Peter Huse

Huse, Peter

Peter (Franklin) Huse. Composer, poet, teacher, b Gadsby, Alta 12 Mar 1938; B MUS (British Columbia) 1963, MFA (Princeton) 1965. After studying architecture during the 1950s, Peter Huse studied composition 1960-3 with Cortland Hultberg and Barbara Pentland at the University of British Columbia, and 1963-5 with Roger Sessions and Milton Babbitt at Princeton University. In 1964 Huse won a BMI Award to Student Composers for three of his compositions: String Quartet (1961), Vanity of Vanities (1962), and Sonata for two pianos (1962).

Huse was associate composer 1967-9 at the Centre for Communication and the Arts at Simon Fraser University, a lecturer 1969-72 in Montreal at the National Theatre School and McGill University, and assistant director 1972-5 of the World Soundscape Project at Simon Fraser University, where he taught Renaissance music 1975-6. In 1977 Huse became director of the music program for Selkirk College in Nelson, BC. Huse's music and poetry reflect a feeling for structure developed by his training as an architect. He was a member of PRO Canada.

Selected Compositions

String Quartet. 1961. Ms

Vanity of Vanities, song cycle (Koheleth). 1962. Ms

Sonata. 1962. 2 pf. Ms

Quintet. 1966. Picc (fl), ob, cl, hn, bn. Ms

Improvisations for Mary's Ism. 1968. V, perc, synthesized sound on 4-track tape, 12 dancers, lights. Tape

Space Play. 1968. 8-track tape. RCI 373/Melbourne SMLP 4027

Music for the Birth of God, film score (L. Kearns). 1973. 3 vs. Ms

World Radio. 1974. Any number of performers. World Soundscape Project limited edn 1974

Directions (Canadian dialects). 1974. 4-track tape collage

Happy Birthday, Maurice Ravel. 1978. Jazz ensemble. Ms

Writings

"Barbara Pentland," Music Scene 242, Jul-Aug 1968

"Cross-Canada soundscape tour 1973," Sound Heritage, vol 3, no. 4, 1974