Erling Wold (born January 30, 1958 in

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, w ...

) is a

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

based

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

and

contemporary classical music Contemporary classical music is classical music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included seria ...

. He is best known for his later chamber operas, and his early experiments as a microtonalist.

Life

Wold was born into a religious family, the son of Erling Henry Wold Sr, a

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

minister and Margaret Barth Wold, an author of inspirational books and plays. He was given piano lessons at an early age but showed little interest in music until his teen years, when he became infatuated, teaching himself to play a variety of instruments and embracing the music of many of the modernist composers. It was also at this point that he started to write music. He first studied composition at

Occidental College Occidental College (informally Oxy) is a private liberal arts college in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887 as a coeducational college by clergy and members of the Presbyterian Church, it became non-sectarian in 1910. It is one of the oldes ...

with Robert Gross where he was awarded the Elinor Remick Warren Composition Award in 1978. Later teachers included Gerard Grisey,

Andrew Imbrie Andrew Welsh Imbrie (April 6, 1921 – December 5, 2007) was an American contemporary classical music composer and pianist. Career Imbrie was born in New York City and began his musical training as a pianist when he was 4. In 1937, he went to Par ...

and

John Chowning John M. Chowning (; born August 22, 1934 in Salem, New Jersey) is an American composer, musician, discoverer, and professor best known for his work at Stanford University, the founding of CCRMA - Center for Computer Research in Music and Acou ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

and

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, where he primarily studied computer music, gaining a facility with the mathematics of

signal processing Signal processing is an electrical engineering subfield that focuses on analyzing, modifying and synthesizing ''signals'', such as audio signal processing, sound, image processing, images, and scientific measurements. Signal processing techniq ...

. While at Berkeley, he married Lynn Murdock, for whom he wrote a number of his early works. In 1985, they had a son, Duncan Renaldo Wold. He married the painter Lynne Rutter in 2010. After earning his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

at Berkeley in 1987, he went to work for Yamaha Music Technologies, writing a number of patents in music synthesis and processing. During this period, most of his music was electronic, and he was an early advocate of the

Synclavier The Synclavier is an early digital synthesizer, polyphonic digital sampling system, and music workstation manufactured by New England Digital Corporation of Norwich, Vermont. It was produced in various forms from the late 1970s into the early 1 ...

. His work at this time with a number of San Francisco performance artists and dancers led to his continuing interest in theater. After leaving Yamaha in 1992, he cofounded Muscle Fish, an audio and music software company. By 1995 he had migrated back to writing instrumental music and wrote his first chamber opera based on

Max Ernst Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German (naturalised American in 1948 and French in 1958) painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealism ...

's collage novel ''A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil'', a critical and popular success which has been revived several times, including performances by the

Paul Dresher Paul Joseph Dresher (born January 8, 1951 in Los Angeles) is an American composer. Dresher received his B.A. in music from the University of California, Berkeley and his M.A. in composition from the University of California, San Diego, where he st ...

Ensemble and by the

Klagenfurt Klagenfurt am WörtherseeLandesgesetzblatt 2008 vom 16. Jänner 2008, Stück 1, Nr. 1: ''Gesetz vom 25. Oktober 2007, mit dem die Kärntner Landesverfassung und das Klagenfurter Stadtrecht 1998 geändert werden.'/ref> (; ; sl, Celovec), usually ...

er ensemble in Austria and Germany. The success of the production led to a residency at ODC Theater in San Francisco, where he premiered his opera ''Queer'' based on

William S. Burroughs William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular cultur ...

' early autobiographical novel of the same name in 2001 and ''Sub Pontio Pilato'', an

historical fantasy Historical fantasy is a category of fantasy and genre of historical fiction that incorporates fantastic elements (such as magic) into a more "realistic" narrative. There is much crossover with other subgenres of fantasy; those classed as Arthur ...

on the death and remembrance of

Pontius Pilate Pontius Pilate (; grc-gre, Πόντιος Πιλᾶτος, ) was the fifth governor of the Roman province of Judaea, serving under Emperor Tiberius from 26/27 to 36/37 AD. He is best known for being the official who presided over the trial of J ...

in 2003. There have been few purely musical works during this period, but some notable exceptions are ''Close'', played by Relâche and others, the piano pieces ''Albrechts Fluegel'', premiered by Finnish pianist Marja Mutru, and ''Veracity''. Although he rejected religion in his teens, he has returned many times to religious themes in his works, including many of his operatic works, and his

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

named for

Notker the Stammerer Notker the Stammerer ( – 6 April 912), Notker Balbulus, or simply Notker, was a Benedictine monk at the Abbey of Saint Gall active as a poet, scholar and (probably) composer. Described as "a significant figure in the Western Church", Notker m ...

