothy William in 1942.
The arrival of the Great Depression in 1929 disrupted Creston's professional ambitions once again. In addition, the use of sound became more widespread in motion pictures and theatre organists were becoming increasingly obsolete. Consequently, Creston was forced to accept assignments as an accompanist in performances at elementary schools while also selling real estate and insurance. His literary talents proved to be invaluable during this time. From 1926 until 1929 he published several articles in Dance Magazine and Etude Magazine. By 1932 he decided to augment his performances as an organist by also focusing on composing music.
Creston premiered his first major work in 1933 with a composition of incidental music for the play Iron Flowers. While helping to support his immigrant family, Creston served for three decades as an organist and choirmaster at St. Malachy's Church from 1934 until 1967 in New York City. He soon received two Guggenheim fellowships in composition during 1938 and 1939. Subsequently, he also earned high critical praise in 1943 when his Symphony No. 1 (Op. 20) received the New York Music Critics' Circle Award. Nine years later, the same composition received international recognition and was awarded the first prize in the Paris International Commission.
In addition to his endeavors as a composer, Creston emerged as a conductor for a quartette from 1944 to 1950 on the radio program The Hour of Faith. During the 1940s and 1950s he continued to compose while serving as an instructor in composition at over fourteen colleges and universities. His works were now also widely performed by leading orchestras both in the United States and abroad including: the New York Philharmonic which premiered his Symphony No. 2 (Op. 35) in 1945, the National Symphony Orchestra which introduced his Symphony No. 4 (Op. 52) in 1952, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra which performed his works while performing as the first American Orchestra invited to concertize in the Soviet Union. His compositions were also showcased by such acclaimed conductors including Arturo Toscanini, Eugene Ormandy, Leopold Stokowski, and Howard Mitchell. Commissions from a wide range of impresarios of both jazz and classical music soon followed including Paul Whiteman, the Ford Foundation, the American Accordionists' Association, the Juilliard School of Music and Eastern Airlines. In 1956 he was elected President of the National Association for American Conductors and Composers, and served as a guest composer and lecturer of jazz and classical music at fourteen colleges and universities in the United States during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.