(Joseph) Vincent McDermott (September 5, 1933 – February 10, 2016) was a classically trained American composer and
ethnomusicologist. His works show particular influence from the musics of South and Southeast Asia, particularly the
gamelan
Gamelan () ( jv, ꦒꦩꦼꦭꦤ꧀, su, ᮌᮙᮨᮜᮔ᮪, ban, ᬕᬫᭂᬮᬦ᭄) is the traditional ensemble music of the Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussive instruments. T ...
music of
Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...
. He was among the second generation of American composers to create and promote new compositions for gamelan.
Education
McDermott was born in
Atlantic City, New Jersey. He received a B.F.A. in music composition from the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
(1959), an M.A. in music history from 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 ...
(1961), and a Ph.D. in music history, theory, and composition from the University of Pennsylvania (1966). His composition instructors included
Constant Vauclain,
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 techniqu ...
,
Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud (; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as ''The Group of Six''—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions ...
, and
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-century classical music, 20th and early 21st-century ...
.
[Stabler, David. 1990. "'The King of Bali' A Crowning Achievement". '']The Oregonian
''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 18 ...
'' (20 April, fourth edition): R32. In 1980, McDermott became friends with
Lou Harrison
Lou Silver Harrison (May 14, 1917 – February 2, 2003) was an American composer, music critic, music theorist, painter, and creator of unique musical instruments. Harrison initially wrote in a dissonant, ultramodernist style similar to his for ...
, the godfather of
American gamelan
American gamelan could refer to both instruments and music; the term has been used to refer to gamelan-style instruments built by Americans, as well as to music written by American composers to be played on gamelan instruments. American gamelan ...
. It was Harrison who encouraged McDermott to start composing for gamelan.
McDermott first encountered gamelan circa 1965 in Amsterdam. He later studied Javanese gamelan in Indonesia at the Akademi Seni Karawitan Indonesia (now
Sekolah Tinggi Seni Indonesia Surakarta
Indonesian Institute of the Arts, Surakarta (; abbreviated by ISI Surakarta) is an arts university in Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia. They are famous for teaching karawitan, wayang, Javanese dance, and other traditional crafts. The rector i ...
) in
Central Java (1971, 1978, and 1984). He studied or worked in Surakarta with
Sumarsam and
Rahayu Supanggah, and later, in the United States, with
Pak Cokro and Midiyanto. In the 1970s he made an intensive study of
Hindustani classical music
Hindustani classical music is the classical music of northern regions of the Indian subcontinent. It may also be called North Indian classical music or, in Hindustani, ''shastriya sangeet'' (). It is played in instruments like the violin, si ...
, studying with sitarist Ira Das Gupta, and with renowned tabla player
Zakir Hussain Zakir Hussain ( ur, , link=no) is the name of:
* Zakir Husain (politician), an Indian politician and former president of India
* Zakir Hussain (actor), Bollywood actor
* Zakir Hussain (field hockey) (1934–2019), Pakistani field hockey player
* ...
.
He died in Sumatra, Indonesia, on February 10, 2016.
Compositions
Many of McDermott's works are for standard Western ensembles (e.g. chamber, orchestral, choral, solo, and electronic). In 1969 he began to incorporate sounds and ideas from North Indian music. In 1980 Lou Harrison encouraged McDermott to begin composing for gamelan. He then composed a number of works for gamelan (some in combination with Western instruments), and presented gamelan workshops in several Asian nations (including
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
and
Japan), focusing primarily on encouraging new compositions for gamelan. He received several
Fulbright grants and
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...
commissions and a "Master's Award" from the
Oregon Arts Commission
The Oregon Arts Commission is a governor-appointed body of nine commissioners who allocate grants for artists based in the U.S. state of Oregon. It receives the bulk of its funding through the National Endowment for the Arts, the state, and the Or ...
.
McDermott's compositions have been performed in North America, Europe, and Asia. From the earliest period he was drawn to cross-cultural works, multimedia, and theatrical music. Two of his operas, ''The King of Bali'' and ''Mata Hari'', juxtapose gamelan and Western ensembles. Both were written and performed in the U.S. with English texts in the 1990s, and in this century were translated into
Indonesian
Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to:
* Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia
** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago
** Indonesian ...
and performed in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
McDermott's musical style varied. His generation witnessed the onset of a wealth of new styles, and in his early days he tried his hand at many of them. By and by he eschewed the poles of abstract atonality and indeterminacy that were much in favor in the 1960s and 1970s, turning instead to modality, melody, and counterpoint. His compositional goals are expressivity, depth, and spirituality, yet often with a light heart. In Asia, he advised young composers to borrow from Western traditions, saying it will help them speak to international audiences, but he insisted that the soul of their music as well as many of its techniques must come from their own soil.
