Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which in ...
) is an American
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 ...
who currently resides in
Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...
, where he is chair of the composition program at the
Hartt School
The Hartt School is the comprehensive performing arts conservatory of the University of Hartford located in West Hartford, Connecticut, United States, that offers degree programs in music, dance, and theatre. Founded in 1920 by Julius Hartt and ...
,
University of Hartford
The University of Hartford (UHart) is a private university in West Hartford, Connecticut. Its main campus extends into neighboring Hartford and Bloomfield. The university attracts students from 48 states and 43 countries. The university and it ...
.
Music
Carl studied with
Jonathan Kramer
Jonathan Donald Kramer (December 7, 1942, Hartford, Connecticut – June 3, 2004, New York City) was an American composer and music theorist.
Biography
Kramer received his B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard University (1965) and his MA and ...
,
George Rochberg
George Rochberg (July 5, 1918May 29, 2005) was an American composer of contemporary classical music. Long a serial composer, Rochberg abandoned the practice following the death of his teenage son in 1964; he claimed this compositional technique ...
,
Ralph Shapey
Ralph Shapey (12 March 1921 – 13 June 2002) was an American composer and conductor.
Biography
Shapey was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is known for his work as a composition professor at the University of Chicago, where he taught ...
,
Iannis Xenakis
Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; el, Γιάννης "Ιωάννης" Κλέαρχου Ξενάκης, ; 29 May 1922 – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde ...
,
Betsy Jolas
Elizabeth Jolas (born 5 August 1926) is a Franco-American composer.
Biography
Jolas was born in Paris in 1926. Her mother, the American translator Maria McDonald, was a singer. Her father, the poet and journalist Eugene Jolas, founded and edited ...
,
George Crumb
George Henry Crumb Jr. (24 October 1929 – 6 February 2022) was an American composer of avant-garde contemporary classical music. Early in his life he rejected the widespread modernist usage of serialism, developing a highly personal musical ...
,
Richard Wernick
Richard Wernick (born January 16, 1934, in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American composer. He is best known for his chamber and vocal works. His composition ''Visions of Terror and Wonder'' won the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for Music.
Career
Wernick b ...
, and Robert Morris.
From each respectively, the composer has commented that he feels he learned about time, history,
counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...
/phrasing, and form. His music finds its roots in the spirit of eclectic juxtapositions,
transcendentalism
Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in New England. "Transcendentalism is an American literary, political, and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century, centered around Ralph Wald ...
, and experiment embodied in the output of
Charles Ives
Charles Edward Ives (; October 20, 1874May 19, 1954) was an American modernist composer, one of the first American composers of international renown. His music was largely ignored during his early career, and many of his works went unperformed f ...
and other American "ultramodernists", including
Carl Ruggles
Carl Ruggles (born Charles Sprague Ruggles; March 11, 1876 – October 24, 1971) was an American composer, painter and teacher. His pieces employed " dissonant counterpoint", a term coined by fellow composer and musicologist Charles Seeger to ...
.
Carl’s music until 1997 tends to explore different styles, and to create unusual syntheses thereof. A
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
major as an undergraduate at
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
, he has felt that the musical past is a fertile source to be manipulated for new expressive purposes. ''Duke Meets Mort'' (1992) is a saxophone quartet that interprets the harmonic changes of
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...
’s ''
Mood Indigo
"Mood Indigo" is a jazz song with music by Duke Ellington and Barney Bigard and lyrics by Irving Mills.
Composition
Although Irving Mills—Jack Mills's brother and publishing partner—took credit for the lyrics, Mitchell Parish claimed in ...
'' in the voice of
Morton Feldman
Morton Feldman (January 12, 1926 – September 3, 1987) was an American composer. A major figure in 20th-century classical music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminate music, a development associated with the experimental New York School ...
. ''Time/Memory/Shadow'' (1988) is a double trio (piano quintet and harp) based on a march written in the composer’s adolescence, which is slowly “excavated” in the course of the piece, and only revealed at the end.
From 1998, starting with ''Open'' for string trio, Carl’s music has become less referential. Since 2001 he has developed a technique of basing his
harmonies
In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However, ...
on the
overtone series
A harmonic series (also overtone series) is the sequence of harmonics, musical tones, or pure tones whose frequency is an integer multiple of a ''fundamental frequency''.
Pitched musical instruments are often based on an acoustic resonator su ...
