Blythe Owen, a composer, pianist, educator, and amateur cellist, enjoyed a long and productive career which created a remarkable legacy in music and touched the lives of countless students. She taught in seven colleges and universities, performed around the world as a piano soloist, and composed many prize-winning works. In a life that started in one century, spanned another, and then ended at the beginning of a third, she witnessed changes and innovations unlike those in any previous age.
Blythe was born in Long, Prairie, Minnesota, on December 26, 1898, one of two children and the only daughter of Minnie and Herbert Lee Owen. From her earliest years she was encouraged in her musical studies by her mother, a musician who sang and played the organ. Blythe's first lessons, on a pump organ which her mother pumped, continued until age eight, when the family acquired a piano. After an early childhood in North Dakota, she spent her teenage years in Newberg, Oregon, where she graduated at age eighteen with a music diploma from Pacific College Conservatory of Music, a Quaker school.
She then studied briefly with Dent Mowery, a Utah born pianist and composer who had resided in Germany and France, where he had studied with Claude Debussy before returning to the U.S. He maintained studios in Portland and Seattle, and she later studied with him again at both studios before settling in the Chicago area.
Owen from her earliest years was outspoken and socially progressive, characteristics that continued throughout her life. When in 1919, at the age of twenty, she was hired by Walla Walla College, now University, to teach piano, she got into trouble over her attitude and dress, being rehired at one point only on "the express condition that she conform to the dress regulation." She later wrote about her experience at that time:
I could write a book on those first four years of my stay at Walla Walla College. It was my first time away from home and I had never been to an SDA school with what was at that time warped (I think) restrictions. I can see the humor in the situation now, but it wasn't any fun then, for I was young, inexperienced, idealistic, and a bit overly conscientious.
As to my violation of the dress code, my mother had made a dress for playing which had sleeves about an inch above the elbow in one spot. The criticism always came secondhand, so I marched into the president's office and told him to tell me what was wrong with my clothes, not to relay it to others. Believe me, I didn't take these things lying down.
Because of her attitude, attractiveness, and stunning performances she soon had a following of young men, which led to problems. She later spoke about the situation:
Even though I was a teacher, I was also school age. I had a hard time because I had a string of admirers, all of them students. On one occasion I was campus-bound for something perfectly innocent.
They wouldn't give me a key for my office because I was so young. Since I had to go early in the morning to give my lessons, I had to either climb through the window or let someone else climb in and open my door. The night watchman, who would lock my office at night and escort me home when it was dark, got tired of my not having a key and told my boyfriend, "Someday I'm going to lose a key and you'll find it." So, we were walking along and, plink, on the walk went a key. When the president found out that I had a key, I was called in on the carpet.
Owen married Theodore (Ted) Cramlet, physical education teacher at the college, on August 21, 1921. In 1923, they moved to Newberg, Oregon, where he completed an undergraduate degree. They then moved to Ironwood, Michigan, a small isolated town in northwestern Michigan on the Wisconsin border, in 1925, where he had accepted an invitation to teach at Ironwood College and she established a studio, teaching piano and cello. After living there for a year, she began commuting to Chicago to study music, residing in a women's boarding house and later at Jane Addams' Hull House while away from home. She became musically active in Chicago and returned occasionally to Ironwood to perform recitals.
With the coming of the 1929 financial collapse and the onset of the Great Depression, the Cramlets separated, she returning to Oregon, where she briefly stayed with her mother and taught lessons while he remained in Ironwood, before leaving for New York to pursue graduate work.
The marriage was strained when her husband refused to let her go to New York, where he completed a master's degree. In the ensuing years the Cramlets periodically reconciled and shared in life at Greenbay, Wisconsin, and Chicago. This arrangement continued until 1953, when they separated and divorced, and he remarried in 1957. During those years she used both his surname and her maiden name at different times.
Owen had returned to the Chicago area in the late 1930s and completed a music degree in 1941 at the Chicago Musical College, studying piano under Rudolf Ganz and theory under Louis Gruenberg. In that same year she wrote Suite for Strings. While studying at CMC, she had also written Sonata in A in 1939 and, in 1940, Sonata Fantasie for Cello and Piano; the first of these works won 2nd prize in a Mu Phi Epsilon Biennial Contest, and the second won 1st Prize.
She continued study at Northwestern University, completing an M.Mus. in composition in 1942. During that year she assisted in teaching when one of the teachers was ill and, following graduation, taught there.
In 1953 she completed a Ph.D. in composition at the Eastman School of Music, the fourth woman to graduate with that degree from ESM. Owen's dissertation, Piano Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, won the Mu Phi Epsilon Award for 1955 and was performed with Howard Hanson, legendary head of ESM, conducting. By the time she had completed her study at ESM, she had written over thirty works, including her dissertation, and had won prizes in eleven composition contests.
