Williametta Spencer

Spencer was born in Marion, Illinois on August 15, 1927, 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.^[4] 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.^[5] 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.^[3][6]

She 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;^[7] and the Amy Beach Award for her orchestral overture.^[3] I Cantori commissioned and premiered her choral work, And the White Rose is a Dove. Spencer was a member of Mu Phi Epsilon and the International Alliance for Women in Music.^[8]

Spencer's works have been published by Associated Music Publishers Inc.,^[9] Mark Foster Music Co.,^[10] Orpheus Publications,^[11] Shawnee Press,^[12] and Western International Music Co.^[3]

Spencer died on March 29, 2026, at the age of 98.^[13]

• The Relationship Between André Caplet and Claude Debussy (The Musical Quarterly, Volume LXVI, Issue 1, January 1980, Pages 112–131)^[14]

• Adagio and Rondo (oboe and piano)^[15]
• Sonatina for Clarinet and Piano^[16]
• Sonata for Trombone and Piano^[15]
• String Quartet^[17]
• Suite (flute and piano)^[18]
• Trio for Brass Instruments^[3]

• Overture^[3]
• Passacaglia and Double Fugue (string orchestra)^[3]

• Improvisation and Meditation on “Gott sei gelobet”^[19]

• And the White Rose is a Dove (choir)^[8]
• As I Rode Out This Enders NIght (a cappella choir)^[17]
• As I Sat Under a Sycamore Tree (a cappella choir)^[17]
• At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners (choir; text by John Donne)^[15]
• Bright Cap and Streamers (choir)^[10]
• Cantate Domino^[15]
• Four Madrigals (text by James Joyce)^[20]
• “Give Me the Splendid Silent Sun” (text by Walt Whitman)^[15]
• Make We Joy: A Cantata for Christmastide in a Medieval Atmosphere^[15]
• Missa Brevis^[21]
• Nova, Nova, Ave Fit Ex Eva (a cappella choir)^[22]
• Three Songs (text by William Shakespeare; flute, oboe, 2 clarinets, bassoon, and voice)^[18]
• Two Christmas Madrigals (a cappella choir)^[23]
• Winter Has Lasted Too Long (voice, clarinet, and piano)