, with common partials above different fundamentals serving as pivots for progressions and modulations. In ''American Music in the Twentieth Century'', critic
Kyle Gann
Kyle Eugene Gann (born November 21, 1955, in Dallas, Texas) is an American professor of music, critic, analyst, and composer who has worked primarily in the New York City area. As a music critic for ''The Village Voice'' (from 1986 to 2005) and ...
described Carl's more recent style: "(he) has settled into a more serene, meditative idiom, but still with a dissonant edge." More recent works that represent this approach include ''The Wind’s Trace Rests on Leaves and Waves'' (2005) for string quintet (premiered by the
Miami String Quartet
The Miami String Quartet is an American string quartet. The group was founded in 1988 at The New World School of the Arts by John de Lancie in Miami, Florida. The Quartet was in Residence at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, where all four mem ...
and Robert Black); ''Marfantasie'' (2004) for electric guitar and large ensemble; ''Shake the Tree'' for piano four-hands (2005); ''A Musical Enquiry Into the Sublime and Beautiful'' (2006–07) for
chamber orchestra
Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numbe ...
; ''La Ville Engloutie'' (2007) for
wind ensemble
A concert band, also called a wind band, wind ensemble, wind symphony, wind orchestra, symphonic band, the symphonic winds, or symphonic wind ensemble, is a performing ensemble consisting of members of the woodwind, brass, and percussion famil ...
; Fourth Symphony (2008); ''The Geography of Loss'' (2010) for soprano, baritone, chamber chorus, and instrumental octet; and Piano Quintet, "S''earch"'' (2012). Carl also frequently collaborates with sculptor
Karen McCoy
Karen McCoy is an American visual artist whose work focuses on sculpture, environmental art, walking art, and land art. She resides in Kansas City, Missouri, where she is a professor emeritus in sculpture and social practice at the Kansas City Art ...
, creating sound components of
installation art
Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called ...
works, including pieces for the Sculpture Key Festivals of 2009 and 2010, and the 2013 Wintergreen Festival.
Carl's music has been released by
Innova Recordings
Innova Recordings is the independent record label of the non-profit American Composers Forum based in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was founded in 1982 to document the winners of the McKnight Fellowship offered by its parent organization, the Minneso ...
,
New World Records
New World Records is a record label that was established in 1975 through a Rockefeller Foundation grant to celebrate America's bicentennial (1976) by producing a 100-LP anthology, with American music from many genres.BMOPSound, and
Centaur Records
Centaur Records is one of the oldest and largest independent classical labels in America. The company is located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and was founded by Victor Sachse in 1976. Centaur's catalog includes classical, historical, pops, contemp ...
American Academy of Arts and Letters
The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqu ...
Chamber Music America Chamber Music America (CMA) is an American non-profit organization that provides small ensemble professionals with access to a variety of professional development, networking, and funding resources. CMA's regular initiatives include grants, awards, ...
.
Writings
Since 1994, Carl has been a critic for
Fanfare magazine
''Fanfare'' is an American bimonthly magazine devoted to reviewing recorded music in all playback formats. It mainly covers classical music, but since inception, has also featured a jazz column in every issue.
History and profile
''Fanfare'' was ...
, where he writes extensively on new music recordings. In addition, he has completed a book on
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 ...
’s
In C
''In C'' is a musical piece composed by Terry Riley in 1964 for an indefinite number of performers. He suggests "a group of about 35 is desired if possible but smaller or larger groups will work". A series of short melodic fragments, ''In C'' is o ...
, published in 2009 by
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
. His interest in Japanese music (Carl often performs his own music on the
shakuhachi
A is a Japanese and ancient Chinese longitudinal, end-blown flute that is made of bamboo.
The bamboo end-blown flute now known as the was developed in Japan in the 16th century and is called the .
) led to a residency in
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
in spring 2007, which resulted in interviews with 25 contemporary Japanese composers. In 2013, Carl published "Eight Waves a Composer Will Ride in This Century" on an emerging
common practice period
In European art music, the common-practice period is the era of the tonal system. Most of its features persisted from the mid- Baroque period through the Classical and Romantic periods, roughly from 1650 to 1900. There was much stylistic evoluti ...
that he observes in twenty-first-century compositional practice, based on the universality of
music technology
Music technology is the study or the use of any device, mechanism, machine or tool by a musician or composer to make or perform music; to compose, notate, playback or record songs or pieces; or to analyze or edit music.
History
The earlies ...