Teaching
McDermott taught at the
Hampton Institute
Hampton University is a private, historically black, research university in Hampton, Virginia. Founded in 1868 as Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, it was established by Black and White leaders of the American Missionary Association aft ...
(now Hampton University) in Virginia (1966–67) and at the
Wisconsin Conservatory of Music
The Wisconsin Conservatory of Music is an independent music school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It teaches classical, jazz, rock, folk, and blues and hosts musical concerts throughout the year. It is housed in a Neoclassical-style mansion built ...
in Milwaukee where he served for a time as dean and director (1967–1977). In 1977 he began teaching at
Lewis & Clark College
Lewis & Clark College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Originally chartered in 1867 as the Albany Collegiate Institute in Albany, Oregon, the college was relocated to Portland in 1938 and in 1942 adopted the name Lewis & C ...
in Oregon; he retired in December 1997. While there he began the college's world music program and in 1980 founded its first gamelan, Venerable Showers of Beauty, which was purchased in Java with the help of
Rahayu Supanggah and Nyonya Nora along with an American patron, Loraine Fenwick. He directed the gamelan and later invited Javanese musicians to teach (including Midiyanto, Supardi, and Darsono). He also instituted classes in Indian and African music performance with Nisha Joshi and
Obo Addy
Obo Addy (January 15, 1936 – September 13, 2012) was a Ghanaian drummer and dancer who was one of the first native African musicians to bring the fusion of traditional folk music and Western pop music known as ''worldbeat'' to Europe and ...
. He later helped to establish gamelan programs at the
College of William & Mary
The College of William & Mary (officially The College of William and Mary in Virginia, abbreviated as William & Mary, W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 by letters patent issued by King William I ...
and the
University of Puget Sound
The University of Puget Sound (UPS or Puget Sound) is a private university in Tacoma, Washington. The university draws approximately 2,600 students from 44 states and 16 countries. It offers 1,200 courses each year in more than 50 traditional an ...
. Among his composition students at Lewis & Clark College were Greg Bowers, Erika Foin, Hoe Yeong KIm, Duncan Nielson, Myrna Schloss, and Sophia Serghi.
After retirement, McDermott was a Visiting Professor at The College of William and Mary (2002); Indonesian Institute of the Arts (2002–03); University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur (2006); Osaka City University (2005); and University of Technology (MARA), Shah Alam, Malaysia (2009). The last four placements were assisted by Fulbright programs.
During his last years, McDermott divided his time between the United States and
Yogyakarta
Yogyakarta (; jv, ꦔꦪꦺꦴꦒꦾꦏꦂꦠ ; pey, Jogjakarta) is the capital city of Special Region of Yogyakarta in Indonesia, in the south-central part of the island of Java. As the only Indonesian royal city still ruled by a monarchy, ...
, Indonesia. In Yogyakarta, he directed an ensemble called Musica Teatrica Nova.
Selected works
*1967 – ''Five Bagatelles'', piano
*1970 – ''Three for Five'', flute, sax, tabla, vibes, piano
*1972 – ''Komal Usha-Rudra Nisha'', sitar, flute, guitar, and double bass
*1972 – ''He Who ascends by Ecstasy into Contemplation of Sublime Things Sleeps and Sees a Dream'', piano and tape
*1973 – ''Time Let Me Plan and Be Golden in the Mercy of His Means'', guitar and harpsichord
*1975 – ''Magic Grounds'', piano
*1975 – ''Orpheus'', tape and video
*1975 – ''Pictures at an Exhibition'', tape and slide projections
*1976 – ''Siftings Upon Siftings'', orchestra
*1977 – ''Slayer of Time, Ancient of Days'', (cantata), voices, E. horn, harp, cello, percussion, texts from Bhagavad-Gita and Rabindranath Tagore
*1978 – ''Rain of Hollow Reeds'', tape
*1978 – ''Smoke of Burning Cloves'', solo instrument
*1978 – ''A Perpetual Dream, opera for solo voice, tape, dancers/mimes, bonang, and toy piano''
*1979 – ''Solonese Concerto'', piano and chamber orchestra
*1980 – ''A Stately Salute'', in honor of Lou Harrison, pelog gamelan
*1980 – ''Laudamus'', chorus
*1981 – ''Kagoklaras'' (A Different Song), gamelan and
prepared piano
A prepared piano is a piano that has had its sounds temporarily altered by placing bolts, screws, mutes, rubber erasers, and/or other objects on or between the strings. Its invention is usually traced to John Cage's dance music for ''Works for p ...
