Christopher Tignor (born March 15, 1976) is an American composer, musician, and software engineer based in New York City. A founding member of
post-rock
Post-rock is a form of experimental rock characterized by a focus on exploring textures and timbre over traditional rock song structures, chords, or riffs. Post-rock artists are often instrumental, typically combining rock instrumentation with ...
acts Slow Six and
Wires Under Tension
Wires Under Tension are an American post-rock band from New York City.
History
Wires Under Tension was founded by Christopher Tignor, a classically trained violinist, and drummer Theo Metz. Tignor has composed and recorded string arrangements for This Will Destroy You, John Congleton,
Keith Kenniff
Keith Kenniff is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and electronic music producer. He composes ambient/electronic music under the moniker Helios and post-classical piano music under Goldmund. He is also one half of the independent music, indie ...
,
Lymbyc Systym
Lymbyc Systym is an American instrumental band from Tempe, Arizona, United States, which formed in 2001, consisting of brothers Jared and Michael Bell. Their sound combines elements of instrumental rock and electronic music. Lymbyc Systym have ...
, and more.
Early life and career
Tignor was born in
Morristown, New Jersey
Morristown () is a town and the county seat of Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. ...
. In 1998 he received a Bachelor of Arts in creative writing from Bard College, where he studied with composer
Richard Teitelbaum
Richard Lowe Teitelbaum (May 19, 1939 – April 9, 2020) was an American composer, keyboardist, and improvisor. A student of Allen Forte, Mel Powell, and Luigi Nono, he was known for his live electronic music and synthesizer performances. He was ...
and poet
John Ashbery
John Lawrence Ashbery (July 28, 1927 – September 3, 2017) was an American poet and art critic.
Ashbery is considered the most influential American poet of his time. Oxford University literary critic John Bayley wrote that Ashbery "sounded, in ...
; he continued to collaborate with both after graduating. In 2003 he received a Master of Science degree in
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...
from
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
, and in 2018 he received a PhD in music composition from
Princeton
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...
. While living and studying in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, Tignor worked as a bike messenger and assistant to LaMonte Young and Mariana Zazeela, in addition to running sound and stage-managing for CBGB's.
From 1999 to 2008, Tignor was sound engineer and then technical director for Music at the Anthology (founded by Philip Glass, Eleonor Sandresky, and Lisa Bielawa), and in 2007, Tignor and
The Knights
''The Knights'' ( grc, Ἱππεῖς ''Hippeîs''; Attic: ) was the fourth play written by Aristophanes, who is considered the master of an ancient form of drama known as Old Comedy. The play is a satire on the social and political life of clas ...
performed the world premiere of Tignor's MATA Commission at the festival. In 2007, BYU's Barlow Endowment for Music Composition commissioned Tignor to write a new work for
Brooklyn Rider
Brooklyn Rider is an American string quartet, based in Brooklyn, New York City, United States, whose members include violinists Johnny Gandelsman and Colin Jacobsen, violist Nicholas Cords and cellist Michael Nicolas. They are mainly known for ...
String Quartet; the piece later appeared on the quartet's favorably-reviewed ''Seven Steps'' and was performed at Carnegie's Zankel Hall.
Tignor formed post-rock band Slow Six in 2000, expanding the group to nine members by 2007's ''Nor'easter''.
He has given lectures and performances at the SOU Festival in Tbilisi, Georgia, the International Computer Music Conference in Daegu, Korea, the Victor Hugo theater in Havana, Cuba, and numerous other venues. He has also collaborated with contemporary dance troupes, video artists, and poets.
Tignor has worked at Google as a software engineer since 2011, and creates most of the (open-source) software he uses for live performance. He is also a sponsored artist of audio software maker Antares for his application of
Auto-Tune
Auto-Tune (or autotune) is an audio processor introduced in 1996 by American company Antares Audio Technologies. Auto-Tune uses a proprietary device to measure and alter pitch in vocal and instrumental music recording and performances.
Auto-Tu ...
as a "chorale" violin harmonizer, and of German tuning fork maker Wittner for his use of the device in performances. In 2022, Tignor released a collaborative album with This Will Destroy You co-founder Christopher Royal King under the name Disassembler.