While residing in the Chicago area in the late 1930s through the end of the 1950s, Owen taught in the Cosmopolitan House Conservatory of Music, Northwestern University, Chicago Teachers College, and Roosevelt University. By the time she returned to teach at Walla Walla College in 1961, she had won the Mu Phi Epsilon prize, a national award for composing, ten times, along with other awards. She had also studied with leading pianists and composition teachers of the time, foremost among them Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers at Eastman, Robert and Gaby Casadesus, and Nadia Boulanger, internationally famous teacher of several noted 20th century composers.
In her four years at WWC, Owen composed From Shakespeare's Time, later renamed Elizabethan Suite. Written in the year of Shakespeare's 400th birthday, it was commissioned and premiered by the Walla Walla Symphony Orchestra in April 1964. She was a member of the cello section, a performance outlet she had enjoyed whenever possible throughout her life. Her Festival Te Deum (1951) and This is the House of the Lord (1964) were featured at the time of the dedication of the college church and inauguration of its organ in 1964.
1965 Owen accepted an invitation to teach at Andrews University as a professor in their newly established graduate program in music. Although she was past the usual retirement age, she continued to perform; teach piano, theory, and composition; and compose for three more decades. While at AU, she would write over 100 compositions, including music for the hymn "For Your Holy Book We Thank You," #277, in the 1985 Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal.
Owen traveled extensively and toured in Europe and Asia, where she gave recitals and conducted master classes. In 1972, she was a guest lecturer at Avondale College in Australia in the spring quarter and in 1981, the year of her official retirement at AU at age 82, a guest professor and performer at the University of Montemorelos in Mexico during the winter quarter. She continued to teach piano until age 95.
Her students have made significant contributions as performers, composers, administrators, and teachers in Seventh-day Adventist college and university music departments. Additionally, other former students gained recognition outside that system, including Sheldon Harnack, lyricist for Fiddler on the Roof; Patty Clarke, noted woman entertainer in Chicago; and James Hansen, violinist with the Chicago Symphony for nearly forty years.
She was honored on her 100th birthday by a Gala Centennial Celebration with messages of congratulations from her place of birth, schools where she had completed degrees, and AU President, Niels-Erik Andreason. Tributes were given by Paul Hamel, music department chair at the time she was hired at AU, and former students Linda Mack and Carlos Flores. Eleven of her compositions from over four decades were performed by soloists and ensembles.
By the end of Owen's life at age 101, she had been recognized in numerous publications, including the first edition of Who's Who in American Women, the International Who's Who in Music, and the Dictionary of International Biography. The Michigan Music Teachers Association elected her Michigan Composer of the Year in 1980, and in that same year AU awarded her an honorary doctorate. In 1986 she was given the Elizabeth Mathias Award from Mu Phi Epsilon, its highest award.
Owen also received numerous honors from the several professional organizations of which she had been a member. In 1988 the Association of Adventist Women honored her with a Woman of the Year Work/Professional Life Award. Following her death on February 28, 2000, in Berrien Springs, Michigan, scholarship funds named for her were established at both Andrews University and Walla Walla College, with gifts from her estate.
2018
Sources: 1900, 1910, 1920 U.S. Federal Census records, Ancestry.com; Blythe Owen, interview by Dan Shultz, June 27, 1988; Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White, Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal, Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1988, pgs. 310, 311; Walla Walla College Board Meeting Minutes, February 27, 1922; Blythe Owen letter to Dan Shultz, October 24, 1992; Linda Mack, manuscript in progress for Blythe Owen book, chapter 3; County Marriage Records, 1851-1975, Ancestry.com; Ironwood Daily Globe, articles from 1925 to1929; conversations with Linda Mack, presently preparing a book about Blythe Owen; Theodore Cramlet marriage, Cook County, Illinois Marriage Index, October 19, 1957, Ancestry. Com; Dan Shultz, "Blythe Owen . . . Grande Dame of Adventist Music" Notes, International Adventist Musicians Association, 1, 3-5. This article was based on interviews and conversations with Owen by Dan Shultz in the late 1980s and early 1990s; Peter Cooper, "Life Sketch," Blythe Owen Memorial Service, March 2, 2000; Blythe Owen Interviews and conversations with Dan Shultz in the late 1980s and early 1990s; Linda Mack, Blythe Owen, Catalogue of Compositions, an ongoing project, https://www.andrews.edu/library/music/bowencomps.html; also http://www.iamaonline.com/Bio/Blythe_Owen.htm; Linda Mack, "Biographical Sketch," Blythe Owen Memorial Service, March 2, 2000; The Collegian, April 16, 1964, 1 (WWSO premiere); The Collegian, May 22, 1964, 1 (church dedication); Dan Shultz, A Great Tradition, Music at Walla Walla College (College Place, Washington, Color Press, 1992), 133; Jack Stenger, "A Century of Achievement," Notes, International Adventist Musicians Association, Spring/Summer 1999, 1, 3, 4; Blythe Owen Gala Centennial Celebration printed program, December 12, 1998; "Recognition for Adventist Women," Adventist Review, January 1, 1987, 2;5; "AAW Awards Announced," Adventist Review, September 15, 1988, 6; Blythe Owen letter October 10, 1987, to me as chair of the WWC music program in response to learning that an endowed scholarship in her name was being established by the music department. Both it and a Blythe Owen Scholarship, announced at the time of her Gala Centennial Celebration, December 12, 1998, were realized with gifts from her estate at the time of her death.
