Tod Dockstader (March 20, 1932 – February 27, 2015)
was an American
electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
composer and
sound design
Sound design is the art and practice of creating sound tracks for a variety of needs. It involves specifying, acquiring or creating auditory elements using audio production techniques and tools. It is employed in a variety of disciplines including ...
er. He is particularly regarded as one of the first American ''
musique concrète
Musique concrète (; ): " problem for any translator of an academic work in French is that the language is relatively abstract and theoretical compared to English; one might even say that the mode of thinking itself tends to be more schematic, ...
'' composers.
Biography
Dockstader was born in
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississip ...
, United States.
In the 1950s, he studied painting and film while at the
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...
before moving to Hollywood to become an apprentice film editor. He moved into work as a sound engineer in 1958, and apprenticed at Gotham Recording Studios, where he first started composing; he also worked for
Terrytoons
Terrytoons was an American animation studio in New Rochelle, New York, that produced animated cartoons for theatrical release from 1929 to 1973 (and briefly returned between 1987 and 1996 for television in name only). Terrytoons was founded by ...
alongside
Gene Deitch
Eugene Merril Deitch (August 8, 1924 – April 16, 2020) was an American illustrator, animator, comics artist, and film director who was based in Prague from the 1960s until his death in 2020. Deitch was known for creating animated cartoons ...
. From 1961 to 1962, when Deitch directed thirteen new ''
Tom and Jerry
''Tom and Jerry'' is an American Animated cartoon, animated media franchise and series of comedy short films created in 1940 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Best known for its 161 theatrical short films by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the series c ...
'' shorts, Dockstader was responsible for creating the unusual, heavily reverberated sound effects heard throughout them; he also wrote the shorts ''
Mouse into Space'' and ''
Landing Stripling
This is a complete list of the 164 shorts in the ''Tom and Jerry'' series produced and released between 1940 and 2014. Of these, 162 are theatrical shorts, one is a made-for-TV short, and one is a 2-minute sketch shown as part of a telethon.
...
''.
Dockstader's first record, ''Eight Electronic Pieces'', was released in 1960, and segments were later used as the soundtrack to Italian film director
Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini (; 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and most i ...
's ''
Fellini Satyricon
''Fellini Satyricon'', or simply ''Satyricon'', is a 1969 Italian fantasy drama film written and directed by Federico Fellini and loosely based on Petronius's work '' Satyricon'', written during the reign of Emperor Nero and set in Imperial R ...
'' (1969). He continued to create music throughout the first half of the decade, working principally with tape manipulation effects. In 1966, Owl Records released four albums of his work from this period, including ''Quatermass''. He achieved modest recognition and radio play alongside the likes of
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 groun ...
,
Edgard Varèse
Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse (; also spelled Edgar; December 22, 1883 – November 6, 1965) was a French-born composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States. Varèse's music emphasizes timbre and rhythm; he coined ...
, and
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...
.
In 1961, he applied to use the facilities at the
Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center
The Computer Music Center (CMC) at Columbia University is the oldest center for electronic and computer music research in the United States. It was founded in the 1950s as the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center.
Location
The CMC is hou ...
and was denied access in separate rejection letters penned by
Vladimir Ussachevsky
Vladimir Alexeevich Ussachevsky (November 3, 1911 in Hailar, China – January 2, 1990 in New York, New York) was a composer, particularly known for his work in electronic music.
Biography
Vladimir Ussachevsky was born in the Hailar Distric ...
and
Milton Babbitt
Milton Byron Babbitt (May 10, 1916 – January 29, 2011) was an American composer, music theorist, mathematician, and teacher. He is particularly noted for his Serialism, serial and electronic music.
Biography
Babbitt was born in Philadelphia t ...
. Ussachevsky’s official reason was the “overstrained” scheduling of the studios, although it was suspected that Dockstader's lack of academic training was a factor in the decision. After leaving Gotham Recording Studios in the late 1960s, he formed the audio-visual service Westport Communications Group along with business partner, and former Gotham executive, Fred Hertz. The company focused on corporate clients and produced award-winning educational films for the American Heritage series.
Dockstader was also a prolific writer, with several articles published by Electronic Music Review and The Musical Quarterly.
In the early 1990s,
Starkland
Starkland is an independent record label based in Boulder, Colorado that specializes in alternative classical music. It was founded in 1991 by Thomas Steenland.
