View source for Carlton Gamer

{{Short description|American composer and music theorist (1929–2023)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Carlton Gamer
| image              = 
| caption            = 
| birth_name         = 
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1929|02|13}}
| birth_place        = [[Chicago]], U.S.
| death_date         = {{death date and age|2023|08|14|1929|02|13}}
| death_place        = 
| education          = {{ubl| [[Northwestern University]] | [[Boston University]] }}
| occupation         = {{ubl| Composer | [[Music theory|Music theorist]] }}
| organizations      = {{ubl| [[Colorado College]] | [[Princeton University]] | [[University of Michigan]]  }}
| awards             = 
}}
'''Carlton Edwin Wesley Gamer''' (February 13, 1929 – July 14, 2023) was an American composer and [[Music theory|music theorist]]. Gamer composed more than seventy works in a variety of genres, including songs, music for dance, solo piano pieces, [[chamber music]], choral works, orchestral works, and computer music. His compositional approach has been fundamentally shaped by his theoretical interests, the latter influenced by an interest in mathematics.{{sfn|Auner|2001}}

He taught at [[Colorado College]], [[Princeton University]], and the [[University of Michigan]]; he studied at [[Northwestern University]] and [[Boston University]] and later privately with [[Roger Sessions]].

== Life and career ==
Gamer was born in [[Chicago]] on February 13, 1929. He grew up in [[Champaign-Urbana, Illinois]], where his father taught at the [[University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign|University of Illinois]]. At the age of eight he began to study piano with Tanya Kessler and composition with her husband Hubert Kessler.<ref name="UHS">{{cite web |title=Carlton E. Gamer--Distinguished Alumni, Class of 1946 |publisher=University High School |year=2006 |url=http://www.uhigh.ilstu.edu/alumni/awardwin/2006/Pages/Carlton%20E.%20Gamer.htm |access-date=27 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303234106/http://www.uhigh.ilstu.edu/alumni/awardwin/2006/Pages/Carlton%20E.%20Gamer.htm# |archive-date=2016-03-03 |url-status=dead}}</ref><!--, of the faculty of the University of Illinois School of Music. - lost ref-->

From 1942 to 1946, Gamer attended [[University High School (Normal)|University High School]] in [[Bloomington–Normal|Bloomington-Normal, Illinois]].<ref name="UHS" /> Simultaneously, he studied piano with two faculty members of Illinois Wesleyan University, first Stefan Bardas and then Chester Barris. In 1946, he graduated  as valedictorian.<ref name="UHS" />

Gamer studied at [[Northwestern University]],<ref name="UHS" /> (achieving a bachelor of music in 1950), theory and composition with Frank Cookson and Anthony Donato, and piano with Louis Crowder and Pauline Manchester Lindsey. He obtained his Master's degree in music at [[Boston University]]<ref name="UHS" /> in 1951, after studies of composition with [[Gardner Read]] and of  musicology with [[Karl Geiringer]]. He then worked there as a graduate assistant, teaching a course in [[orchestration]], and served as research assistant for ''Read's Thesaurus of Orchestral Devices''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Read |first=Gardner |title=Thesaurus of Orchestral Devices |url=https://archive.org/details/thesaurusoforche00read |date=1953 |publisher=[[Pitman Publishing]] |location=New York, Toronto, London}}</ref>

In New York City, from 1951 to 1953, Gamer founded a workshop of composer-performers ("The Seven")<ref name="UHS" /> who met regularly at his home to read through and critique each other's music; they occasionally performed in public.<ref name="UHS" /> The members were [[Sheldon Harnick]], violin; Gerard Jaffe, viola; Juliette White, cello; [[Bob Dorough|Robert Dorough]], recorder, flute, and piano; Eric Katz, recorder, Noel Stevens, clarinet, and himself, piano.<ref>{{cite web |title=American Music Festival |url=http://www.wnyc.org/shows/american-music-festival/1952/feb |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140327051025/http://www.wnyc.org/shows/american-music-festival/1952/feb |url-status=dead |archive-date=2014-03-27 |publisher=Archive for February 1952 – [[WNYC]]|year=1952 }}</ref> He was also the pianist, composer, and music director for dancer and choreographer Ilka Suarez and her company.<ref name="UHS" /><ref name="howard" />