Music by Blythe Owen (a partial listing)
Linda Mack, Professor Emerita and former Music Librarian at Andrews University, working with the staff at the James White Library, Andrews University, prepared the following list of compositions by Blythe Owen. It is still a work in progress. The library is seeking to acquire copies of all her compositions and to discover additional works as well as recordings of performances. Works the library does not currently own are indicated by the * symbol. If you have a copy of any of these works, or know of other pieces not on this list please contact: Marianne Kordas, Music Librarian, Music Materials Center, Andrews University, Berrien Springs MI 49104-0230; email kordas@andrews.edu; phone: (269) 471-3114 or Linda Mack, e-mail mack@andrews.edu; Phone: (269) 313-7593
Orchestra
Suite for Strings, Op. 4, 1941.
Pastorale & Dance for Chamber Orchestra, Op. 7, 1942.
State Street (Suite), 2nd place Henry P. Lytton Award, 1946, Op. 11, 1946.
Symphony No. 1, Op. 13, 1947.
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Mu Phi Epsilon Biennial Award, 1955, Op. 24, 1953.
Elegiac Poem, Op. 19, 1954.
I Heard Emmanuel Singing, Chorus and Orchestra, Op. 20, 1957.
Concerto Grosso, for Strings, Oboes, Horns, and Bassoons, Op. 29, 1961. Mu Phi Epsilon Biennial Award 1961.
Elizabethan Suite, Op. 32, 1964. Written on the occasion of Shakespeare's 400th birthday, premiered as From Shakespeare's Time by the Walla Walla Symphony, April 4, 1964.
Fantasy for Orchestra (Lift High the Cross), Op. 76.
Band
Chorale and Fugue, Op. 38, 1966.
Chamber Music
Sonata Fantaisie for Cello and Piano, Op. 3, 1940, Mu Phi Epsilon Biennial Award.
Quintet for Piano and String Quartet, Op. 8, No. 1, 1944, Delta Omicron Award.
Quartet for Strings, No. 1, Op. 8, No. 2, 1944.
*Ballad for Organ and Strings, Op. 10, 1944.
Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 12, 1946, 1951 Mu Phi Epsilon Biennial Award.
Trio for Oboe, Clarinet, and Bassoon, Op. 18, 1950, 1951 Mu Phi Epsilon Biennial Award, Honorable Mention 1961 Gedok Competition, Germany, Published by Hall-Orion 1972.
Quartet for Strings, No. 2, Op. 15, 1951, 1951 Mu Phi Epsilon Biennial Award.
Trio for Flute, Clarinet, and Piano, Op. 28, No. 1, 1959, First Prize, Musicians Club of Women, Chicago, 1959.
Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano Op. 28, No. 21962, Special Merit Citation, 1967 Mu Phi Epsilon
Quartet for Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello, Op. 28, No. 3, 1963.
Two Inventions for Woodwinds, Op. 35, No. 1, 1964, Special Merit Citation, 1967 Mu Phi Epsilon, Published by Hall-Orion in 1972.
Diversion for Bassoon and Harpsichord, Op. 42, No. 2, 1967.
Sarabande and Gigue for Four Tubas, Op. 43, 1969.
* Diversion for Alto Sax and Piano, Op. 42, No. 3, 1973.
Ein Feste Burg for Trumpet Trio with Piano, Op. 52, No.1, 1978.
Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano, Op. 57, 1980.
Piano
Sonata in A, Op. 2, 1939, 2nd prize - Mu Phi Epsilon Biennial Contest 1942.
Sonata No. 1, Op. 14, 1948, 1st prize - Lakeview Musical Society, Chicago 1950.
Toccata, Op. 21, No. 1, 1950, Mu Phi Epsilon Biennial Award 1957.
A Little Game Op. 25, No. 1, 1955, Published by Summy Birchard in Album of Contemporary Music.
