Primous Fountain

1950 -

About

Primous Fountain is an american composer.

A largely self-taught musician, he performed on the trumpet and double bass and arranged for jazz ensembles as a youth, and he began to compose while attending high school in Chicago.

He has won several awards, including the BMI Composition Award (1967), Guggenheim Fellowships (1974, 1977) and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Goddard Lieberson Fellowship (1984). For three years he enjoyed the patronage of the composer and producer Quincy Jones, who commissioned new work and provided financial support.

Under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas, the Buffalo PO gave the first performance of Fountain’s revised Ritual Dances of the Amaks in 1977 (with a new second movement commissioned by Thomas) and performed it on a tour that concluded at the Carnegie Hall. This work is characterized by atonality, the use of fragmented melodies, occasional lyrical passages and repeated rhythmic patterns that incorporate folk-jazz rhythms.

As illustrated by Caprice (1978), his orchestral compositions often contain dramatic contrasts in register and colour. Some of his works share an affinity with dance: in 1995 he received a commission from the Frankfurt Ballet Company, and one of his best-known early works, Manifestation, was choreographed by Arthur Mitchell for the Dance Theatre of Harlem.

In later years, Fountain has explored the music and indigenous instruments of West Africa, alongside the earlier influences on his style, Stravinsky and Miles Davis.

Related Information

Grove Music Online

Works by Primous Fountain