[ARSCLIST] Carter Harman Obit

[Karl Miller <karl.miller@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Perhaps of interest. 
   
  Karl
   
   
  Carter Harman, 88, Composer, Music Critic and Record Producer, Dies 
  By ALLAN KOZINN
    Carter Harman, a composer, music critic, author and record producer, died on Jan. 23 in Stowe, Vt. He was 88 and lived in Waterbury, Vt. 
  His death was announced by his daughter, Lisa Diomande. 
  Mr. Harman?s breadth of interests led him to write profiles of jazz greats like Duke Ellington and Rosemary Clooney while composing his own operas and symphonic works, and to write a children?s book about skyscrapers at a time when he was also producing recordings of avant-garde music. He worked for two decades as a music critic, first for The New York Times from 1947 to 1952, and for Time magazine from 1952 to 1957, and then in Puerto Rico through the mid-1960s. 
  His first book, ?A Popular History of Music ? From Gregorian Chant to Jazz,? was published by Dell in 1956. His other books include ?The West Indies,? a collaboration with his wife, Helen Scott Harman, and editors at Life magazine (1963); and ?A Skyscraper Goes Up? (1973). After he left Time, Mr. Harman was engaged to help Ellington write his autobiography and collected about 20 hours of interviews before withdrawing from the project when it became clear to Mr. Harman that he and Ellington were at cross purposes. ?I thought I was writing the ?secret? Ellington,? Mr. Harman said in 1991, ?and he had no such idea. He wanted to write a book that was a print version of the public Duke Ellington.?
  Mr. Harman was born in Brooklyn on June 14, 1918, and began his musical studies as a clarinetist, at the age of 9. He studied composition with Roger Sessions at Princeton University, where he received his bachelor?s degree in 1940. 
  In World War II, he joined the Army Air Force, becoming a helicopter pilot. In 1944, he was the first to accomplish a rescue by helicopter behind enemy lines, extracting three Allied soldiers from a jungle in Burma; an account appears in ?Chopper? by Robert F. Dorr (Berkley, 2005). Mr. Harman was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. 
  After the war, Mr. Harman resumed his musical studies at Columbia University, where he was a student of Otto Luening. He completed his master?s degree in 1949, and began composing, at Mr. Luening?s advice, with a group of simple children?s songs that were recorded by Mary Martin; the record was titled ?Mary Martin Sings for Children.? But he wrote on a larger scale too: his catalog includes a ballet (?Blackface,? from 1947) and an opera (?The Food of Love,? 1949-51) and several orchestral works. He began to compose electronic music in 1954 and took it up again 20 years later, in ?Alex and the Singing Synthesizer.? 
  In the mid-1960s, Mr. Harman became a record producer, with a special interest in contemporary music. In 1967, he became executive vice president of CRI Records, which specialized in works by American composers. He was the label?s executive director from 1976 to 1984. 
  Mr. Harman?s wife died in 1989. In addition to his daughter, who lives in Manhattan, Mr. Harman is survived by three sons, Bruce, of Santa Cruz, Calif.; Scott, of Hamilton Township, N.J.; and Alex, of Jersey City; and three grandchildren.