March of the Plastic Soldiers, Op. 25, No. 2, 1955.
Whirly Skirts, Op. 25, No. 3, 1956.
The Dorian Dude, Op. 26, No. 1, 1956, Published by Rochester Music.
Variations on American Folk Song "Old Texas," Op. 27, No. 1, 1959.
Variations on American Folk Song "Sacramento," Op. 27, No. 2, 1959.
Black Key Jig, Op. 30, No. 1, 1962.
Over the Telephone, Op. 30, No. 2, 1962.
Two Little Trumpeters, Op. 30, No. 3, 1962.
Ring Dance, Op. 30, No. 4, 1962.
The Phrygian Flirt, Op. 26, No. 2, 1963.
The Lydian Lady, Op. 26, No. 3, 1964.
Nativity Suite, Op. 34, Nos.1-5, 1964.
* Good-Morning, Op. 36, No. 1, 1964.
* Playing Games, Op. 36, No. 2, 1964.
* Swinging, Op. 36, No. 3, 1964, Published by Summy Birchard.
Three Little Preludes and Fughettas, Op. 40, Nos. 1-3, 1965-66.
Two Nocturnes, Op. 41, Nos. 1-2, 1966-67.
Serially Serious (Three pieces), Op. 46, Nos. 1-3, 1971, Published by Hall-Orion.
The Mixolydian Maiden, Op. 58, No. 1, 1979.
* The Aeolian Acrobat, Op. 58, No. 2, 1979.
Sonatina for Piano or Harpsichord, Op. 56, No. 1, 1979.
* Wigwam, Op. 56, No. 2, 1979.
The Ionian Imp, Op. 58, No. 3, 1980.
Fairest Lord Jesus, Op. 64, No. 2, 1982.
A Little Ballad/Five Friends , Op. 65, No. 1, 1982.
Mysterious Waltz/Six Equal Steps Waltz, Op. 65, No. 2, 1982.
Pasde Deux, Op. 65, No. 3, 1982.
Shining Waters, Op. 65, No. 4, 1983.
A Sunny Day , Op. 65, No. 5, 1983.
Sonatinetta Op. 69, No. 1, 2, 1983.
Clowns, Op. 73, No. 2, 1984.
Duo Piano
On the Lake (Barcarolle), Op. 21, No. 2, 1949.
Sprites (Scherzo), Op. 21, No. 6, 1950.
Sonatina from "God's Time is Best" - Bach 1957 Op. 21, No. 3, Published by Summy Birchard.
Largo - from Bach's Clavier Concerto No. V, Op. 21, No. 4, 1957.
Air - Handel (Recital Duos) Op. 21, No. 5, 1960, Published by Summy Birchard.
Pieces for Harpsichord with 2 Rows of Keys, (Sonata) - Handel, Op. 70, No. 1, 1978.
Pieces for Harpsichord with 2 Rows of Keys, (Chaconne) - Handel, Op. 70, No. 2, 1978.
Sonata, Op. 71, No. 1 by G. F. Handel, Op. 71, No.1, 1984.
Choral
Easter - 4 part anthem, Published by University of Miami Press, Op. 5, No. 1, 1942.
Victimae Paschale - 4 part anthem, Op. 5, No. 2, 1942.
Song of the Oppressed - 4 part anthem, Op. 6, No. 1, 1944.
Let God Arise - 4 part anthem with organ, Op. 6, No. 2, 1944, Published by Summy Birchard (out of print).
My Soul is an Enchanted Boat - 4 part women's chorus, Op. 9, No. 1, 1944.
Go, Lovely Rose - madrigal, 4 part, Op. 9, No. 2, 1944, Published by University of Miami Press.
O Lord, I Will Praise Thee - 5 part a cappella, Op. 9, No. 3, 1944.
Fairest Lord Jesus - SAB and Organ, Op. 9, No.4, 1947
Blessed be the God and Father - 4 part - soprano and instruments, Op. 23, No. 4, 1950, 1st Honorable Mention - Friends of Harvey Gaul Contest, 1951.
The Trinity - 4 part with organ, Op. 17, No. 3, 1950.
Festival Te Deum - 4 part with organ, Op. 17, No. 2, 1951.
Awake, O Zion - women's trio with piano and trumpet, Op. 17, No. 1, 1952, 1st Prize - American Pen Women Chicago Chapter, 1953; University of Maryland Award, 1957; Published by Lake State.
The Rock/O Light Invisible - male chorus, Op. 23, No. 2, 1954.
The Little Jesus Come to Town - 4 part with piano, Op. 23, No. 3, 1955.
* Hearken Unto Me - 4 part with organ, Op. 17, No. 4, 1957, Composers Press Award 1957, Published by Composers Press Opus Publishing Company.
