Avery Claflin

He was born in New Hampshire and graduated from Harvard University where he was a member of the Harvard Glee Club.^[3][4] Claflin was originally a pianist but he pivoted after sustaining an injury while serving during World War I which resulted in the loss of one of his fingers. Among Claflin's connections in France after the war ended, were the French composer Erik Satie and French writer Jean Cocteau.^[5]

Claflin married Dorothea Carroll in 1922.^[6] He went into banking after marrying his wife who came from a banking family.^[7] Claflin was a business associate of Charles Ives. Although he worked in business, Claflin found time to compose music and be active in various musical organizations, including the Society of Friends of Music^[8] and The New School for Social Research.^[9] He retired in 1954, and he composed many of his works after this date.^[1]

Among his works is a madrigal, Lament for April 15, which uses as its text instructions for an Internal Revenue Service tax form.^[1] This choral work received its premiere in 1955 at Tanglewood, in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. Every year on April 15, Karl Haas, musician, conductor, and radio host, played a recording of this composition on his public radio program, Adventures in Good Music.

He was a member and at one time treasurer of the American Composers Alliance.^[10][11]

• "Lament for April 15" (1955)^[4][1]
• "La Grande Bretèche," (1956)^[12][13][14]
• "Design for the Atomic Age" (1956)^[15][16]
• "Fish-house Punch" (1957)^[17]
• "Teen Scenes" (1958)^[18]
• "The Quangle Wangle's Hat"^[15]

• Avery Claflin scores (the composer's manuscripts) in the Music Division of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
• Article at Time magazine on Claflin's Lament for April 15.^{[dead link]}
• Avery Claflin: Piano Concerto (1956-1957) -- Orchestra: Gísli Magnússon, piano with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, William Strickland conductor
• Library of Congress Blogs - Curator's Picks: Fab Five