Charles Fussell UMASS-Amherst Music Department Music Theory and Composition 1966-1976

Charles C. Fussell (1938 – ) was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and was a member of the UMASS-Amherst Music Department from 1966-1976.

Professor Fussell studied at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, where he worked with Thomas Canning and Bernard Rogers, and then at the Hochschule für Musik Berlin with Boris Blacher.  During his time in Germany, he also attended master classes with Friedelind Wagner at Bayreuth. Later he worked as an assistant to and was a close friend of the composer Virgil Thomson.

I was an instrumental performance

major as well as instrumental music education major at UMASS-Amherst between 1967 and 1972.  I completed at least two semesters of Music Theory taught by Professor Charles C. Fussell in 1967 and 1968.

The Music Theory  courses that I enrolled in that were taught by Professor Charles Fussell during the 1967-1968 time frame were ‘basic’ Music Theory courses. However, these courses were not for absolute beginners in ‘Music Theory’. These courses required at least some basic understanding of chord structure, time signatures, and rhythmic notation.

Although Professor Fussell did an excellent job in teaching the basics of Music Theory, I did struggle to some degree with these courses due to lack of knowledge of basic chord structure that was never taught to me during his High School Years. It was fortunate for I was able to pass these courses with the remedial help of a Berklee School of Music Arranging and Composition Correspondence Course that I began in 1967. Plus, I received some private tutorials from time to time from a fellow classmate, Dennis Wrenn who was a piano player who got Straight A’s in all matters concerning Music Theory and Composition. Through no fault of Professor Fussell, I do not recall receiving a grade higher than a ‘C’ in any of Professor Fussell’s Music Theory classes.

Professor Fussell had an affable personality, was always easy to approach and was always happy to spend some extra time with a student who needed some additional direction.

I recall Professor Fussell attending some of my student recital’s including the my Senior Graduation Recital Program.

Professor Charles C. Fussell was certainly an asset to the UMASS-Amherst music faculty during the 1967 to 1972 time frame.