Chaim Moshe Tzadik Palestine (born 1947), known professionally as Charlemagne Palestine, is an American visual artist and musician. He has been described as being one of the founders of New York school of minimalist music, first initiated by

La Monte Young La Monte Thornton Young (born October 14, 1935) is an American composer, musician, and performance artist recognized as one of the first American minimalist composers and a central figure in Fluxus and post-war avant-garde music. He is best kno ...

Terry Riley Terrence Mitchell "Terry" Riley (born June 24, 1935) is an American composer and performing musician best known as a pioneer of the minimalist school of composition. Influenced by jazz and Indian classical music, his music became notable for it ...

Philip Glass Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...

Steve Reich Stephen Michael Reich ( ; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer known for his contribution to the development of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, a ...

and

Phil Niblock Phill Niblock (born October 2, 1933 in Anderson, Indiana) is an American composer, filmmaker, videographer, and director of Experimental Intermedia, Alan Licht, ''Common Tones: Selected Interviews with Artists and Musicians 1995-2020'', Blank Fo ...

, although he prefers to call himself a

maximalist In the arts, maximalism, a reaction against minimalism, is an aesthetic of excess. The philosophy can be summarized as "more is more", contrasting with the minimalist motto "less is more". Literature The term ''maximalism'' is sometimes associ ...

Formational years

Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1947, Palestine began by singing sacred

Jewish music Jewish music is the music and melodies of the Jewish people. There exist both traditions of religious music, as sung at the synagogue and domestic prayers, and of secular music, such as klezmer. While some elements of Jewish music may originate ...

and studying

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

and piano. At the age of 12 he started playing backup

conga The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest). ...

and

bongo drum Bongos ( es, bongó) are an Afro-Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of small open bottomed hand drums of different sizes. They are struck with both hands, most commonly in an eight-stroke pattern called ''martillo'' (hammer). The ...

for

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...

Gregory Corso Gregory Nunzio Corso (March 26, 1930 – January 17, 2001) was an American poet and a key member of the Beat movement. He was the youngest of the inner circle of Beat Generation writers (with Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burrou ...

Kenneth Anger Kenneth Anger (born Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer, February 3, 1927) is an American underground experimental filmmaker, actor, and author. Working exclusively in short films, he has produced almost 40 works since 1937, nine of which have been grouped ...

, and Tiny Tim. From 1962 to 1969, Palestine was

carillonneur A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmonio ...

for the Saint Thomas Episcopal Church in Manhattan, eventually creating a piece that consisted of 1,500 15 minute performances. From 1968 to 1972, Palestine studied vocal interpretation with

Pandit Pran Nath Pandit Pran Nath (Devanagari: पंडित प्राणनाथ) (3 November 1918 – 13 June 1996) was an Indian classical singer and master of the Kirana gharana singing style. Promoting traditional raga principles, Nath exerted a ...

, experimented on kinetic light sculptures with

Len Lye Leonard Charles Huia Lye (; 5 July 1901 – 15 May 1980) was a New Zealand artist known primarily for his experimental films and kinetic sculpture. His films are held in archives including the New Zealand Film Archive, British Film Institute, M ...

, composed music for

Tony Tony may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer * Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby leagu ...

and Beverly Conrad’s film ''Coming Attractions'', taught at

CalArts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both ...

with

Morton Subotnick Morton Subotnick (born April 14, 1933) is an American composer of electronic music, best known for his 1967 composition '' Silver Apples of the Moon'', the first electronic work commissioned by a record company, Nonesuch. He was one of the foun ...

, created the sound and movement piece ''Illuminations'' with

Simone Forti Simone Forti (born March 25, 1935), is an American Italian Postmodern artist, dancer, choreographer, and writer. Since the 1950s, Forti has exhibited, performed, and taught workshops all over the world. Her innovations in Postmodern dance, inclu ...

, and developed his own alternative

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

: the ''Spectral Continuum Drone Machine''. Throughout the seventies Palestine created records, videos, sculptural objects, abstract expressionist visual scores, and performed long piano concerts regularly in his loft on

North Moore Street North Moore Street is a moderately trafficked street in TriBeCa, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It runs roughly east–west between West Broadway and West Street. Automotive traffic is westbound only. Naming On street ...

in Tribeca in the company of his bevy of stuffed animals. From 1980 to 1995, Palestine performed only rarely, exhibiting instead at

Stedelijk Museum The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

, Amsterdam; the

Moderna Museet Moderna Museet ("the Museum of Modern Art"), Stockholm, Sweden, is a state museum for modern and contemporary art located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, opened in 1958. In 2009, the museum opened a new branch in Malmö i ...

, Stockholm; and in documenta 8. During that time, he also founded the Ethnology Cinema Project in New York, which is dedicated to preserving films that document disappearing traditional cultures. After moving to Europe in 1995, in addition to creating exhibitions, Palestine performed regularly, re-releasing older material and developing new videos and sonic projects.

