Harvey Bartlett Gaul (b. 12 Apr 1881, Brooklyn; d. 1 December 1945, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) was an American composer, organist, choirmaster, lecturer, music critic, and writer from Pittsburgh. He is memorialized by an annual award — the Harvey Gaul Memorial Composition Contest (aka The Harvey Gaul Prize) — bestowed to composers for outstanding work.
He was an organist for 35 years (1910–1945) at Calvary Episcopal Church, Pittsburgh. He is well known as a composer of church music. His students included composer Gladys Rich.
Harvey Gaul Prize winners Harvey Gaul Award of the State Federation of Music Clubs (established while he was alive) 1942 — Catherine Latta
1947: Friends of Harvey Gaul, Inc., contest administrator and sponsor
1947 — Joseph W. Grant, Albuquerque, Scherzo for organ 1947 — Robert Elmore, Wayne, Pennsylvania, The Lord Will Come, for mixed voice anthem 1947 — Francis McCollin, Philadelphia, O Little Town of Bethlehem, for small choir anthem 1951 — Sgt. Paul Nelson, staff arranger, U.S. Military Academy, Cantata, for soprano solo with chorus, violin, cello, harp 1954 — Clifford Taylor
1960: Friends of Harvey Gaul, Inc., and the Carnegie Institute of Technology Department of Music, contest co-administrators and cosponsors
1961 — Richard C. Moffatt (1927–1983) 1962 — Merrill Ellis 1969 — Marles Nole Smith (Hon. Mention), Two Movements for Violin and Organ 19?? — Fisher Tull 1972 — Jan Bach (tie), Three Sonnette on Woman, for tenor voice and harpsichord 1972 — Wesley Ward (tie), University of Pittsburgh 1975 — Robert E. Jager 1975 — Tom Wirtel (2nd place), Violin and Piano Sonata
1980: The Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, contest administrator and sponsor
1983 — Robert D. Morris 1989 — C. Bryan Rulon 1991 — David Cleary 1997 — Derek Bermel 1999 — Brett Dietz (Hon. Mention) 2001 — Matthew Fields (Hon. Mention) 2001 — Pierre D. Jalbert 2003 — Daniel Kellogg 2005 — David T. Little 2007 — Stacy Garrop 2007 — Robert Paterson (Hon. Mention) 2007 — Wang Jie (Hon. Mention) 2009 — Ned McGowan 2009 — D. J. Sparr (Hon. Mention) 2009 — Clint Needham (Hon. Mention) 2011 — Ted Hearne 2011 — Dan Visconti (Hon. Mention) 2011 — Sean Friar (Hon. Mention) 2013 — Dan Visconti 2013 — Amy Beth Kirsten (Hon. Mention) 2013 — Kyle Duffee (Hon. Mention) 2013 — Viet Cuong (Hon. Mention)
Notable students Garth Edmundson Mary Wiggins
Family Harvey Bartlett Gaul married Harriette Lester Avery (b. 1886, Youngstown, Ohio) June 13, 1908, in Cleveland, Ohio. They had a two children: a son and a daughter.
The son, James Harvey Gaul, had been an archeologist (Harvard class of 1932, PhD Harvard 1940). During World War II, as a U.S. Naval Reservist Lieutenant, he died by German firing squad in late January 1945 at the Mauthausen Concentration Camp near Linz, Austria. Having worked with the Office of Naval Intelligence, in 1944, he had been transferred to the Office of Strategic Services. He had been captured by the Germans during a combat mission in Czecho-Slovakia, a country where he had worked as an archeologist. The President of the United States presented him with the Distinguished Service Cross (Posthumously).
The daughter, Ione Gaul Walker (1914–1987), a painter, had been married to Hudson Dean Walker (1907–1976), an art dealer.
Death Harvey Gaul died December 1, 1945, of injuries from an auto accident.
Notes and references Notes
General references
The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, four volumes, edited by H. Wiley Hitchcock and Stanley Sadie, Macmillan Press, London (1986) Obituaries on File, two volumes, compiled by Felice Levy, Facts on File, New York (1979) Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, ninth edition, edited by Laura Kuhn, Schirmer Books, New York (2001) Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Classical Musicians, by Nicolas Slonimsky, Schirmer Books, New York (1997)
Inline citations
External links Harvey Gaul Composition (official site)