We Wish You a Merry Christmas - SAB with piano (arr.), 1958.
Praise the Lord - 4 part with organ, Op. 23, No. 1, 1959.
Whispering Willows, Op. 31, No. 2, 1960.
11 Choral Responses, Op. 33, No. 1-11, 1963, 66, 69, Published by Hall Orion, 1974.
This is the Gate of the Lord - chorus, organ, brass, percussion, Op. 43, No. 1, 1964.
Antiphon No. 1, Op. 39, No. 1, 1966.
The Man on the White Horse - chorus, narrator, brass, percussion, Op. 43, No. 2, 1970.
An Indian Prayer - women's voices, SSAA, flute, drum, Op. 43, No. 3, 1970, Honorable Mention - Harvey Gaul, 1970.
Song of Infinitude - SATB with piano, Op. 43, No. 4, 1970.
How Shall I Sing the Majesty - 4 part male chorus or quartet, Op. 47, No. 1, 1972.
Amen I & II, Op. 31, No.9, 10, 1973.
Home of the Soul - chorus with organ, Op. 49, No. 1, 1974.
God of Eagles, God of Sparrows - hymn, Op. 47, No. 4, 1975.
Centennial Anthem (Prophetic Song) - chorus, organ, brass, percussion, Op. 50, No. 1, 1975.
Almighty God, Who Made the Things - hymn, Op. 47, No. 5, 1975.
With Trust in God - hymn, Op. 47, No. 6, 1975.
Dear God of All Creation - hymn, Op. 47, No. 7, 1975.
Centennial Anthem (Prophetic Song) - chorus, organ, brass, percussion Op. 50, No. 1, 1975.
Jesus Passed Within the Veil - hymn-anthem, Op. 47, No. 9, 1976.
Lo, He Comes - 2 choirs, orchestra, brass, organ (arr.), Op. 49, No. 2, 1976.
Peace Hymn of the Republic - organ, brass, chorus, Op. 50, No. 2, 1976, Bicentennial Commission, Published by Lake State.
Of the Father's Love Begotten - anthem, chorus and organ, Op. 49, No. 3, 1977
Blessed Be the Lord, Op. 53, No. 1, 1979
Rejoice and Sing, Op. 53, No.2, 1981.
La Mayor Necessidad, Op. 61, No.1, 1981.
Trilogy: The Three Angels of Annunciation, Op. 61, No.2 1981, Commissioned by McGill University
Rejoice and Sing, Op. 62, No.2, 1982.
Sleep Baby, Sleep, Op. 53, No.3, 1982.
Shelter of Voices, Op. 53, No.5, 1984.
For Your Holy Book We Thank You, Op. 71, No.9, 1984.
All Nations of the Earth, Op. 72, No.3, 4, 1985.
Fanfare for "Lift up the Trumpet", Op. 72, No.5, 1985.
Praise the Lord (for Junior Choir), Op. 74, No.1, 1986.
Gentle Chains, Op. 74, No. 9, 1993.
Songs
Pierrot - high voice and piano, Op. 1, No. 1, 1940.
I Know Not Why - high voice and piano, Op. 1, No. 2, 1941.
My Heart Shall Bear No Burden - high voice and piano, Op. 1, No.3, 1942.
Out of the Depths - high/medium voice and organ, Op. 10, No. 1, 1942.
Rise, O My Soul - high voice and organ, Op. 10, No. 2, 1942.
Make a Joyful Noise - high/medium voice and organ, Op. 10, No. 3, 1948.
Rain - high voice and piano, Op. 16, No. 1, 1951.
Morning Glories at My Window - high voice and piano, Op. 16, No. 2, 1951.
Blessed be the God and Father - high voice and organ, Op. 10, No. 4, 1956.
A Daughter's Prayer on Mother's Day, Op. 10, No. 5, 1956.
Songs of the Night - medium voice and piano, Op. 22, 1958.
Autumn Dusk - No. 1, The Fountain - No. 2, Night Plane - No. 3
The Cloud - high voice and piano, Op. 16, No. 3, 1958.
My Heart Shall Bear No Burden - high voice with violin (or clarinet) and piano, Op. 42, No. 1, 1969, Pedro Pay Award.
Song Cycle for Solo Voice - high voice and piano (may not have been completed), Op. 45, 1970.
O Lord, I Have Heard the Report of Thee - high voice and piano, Op. 55, No.1, 1979.
O Lord, Thou Hast Searched Me - with cello and organ, Op. 55, No.2, 1980.
Organ
Festal Prelude, Op. 37, No. 1, 1966.
Fantasia on "Of the Father's Love Begotten, Op. 37, No. 2, 1967.
