Clifton Williams (composer)

James Clifton Williams, Jr. (26 March 1923 Traskwood, Arkansas — 12 February 1976 Miami, Florida) was an American composer, pianist, french hornist, mellonphonist, music theorist, conductor, and music educator. Williams was known by symphony patrons as a virtuoso french hornist and composer with the Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Houston, Oklahoma City, Austin and San Antonio Symphony Orchestras. Williams, the young orchestral composer, was honored by the Houston and Oklahoma City Symphony Orchestras with performances of Peace, A Tone Poem and A Southwestern Overture, respectively. He was an accomplished composer widely known as one of America's premier composers of wind ensemble and band repertoire.

Williams began playing French horn, piano, and mellophone early on and played in the band at Little Rock High School. His senior class of 600 voted him as most outstanding in artistry, talent, and versatility.

Williams attended Louisiana State University (B.M., 1947) where he was a pupil of Helen M. Gunderson (1909–1997). He also attended the Eastman School of Music (M.M., 1949) where he studied with Bernard Rogers and Howard Hanson. It was Howard Hanson who led Williams to write for the wind band rather than the orchestra, counseling Williams that he would get larger audiences and a larger range of organizations to perform his music in doing so.

During his musical studies at Louisiana State University Williams joined the fraternity Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the largest, oldest musical fraternity in America. Later in his career, he honored this fraternity with a symphonic concert march, "The Sinfonians," that remains a staple of the concert band's repertoire today.

He also served in the Army Air Corps band as a drum major, composing in his spare time.

In 1949 Williams joined the composition department at the University of Texas School of Music. He taught there until he was appointed Chair of the Theory and Composition Department at University of Miami School of Music in 1966. Williams retained this position until his death from cancer in 1976. His composition students included W. Francis McBeth, Lawrence Weiner, Robert Sheldon, Kenneth Fuchs, Ron Miller, Robert X. Rodriguez, Thomas Wells, Gordon Richard Goodwin, and John Barnes Chance. He was a close colleague of fellow composer Alfred Reed while the two worked at the University of Miami, their offices being only steps apart in the music building at UM.

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