In Memoriam - Raymond Wilding-White

In the often prim and proper world of classical music, the avant- garde experiments of Raymond Wilding-White weren't always easy for the critics to understand, let alone love.  His bold compositions of electronic loops and cacophonous toy instruments once caused a frustrated newspaper reviewer to throw his chair across the floor and yell, "I suppose you call that music too!"  In fact, he did. After the encounter, he composed an elaborate arrangement of four chairs scraping a floor, which he broadcast on WFMT-FM.  "He never could refuse a challenge," said longtime WFMT program director Norman Pellegrini.

Mr. Wilding-White, 78, a celebrated and unconventional local composer who taught music at DePaul University for more than 18 years, died Friday, Aug. 24, of liver failure in his Kewaunee, Wis., home.  Born in Surrey, England, Mr. Wilding-White almost immediately began a love affair with music and learning. He first arrived in the United States to start chemical engineering classes at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but soon found himself studying the piano at the Juilliard School.  He received bachelor's and master's degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music and completed his doctorate in composition at Boston University. During that time, in the 1950s, he played in New York jazz bands and produced a Peabody Award-winning children's show for public television. That's also when he met Glennie, who would become his wife of 46 years.

"I just loved his intelligence," said his wife, a musician herself. "I just went right up to him and introduced myself. Once he saw my record collection, he decided I was worth cultivating."  The couple moved to Ohio, where he began teaching music at Case Western Reserve University. Then in 1967, he accepted a position at DePaul. There, he founded the Loop Group, which for two decades showcased the talents of outstanding young Chicago composers and musicians.

Mr. Wilding-White was an avid disciple of the legendary John Cage, who believed that almost every sound imaginable could be turned into music.  Wilding-White's compositions featured glockenspiels, dueling toy pianos and small speakers swung around from ropes. One of his works, Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, which had its world premiere with the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra in 1991, required the concertmaster to roll a pair of dice across the stage.

Besides his prodigious composing, Mr. Wilding-White was also well- known as a radio personality. During the bicentennial year of 1976, he picked and introduced a piece of classic American music every day for WFMT. His radio documentaries on luminaries like Cage and Charles Ives are still broadcast on the station.

"We asked him to do a 1 1/2-hour segment for Cage's 80th birthday. It lasted for almost three hours, and it was absolutely brilliant," said Pellegrini, a WFMT program director for more than 40 years. "People were just transfixed. It was one of the best things we ever put on the station.  "When it came to music, he was an oddball. But he was pure genius."

Besides his wife, Mr. Wilding-White is survived by a daughter, Elizabeth; a son, Alexander; a brother, Charles; and a grandson. A memorial service will be held Saturday in Algoma, Wis.

Chicago Tribune, Aug 27, 2001, pg. 7, Tom McCann, Tribune staff reporter