,
globalism
Globalism refers to various patterns of meaning beyond the merely international. It is used by political scientists, such as Joseph Nye, to describe "attempts to understand all the interconnections of the modern world—and to highlight patterns ...
, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and sonic
essentialism
Essentialism is the view that objects have a set of attributes that are necessary to their identity. In early Western thought, Plato's idealism held that all things have such an "essence"—an "idea" or "form". In ''Categories'', Aristotle sim ...
. This essay has become the basis for ''Music Composition in the 21st Century: A Practical Guide for the New Common Practice'', published by
Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions.
Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest mus ...
in August 2020. He has also edited the final (posthumous) book of
Jonathan Kramer
Jonathan Donald Kramer (December 7, 1942, Hartford, Connecticut – June 3, 2004, New York City) was an American composer and music theorist.
Biography
Kramer received his B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard University (1965) and his MA and ...
, ''Postmodern Music, Postmodern Listening'', also published by
Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions.
Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest mus ...
.
Selected works
Orchestral and Ensemble
* Symphony No. 2 ''"Liberty and/or Death"'' (1989–1992)
*''Marfantasie'' for electric guitar and large ensemble (2004)
*''A Musical Enquiry Into the Sublime and Beautiful'' for chamber orchestra (2006–2007)
*''La Ville Engloutie'' for wind ensemble (2007)
* Symphony No. 4 ''"The Ladder"'' (2008)
*''Rocking Chair Serenade'' for string orchestra (2013)
*Symphony No. 5, "Land" (2013)
*''What's Underfoot'' for chamber orchestra (2016)
*Symphony No. 6, "Dome of Refuge" (2017)
;
Chamber Music
* String Quartet No. 1 ''"A Path between Cloud and Light"'' (1985)
*''Roundabout'' for contrabass and fixed electronic part (1988)
*''Time/Memory/Shadow'' for double trio (piano, 2 violins, viola, cello, harp or synthesizer/sampler) (1988)
*''Duke Meets Mort'' for saxophone quartet (1992)
*''A Sampler of the Senses'' for viola, cello and piano (1994)
*''Open'' for string trio (1998)
* Violin Sonata No. 2 ''"Angel Skating"'' (1999)
* String Quartet No. 2 ''"Fear of Death/Love of Life"'' (2001)
* Piano Trio No. 2 ''"The Blossom"'' (2002)
*''Excavating the Perfect Farewell'' for viola and piano (2003)
*''The Wind's Trace Rests on Leaves and Waves'' for string quintet (2005)
*''A Clean Sweep'' for
shakuhachi
A is a Japanese and ancient Chinese longitudinal, end-blown flute that is made of bamboo.
The bamboo end-blown flute now known as the was developed in Japan in the 16th century and is called the .
and
Max/MSP
Max, also known as Max/MSP/Jitter, is a visual programming language for music and multimedia developed and maintained by San Francisco-based software company Cycling '74. Over its more than thirty-year history, it has been used by composers, per ...
(2005)
*''River's Bend'' for flute duo (2012)
* Piano Quintet, "''Search"'' (2013)
*''Open/Empty'' for Pierrot sextet (2014)
*''Jyun On'' for two shakuhachis and ichigenkin (2016)
*Piano Quartet, "''Just Listen''" (2018)
;
Piano
* Piano Sonata No.1 ''"Spiral Dances"'' (1984)
*Piano Sonata No. 2, "''The Big Room''" (1993-99)
*''Braided Bagatelles'' for solo piano (2001)
*''Shake the Tree'' for piano four-hands (2005)
*Piano Sonata No. 3, "''Clouds of Clarification''" (2014)
;
Vocal
*''Our Heart and Home Is with Infinitude'' for soprano and piano (1998)
*''Simic Songs'', 15 Madrigals for 4 voices on poems of
Charles Simic
Dušan Simić ( sr-cyr, Душан Симић, ; born May 9, 1938), known as Charles Simic, is a Serbian American poet and former co-poetry editor of the ''Paris Review''. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1990 for ''The World Doesn't ...
(2004)
*''Geography of Loss'', for soprano, baritone, chamber choir, and eight instrumentalists (2010)
*''Harmony'', opera in two acts (libretto by
Russell Banks
Russell Banks (born March 28, 1940) is an American writer of fiction and poetry. As a novelist, Banks is best known for his "detailed accounts of domestic strife and the daily struggles of ordinary often-marginalized characters". His stories usua ...