Fanfare and Processional with Brass Quartet, Op. 44, No. 1, 1969, Published by Hall-Orion.
*Praeludium, Op. 44, No. 2, 1973.
Processional, Op. 48, No. 1, 1973.
Chorale Prelude on "Rothwell", Op. 51, No. 1, 1975.
Variations on "Herr Jesu Christ, ich weiss gar wohl", Op. 51, No. 2, 1975.
Passacaglia on Prout's Impossible Theme, Op. 56, 1980.
Processional on an Austrian Hymn, Op. 60, No. 1, 1981.
The King of Love My Sheperd Is (Organ & Piano), Op. 64, No. 1, 1982.
Sonatina Michiana/Sonatina for Organ, Op. 67, No. 1, 1982.
Praise to the Lord, Op. 70, No. 1, 1983.
Christmas Carols
We Wish You a Merry Christmas - SAB, 1958.
The Carpenter of Galilee Text by Hilda W. Smith, Op. 47, No. 2, 1973.
Though Christ a Thousand Times be Born Text by Angelus Silesius, Op. 47, No. 3, 1974.
The Coming Child Text by Richard Crashaw, Op. 47, No. 8, 1975.
Christ is Born Anew Text by Elizabeth Stuart Philip, Op. 47, No. 10, 1976.
I Saw a Stable Text by Mary Elizabeth Coleridge, Op. 47, No. 11, 1977.
Shall I Be Silent Text by George Herbert, Op. 47, No. 12, 1978.
O Wondrous Night Text by Nancy Byrd Turner, Op. 47, No. 13, 1979.
Christmas Eve Author unknown, Op. 47, No. 14, 1980.
Far Trumpets Blowing Text by Louis F. Benson, Op. 47, No. 15, 1981.
Christmas Antiphon Text by Algernon Charles Swinburne, Op. 47, No. 16, 1982.
A Christmas Carmen Text by John Greenleaf Whittier, Op. 47, No. 16b, 1983.
The Star of Bethlehem Text by William Cullen Bryant, Op. 47, No. 17, 1984.
Go Little Poem Text by Alice Hansche Mortinson, Op. 47, No. 18, 1985.
Consecration Text by Roxie Lusk Smith, Op. 74, No. 2, 1986.
Christmas Day Text by Edgar Quest, Op. 74, No. 3, 1987.
For All My Friends Text by Alice Hanshe Mortinson, Op. 74, No. 4, 1988.
Behold I Come Quickly, Op. 62, No. 3, 1989.
*The Wondrous Star Text by Roxie Lusk Smith, Op. 74, No. 5, 1989.
Our Savior King Text by Fanny Crosby. Op. 74, No. 6, 1990.
I Do Not Know, I Cannot See Text anonymous, Op. 74, No. 7, 1992.
Love Incarnate Text by Christina G. Rossetti, Op. 74, No. 8, 1992.
A Christmas Carol Text by Robert Herrick, Op. 74, No. 10, 1994.
A Christmas Prayer, Op.74, No. 11, 1995.
Vivian Blythe Owen (+ endnotes)
Blythe Owen, a composer, pianist, educator, and amateur cellist, enjoyed a long and productive career which created a remarkable legacy in music and touched the lives of countless students. She taught in seven colleges and universities, performed around the world as a piano soloist, and composed many prize-winning works. In a life that started in one century, spanned another, and then ended at the beginning of a third, she witnessed changes and innovations unlike those in any previous age.
Blythe was born in Long, Prairie, Minnesota, on December 26, 1898, one of two children and the only daughter of Minnie and Herbert Lee Owen.[1] From her earliest years she was encouraged in her musical studies by her mother, a musician who sang and played the organ. Blythe's first lessons, on a pump organ which her mother pumped, continued until age eight, when the family acquired a piano. After an early childhood in North Dakota, she spent her teenage years in Newberg, Oregon, where she graduated at age eighteen with a music diploma from Pacific College Conservatory of Music, a Quaker school.[2]
She then studied briefly with Dent Mowery, a Utah born pianist and composer who had resided in Germany and France, where he had studied with Claude Debussy before returning to the U.S. He maintained studios in Portland and Seattle, and she later studied with him again at both studios before settling in the Chicago area.[3]
Owen from her earliest years was outspoken and socially progressive, characteristics that continued throughout her life. When in 1919, at the age of twenty, she was hired by Walla Walla College, now University, to teach piano, she got into trouble over her attitude and dress, being rehired at one point only on "the express condition that she conform to the dress regulation."[4] She later wrote about her experience at that time:[5]
I could write a book on those first four years of my stay at Walla Walla College. It was my first time away from home and I had never been to an SDA school with what was at that time warped (I think) restrictions. I can see the humor in the situation now, but it wasn't any fun then, for I was young, inexperienced, idealistic, and a bit overly conscientious.