=== Teacher ===
Gamer taught music at [[Colorado College]] from 1954.<ref name="UHS" /> In 1954 and 1955, he was the accompanist for [[Hanya Holm]]'s summer dance workshops there.<ref name="UHS" /><ref>{{cite book |last=Gitelman |first=Claudia |title=Dancing with Principle: Hanya Holm in Colorado, 1941–1983 |date=2001 |publisher=University Press of Colorado |location=Boulder, Colorado |isbn=0-87081-651-9 |pages=53, 61}}</ref> After studying composition privately with [[Roger Sessions]] in [[Princeton, New Jersey]], in 1957, Gamer was invited to be a fellow at the Princeton Seminars in Advanced Musical Studies in 1959 and 1960.<ref name="UHS" /><ref>{{cite book|last=Lang|first=Paul Henry|title=Problems of Modern Music: The Princeton Seminars in Advanced Musical Studies|year=1962|publisher=W.W. Norton}}</ref> His recollection of these seminars is found in his article, "Milton at the Princeton Seminars". On leave from Colorado College, Gamer was an [[Asia Society]] Fellow at the [[University of California]] and in Kyoto, Japan, in 1962–63.<ref name="UHS" />

Gamer taught at [[Princeton University]] as a visiting lecturer in music in 1974, then as a visiting professor of music in 1976 and 1981. In 1976 he was appointed a Senior Fellow of the Council of Humanities at Princeton. The same year, Gamer received a [[MacDowell Colony]] Fellowship.<ref name="UHS" />

In 1979 Gamer taught at the [[Salzburg Global Seminar]],<ref name="UHS" /> in the Musical Ideas and Musical Institutions, in Austria,<ref>{{cite web |title=Musical Ideas and Musical Institutions |url=http://www.salzburgglobal.org/calendar/1970-1979/1979/session-189.html> |work=Session 189 |publisher=Salzburg Global Seminar |date=April 22 – May 5, 1979 |access-date=March 27, 2014}}{{Dead link|date=November 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> In 1982, he was visiting professor of Music, teaching a graduate seminar, at the [[University of Michigan]].

Gamer retired from teaching full-time in 1994.<ref name="UHS" />

=== Composer ===
==== Performances ====
Gamer's music has been performed in halls including [[Carnegie Recital Hall]], the [[Kennedy Center]] in Washington, D.C., and the [[Los Angeles County Museum of Art]],<ref name="UHS" /><ref>{{cite web |title=The Kennedy Center |url=http://www.kennedy-center.org/about}}</ref><!--, and in some sixty other venues throughout the U.S.--> organized by the [[International Society of Contemporary Music]], the Society of Composers, the Current and Modern Consort of the [[University of Michigan School of Music]], and the College Music Society.<ref name="UHS" /> Works were played at conferences including the San Diego [[International Computer Music Conference]], Southwestern Composers Conference, Colorado College New Music Symposium, and at festivals such as [[WNYC]] American Music Festival, the [[Grand Teton Music Festival]], Colorado Contemporary Music Festival, and the Colorado College Summer Music Festival.<ref name="UHS" /><ref name="howard">{{cite news |last=Howard |first=Malcolm |title=CC's New Music Symposium highlights contemporary composers |newspaper=[[Colorado Springs Independent]] |date=July 27, 2000}}</ref> Abroad, his music has been played in London, Oxford, Rome, Guadalajara, Salzburg, Warsaw,<ref name="UHS" /> Calcutta,<ref>{{citation|publisher=Calcutta School of Music|title=Winter Concert Programme: Jazz and the blues in the Classical style|date=March 4, 2005}}</ref> and Sydney.<ref name="UHS" />

==== Compositional style ====
Glenn Giffin in ''[[The Denver Post]]'' described Gamer as proposing in ''Arkhê''
<blockquote>a grand program – creation and evolution...The composer uses various means to present this:...by bands of sound and much shifting back and forth between sections in orchestral drones with now one section and then another receiving prominence...[and] through musical cells that get manipulated and expanded to form a large structure.<ref>{{cite news |last=Giffin |first=Glenn |title=Review of Colorado Springs Symphony concert of November 16 and 17, 1972 |newspaper=[[The Denver Post]] |date=November 20, 1972}}</ref>
</blockquote>

According to the ''[[American Record Guide]] "''Carlton Gamer's ''Arkhê'' freely moves between the poles of tonality and atonality...[its] harmonies [are] often dense to the point of clusters."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Hicken |first=Stephen D. |title=Review of ''Arkhé'' in The Newest Music I. |journal=[[American Record Guide]] |date=July–August 2000 |volume=63 |issue=4 |page=274 |issn=0003-0716}}<!--|accessdate=27 March 2014--></ref> ''[[Fanfare (magazine)|Fanfare]]'' remarked that,

