CONCERTINO FOR PERCUSSION AND BAND
AN OUTSTANDING AND ENERGETIC COMPOSITION WRITTEN IN 1960 BY JAMES CLIFTON WILLIAMS, WHO WROTE SEVERAL IMPORTANT PIECES FOR CONCERT BAND. HIS UNTIMELY DEATH AT AGE 53 IN 1976 BROUGHT TO AN END ONE OF THE MOST CREATIVE TALENTS OF THE PAST TWO DECADES.
highschool bands
jazz bands
college bands
all region bands
community bands
concert bands
honor bands
interlochen arts academy
marching bands
national music camp
tmea all state bands
university bands
Story behind the song
James Clifton Williams Jr. (1923-1976) was born in Traskwood, Arkansas. He began playing French horn, piano, and mellophone in the band at Little Rock (Arkansas) High School. As a professional horn player he would go on to perform with the San Antonio and New Orleans Symphony Orchestras. Williams also served in the Army Air Corps band as a drum major, composing in his spare time.
Clifton Williams attended Louisiana State University (B.M., 1947) where he was a pupil of Helen Gunderson and the Eastman School of Music (M.M., 1949) where he studied with Bernard Rogers and Howard Hanson. In 1949, Williams joined the composition department at the University of Texas School of Music. He taught there until he was appointed Chair of the Theory and Composition Department at University of Miami in 1966. Williams retained this position until his death in 1976. His composition students included W. Francis McBeth and John Barnes Chance.
Clifton Williams received the prestigious Ostwald Award in 1956 for his first composition for band, Fanfare and Allegro. He repeated his success in 1957 when he won again with his Symphonic Suite. In addition to his many other honors, those most recently listed include election to membership in the American Bandmasters Association, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia National Music Fraternity of America, and the honorary degree of Doctor of Music conferred by the National Conservatory of Music at Lima, Peru.
His early and untimely death, in 1976 at the age of 53, brought an end to one of the most creative talents of the past two decades.