As to my violation of the dress code, my mother had made a dress for playing which had sleeves about an inch above the elbow in one spot. The criticism always came secondhand, so I marched into the president's office and told him to tell me what was wrong with my clothes, not to relay it to others. Believe me, I didn't take these things lying down.
Because of her attitude, attractiveness, and stunning performances she soon had a following of young men, which led to problems. She later spoke about the situation:[6]
Even though I was a teacher, I was also school age. I had a hard time because I had a string of admirers, all of them students. On one occasion I was campus-bound for something perfectly innocent.
They wouldn't give me a key for my office because I was so young. Since I had to go early in the morning to give my lessons, I had to either climb through the window or let someone else climb in and open my door. The night watchman, who would lock my office at night and escort me home when it was dark, got tired of my not having a key and told my boyfriend, "Someday I'm going to lose a key and you'll find it." So, we were walking along and, plink, on the walk went a key. When the president found out that I had a key, I was called in on the carpet.
Owen married Theodore (Ted) Cramlet, physical education teacher at the college, on August 21, 1921.[7] In 1923,they moved to Newberg, Oregon, where he completed an undergraduate degree.[8] They then moved to Ironwood, Michigan, a small isolated town in northwestern Michigan on the Wisconsin border, in 1925, where he had accepted an invitation to teach at Ironwood College and she established a studio, teaching piano and cello.[9] After living there for a year, she began commuting to Chicago to study music, residing in a women's boarding house and later at Jane Addams' Hull House while away from home.[10] She became musically active in Chicago and returned occasionally to Ironwood to perform recitals.[11]
With the coming of the 1929 financial collapse and the onset of the Great Depression, the Cramlets separated, she returning to Oregon, where she briefly stayed with her mother and taught lessons while he remained in Ironwood, before leaving for New York to pursue graduate work.[12]
The marriage was strained when her husband refused to let her go to New York, where he completed a master's degree. In the ensuing years the Cramlets periodically reconciled and shared in life at Greenbay, Wisconsin, and Chicago.[13] This arrangement continued until 1953, when they separated and divorced, and he remarried in 1957.[14] During those years she used both his surname and her maiden name at different times.
Owen had returned to the Chicago area in the late 1930s and completed a music degree in 1941 at the Chicago Musical College, studying piano under Rudolf Ganz and theory under Louis Gruenberg.[15] In that same year she wrote Suite for Strings. While studying at CMC, she had also written Sonata in A in 1939 and, in 1940, Sonata Fantasie for Cello and Piano; the first of these works won 2nd prize in a Mu Phi Epsilon Biennial Contest, and the second won 1st Prize.[16]
She continued study at Northwestern University, completing an M.Mus. in composition in 1942. During that year she assisted in teaching when one of the teachers was ill and, following graduation, taught there.[17]
In 1953 she completed a Ph.D. in composition at the Eastman School of Music, the fourth woman to graduate with that degree from ESM.[18] Owen's dissertation, Piano Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, won the Mu Phi Epsilon Award for 1955 and was performed with Howard Hanson, legendary head of ESM, conducting.[19] By the time she had completed her study at ESM, she had written over thirty works, including her dissertation, and had won prizes in eleven composition contests.[20]
While residing in the Chicago area in the late 1930s through the end of the 1950s, Owen taught in the Cosmopolitan House Conservatory of Music, Northwestern University, Chicago Teachers College, and Roosevelt University.[21] By the time she returned to teach at Walla Walla College in 1961, she had won the Mu Phi Epsilon prize, a national award for composing, ten times, along with other awards.[22] She had also studied with leading pianists and composition teachers of the time, foremost among them Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers at Eastman, Robert and Gaby Casadesus, and Nadia Boulanger, internationally famous teacher of several noted 20th century composers.[23]
In her four years at WWC, Owen composed From Shakespeare's Time, later renamed Elizabethan Suite. Written in the year of Shakespeare's 400th birthday, it was commissioned and premiered by the Walla Walla Symphony Orchestra in April 1964. She was a member of the cello section, a performance outlet she had enjoyed whenever possible throughout her life. Her Festival Te Deum (1951) and This is the House of the Lord (1964) were featured at the time of the dedication of the college church and inauguration of its organ in 1964.[24]
1965 Owen accepted an invitation to teach at Andrews University as a professor in their newly established graduate program in music. Although she was past the usual retirement age, she continued to perform; teach piano, theory, and composition; and compose for three more decades. While at AU, she would write over 100 compositions, including music for the hymn "For Your Holy Book We Thank You," #277, in the 1985 Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal.[25]
Owen traveled extensively and toured in Europe and Asia, where she gave recitals and conducted master classes. In 1972, she was a guest lecturer at Avondale College in Australia in the spring quarter and in 1981, the year of her official retirement at AU at age 82, a guest professor and performer at the University of Montemorelos in Mexico during the winter quarter.[26] She continued to teach piano until age 95.