<blockquote>[This] work opens with a long crescendo on the note A (for ''Alpha'', ...) and soon erupts into a Big Bang of fascinating noises. The composer himself describes this piece as using "an externally imposed scheme to derive the duration of each section of the work, [based] upon the miniaturization of a geological time-scale formulated by recent scientific research."<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Review of ''Arkhé'' in review of MMC New Century |magazine=[[Fanfare (magazine)|Fanfare]] |date=May–June 2000 |volume=23 |issue=5 |page=265}}</ref></blockquote>

An evolutionary idea also informed Gamer's Choros, as described by Mark Arnest in the ''[[Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph]]'': In Part 1 of this work, Bios, the underlying program deals with the evolution of life; in Part 2, Choros, the evolution of humankind. Bios employs phonemic choral [[Sprechstimme]]; Choros instantiates stages in the evolution of vocal polyphony from the Mediaeval era to the present.<ref>{{cite news |last=Arnest |first=Mark |title=Preview of Colorado College Chamber Chorus premiere of Choros |newspaper=Colorado Springs Gazette |date=April 23, 1999}}</ref>

[[Nicholas Kenyon]] in ''[[The New Yorker]]'' characterized ''Quietly, with feeling'' as "a diatonic piece of neo-[[Felix Mendelssohn|Mendelssohnian]] rhapsody. It managed to sound fresh and new; an old language was used, for once, not with purely nostalgic intent."<ref>{{cite news |last=Kenyon |first=Nicholas |title=Review of Rebecca La Brecque's piano recital, Carnegie Recital Hall, November 9, 1979 |newspaper=[[The New Yorker]] |date=December 3, 1979}}</ref>

Music critic Gilbert Johns, quoted in the ''[[Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph]]'' lauded Gamer's innovative approach to composition, which embraces atonalism and its 12-tone variation, known as serial music:
<blockquote>His technique is to rearrange ingeniously what he calls "little pitch cells" into melodic and harmonic entities. He thinks of himself as a composer who has internalized serial technique and given it his own voice... [Thus] he tries to create tonal-sounding music that is serially structured and that gives a richness to the listener's experience.<ref>{{cite news |last=Johns |first=Gilbert |title=Quoted in preview of Carlton Gamer's Music for Piano (1991) |newspaper=[[Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph]] |date=October 4, 1991}}</ref></blockquote>

[[Edward Rothstein]] in ''The New York Times'' found in Gamer's Piano Râga Music "wit merged with severity".<ref>{{cite news|last=Rothstein|first=Edward|title=Music: Debuts In Review|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/03/18/arts/music-debuts-in-review-060215.html?smid=pl-share|accessdate=27 March 2014|newspaper=The New York Times|date=March 18, 1984}}</ref>  Reviewing a later performance of the same work, [[Paul Griffiths (writer)|Paul Griffiths]] in ''The New York Times'' described it as "hesitating between the worlds of its two dedicatees, Ravi Shankar and Milton Babbitt, before plunging into an immense, flamboyant mix."<ref>{{cite news |last=Griffiths |first=Paul |title=Review of Henry Martin's piano recital, Mannes College, April 25, 1997 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=April 29, 1997}}</ref>

Gamer himself, in his article "ET Setera" (p.&nbsp;60), wrote of his "interests as a composer of music in ETS 12"—i.e., the twelve-tone equal-tempered system:
<blockquote>In recent years these interests have centered more and more upon the attainment in the pitch domain of a sense of "less-than-twelveness" embedded in "twelveness". I have become increasingly preoccupied with the properties of certain subcollections of pitches or pitch classes chosen from the universe of pitches within our system and the relationship of such subcollections to that system.</blockquote>

In his ''Notes on the Structure of Piano Râga Music'' (p.&nbsp;218), for example, Gamer showed how that work employs a 24-tone set generated from a single [[trichord]]. In ''Lieder to texts by Rainer Maria Rilke'' he employs all-trichord sets, each containing an [[All-interval tetrachord|all-interval tetrad]], enabling him to embed quotations from tonal music into the serial texture.<ref>{{citation |last=Gamer |first=Carlton |title=Introductory remarks to performance of ''Two Lieder to texts of Rainer Maria Rilke'' by Herbert Beattie |work=Sixth Annual New Music Symposium |location=Colorado College |date=July 20, 2002}}</ref>

