Wallingford Riegger

Wallingford Constantine Riegger (April 29, 1885 - April 2, 1961) was a prolific American music composer, well known for orchestral and modern dance music, and film scores. He was born in Albany, Georgia, but lived much of his life in New York City. He is noted for being one of the first American composers to use a form of twelve-tone technique. Riegger was born in 1885 to Ida Wallingford and Constantine Riegger. After his father's lumber mill bur... more

Wallingford Constantine Riegger (April 29, 1885 - April 2, 1961) was a prolific American music composer, well known for orchestral and modern dance music, and film scores. He was born in Albany, Georgia, but lived much of his life in New York City. He is noted for being one of the first American composers to use a form of twelve-tone technique. Riegger was born in 1885 to Ida Wallingford and Constantine Riegger. After his father's lumber mill burned down in 1888, his family moved to Indianapolis, and later to Louisville, finally settling in New York in 1900. A gifted cellist, he graduated from the first graduating class of the Institute of Musical Art, later known as the Juilliard School, in 1907, after studying under Percy Goetschius. He continued his studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin for three years. After returning in 1910, he married Rose Schramm, with whom he later had three daughters, in 1911. For a time, he returned to Germany and accepted various conducting... less