Dorothy Carter (born
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 ...
, 1935, died June 7, 2003 in
) was an American musician.
[Billboard - 1998 8 8 " ... in Berlin in 1996. While there, she hooked up with MEDIAEVAL BAEBES Dorothy Carter, an older woman ..."] Carter performed contemporary, folk, traditional, medieval, and
experimental music
Experimental music is a general label for any music or music genre that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilities radically opposed to, and questioning of, ...
with a large collection of stringed instruments such as the
hammered dulcimer
The hammered dulcimer (also called the hammer dulcimer) is a percussion-stringed instrument which consists of strings typically stretched over a trapezoidal resonant sound board. The hammered dulcimer is set before the musician, who in more trad ...
,
zither
Zithers (; , from the Greek word ''cithara'') are a class of stringed instruments. Historically, the name has been applied to any instrument of the psaltery family, or to an instrument consisting of many strings stretched across a thin, flat bo ...
,
psaltery
A psaltery ( el, ψαλτήρι) (or sawtry, an archaic form) is a fretboard-less box zither (a simple chordophone) and is considered the archetype of the zither and dulcimer; the harp, virginal, harpsichord and clavichord were also inspired by ...
, and
hurdy-gurdy
The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-crank-turned, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a vio ...
. She is regarded as an important figure in the genres of
psychedelic folk music and
medieval music
Medieval music encompasses the sacred and secular music of Western Europe during the Middle Ages, from approximately the 6th to 15th centuries. It is the first and longest major era of Western classical music and followed by the Renaissance ...
revival.
Biography
Carter studied
classical piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
at age six. She later attended
Bard College
Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic ...
in New York, the
London Royal Academy, and
Guildhall School of Music
The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a conservatoire and drama school located in the City of London, United Kingdom. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz ...
in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
.
In the early 1970s, Carter was a member of the Central Maine Power Music Company with
Robert Rutman
Robert Rutman (15 May 1931 – 1 June 2021) was a German visual artist, musician, composer, and instrument builder. Best known for his work with homemade idiophones in his Steel Cello Ensemble, Rutman is regarded as a pioneer of multimedia perf ...
and
Constance Demby
Constance Mary Demby (née Eggers; May 9, 1939 – March 20, 2021) was an American musician, composer, painter, sculptor, and multimedia producer. Her music fell into several categories, most notably new age, ambient and space music.Wright, Car ...
.
She moved to
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
where she continued to collaborate with Rutman, who played his
sound sculpture
Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in hybrid forms. According to Brandon LaBelle, sound art ...
s on her second album. She regularly played concerts with Rutman's Steel Cello Ensemble, a collaboration that persisted for decades.
In the 1990s Carter returned to London and founded the all-female revival group
Mediæval Bæbes
The Mediæval Bæbes are a British musical ensemble founded in 1996 by Dorothy Carter and Katharine Blake. It included some of Blake's colleagues from the band Miranda Sex Garden, as well as other friends who shared her love of medieval music. ...
with
Katherine Blake of
Miranda Sex Garden
Miranda Sex Garden are an English music group from London. They were originally active from 1990 to 2000, reforming in 2022.
Biography
Formed in 1990, Katharine Blake (singer), Katharine Blake, Kelly McCusker and Jocelyn West were originally ...
. The group's 1997 debut album, ''
Salva Nos'' reached #2 on the classical music charts.
Carter later settled in
, residing in a live-in studio on the third floor of a warehouse building where she hosted salons. She died in 2003 of an
aneurysm
An aneurysm is an outward bulging, likened to a bubble or balloon, caused by a localized, abnormal, weak spot on a blood vessel wall. Aneurysms may be a result of a hereditary condition or an acquired disease. Aneurysms can also be a nidus (s ...
.
She is survived by a son and daughter, Justin Carter of Los Angeles, California and Celeste Carter of Picayune, Mississippi and a grandson, Damien Helgason.
Appearances
* 2000,
Vancouver, BC
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. The ...
. Dorothy Carter played
hurdy-gurdy
The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-crank-turned, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a vio ...
at the
Vancouver Folk Music Festival
The Vancouver Folk Music Festival (VFMF), founded in 1978, is an outdoor multistage music festival, located at Jericho Beach Park on the west side of Vancouver, British Columbia. It takes place annually, on the third weekend of July.
The fes ...
.
A recording can be heard on the Soundscapes 2000 album.
Discography
As Dorothy Carter
*''
Troubadour
A troubadour (, ; oc, trobador ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a ''trobairit ...
'' (1976)
*''
Waillee Waillee'' (1978)
*''Lonesome Dove'' (2000)
*''Dorothy Carter'' (2003)
With Mediæval Bæbes
*''
Salva Nos'' (1997)
*''
Worldes Blysse
''Worldes Blysse'' is the second album by British vocal group Mediæval Bæbes
The Mediæval Bæbes are a British musical ensemble founded in 1996 by Dorothy Carter and Katharine Blake. It included some of Blake's colleagues from the band M ...
'' (1998)
*''The Best of the Mediæval Bæbes'' (1999, a compilation of tracks from the first two albums)
*''
Undrentide'' (2000)
*''
The Rose'' (2002)
References
External links
Dorothy Carter on Last FM(illustrations, music, information)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carter, Dorothy
Hammered dulcimer players
Hurdy-gurdy players
Zither players
Virgin Records artists
1935 births
Musicians from New York City
2003 deaths
20th-century American musicians
20th-century American women musicians
21st-century American women