commissioned by the Cathedral of St Gall. His earliest music was

atonal Atonality in its broadest sense is music that lacks a tonal center, or key. ''Atonality'', in this sense, usually describes compositions written from about the early 20th-century to the present day, where a hierarchy of harmonies focusing on a s ...

and arrhythmic, but the influences of

just intonation In music, just intonation or pure intonation is the tuning of musical intervals Interval may refer to: Mathematics and physics * Interval (mathematics), a range of numbers ** Partially ordered set#Intervals, its generalization from numbers to ...

and the music of the minimalists led to the bulk of his music being composed in a variety of tonal genres. He was attracted by the theater and much of his music is either directly dramatic or is based on dramatic rather than purely musical structures. Wold is an

eclectic Eclectic may refer to: Music * ''Eclectic'' (Eric Johnson and Mike Stern album), 2014 * ''Eclectic'' (Big Country album), 1996 * Eclectic Method, name of an audio-visual remix act * Eclecticism in music, the conscious use of styles alien to th ...

composer who has also been called "the

Eric Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an und ...

of Berkeley

surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

/minimalist electro-

art rock Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an art ...

" 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 ...

. He composed the soundtracks for a number of films by the

independent film An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is produced outside the major film studio system, in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies (or, i ...

director

Jon Jost Jon Stephen Jost (born 16 May 1943 in Chicago) is an American independent filmmaker. Born in Chicago to a military family, he grew up in Georgia, Kansas, Japan, Italy, Germany and Virginia. He began making films in January 1963 after being expel ...

. There are a number of CD and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

releases of Wold's music. He has published artistic and technical articles in several publications, including the

Leonardo Music Journal ''Leonardo Music Journal'' is an annual multimedia peer-reviewed academic journal (print and audio CD) published by the MIT Press on behalf of Leonardo, The International Society of the Arts, Sciences and Technology. The journal was established i ...

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

MultiMedia, Proceedings of the

International Computer Music Conference The International Computer Music Conference (ICMC) is a yearly international conference for computer music researchers and composers. It is the annual conference of the International Computer Music Association (ICMA). History In 1986, the Inst ...

SIGGRAPH SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) is an annual conference on computer graphics (CG) organized by the ACM SIGGRAPH, starting in 1974. The main conference is held in North America; SIGGRAPH Asia ...

, the Just Intonation Network Journal 1/1, IEEE Transactions on Computers and several books. He is the Executive Director of the

San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra The San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra (SFCCO) is a chamber orchestra based in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 2002 and is dedicated to the performance of contemporary classical music, most often works by the o ...

Discography

* ''Rattensturm'' (2019). On Spooky Pooch. Conducted by Alexei Kornienko. * ''UKSUS'' (2019). On MinMax. Performed by Timur Bekbosunov et al, conducted by Bryan Nies. * ''Certitude and Joy'' (2014). On MinMax. Performed by Laura Bohn et al., and the ZOFO Duet. * ''Mordake'' (2010). On MinMax. Performed by John Duykers, and the SFCCO under

Mark Alburger Mark Alburger (born April 2, 1957 in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania) is a San Francisco Bay area composer and conductor. He is the founder and music director of the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra, as well as the music director of Goat ...

. * ''Missa Beati Notkeri Balbuli Sancti Galli Monachi'' (2010). On Spooky Pooch Records. Recorded at the

Abbey of Saint Gall The Abbey of Saint Gall (german: Abtei St. Gallen) is a dissolved abbey (747–1805) in a Catholic religious complex in the city of St. Gallen in Switzerland. The Carolingian-era monastery existed from 719, founded by Saint Othmar on the spot w ...

under the direction of Hans Eberhard, with Kimberly Brockman, soprano. * ''Sub Pontio Pilato'' (2006), a live performance at ODC Theater, with Jonathan Khuner conducting, starring

John Duykers John Duykers (born September 30, 1944, in Butte, Montana) is a prominent American operatic tenor, especially known for his work in modern and contemporary opera. He made his formal debut with the Seattle Opera in 1966. Career Since then, Duykers ...

. On Spooky Pooch Records. * ''queer'' (2002). Conducted by Dierdre McClure with Trauma Flintstone in the lead role. On Spooky Pooch Records. * ''A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil'' (2001). Conducted by Dierdre McClure, presented by ODC Theater. On MinMax. * ''The Bed You Sleep In'' (1992). Soundtrack for a movie by Jon Jost. On

Table of the Elements Table of the Elements is an American record label. It concentrates on re-released and specially recorded experimental music, including many Avant-garde music, avant-garde musicians of the 20th and 21st centuries: such as John Cale, Tony Conrad, ...