Starkland's first two CDs offered all the principal 1960s music from the "organized s ...
re-released most of the content of Dockstader’s out-of-print Owl records, along with previously unreleased material. The two CDs brought new, significant acclaim to the composer. ''The Washington Post'' called Dockstader "a highly imaginative pioneer," and ''The Wire'' concluded, "The obsessive care with which Starkland have compiled these extraordinary recordings should ensure that Dockstader will be remembered as the innovative, visionary figure he undoubtedly was." Reinvigorated, Dockstader returned to music at the start of the 21st century, adopting computer composition in favor of tapes. New CDs appeared from
Sub Rosa
''Sub rosa'' (New Latin for "under the rose") denotes secrecy or confidentiality. The rose has an ancient history as a symbol of secrecy.
History
In Hellenistic and later Roman mythology, roses were associated with secrecy because Cupid ga ...
and ReR Megacorp.
Work on a documentary about his life, ''Unlocking Dockstader'', was begun in 2011, however lack of funding has stalled the project.
He died in
Arlington, Massachusetts
Arlington is a New England town, town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. The town is six miles (10 km) northwest of Boston, Massachusetts, Boston, and its population was 46,308 at the 2020 census.
History ...
, on February 27, 2015, at the age of 82.
In 2016, Starkland released ''From the Archives,''
a CD that premiered 15 works selected from the unexpected discovery of 4,200 sound files found on Dockstader's private computer after his death. Created from 2000-2008, these were among the last pieces composed by Dockstader, before
dementia
Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...
made his studio work too difficult.
Discography
* 1961 ''Eight Electronic Pieces'' (re-released by
Folkways Records
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.
History
The Folkways Records & Service ...
, 1968 and
Locust Music
Locust Music was a Chicago-based independent record label founded in 2001 in music, 2001.
See also
* List of record labels
Record labels established in 2001
American independent record labels
Companies based in Chicago
{{US-independent-r ...
, 2003)
* 1966 ''Luna Park, Traveling Music, Apocalypse'' (Owl Records)
* 1966 ''Drone, Two Fragments from Apocalypse, Water Music'' (Owl Records)
* 1966 ''Quatermass'' (Owl Records)
* 1966 ''Omniphony 1'' (with James Reichart) (Owl Records)
* 1979 ''Electronic Vol. 1'' (
Boosey & Hawkes
Boosey & Hawkes is a British music publisher purported to be the largest specialist classical music publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a major manufacturer of brass, string and woodwind musical instruments.
Formed in 1930 throu ...
Library)
* 1981 ''Electronic Vol. 2'' (Boosey & Hawkes Library)
* 1992 ''Water Music, Two Moons, Quatermass'' (
Starkland
Starkland is an independent record label based in Boulder, Colorado that specializes in alternative classical music. It was founded in 1991 by Thomas Steenland.
Starkland's first two CDs offered all the principal 1960s music from the "organized s ...
)
* 1993 ''Apocalypse'' (Starkland)
* 2004 ''Pond'' (with David Lee Myers (Arcane Device)) (ReR Megacorp)
* 2005 ''Bijou'' (with David Lee Myers) (ReR Megacorp)
* 2005 ''Aerial #1'' (
Sub Rosa
''Sub rosa'' (New Latin for "under the rose") denotes secrecy or confidentiality. The rose has an ancient history as a symbol of secrecy.
History
In Hellenistic and later Roman mythology, roses were associated with secrecy because Cupid ga ...
)
* 2005 ''Aerial #2'' (Sub Rosa)
* 2005 ''Aerial #3'' (Sub Rosa)
* 2016 ''From The Archives'' (Starkland)
References
External links
Dockstader's From the Archives CD from StarklandRemembering Tod Dockstader at New Music BoxUnlocking DockstaderThe Unofficial Tod Dockstader Web Site''Eight Electronic Pieces'' Album Detailsat
Smithsonian Folkways
Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was fou ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dockstader, Tod
1932 births
2015 deaths
University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts alumni
20th-century classical composers
21st-century classical composers
Experimental composers
Electroacoustic music composers
Male classical composers
20th-century male musicians
21st-century male musicians
Animation composers
Sub Rosa Records artists
Folkways Records artists