Ben Weber

William Jennings Bryan "Ben" Weber (July 23, 1916 in St. Louis – June 16, 1979 in New York City) was an American composer. Weber He was "one of the first Americans to embrace the 12-tone techniques of Schoenberg, starting in 1938"; he was largely self-taught. He worked initially as a copyist and only came to recognition in the 1950s.Weber used the twelve-tone technique but, rather than avoid tonality, he worked with it and achieved a virtuoso Romantic style. He composed chamber music for various combinations of instruments, orchestral music including concertos for violin and piano, piano music, and songs. Weber wrote his own unpublished memoirs, How I Took 63 Years to Commit Suicide" (as told to Matthew Paris)