. * ''I Weep'' (1992). On Spooky Pooch. * ''Music of Love'' (1987). For microtonal Synclavier. On Spooky Pooch.

Works

Chamber Opera

* ''Rattensturm'' (2018) on the sinking of the

SMS Szent István SMS ''Szent István'' (His Majesty's Ship ''Saint Stephen'') was the last of four dreadnought battleships built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. ''Szent István'' was the only ship of her class to be built within the Hungarian part of the Austr ...

, libretto by Peter Wagner. * ''Uksus'' (2012-2016) based on the writings of Daniil Kharms. * ''Certitude and Joy'' (2012) on the dangers and ecstasies of religious faith. * ''Mordake'' (2008) a solo opera for

on the story of

Edward Mordake Edward Mordake (sometimes spelled Mordrake) is the apocryphal subject of an urban legend who was born in the 19th century as the heir to an English peerage with a face at the back of his head. According to legend, the face could whisper, laugh or ...

; libretto by

Douglas Kearney Douglas Kearney (born 1974) is an American poet, performer and librettist. Kearney grew up in Altadena, California. His work has appeared in ''Nocturnes'', ''Jubilat'', ''Beloit Poetry Journal'', ''Gulf Coast'', ''Poetry'', ''Pleiades'', ''Iowa ...

. * ''Blinde Liebe'' (2005) an interactive dance opera on a true crime story *''Sub Pontio Pilato'' (2003) an historical fantasy on

with libretto by James Bisso * ''die Nacht wird kommen...'' (2002) a German language version of ''A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil'' *''queer'' (2000, revised 2011) based on the novel by William S. Burroughs * ''A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil'' (1995, revised 2000) based on

's collage novel

Dance

* ''Trio'' (2004) a joint composition with Thom Blum for Deborah Slater Dance Theater * ''i brought my hips to the table'' (1998) text by Michelle Murphy * ''Abstaende'' (1995) dance by Palindrome Dance Company * ''Egg'' (1990) - dance by Gay White * ''Crash'' (1987) * ''Dance of the Testifiers'' (1987) * ''Dance of the Polygamists'' (1987)

Orchestra

* ''Certitude and Joy'' (2011) commissioned and premiered by the

Sofia Symphonic Orchestra The Sofia Philharmonic ( Bulgarian: Софийска филхармония) was founded in 1928. The current music director is Nayden Todorov. Sofia Philharmonic includes the National Philharmonic Orchestra, National Philharmonic Choir "Svetos ...

* ''Brightness'' (2004) for clarinet and orchestra, premiered by Rachel Condry.

Choral

* ''Missa Beati Notkeri Balbuli Sancti Galli Monachi'' (2006)

Chamber

* ''walking along the embarcadero past pier 7 and the flowers'' (2011) for two pianos * ''Veracity'' (2001) for piano * ''Close'' (1997) for chamber ensemble * ''Albrechts Fluegel'' (1995) for piano * ''Seven Days Ago'' (1990) * ''It was in the summer that I first noticed your hair, your face, your eyelids'' (1988)

Film

* ''Coyotes Kill For Fun (2017)'' film by Blake Eckard * ''Bubba Moon Face (2011)'' film by Blake Eckard * ''La Lunga Ombra'' (2005) film by Jon Jost * ''Homecoming'' (2004) film by Jon Jost * ''London Brief'' (1997) film by Jon Jost * ''The Bed You Sleep In'' (1993) film by Jon Jost * ''Sure Fire'' (1990) film by Jon Jostimdb.com Sure Fire
/ref>

Songs

* ''Raheel'' (2003) text by Dima Hilal * ''Harvest of Rage'' (2000) songs for tenor and orchestra * ''13 Versions of Surrender'' (1996) text by

Michelle Murphy Michelle Murphy (born 1969) is a Canadian academic. She is a professor of history and women and gender studies at the University of Toronto and director of the Technoscience Research Unit. Murphy is well known for her work on regimes of imperc ...

* ''Center Mother and Boss Puss'' (1990) text by

Antonin Artaud Antoine Marie Joseph Paul Artaud, better known as Antonin Artaud (; 4 September 1896 – 4 March 1948), was a French writer, poet, dramatist, visual artist, essayist, actor and theatre director. He is widely recognized as a major figure of the E ...

References

External links

ErlingWold.com
website {{DEFAULTSORT:Wold, Erling American male classical composers American classical composers 20th-century classical composers 21st-century classical composers American opera composers Male opera composers 1958 births Living people Musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area California Institute of Technology alumni Occidental College alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni Stanford University alumni Pupils of Gérard Grisey Musicians from Burbank, California 21st-century American composers 20th-century American composers Classical musicians from California 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians