Dika Newlin (November 22, 1923—July 22, 2006) was a pianist, professor, composer and
punk rockPunk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
singer. She received a Ph.D from
Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City...
at the age of 22. She was one of the last living students of
Arnold SchoenbergArnold Schoenberg was an Austrian and later American composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
, a Schoenberg Scholar and a professor at
Virginia Commonwealth UniversityVirginia Commonwealth University is a large, public American research university with two main campuses located in downtown Richmond, Virginia...
in Richmond from 1978-2004. She performed as an
Elvis impersonatorAn Elvis impersonator is someone who impersonates or copies famed American musician Elvis Presley, either as a hobby, a career in entertainment or occasionally for fun...
and played punk rock while in her 70's in
Richmond, VirginiaRichmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. Like all Virginia municipalities incorporated as cities, it is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
.
She was featured in the documentary
Dika: Murder CityDika: Murder City is a 1995 documentary film by Michael D. Moore on the late-life punk rock career of composer/singer Dika Newlin. The film features Newlin, who was 74 years old when the film was shot, in concert at a Richmond, Virginia, club where she is wearing black leather garb and singing...
.
Early life
Dika Newlin was born in
Portland, OregonPortland is a city located in the Northwestern United States, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the state of Oregon. As of July 2008, it has an estimated population of 575,930, making it the 29th most populous in the United States. It has been referred to as the most...
. Her name was chosen by her mother and refers to an Amazon in one of
Sappho'sSappho was an Ancient Greek poet, born on the island of Lesbos. Later Greeks included her in the canonical list of nine lyric poets. Her birth was sometime between 630 and 612 BC, and it is said that she died around 570 BC, but little is known for certain about her life...
poems.
Newlin was able to read the dictionary by age 3. She could play the piano by age 6 and began composing music at age 7. When she was 11 she wrote a symphonic piece,
Cradle Song, that was performed three years later by the
Cincinnati Symphony OrchestraAs the fifth-oldest orchestra in the United States, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra has a legacy of fine music making as reflected in its performances in historic Music Hall, recordings, and international tours...
.
She entered
elementary schoolAn elementary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America...
at age 5 and finished it at age 8. She graduated from high school when she was 12 and was admitted to the freshman class at
Michigan State UniversityMichigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act. Its alumni include at least six winners of the...
, where her parents taught.
After graduating from Michigan State, she and her mother moved to
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
so that she could study with Schoenberg at the University of California at Los Angeles.
Newlin kept a diary of her studies with Schoenberg, whom she called "Uncle Arnold." She published the diary in 1980 as
Schoenberg Remembered: Diaries and Recollections (1938-76).
One entry in the diary relates how Schoenberg criticized her string quartet style as "too pianistic." After she acknowledged that she knew it wasn't the best writing, Schoenberg replied: "No, it is not the best, nor even the second best — perhaps the 50th best, yes?"
Newlin later wrote an article on Schoenberg for the
Encyclopædia BritannicaThe Encyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopaedia published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., a privately held company. The articles in the Britannica are aimed at educated adult readers, and written by a staff of about 100 full-time editors and more than...
.
Academic and musical career
Newlin, among the last surviving students of Schoenberg, was "one of the pioneers of Schoenberg research in America," according to Dr. Sabine Feisst, a professor of musicology at
Arizona State UniversityArizona State University is the largest public research university in the United States under a single administration, with total student enrollment of 68,064 as of fall 2009...
. Newlin's doctoral dissertation was published in 1947 as the book
Bruckner, Mahler, Schoenberg.
Newlin's compositions include three operas, a piano concerto, a chamber symphony, and numerous chamber, vocal and mixed-media works.
Newlin also translated many of Schoenberg's works from
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
to
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
. Newlin herself sang in a costumed performance of Schoenberg's
Pierrot LunaireDreimal sieben Gedichte aus Albert Girauds 'Pierrot lunaire', , commonly known as Pierrot Lunaire , Op. 21, is a melodrama by Arnold Schoenberg...
, which she had translated to English, in
Lubbock, TexasLubbock is an American city in the state of Texas. Located in the northwestern part of the state, a region known historically as the Llano Estacado, it is the county seat of Lubbock County, and the home of Texas Tech University. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, the city population was 199,564,...
in 1999.
Punk rocker
In her 70s a new persona emerged from Newlin: a leather-clad punk rocker with bright orange hair.
As a punk rocker, Newlin appeared in horror movies by
RichmondRichmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. Like all Virginia municipalities incorporated as cities, it is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
producer Michael D. Moore. In director Tim Ritter's
1995The year 1995 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* March 22 - The Dogme 95 movement is officially announced in Paris by Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg....
film
Creep, Newlin played a person wearing a leather motorcycle jacket who puts poison in baby food at a supermarket.
That same year, Moore directed the documentary about Newlin titled
Dika: Murder City. The title was taken from a song Newlin had performed in her solo "cabaret" act for a few years before it became a popular performance piece for her band ApoCowLypso, formed in 1985 with fellow area singer/songwriters Brooke Saunders and Manko Eponymous as well as Hunter Duke on drums. With Apocowlypso Newlin performed lead and backing vocals as well as percussion (washboard, tambourine, temple bells) in their peculiar live shows and on the cassette-only EP "Meat the Apocowlypso," the "Electronic Preacher/Richmond Flood" single, and the bootleg "Let It Was" recording. After going through over 20 bass players in their short time together, the members of Apocowlypso went their separate ways in 1988 to pursue other projects.
Miscellaneous
In 1939 the
New York Herald TribuneThe New York Herald Tribune was a daily newspaper created in 1924 when the New York Tribune acquired the New York Herald. The Herald Tribune was a leading Republican paper, and a voice for moderate "internationalist" Republicans as opposed to the "isolationist" variety represented by the Chicago...
wrote that Dika Newlin had the highest
I.Q. scoreAn intelligence quotient, or IQ, is a score derived from one of several different standardized tests designed to assess intelligence. The term "IQ", from the German Intelligenz-Quotient, was coined by the German psychologist William Stern in 1912 as a proposed method of scoring early modern...
of any Michigan State University student at that time.
Newlin posed for a pinup calendar when she was in her 70s.
Reporters who interviewed her at home noted that a medieval suit of armor was suspended over her mattress on the floor of her bedroom.
Newlin died in Richmond, Virginia from complications of a broken arm she suffered in an accident on June 30, 2006.
External links
- NPR Story on her death. Features her song "Murder Kitty" based on "Murder City". (Note: All Things Considered
All Things Considered is National Public Radio's flagship news program. It was the first news program on the network, and is broadcast live worldwide through several outlets...
broadcast a correction on August 3, 2006 stating that the song was "Cat Duet" by Gioacchino RossiniGioachino Antonio Rossini was a popular Italian composer who wrote 39 operas as well as sacred music and chamber music. His best known works include Il barbiere di Siviglia , La Cenerentola, La gazza ladra and Guillaume Tell...
.)
- Dika: Murder City on IMDB.com
- Moore Video and Music. Features her recordings.