Her students have made significant contributions as performers, composers, administrators, and teachers in Seventh-day Adventist college and university music departments. Additionally, other former students gained recognition outside that system, including Sheldon Harnack, lyricist for Fiddler on the Roof; Patty Clarke, noted woman entertainer in Chicago; and James Hansen, violinist with the Chicago Symphony for nearly forty years.[27]
She was honored on her 100th birthday by a Gala Centennial Celebration with messages of congratulations from her place of birth, schools where she had completed degrees, and AU President, Niels-Erik Andreason. Tributes were given by Paul Hamel, music department chair at the time she was hired at AU, and former students Linda Mack and Carlos Flores. Eleven of her compositions from over four decades were performed by soloists and ensembles.[28]
By the end of Owen's life at age 101, she had been recognized in numerous publications, including the first edition of Who's Who in American Women, the International Who's Who in Music, and the Dictionary of International Biography. The Michigan Music Teachers Association elected her Michigan Composer of the Year in 1980, and in that same year AU awarded her an honorary doctorate.[29]
In 1986 she was given the Elizabeth Mathias Award from Mu Phi Epsilon, its highest award.[30]
Owen also received numerous honors from the several professional organizations of which she had been a member. In 1988 the Association of Adventist Women honored her with a Woman of the Year Work/Professional Life Award.[31] Following her death on February 28, 2000, in Berrien Springs, Michigan, scholarship funds named for her were established at both Andrews University and Walla Walla College, with gifts from her estate.[32]
2018
[1] 1900, 1910, 1920 U.S. Federal Census records, Ancestry.com.
[2] Blythe Owen, interview by Dan Shultz, June 27, 1988; Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White, Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal, Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1988, pgs. 310, 311.
[3] Blythe Owen interview, endnote2
[4] Walla Walla College Board Meeting Minutes, February 27, 1922.
[5] Blythe Owen letter to Dan Shultz, October 24, 1992
[6] Blythe Owen interview, endnote 2.
[7] Linda Mack, manuscript in progress for Blythe Owen book, chapter 3; County Marriage Records, 1851-1975, Ancestry.com.
[9] Blythe Owen interview, endnote 2
[11] Ironwood Daily Globe, articles from 1925 to1929.
[12] Blythe Owen interview, endnote 2.
[13] Ibid; conversations with Linda Mack, presently preparing a book about Blythe Owen, endnote 7.
[14] Theodore Cramlet marriage, Cook County, Illinois Marriage Index, October 19, 1957, Ancestry. Com.
[15] Blythe Owen interview, 1992
[16] Dan Shultz, "Blythe Owen . . . Grande Dame of Adventist Music," Notes, International Adventist Musicians Association, 1, 3-5. This article was based on interviews and conversations with Owen by Dan Shultz in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
[18] Peter Cooper, "Life Sketch," Blythe Owen Memorial Service, March 2, 2000.
[20] As evidenced in Linda Mack's Blythe Owen, Catalogue of Compositions.
[21] Linda Mack, "Biographical Sketch," Blythe Owen Memorial Service, March 2, 2000.
[22] As evidenced in Linda Mack's Blythe Owen, Catalogue of Compositions.
[23] Peter Cooper, endnote 18.
[24] The Collegian, April 16, 1964, 1 (WWSO premiere); The Collegian, May 22, 1964, 1 (church dedication); Dan Shultz, A Great Tradition, Music at Walla Walla College (College Place, Washington, Color Press, 1992), 133.
[25] As evidenced in Linda Mack's Blythe Owen, Catalogue of Compositions ; Hooper and White, endnote 2,
[26] Hooper and White, endnote 2; Jack Stenger, "A Century of Achievement," Notes, International Adventist Musicians Association, Spring/Summer 1999, 1, 3, 4.
[28] Blythe Owen Gala Centennial Celebration printed program, December 12, 1998.
[29] Peter Cooper, endnote 18.
[30] "Recognition for Adventist Women," Adventist Review, January 1, 1987, 25.
[31] "AAW Awards Announced," Adventist Review, September 15, 1988, 6.
[32] Blythe Owen letter October 10, 1987, to me as chair of the WWC music program in response to learning that an endowed scholarship in her name was being established by the music department. Both it and a Blythe Owen Scholarship, announced at the time of her Gala Centennial Celebration, December 12, 1998, were realized with gifts from her estate at the time of her death.