İlhan Kemaleddin Mimaroğlu (, March 11, 1926 – July 17, 2012) was a Turkish American musician and

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

composer.

Biography

He was born in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, the son of the famous architect Mimar Kemaleddin Bey depicted on the

Turkish lira The lira (; Currency sign, sign: Turkish lira sign, ₺; ISO 4217, ISO 4217 code: TRY; abbreviation: TL) is the official currency of Turkey. It is also legal tender in the ''de facto'' state of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. One lira i ...

banknotes, denomination 20 lira, of the 2009 E-9 emission. He graduated from

Galatasaray High School Galatasaray High School (, ), established in Istanbul in 1481, is the oldest and Selective school, highly selective high school in Turkey. It is also the second-oldest Turkish educational institution after Istanbul University, which was establi ...

in 1945 and the Ankara Law School in 1949. He went to study in New York supported by a Rockefeller Scholarship. He studied musicology at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

under Paul Henry Lang and composition under

Douglas Moore Douglas Stuart Moore (August 10, 1893 – July 25, 1969) was an American composer, songwriter, organist, pianist, Conducting, conductor, educator, actor, and author. A composer who mainly wrote works with an American subject, his music is genera ...

. He published articles in the '' Forum'' magazine in the 1950s. During the 1960s he studied in the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Center under

Vladimir Ussachevsky Vladimir Alexeevich Ussachevsky (November 3, 1911 in Hailar, China – January 2, 1990 in New York, New York) was a Russian-American composer, particularly known for his work in electronic music. Biography Vladimir Ussachevsky was born in ...

and on occasions worked with

Edgard Varèse Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse (; also spelled Edgar; December 22, 1883 – November 6, 1965) was a French and American composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States. Varèse's music emphasizes timbre and rhythm; h ...

and Stefan Wolpe. His notable students included

Ingram Marshall Ingram Douglass Marshall (May 10, 1942May 31, 2022) was an American composer and a onetime student of Vladimir Ussachevsky and Morton Subotnick. Early life and education Marshall was born in Mount Vernon, New York. He was the son of Bernice Dou ...

. He worked as a producer for

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

, where he created his own record label, Finnadar Records, in 1971. In the same year he collaborated with trumpeter

Freddie Hubbard Frederick Dewayne Hubbard (April 7, 1938 – December 29, 2008) was an American jazz trumpeter. He played bebop, hard bop, and post-bop styles from the early 1960s onwards. His unmistakable and influential tone contributed to new perspectives fo ...

on an anti-war statement, '' Sing Me a Song of Songmy''. He also was the producer for

Charles Mingus Charles Mingus Jr. (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazz Double bass, upright bassist, composer, bandleader, pianist, and author. A major proponent of collective Musical improvisation, improvisation, he is considered one of ...

’ '' Changes One'' and '' Changes Two'', and contributed to the soundtrack of

Federico Fellini Federico Fellini (; 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. He is known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and ...

's '' Fellini Satyricon''. He was awarded the

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

in music composition in 1971. İlhan Mimaroğlu died of pneumonia in 2012.

Discography

For acoustic instruments

Albums for solo piano produced by İlhan Mimaroğlu under the Finnadar label: *Meral Guneyman plays the piano music of Frank Bridge, Anton Webern and Abel Decaux “one of year’s five best” (Fanfare Magazine, Peter Rabinowitz) * ''September Moon, a Nocturnal Seascape'' for orchestra * ''Antistrophes'' for flute and piano * ''Deformations'' for clarinet and piano * ''Idols of Perversity'' for solo viola and string ensemble (1974) * ''Monologlar'' (Monologue) for clarinet and viola (1997) * ''Monologue I'' for unaccompanied clarinet * ''Monologue II'' for unaccompanied violin * ''Monologue III'' for unaccompanied English horn * ''Üç parça'' (1952) * ''Pieces Sentimentales'' for piano * ''Anı ve Günce Sonatı'' for piano * ''Rosa'' for piano (1978) * ''Valses ignobles et sentencieuses'' for piano (World Premiere by Meral Guneyman, pianist, Merkin Hall, New York City, 1986) * ''Yaylı dördüller'' * ''Yaylı çalgılar için gece ezgileri'' * ''Sessions'' for piano (1977) * String Quartet No.4 ''"Like There's Tomorrow"'', with voice obbligato (Janis Siegel, Vocals) * ''Three Pieces for Piano'' (a) Prelude (b) Waltz (c) Boogie (Finnadar Records) (Musiques Noires-Meral Guneyman, piano solo)

Magnetic Tape

Most of these works utilize concrete sounds, but there are also occasional electronic elements. * ''Görsel Çalışma'' (1965) * ''Agony'' (1964) * ''Preludes'' for magnetic tape (1966–1976) * ''Music for Jean Dubuffet's Coucou Bazar'' (1973) * ''Le Tombeau d'Edgar A. Poe'' (1964) * ''Intermezzo'' (1964) * ''Bowery Bum'' (1964) * ''Wings of the Delirious Demon'' (1969) * ''To Kill a Sunrise'' (1974) * ''Tract'', a composition of

Agitprop Agitprop (; from , portmanteau of ''agitatsiya'', "agitation" and ''propaganda'', "propaganda") refers to an intentional, vigorous promulgation of ideas. The term originated in the Soviet Union where it referred to popular media, such as literatu ...

Music for electromagnetic tape (1975) (

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 ...

) * ''To Kill a Sunrise and La Ruche'' (1976) (Folkways Records) * ''The Offering'' for tape with pre-recorded voice (Finnadar Records)

Acoustic plus Electronic Sounds (Tape)

* ''Still Life 1980'' for cello and tape ( Finnadar/

) * ''Music Plus One'' for violin and tape (Finnadar/Atlantic Records) * '' Sing Me a Song of Songmy'' (1971) * ''Immolation Scene'' for voice and tape (1983) (Finnadar/Atlantic Records)

Notes

References

*Gluck, Bob. �
Uptown and Downtown, Electronic Music and “Free Jazz”, Ankara and New York: Interview with Turkish Composer İlhan Mimaroğlu (1926–2012)
” ''eContact! 14.4 — TES 2011: Toronto Electroacoustic Symposium / Symposium électroacoustique de Toronto'' (March 2013). Montréal: CEC.

External links

Mimaroglu Discography on Folkways

Finding aid to the Īlhan Mimaroğ̆lu papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

The film reveals the life and times of the electronics composer and record producer beyond the world of music.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mimaroglu, Ilhan 1926 births American people of Turkish descent Columbia University faculty Galatasaray High School alumni Ankara University Faculty of Law alumni Columbia University School of the Arts alumni Turkish electronic musicians 2012 deaths Turkish male composers Musicians from Istanbul Deaths from pneumonia in New York City 20th-century Turkish male musicians 20th-century Turkish composers