Gregg Wager
Encyclopedia
Gregg Wager is an American
composer
, pianist
, and music critic. He studied composition
at the University of Southern California
and the California Institute of the Arts
. His teachers included Morton Subotnick
and Morten Lauridsen
. His piano teachers included Yuriy Oliynyk, Doris Stevenson, and Chester Swiatkowski. In 1996, he earned a Ph.D.
in musicology
at the Free University Berlin.
As a critic, he specializes in contemporary classical music
and postmodern music
. From 1985 to 1991, he contributed regularly to the Los Angeles Times
. In an article for the New York Times, "Going the Way of the Victrola," Wager became an important early advocate of the P2P
community and the fall of the importance of the recording studio.
Wager's musical influences vary from traditional forms of American and classical music to minimalism
, jazz
, rock music
, and even serialism
. He especially draws influence from Karlheinz Stockhausen
and the relationships between pitch
and tempo
, timbre
and rhythm
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
, and music critic. He studied composition
Musical composition
Musical composition can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the process of creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called composers.- Musical compositions :...
at the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
and the California Institute of the Arts
California Institute of the Arts
The California Institute of the Arts, commonly referred to as CalArts, is located in Valencia, in Los Angeles County, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the United States created specifically for students of both the visual and the...
. His teachers included Morton Subotnick
Morton Subotnick
Morton Subotnick is an American composer of electronic music, best known for his Silver Apples of the Moon, the first electronic work commissioned by a record company, Nonesuch...
and Morten Lauridsen
Morten Lauridsen
Morten Johannes Lauridsen is an American composer. He was composer-in-residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale and has been a professor of composition at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music for more than 30 years.-Biography:Lauridsen was born February 27, 1943, in...
. His piano teachers included Yuriy Oliynyk, Doris Stevenson, and Chester Swiatkowski. In 1996, he earned a Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in musicology
Musicology
Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...
at the Free University Berlin.
As a critic, he specializes in contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...
and postmodern music
Postmodern music
Postmodern music is either simply music of the postmodern era, or music that follows aesthetical and philosophical trends of postmodernism. As the name suggests, the postmodernist movement formed partly in reaction to modernism...
. From 1985 to 1991, he contributed regularly to the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
. In an article for the New York Times, "Going the Way of the Victrola," Wager became an important early advocate of the P2P
Peer-to-peer file sharing
P2P or Peer-to-peer file sharing allows users to download files such as music, movies, and games using a P2P software client that searches for other connected computers. The "peers" are computer systems connected to each other through internet. Thus, the only requirements for a computer to join...
community and the fall of the importance of the recording studio.
Wager's musical influences vary from traditional forms of American and classical music to minimalism
Minimalism
Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, and even serialism
Serialism
In music, serialism is a method or technique of composition that uses a series of values to manipulate different musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though his contemporaries were also working to establish serialism as one example of...
. He especially draws influence from Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen 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. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
and the relationships between pitch
Pitch (music)
Pitch is an auditory perceptual property that allows the ordering of sounds on a frequency-related scale.Pitches are compared as "higher" and "lower" in the sense associated with musical melodies,...
and tempo
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
, timbre
Timbre
In music, timbre is the quality of a musical note or sound or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices and musical instruments, such as string instruments, wind instruments, and percussion instruments. The physical characteristics of sound that determine the...
and rhythm
Rhythm
Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...
.
Books
- Symbolism as a Compositional Method in the Works of Karlheinz Stockhausen (1998). ISBN 0-9665850-0-3
Publications (selective list)
- "Symbolische Aspekte der Formel-Komposition." Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. No. 4, Jul./Aug. 2003: 42-4.
- "Going the Way of the Victrola." New York Times. Vol. 150, No. 51,661, 11 Feb. 2001: Sec. 2, 32+.
- "Tracing the Origins of Alabama Song: A look at the meaning of a song by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill as interpreted by The Doors." Doors Collectors Magazine. Ed. Kerry Humphreys. Apr.-Oct. 1996: 15-20.
- "A Composer's 'Aura': The Musical Language of York Höller." Chicago Symphonic Times. Ed. John Henken. Fall 1995: 4-7.
- "Improvisational Tribute to Longo Works." Los Angeles Times. 8 Nov. 1989: F8.
- "A 'White Rose' Blooms From Troubled Earth." Los Angeles Times. 6 Nov. 1988, Sunday Calendar: 60+.
- "Post-Modern Music: 'Condominium of Babel.' " Los Angeles Times. 13 Feb. 1988, part VI: 5+.
- "Land Grab." L. A. Weekly. 11–17 July 1986: 16.
- "New Music America '85 Comes to L.A." Los Angeles Times. 27 Oct. 1985, Sunday Calendar: 50+.
Musical Compositions (selective list)
- Piano Sonata #2 (2004-5)
- Astralis for guitar and orchestra (1992–99)
- String Quartet #2 (1993)
- In Space and Time for 27 players (1984–87)
- Adjacent Lines and Equal Parts for solo piano (1985)
- Image and Process for chamber orchestra (1982)
- Piano Sonata #1 (1981)
- String Quartet #1 (1979)
- 24 Two-Part Inventions (1977)
Further reading
- John Schaefer, New Sounds: A Listener’s Guide to New Music, Harper & Row (1987): 212.
- Joan La Barbara, “Recordings on the Cutting Edge,” Musical America/High Fidelity (April 1986) : MA 12.