Gamer composed music in equal-tempered systems other than ETS 12. [[Robin Wilson (mathematician)|Robin Wilson]], in his [[Gresham College]] lecture on music and mathematics, discussed Gamer's use of the 31-tone equal-tempered system in ''ORGANUM'' and of the seven-point projective plane in ''Fanovar''.<ref>{{cite web |last=Wilson |first=Robin |title=Yea, Why Try Her Raw Wet Hat? |url=http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/yea-why-try-her-raw-wet-hat |publisher=The Royal Institution of Great Britain |date=2006 |access-date=27 March 2014}}</ref>

In the rhythmic domain, Gamer sometimes employed [[serialization]] or the use of recursive sequences—e.g., in ''Quietly, with feeling'' or ''Duetude''.

== Music theorist ==
As a music theorist, Gamer published articles in a number of journals and books on such topics as [[electronic music]], [[microtonality]], the properties of [[Equal temperament|equal-tempered systems]] containing more or less than twelve tones per octave, and the definition and elaboration of the [[deep scale property]] as it applies to such [[Equal temperament|equal-tempered systems]]; definitions of the concepts of [[difference set]], [[block design]], and [[projective plane]] and applications of these to such equal-tempered systems, Musical block designs, and Microtones and projective planes; the relationship between [[Duality (projective geometry)|geometrical duality]] and musical [[Inversion (music)|inversion]]; [[Invariant (mathematics)|invariance matrices]] and their application to musical composition; and musical [[metatheory]], with emphasis on the notion of [[Syntactic Structures|syntactic models]] and the prescriptive and postdictive relevance of these to a theory of composition.

Gamer's wrote music-theoretical sections for dictionaries and encyclopedias, including the Dictionary of Contemporary Music, ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'', Grove Music Online, and ''[[The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]''.<ref name="UHS" />

Gamer's work has been cited in books and dissertations by [[Robert Morris (composer)|Robert Morris]],<ref>Morris 1987: 62, 71, 329. 350–351</ref> Andrew Mead,<ref>Mead 1994</ref> Timothy A. Johnson,<ref>Johnson 2003: 152, 162.</ref> [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=q99kfOQAAAAJ&hl=en Jack Douthett] et al.,<ref>Douthett et al 2008: 1, 3.</ref> and Robert Tyler Kelley,<ref>Kelley 2005.</ref> among others, and in numerous articles in a variety of journals, including ''[[Journal of Music Theory]]'', ''[[Music Theory Spectrum]]'', ''[[Perspectives of New Music]]'', ''[[Music Analysis (journal)|Music Analysis]]'', ''[[Intégral (journal)|Intégral]]'', ''[[Music & Letters]]'', ''[[Music Theory Online]]'', ''[[Journal of the American Musicological Society]]'', and ''College Music Symposium''.

Gamer has been credited with early contributions to [[diatonic set theory]]. Morris, in his article on "Mathematics and the twelve-tone system", wrote:
<blockquote>While the twelve-tone system is no longer isolated from other aspects of music theory, there are many research projects that can be identified to carry on previous work. One obvious direction is to ask what happens when we change the '12' in 'twelve-tone system'? Carlton Gamer [in "Some combinational resources" (1967) and "Deep scales and difference sets" (1967)] was one of the first theorists to raise such issues. He showed that equal tempered systems of other moduli not only have different structures, they allow different types of combinatorial entities to be built within them.<ref>Morris 2007: 97–98.</ref></blockquote>

Johnson termed Gamer a "precursor" in this area:
<blockquote>Students who wish to trace the historical development of diatonic set theory might begin with Milton Babbitt, an important American composer and theorist...Later, Carlton Gamer explored some fundamental aspects of the structure and nature of the diatonic collection – in particular, the notion of deep scales...<ref>Johnson 2003: 152.</ref></blockquote>

Douthett, Martha M. Hyde, and Charles J. Smith, in their introduction to ''Music Theory and Mathematics'', also observed that "Milton Babbitt and Carlton Gamer, among others, had noticed intriguing structural properties of the diatonic system when considered as a subset of the equal-tempered chromatic scale."<ref>Douthett et al 2008: 1.</ref>

Gamer sometimes illustrated his theoretical ideas with short compositions, as in "Fanfare for the common tone" or "ET Setera". Wilson Coker, in his review of the latter, wrote: "Gamer's article might almost a be a model for theorists in its subtle blend of the most abstract inquiry along with indications of useful application."<ref>Coker (1982): 126.</ref>