Selected discography: solo works

* ''Body Music'' 1973 * "Strumming Music". Shandar, 1974. * ''Karenina''. 2 CDs. Solo performance with Indian harmonium and

falsetto ''Falsetto'' (, ; Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous ed ...

voice, rec. March 1997 in Paris. London: World Serpent Distribution. * ''Schlingen-Blängen''. Solo performance for organ. US: New World Records, 1999. * ''Four Manifestations on Six Elements''. Solo pieces for piano and for electronics. Belgium: Barooni Records. * ''Godbear''. Solo pieces for piano. Belgium: Barooni Records. * ''Strumming Music''. Solo piece for piano. Felmay, San Germano, Italy, 1995; reissue of New Tone recording nt6742 * ''Three Compositions for Machines''. Staalplaat, 1997. * ''Schlongo!!!daLUVdrone''. Organ of Corti, 2000. * ''Jamaica Heinekens in Brooklyn''. Piece for found sound and electronic drones. Belgium: Barooni Records. * ''Alloy''. Alga Marghen, 2000. * ''Continuous Sound Forms''. Alga Marghen, 2000. * ''Charlemagne at Sonnabend''. 2 CDs. CP, 2001. * ''Music for Big Ears''. Staalplaat, 2001. * ''In Mid-Air''. Alga Marghen, 2003. * ''Old Souls Wearing New Clothes''. VPRO, 2003. * ''A Sweet Quasimodo between Black Vampire Butterflies: For Maybeck''. Cold Blue, 2007. * ''The Apocalypse Will Blossom''. Yesmissolga, 2008. * ''Voice Studies''. LP only. Alga Marghen, 2008. * ''From Etudes to Cataclysms''. 2 CDs. Sub Rosa, 2008. * "Relationship Studies". LP. Algha Marghen, 2010. * "Two Electronic Sonorities". LP. Algha Marghen, 2012.

Selected discography: collaborations

* Charlemagne Palestine and Pan Sonic. ''Mort aux vaches''. Staalplaat, 2000. * Charlemagne Palestine, David Coulter and Jean Marie Mathoul. ''Maximin''. Young God Records, 2002. * Charlemagne Palestine, David Coulter,

Michael Gira Michael Rolfe Gira (; born February 19, 1954) is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, author and artist. He is the main force behind the New York City musical group Swans and fronted Angels of Light. He is also the founder of ...

and Jean Marie Mathoul. ''Gantse Mishpuchach / Music in Three Parts''. Fringes Recordings, 2004. * Charlemagne Palestine and

Tony Conrad Anthony Schmalz Conrad (March 7, 1940 – April 9, 2016) was an American video artist, experimental filmmaker, musician, composer, sound artist, teacher, and writer. Active in a variety of media since the early 1960s, he was a pioneer of both ...

. ''An Aural Symbiotic Mystery''.

Sub Rosa ''Sub rosa'' (New Latin for "under the rose") denotes secrecy or confidentiality. The rose has an ancient history as a symbol of secrecy. History In Hellenistic and later Roman mythology, roses were associated with secrecy because Cupid ga ...

, 2006. * Charlemagne Palestine,

Terry Jennings Terry Jennings (19 July 1940 – 11 December 1981) was an American minimalist composer and performer. Early life in California Terry Jennings was born in Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, California, in 1940. Coming from a background in jazz, he pla ...

, Robert Feldman,

Rhys Chatham Rhys Chatham (born September 19, 1952) is an American composer, guitarist, trumpet player, multi-instrumentalist (flutes in C, alto and bass, keyboard), primarily active in avant-garde and minimalism, minimalist music. He is best known for his "g ...

. ''Sharing a Sonority''. Alga Marghen, 2008. * Charlemagne Palestine and Christoph Heemann. ''Saiten in Flammen''.

Streamline Streamline may refer to: Business * Streamline Air, American regional airline * Adobe Streamline, a discontinued line tracing program made by Adobe Systems * Streamline Cars, the company responsible for making the Burney car Engineering * ...

, 2009. * Charlemagne Palestine and Janek Schaefer. ''Day of the Demons''. Desire Path Recordings, 2012. * Charlemagne Palestine and

''Youuu + Mee = Weee''.

, 2014.

Art exhibitions

Charlemagne Palestine, who has long incorporated bears and plush toys into his performances, created the art installation Bear Mitzvah in Meshugahland at

The Jewish Museum The Jewish Museum is an art museum and repository of cultural artifacts, housed at 1109 Fifth Avenue, in the former Felix M. Warburg House, along Museum Mile on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. The first Jewish museum in the Unit ...

in New York City in 2017.

References

Bibliography

* Johnson, Tom (1989). ''The Voice of New Music: New York City 1972–1982: A Collection of Articles Originally Published by the

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the creat ...

.'' Eindhoven, Netherlands:

Het Apollohuis ''Het Apollohuis'' ( en, The Apollo House) was a space for experimental music and visual arts, "focused in particular on...sound art, new music, performance art and the new media," founded in Eindhoven, Netherlands, by Remko Scha and Paul Panhuysen ...

. . * Palestine, Charlemagne (2004). ''Sacred Bordello''. Book with CD. Milan: Alga Marghen. * Voegelin, Salome. ''Listening to Noise and Silence: Towards a Philosophy of Sound Art''. London: Continuum. 2010. Chapter 2 ''Noise'', pp. 50–52.

External links

*
Interview with Steve Dalachinsky in Bomb Magazine

Charlemagne Palestine Contemporary Art Exhibition
{{DEFAULTSORT:Palestine, Charlemagne 1947 births Living people 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century classical composers 21st-century American composers 21st-century American male musicians 21st-century classical composers American male classical composers American classical composers Carillonneurs Classical musicians from New York (state) Composers for carillon Date of birth missing (living people) Musicians from New York City Postmodern composers Pupils of James Tenney