*1981 – ''Tagore Songs'', soprano and guitar
*1982 – ''Sweet-Breathed Minstrel I'', a mystic poem of Rumi, slendro gamelan, two solo voices, and viola
*1983 – ''The Dark Laments of Ariadne and of attis, 2 songs after Catullus'', soprano, narrator, viola, tape
*1984 – ''The Bells of Tajilor'', gamelan slendro/pelog
*1986 – ''Fiddles, Queens, and Laddies'', soprano, tape, and drums on texts by Laurence Sterne and Robert Burns
*1990 – ''The King of Bali'' (opera), gamelan and orchestra
*1991 – ''Fugitive Moons'', string quartet
*1994 – ''Mata Hari'' (opera), chamber music group and gamelan
*1994 – ''Titus Magnificus'', orchestra
*1997 – ''Sweet-Breathed Minstrel II'', pelog gamelan, two solo voices, and male chorus (3–4 voices), text by
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
*1999 – ''Quartet for trumpet, sax, piano, percussion''
*2002 – ''The Spirit Takes Wings and Soars (or Dragons in the Grachten)'', 12-tone gamelan and
saxophone quartet
A saxophone quartet is a musical ensemble composed of four saxophones, typically soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxophones. Different saxophone family members are employed to provide a larger range and a variety of tone colours. Other arrangeme ...
*2003 – ''Divine Songs for voice and gender/vibraphone''
*2005 – ''A Little Concerto'', gamelan slendro/pelog
*2005 – ''The Blue Forest'', gamelan, chorus, dancers, and shadow puppetry
*2006 – ''Cahaya Jiwa (Light of the Soul)'', solo voice and instrument
*2008 – "Mimpi Solo (Solonese Dreams)", gamelan
Published writings
*McDermott, Vincent (1966). "The Articulation of Musical Space in the 20th Century." Ph.D. dissertation. University of Pennsylvania.
*—. "A Conceptual Musical Space." ''
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
''The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering the study of aesthetics and art criticism. It was published by Wiley-Blackwell
Wiley-Blackwell is an international scientific, technical, me ...
'', v. 30, no. 4 (Summer 1972), pp. 489–494.
*—, with Sumarsam. "Central Javanese Music: The Patet of Laras Slendro and the Gender Barung." ''
Ethnomusicology'' 19:2 (1975).
*—. "Gamelans and New Music." ''
The Musical Quarterly
''The Musical Quarterly'' is the oldest academic journal on music in America. Originally established in 1915 by Oscar Sonneck, the journal was edited by Sonneck until his death in 1928. Sonneck was succeeded by a number of editors, including Ca ...
'', v. 72, no. 1 (1986), pp. 16–27.
*—. Imagi-Nation: Membuat Musik Biasa Jadi Luar Biasa (in Indonesian). Art Music Today, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 2013. 94 pp. Introduction by Rahayu Supanggah.
nglish translation of title: (A new) National Imagination. Making Ordinary Music Extraordinary
References
External links
"Vincent McDermott Memorial Concert, March 17, 2018" Lewis & Clark College
Lewis & Clark College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Originally chartered in 1867 as the Albany Collegiate Institute in Albany, Oregon, the college was relocated to Portland in 1938 and in 1942 adopted the name Lewis & C ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:McDermott, Vincent
1933 births
Musicians from Atlantic City, New Jersey
2016 deaths
University of California, Berkeley alumni
University of Pennsylvania alumni
20th-century classical composers
21st-century classical composers
American male classical composers
American classical composers
American ethnomusicologists
Gamelan musicians
Tabla players
People from Yogyakarta
Lewis & Clark College faculty
Pupils of K. P. H. Notoprojo
Pupils of Darius Milhaud
Pupils of Karlheinz Stockhausen
21st-century American composers
20th-century American composers
20th-century American drummers
American male drummers
21st-century American drummers