== Compositions ==
{{summarize section|date=March 2024}}
* Fifty pieces for solo piano, voice, chamber ensembles, or orchestra (1937–1947)
* Nocturne for cello and piano (1944, revised 1992)
* "Wer nie sein Brot mit Tränen aß" ([[J. W. von Goethe]], from ''[[Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship]]'') for soprano and baritone duet and piano (1945)
* "Go where glory waits thee" (Thomas Moore) for mezzo-soprano and piano (1945)
* "Reverie" ([[Langston Hughes]]) for mezzo-soprano or baritone and piano (1946)
* "Sea Charm" (Langston Hughes) for mezzo-soprano or baritone and piano (1946)
* Two songs from ''A Shropshire Lad''" (A. E. Housman) for tenor and piano: "Along the field as we came by" and "On your midnight pallet lying" (1946)
* "Drink in the beauty of this night" (Ream Lazaro) for baritone and piano (1946)
* Fragments for piano or harpsichord (1947, 1984)
* Barcarolle and Chaconne for piano (1947–1949)
* Sonnet: "Oh, never say that I was false of heart" (William Shakespeare) for tenor and piano (1948, 1969)
* Two Songs to texts by Li Po for mezzo-soprano and flute: "On hearing the flute at Lo-Cheng one spring night" (1948, 1990) and "In the mountains" (1990)
* "After two years" (Richard Aldington) for tenor and piano (1949)
* "A dream of death" (William Butler Yeats) song for baritone or mezzo-soprano and piano (1949)
* String Quartet (1950, revised and re-entitled "Between Heaven and Earth", 2012)
* Pastorale for flute, clarinet, and strings (1950–51)
* Fantasy for Orchestra (1951, revised and re-entitled Generation, 2012–13)
* ''Conversation'' for flute (or recorder) and piano (1952)
* Serenade for flute, violin, and clarinet (1952, revised 1964)
* Theme and Variations for Clarinet and Piano (1953)
* Fantasy for Flute, Clarinet, and Piano (1953)
* ''Aria da Capo'' (composition for dance with narrator) (text by Ilka Suarez and Carlton Gamer, after [[Edna St. Vincent Millay]]'s 1919 [[Edna St. Vincent Millay bibliography|play]]) (1953, revised 1986)
* ''The Block Dwellers'' for piano (composition for dance) (1954)
* ''Dance for Three Couples'' for violin, clarinet, and piano (composition for dance) (1954)
* ''Two Things'' (Neo-Platonic Soliloquy) (Donald Babcock) (a cappella choir) (1957, revised 1988)
* ''Three Haiku by Bashô'' (a cappella choir). The Colorado College Music Press (1958)
* ''Rhyme from Grandma Goose'' (Annamarie Ewing) for tenor and piano (1958)
* Three songs for soprano and piano (1958):
** "Each more melodious note I hear" (H. D. Thoreau)
** "o sweet spontaneous earth" (e. e. cummings)
** "Passing" (Lillian de la Torre, from Guillaume Apollinaire)
* "Lo, in the silent night" (Angelus Silesius) carol for two voices a cappella (1959)
* ''Duetude'' for flute and clarinet (1959, revised 1998)<ref>''[[Perspectives of New Music]]'', vol. 49, no. 2; ''[[Open Space (magazine)|Open Space]]'', special issue 14, Spring 2012{{full citation needed|date=October 2021|reason=Article titles? Page numbers? Reviewers' names?}}</ref>
* Violin Sonata (1959–1960)
* Octet for String Quartet and Wind Quartet (1960)
* ''Sonata Breve'' for piano (1961)
* Canonettes for keyboard, or clarinet (or viola) and cello (or bassoon) (1962, revised 1992)
* ''Piano Râga Music'' (for Milton Babbitt and Ravi Shankar) (1962, 1967,1970).<ref>''[[Perspectives of New Music]]'', vol. 12, no. 2, Spring–Summer, 1974; in American Society of University Composers ''Journal of Scores'', vol. 15, 1968; and by the Association for the Promotion of New Music.{{full citation needed|date=October 2021|reason=Article titles? Page numbers? Reviewers' names?}}</ref>
* Laudate Dominum (Psalm 116, Vulgate) for a cappella choir. The Colorado College Music Press (1963)
* ''Arkhê'' for orchestra (1968 / 1993)
* ''War is the enemy'' (Carlton Gamer) (rock refrain) (1968)
* ''Mid-century Love Letter'' (Phyllis McGinley) for soprano and piano (1969)
* ''There is a Spirit – in memoriam A. J. Muste'' (James Nayler) (a cappella choir) (1970)
* ''Lieder'' for baritone voice, oboe, cello, and horn to texts by Rainer Maria Rilke:
** "Liebeslied" (voice, oboe, cello) (1971)
** "Herbsttag" (voice, oboe, cello, horn) (1983)
* ''Dear Friend'' (Carlton Gamer) for soprano and piano (1972)
* ''Variation on a Thing by JKR for digital synthesis in 7-tone equal temperament'' (1974).<ref>In Carlton Gamer: "ET Setera: Some temperamental speculations", in ''Music Theory'': Special Topics, ed. Richmond Browne, Academic Press, 1981.</ref>
* ''From the Gardens of the West'', three pieces for piano<ref>from ''Moments Musicaux for Roger Sessions'', ''[[Perspectives of New Music]]'', vol. 16, no. 2, Spring–Summer, 1978){{full citation needed|date=October 2021|reason=Article title? Reviewer's name? Page numbers?}}</ref>
** ''Of Time Past'' (1978)
** ''Our Second Music'' (1978)
** ''Quietly, with Feeling'' (after Mendelssohn) (1976)
* ''Fanfare for the Common Tone'' (x3) for two trumpets (1976).<ref>''[[Perspectives of New Music]]'', vol. 14, no.2 / vol. 15, no.1, Spring–Summer / Fall–Winter, 1976.{{full citation needed|date=October 2021|reason=Article title? Reviewer's name? Page numbers?}}</ref>
* ''Mondi'' for piano (1983)
* ''I'll Remember April'' (after Raye, DePaul, and Johnston) for piano (April, 1987)
* ''New Beginnings'' (1987)
** Part I: ''Organum from Canto LXXXI'' (Ezra Pound) for digitally synthesized voice in 31-tone equal temperament (1976)
** Part II: ''New Beginnings'' for piano and percussion (Cameo (for S. G.) for piano (1991))
* ''Gahu on J, K, R'' (for James K. Randall) for speaking chorus and African percussion ensemble (1991)
* ''Star in Clay'' (Katharine Lee Bates) for choir, brass, and timpani (1993)
* ''Fanovar'' for flute, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, violin and cello – or for digital synthesis in 7-tone equal temperament (1994)<ref>Excerpt and analysis in Carlton Gamer and Robin Wilson: ''Microtones and projective planes'' in Music and Mathematics from Pythagoras to Fractals, Oxford University Press, 2003.</ref>
* ''For Elaine'' for piano (1999, 2004)
* ''Choros'' for chamber chorus, string quartet, early instruments, piano, organ, and percussion, with incidental vocal solos and speaker:(1999)
** Part I: ''Bios'' (Carlton Gamer)
** Part II: ''Choros'' (James Nayler, Anaximander Gospel of John, St. Augustine, Heloise, Dante, San Juan de la Cruz. Rainer Maria Rilke, and Anna Akhmatova) (1999)
* ''Quattro Voci'' (per Quattro Mani) (for Susan Grace and Alice Rybak) for two pianos (2009)
* ''Mountains and Skies (Montes et caeli): a CC fanfare'' for concert band (2016)

