Emma Lou Diemer

Emma Lou Diemer (November 24, 1927 – June 2, 2024) was an American composer.

Diemer was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on November 24, 1927. She wrote many works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, keyboard, voice, chorus, and electronic media. Diemer was a keyboard performer and over the years had given concerts of her own organ works at Washington National Cathedral, The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, Grace Cathedral and St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco, and others.

Works include many collections and single pieces for organ as well as many for solo piano, piano 4 hands, and two pianos. Her major chamber works include a piano quartet, string quartet, two piano trios, and sonatas and suites for flute, violin, cello, and piano as well as settings of the psalms for organ with other instruments. Diemer wrote many choral works as well. She had written numerous hymns, several of which appear in church hymnals. Her songs number in the dozens, using texts by many contemporary and early poets including Walt Whitman, Amy Lowell, Sara Teasdale, Alice Meynell, Thomas Campion, Shakespeare, John Donne, her sister Dorothy Diemer Hendry, Emily Dickinson, Robert Lowell, and many others.

Diemer's compositional style over the years has varied from tonal to atonal, from traditional to experimental. She had written works for non-professional and professional performers, originally under the "Gebrauchsmusik" philosophy, but produced many works, particularly for keyboard, that are difficult and challenging. The latter category includes her "Fantasy" for piano; Seven Etudes for piano; Homage to Cowell, Cage, Crumb, and Czerny for two pianos; Variations for Piano Four Hands (Homage to Ravel, Schoenberg, and May Aufderheide); Four Biblical Settings for organ, Concerto for Organ ("Alaska"); and many psalm setting collections. The totally serial "Declarations" for organ (1973) contrasts to the more tonal 2013 concerto for violin and orchestra "Summer Day". Her work in the electronic field during her years on the faculty of the University of California influenced a number of works including her Toccata for piano that has a number of performances on YouTube.

Diemer died in Santa Barbara, California, on June 2, 2024, at the age of 96.