John McGuire (born June 27, 1942 in

Artesia, California Artesia (Spanish for "artesian aquifer") is a city in southeast Los Angeles County, California. Artesia was incorporated on May 29, 1959, and is one of Los Angeles County's Gateway Cities. The city has a 2010 census population of 16,522. Artesi ...

) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

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 Def ...

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists. In addition, an organist may accompany congregational ...

, and

music editor A music sequencer (or audio sequencer or simply sequencer) is a device or application software that can record, edit, or play back music, by handling note and performance information in several forms, typically CV/Gate, MIDI, or Open Sound Cont ...

Biography

John McGuire initially studied composition with

Robert Arthur Gross Robert Arthur Gross (March 23, 1914 – November 6, 1983) was an American composer and violinist. A native of Colorado Springs, Colorado, where composer Cecil Effinger would be born four months later, Gross began studies under Leopold Auer and Ed ...

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 ...

, where he earned a BA in 1964. He received a succession of three Alfred E. Hertz Traveling Scholarships from the University of California at Berkeley (1965–66, 1966–67, 1967–68), and a Fulbright Traveling Scholarship (1966–67), which together enabled him to study with

Krzysztof Penderecki Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki (; 23 November 1933 – 29 March 2020) was a Polish composer and conductor. His best known works include ''Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima'', Symphony No. 3, his '' St Luke Passion'', '' Polish Requiem'', ' ...

at the Folkwang Hochschule in

Essen Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Do ...

from 1966–68, and at the Fourth Cologne Courses for New Music, under

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groundb ...

, in 1967. Two scholarships from the State of North Rhine–Westphalia for studies in Germany made it possible for him to participate in the composition studios given by Stockhausen at Darmstadt in 1967 and again in 1968. Returning to the United States, he continued his studies 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 un ...

, where his composition teachers included

Ingolf Dahl Ingolf Dahl (June 9, 1912 – August 6, 1970) was a German-born American composer, pianist, conductor, and educator. Biography Dahl was born Walter Ingolf Marcus in Hamburg, Germany, to a German Jewish father, attorney Paul Marcus, and his Swedi ...

and Seymour Shifrin. After completing his MA there in 1970, he once again moved to Europe, at first studying computer composition with Gottfried Michael Koenig at the Institute of Sonology of the

University of Utrecht Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...

from 1970 to 1971. Having found the atmosphere in Germany congenial, following his studies in Utrecht he settled in Germany again in 1972 and remained for the next twenty-five years, at first working as a pianist with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester

Saarbrücken Saarbrücken (; french: link=no, Sarrebruck ; Rhine Franconian: ''Saarbrigge'' ; lb, Saarbrécken ; lat, Saravipons, lit=The Bridge(s) across the Saar river) is the capital and largest city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken is ...

from 1972–75. From 1975 to 1977 he studied electronic music with Hans Ulrich Humpert at the

Hochschule für Musik Köln ' (, plural: ') is the generic term in German for institutions of higher education, corresponding to ''universities'' and ''colleges'' in English. The term ''Universität'' (plural: ''Universitäten'') is reserved for institutions with the right to ...

, later working as an organist at the Kirche St. Nikolaus von Tolentino in

Rösrath Rösrath (; ) is a town in the Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis (district) in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The earliest known documents mentioning the settlement ''Rösrath'' can be found in documents dated to 1356. There have been findings of Pale ...

from 1979–82. He received six commissions from WDR in Cologne for pieces he realised in the electronic-music studio there, among them ''Pulse Music III'' in 1978, ''Vanishing Points'' in 1988, and ''A Cappella'' in 1997.Morawska-Büngeler, Marietta. 1988. ''Schwingende Elektronen: Eine Dokumentation über das Studio für Elektronische Musik des Westdeutschen Rundfunk in Köln 1951–1986''. Cologne-Rodenkirchen: P. J. Tonger Musikverlag. p. 108.
. He has also had works commissioned by Radio Bremen, from pianist Herbert Henck (''48 Variations'', for 2 pianos), from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

, and from the Ministry of Culture of North Rhine–Westphalia. In 1995 he was composer-in-residence at the Akademie Schloss Wiepersdorf in Brandenburg. In 1998 he returned to his native country, working for a time as an editor for the Carl Fischer music-publishing firm 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 ...

starting in 1998. From 2000 to 2002 he taught advanced composition and twentieth-century music as a part-time Visiting Adjunct Professor at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. He is married to the soprano Beth Griffith, for whom he composed ''A Cappella'' in 1990–97 and ''Contradance'' in 2000–2004.

Musical style and influences

Kyle Gann describes McGuire as a "

postminimalist Postminimalism is an art term coined (as post-minimalism) by Robert Pincus-Witten in 1971Chilvers, Ian and Glaves-Smith, John, ''A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art'', second edition (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), p. ...

". His music seeks a synthesis of

minimalism In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Do ...

and the

serialism In music, serialism is a method of composition using series of pitches, rhythms, dynamics, timbres or other musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though some of his contemporaries were al ...

with which he had become acquainted during his studies in Germany, especially with Stockhausen. "His work over the next 25 years was devoted entirely to the exploration and development of various aspects of this synthesis, in particular the fusion of elemental tonal functions with chromatic time structures". He is regarded as one of the key figures in the Cologne School. His music is published by Feedback Studio (Cologne) and Breitkopf & Härtel

Compositions

* String Trio No. 1 (1963–64) * Study, for orchestra (1965) * ''Divergences'', for piano, 2 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos (1965–66) * String Trio No. 2 (1966) * ''Cadenza'', for string quartet (1966) * ''Decay'', for 8 horns (1967–70) * ''Frieze'', for 4 Pianos (1969–74) * ''Pulse Music I'', for tape (1975–76) * ''Pulse Music II'', for four pianos and small orchestra (1975–77) * ''48 Variations'', for 2 pianos (1976–80) * ''Pulse Music III'', for tape (1978) * ''Music for Horns, Pianos and Cymbals'' (1981) * ''Cadence Music'', for 21 players (1982–85) * ''Vanishing Points'', for tape (1985–88) * ''A Cappella'', for soprano and tape (1990–97) * ''Contradance'', for soprano and string quartet (2000–2004) * ''Ordinary Measures'', for mixed chorus (2004–05)

Discography

* John McGuire. 1987. ''48 Variations for Two Pianos''. Largo (LP),

umber Umber is a natural brown earth pigment that contains iron oxide and manganese oxide. In its natural form, it is called raw umber. When calcined, the color becomes warmer and it becomes known as burnt umber. Its name derives from ''terra d'omb ...

* John McGuire. 2002. ''Pulse Music III''; ''Vanishing Points''; ''A Cappella''. Beth Griffith, soprano. Sargasso (CD), SCD 28043. * John McGuire. 2008. ''Cadence Music''; ''Exchanges''; ''Decay''; ''Frieze''; ''Music for Horns, Piano and Cymbals''. Edition RZ 20003-4.

References

External links