== Publications ==
{{summarize section|date=March 2024}}
* "The New Fact and the Creative Life" (essay), ''The Colorado Quarterly'', University of Colorado, Boulder (1961).
* "Some Combinational Resources of Equal-Tempered Systems", ''[[Journal of Music Theory]]'', vol. 11, no. 1 (Spring 1967), pp.&nbsp;32–59.
* "Deep scales and difference sets in equal-tempered systems". ''American Society of University Composers. Proceedings'', vol. 2 (1967), pp.&nbsp;113–122.
* "Electronic music," ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' (1968 edition).
* "The role of the composer as theorist: Some introductory remarks." ''American Society of University Composers. Proceedings'', vol. 7 (1972), pp.&nbsp;12–14.
* "Flawed words and stubborn sounds: a conversation with Elliott Carter", (review essay), ''[[Perspectives of New Music]]'', vol. 11, no. 2 (Spring–Summer, 1973)
* "Notes on the structure of Piano Râga Music", ''[[Perspectives of New Music]]'', vol. 12, no. 2 (Spring–Summer, 1974).
* "Fanfares for the common tone" (with Paul Lansky), ''[[Perspectives of New Music]]'', vol. 14–15, no. 1–2 (1976), pp.&nbsp;228–235.
* "Sketch of a foundation for music theory today." ''College Music Symposium'', vol. XVII/1 (Spring 1977) 153–156.
* "Et setera: some temperamental speculations," ''Music Theory: Special Topics'', ed. Richmond Browne, Academic Press (1981), pp.&nbsp;59–81. {{ISBN|0-12-138080-7}}.
* "Music Worlds," ''Semiotic Investigations: Proceedings of a Mellon Faculty Seminar'', The Colorado College Studies 18 (1982), pp.&nbsp;83–98.
* "Busnois, Brahms, and the Syntax of Temporal Proportions" (essay), ''A Festschrift for [[Albert Seay]]'', ed. Michael Grace, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO (1982), pp.&nbsp;201–215.
* "Musical Block Designs" (with Robin J. Wilson), ''Ars Combinatoria'', vol. 16-A (December 1983), pp.&nbsp;217–225.
* "Trapezoidal Numbers" (with David W. Roeder and John J. Watkins), ''[[Mathematics Magazine]]'', vol. 58, no. 2 (March 1985), pp.&nbsp;108–110.
* "Displacement as matrix and matter of twentieth century arts," in Frank Brinkhaus and Sascha Talmor, eds.: ''Memory, History and Critique. European Identity at the Millennium.'' Proceedings of the 6th International Society for the Study of European Ideas (ISSEI) Conference at the University for Humanist Studies, Utrecht, The Netherlands, MIT Press (August. 1996).
* "Composers of the Nazi Era: Eight Portraits" (book review), ''[[Shofar (journal)|Shofar]]: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies'', vol. 20, no. 3 (Spring 2002), pp.&nbsp;123–125.
* "Microtones and Projective Planes" (with Robin Wilson), ''Music and Mathematics'', ed. John Fauvel, Raymond Flood, Robin J. Wilson, Oxford University Press (2003).
* "Milton at the Princeton Seminars" in ''Milton Babbitt: A Composers' Memorial; Scores and Texts in Memoriam, ''[[Perspectives of New Music]]'', special supplement'' to vol. 49/2, and ''[[Open Space ( magazine)|Open Space]]'', special issue 14 (Spring 2012), pp.&nbsp;361–364.
*"How Du You Compose Yourself?", ''[[Perspectives of New Music]]'', vol 57, issue 1-2, (Winter 2019) pp.579-590

