Williametta Spencer


Williametta Spencer is an American composer, musicologist, and teacher who plays harpsichord, organ, and piano. She is best known for her award-winning choral work At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners.

Life and career

Spencer was born in Marion, Illinois, to Viva Jewell and Samuel Joseph Spencer. The family moved to Paducah, Kentucky, where her father was a minister of music at several different Baptist churches during her childhood. Spencer earned a B.A. at Whittier College and a M.Mus. and Ph.D. at the University of Southern California. Her dissertation was entitled The Influence and Stylistic Heritage of André Caplet. In 1953, she received a Fulbright scholarship to study in Paris. Her teachers included Pauline Alderman, Tony Aubin, Alfred Cortot, Ingolf Dahl, Ernst Kanitz, and Halsey Stevens.
Spencer has won several awards, including the Southern California Vocal Association National Composition Award for At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners; Alumni Achievement Awards from Whittier College in 1995 and 2008; and the Amy Beach Award for her orchestral overture. I Cantori commissioned and premiered her choral work, And the White Rose is a Dove. She is a member of Mu Phi Epsilon and the International Alliance for Women in Music.
Spencer’s works have been published by Associated Music Publishers Inc., Mark Foster Music Co., Orpheus Publications, Shawnee Press, and Western International Music Co. Her publications include:

Article

  • ''The Relationship Between André Caplet and Claude Debussy''

    Chamber

  • Adagio and Rondo
  • Sonatina for Clarinet and Piano
  • Sonata for Trombone and Piano
  • String Quartet
  • Suite
  • ''Trio for Brass Instruments''

    Orchestra

  • Overture
  • Passacaglia and Double Fugue

    Organ

  • ''Improvisation and Meditation on “Gott sei gelobet”''

    Vocal

  • And the White Rose is a Dove
  • As I Rode Out This Enders NIght
  • As I Sat Under a Sycamore Tree
  • At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners
  • Bright Cap and Streamers
  • Cantate Domino
  • Four Madrigals
  • “Give Me the Splendid Silent Sun”
  • Make We Joy: A Cantata for Christmastide in a Medieval Atmosphere
  • Missa Brevis
  • Nova, Nova, Ave Fit Ex Eva
  • Three Songs
  • Two Christmas Madrigals
  • ''Winter Has Lasted Too Long''