Norma Wendelburg


Norma Ruth Wendelburg was an American composer, Fulbright scholar, pianist and teacher.

Life

Wendelburg was born in Stafford, Kansas, and won a scholarship to Bethany College where she received a B.M. degree. Wendelburg received a M.M. degree from the University of Michigan, where she studied composition with Ross Lee Finney and Homer Keller, and piano with John Kollen. In 1948, she received a fellowship from the Wellesley Composers Conference and Chamber Music Center, where she studied with Otto Luening and Ingolf Dahl. She attended the Tanglewood Music Center in 1953 on scholarship and studied with Carlos Chavez. As a Fulbright scholar from 1953 to 1955, Wendelburg studied with Cesar Bresgen at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and with Karl Schiske at the Academy of Music in Vienna. She received her Ph.D. from Eastman School of Music in 1969, where she held a research fellowship and studied with Wayne Barlow and Bernard Rogers.
Wendelburg belonged to the music fraternity Sigma Alpha Iota and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. She received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and the Huntington Hartford Foundation.
Over the years, Wendelburg taught at Wayne State College ; her alma mater Bethany College; Hardin-Simmons University ; Southwest Texas State University; Dallas Baptist College; and Iowa State Teacher's College. While teaching at Iowa State Teacher's College, she was named one of America's outstanding young composers by a committee that included composers Walter Piston and William Schuman.

Compositions

Chamber

Affirmation Concenter
  • Andante and allegro
  • Echo and Narcissus
  • Fantasy Festival Piece Five Duos for Flute and Clarinet
  • Four Dances Monologue
  • Clarinet Sonata
  • Sonatina
  • String Quartet No. 1
  • String Quartet No. 2
  • Suite No. 1
  • Suite No. 2 To Nature Trio for Brass
  • ''Variants''

Orchestra

  • Clarinet Concerto
  • Concert Piece
  • Concertino Galaxy Poem
  • Sinfonietta
  • Symphony No. 1
  • Triptych

Organ

Piano

American Fantasy Eight Sketches
  • Six Preludes Sophisticated Daughter
  • Teaching Pieces
  • ''Transformations''

Vocal

Alleluia Apostles' Creed Arise, O God, to Judge the Earth Blessed Boating Song Chinese Cycle from the Book of Songs Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God Delight in the Lord Doors of Heaven Eve Great Stars of Our Time Help, O Lord, All Godly Men