== Discography ==
* ''Janáček, Bloch, Gamer: Violin & Piano Sonatas''; Crystal Records; ASIN: B000003J5E
* ''MMC New Century, vol. 13''; Master Musicians Col; ASIN: B00003L9JB
* ''Society of Composers, Inc: View from the Keyboard''; Capstone; ASIN: B00005YCDV
* ''Harmony for a New World''; Innova; ASIN: B0002L56MO

== References ==
===Citations===
{{Reflist}}

=== Cited sources ===
* American Music Festival (1952). Archive for February 1952—WNYC. [https://archive.today/20140327051025/http://www.wnyc.org/shows/american-music-festival/1952/feb]
* Arnest, Mark (1999). Preview of Colorado College Chamber Chorus premiere of Choros, Packard Hall, Colorado College, April 23, 1999. Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, April 23. 1999.
* {{cite Grove |last=Auner |first=Joseph |title=Gamer, Carlton |location=Oxford |doi=10.1093/omo/9781561592630.013.3000000122 |date=2001}} {{Grove Music subscription}}
* Calcutta School of Music (2005). Winter Concert Programme: "Jazz and blues in the Classical style", March 4, 2005.
* Coker, Wilson (1982). Review of Richmond Browne, ed.: Music Theory: Special Topics (1981) in ''[[Music Theory Spectrum]]'', vol. 4.
* Douthett, Jack; Martha M. Hyde; and Charles J. Smith, eds. (2008) Music Theory and Mathematics: Chords, Collections, and Transformations. Rochester, New York: University of Rochester Press. {{ISBN|978-1-58046-266-2}}.
* [[Allen Forte|Forte, Allen]] (1974) "Theory", in John Vinton, ed.: ''Dictionary of Contemporary Music'', New York: E. P. Dutton. {{ISBN|0-525-09125-4}}
* Gamer, Carlton (2002), Introductory remarks to performance of ''Two Lieder to texts of Rainer Maria Rilke'' by Herbert Beattie, bass-baritone, et al., Sixth Annual New Music Symposium, Packard Hall, Colorado College, July 20, 2002.
* Gamer, Carlton and Robert A. Moog (n.d.): "Electronic instrument", in ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]''.
* Giffin, Glenn (1972). Review of Colorado Springs Symphony concert of November 16 and 17, 1972. Denver Post, November 20, 1972.
* Gitelman, Claudia (2001). Dancing with Principle: Hanya Holm in Colorado, 1941–1983. Boulder, Colorado: University Press of Colorado. {{ISBN|0-87081-651-9}}.
* [[Paul Griffiths (writer)|Griffiths, Paul]]; Mark Lindley; and Ioannis Zannos (1980). "Microtone", in [[Stanley Sadie]], ed.: ''[[The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'', 2d edition.
* Griffiths, Paul (1997). Review of Henry Martin's piano recital, Mannes College, April 25, 1997. ''[[The New York Times]]'', April 29, 1997.
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Higgins |first=Paula |year=2001 |encyclopedia=[[Grove Music Online]] |title=Busnoys [Busnois, Bunoys, de Busnes], Antoine |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.04437 |isbn=978-1-56159-263-0 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000004437 }} {{Grove Music subscription}}
* Howard, Malcolm (2000). "CC's New Music Symposium highlights contemporary composers", ''[[Colorado Springs Independent]]'', July 27, 2000
* Johns, Gilbert (1991). Quoted in preview of Carlton Gamer's Music for Piano (1991), Packard Hall, Colorado College, October 6, 1991. ''[[Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph]]'', October 4, 1991.
* Johnson, Timothy A. (2003). Foundations of Diatonic Theory. Emeryville, California: Key College Publishing. {{ISBN|1-930190-80-8}}.
* Kelley, Robert Tyler (2005): "Mod-7 transformations in Post-Functional Music" (dissertation). Florida State University.
* The Kennedy Center (n.d.).
* [[Nicholas Kenyon|Kenyon, Nicholas]] (1979). Review of Rebecca La Brecque's piano recital, Carnegie Recital Hall, November 9, 1979. ''[[The New Yorker]]'', December 3, 1979.
* Lang, Paul Henry, ed. (1962). Problems of Modern Music: The Princeton Seminars in Advanced Musical Studies, W. W. Norton.
* Mead, Andrew (1994). An Introduction to the Music of Milton Babbitt. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. {{ISBN|0-691-03314-5}}.
* Morris, Robert (1987). Composition with Pitch-Classes. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. {{ISBN|0-300-03684-1}}.
* Morris, Robert (2007). "Mathematics and the Twelve-Tone System", ''[[Perspectives of New Music]]'', vol. 45, no. 2, Summer 2007, pp.&nbsp;97–98.
* Read, Gardner [1953] . Thesaurus of Orchestral Devices, New York, Toronto, London: Pitman Publishing Corporation.
* Review of ''Arkhé'' (2000a), in review of MMC New Century, vol. 13 (see Discography). ''[[American Record Guide]]'', July–August.
* Review of ''Arkhé'' (2000b), in review of MMC New Century, vol. 13 (see Discography). ''[[Fanfare (magazine)|Fanfare]]'', May–June.
* [[Edward Rothstein|Rothstein, Edward]] (1984). "Debuts in review", on Robert Shannon's League-ISCM piano recital, Carnegie Recital Hall, March 15, 1984. ''[[The New York Times]]'', March 18, 1984.
* Salzburg Global Seminar—Session 189 (1979). Musical ideas and musical institutions, April 22 – May 5, 1979.[http://www.salzburgglobal.ord/calendar/1970-1979/1979/session-189.html]{{Dead link|date=July 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
* University of Illinois School of Music (n.d.).
* Wilson, Robin (2005). "Music and mathematics", Gresham College Lecture, The Royal Institution of Great Britain, March 18, 2005.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gamer, Carlton}}
[[Category:1929 births]]
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[[Category:American male classical composers]]
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[[Category:Pupils of Roger Sessions]]
[[Category:Colorado College faculty]]
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[[Category:Bienen School of Music alumni]]
[[Category:Boston University College of Fine Arts alumni]]
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[[Category:Musicians from Champaign, Illinois]]
[[Category:Classical musicians from Illinois]]
[[Category:20th-century American male musicians]]