Lucia Dlugoszewski
Encyclopedia
Lucia Dlugoszewski was a Polish-American composer, performer and inventor. She created over a hundred musical instruments, including the timbre piano, a sort of prepared piano
in which hammers and keys were replaced with bows and plectra.
, where she also took physics courses. Surprised and disappointed by an unsuccessful application to medical school in 1950, Dlugoszewski spontaneously moved to New York City
, where she would spend the rest of her life. In New York, Dlugoszewski took piano lessons from Grete Sultan
and studied analysis with Felix Salzer
and composition with Edgar Varèse. Apart from a handful of piano preludes and sonatas, Dlugoszewski had written little music prior to 1950, but once in New York, she quickly became a prolific composer of experimental music, including several open-form works.
, Folkways
, CRI
, and other important contemporary music labels. Her 1975 piece Abyss and Caress, for trumpet and small orchestra, was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and premièred by Pierre Boulez
. In 1977, she became the first woman to win the Koussevitzy International Recording Award with Fire Fragile Flight, for 17 instruments – the work became a signature piece for the Philadelphia ensemble Orchestra of Our Time. The recordings for Nonesuch and CRI released in the 70s were reissued by CRI in 2002 as Disparate Stairway Radical Other along with new work for string quartet and timbre piano..
Beginning in 1957, Dlugoszewski cultivated a professional and personal relationship with the dancer and choreographer Erick Hawkins
. Dlugoszewski, a dancer herself, wrote chamber and orchestral scores for the Erick Hawkins Dance Ensemble as well as for the Foundation for Modern Dance. Her music for dance includes Journey of a Poet, written for and executed by Mikhail Baryshnikov
, and Taking Time to be Vulnerable, for Pascal Denichou. She also contributed music for chamber ensemble to the soundtrack of the 1962 avant-garde film Guns of the Trees, directed by Jonas Mekas
. A very early performance of her timbre piano can be heard in her music for Marie Menken
's1945 film "Visual Variations on Noguchi.," a score perhaps added later in the early 50s when the composer had arrived in New York.
During a conversation with Cole Gagne in the early 1990s, Dlugoszewski expressed ambivalence at having composed so many collaborative pieces, pointing out that while writing for film and dance allowed her music to be heard by enormous numbers of listeners, those audiences could not give her music their undivided attention.
, Harry Partch
and Moondog
, Dlugoszewski’s music was animated by the invention and construction of new musical instruments, many of which she performed on. In her interview with Gagne, the composer estimated that she had constructed or designed at least a hundred instruments during her career (a frequent partner was the sculptor Ralph Dorazio, who built instruments to Dlugoszewski’s specifications). She was inspired, she told Gagne, by her teacher Varèse
, who used electronic tools to create disorienting and exciting new sonorities. “It’s not that I was out to invent instruments,” said Dlugoszewski, “but that I wanted to create an ego-less sound possibility, a suchness possibility, so that you would help the ear just to hear the sound for its own sake.”
Most of Dlugoszewski’s invented instruments are percussive: pianos, drums, rattles and gourds. She created dozens of new instruments, many made of plastic, for a single 1961 work, Eight Clear Places. Dlugoszewski retreated from invention after the early 1960s, preferring to explore the possibilities of the huge array of instruments which she by then had at her disposal.
, for example). She was exceptional, though, for her belief in the power of subtlety in music. Virgil Thompson
described hers as “music of great delicacy.” Dlugoszewski's music is remarkable for its use of silence and of gentle, muffled sounds, especially considering that much of her repertoire is for percussion instruments.
Prepared piano
A prepared piano is a piano that has had its sound altered by placing objects between or on the strings or on the hammers or dampers....
in which hammers and keys were replaced with bows and plectra.
Background and early years
The daughter of Polish immigrants, Dlugoszewski was born and raised in Detroit. She studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory of Music and was a pre-medical student at Wayne State UniversityWayne State University
Wayne State University is a public research university located in Detroit, Michigan, United States, in the city's Midtown Cultural Center Historic District. Founded in 1868, WSU consists of 13 schools and colleges offering more than 400 major subject areas to over 32,000 graduate and...
, where she also took physics courses. Surprised and disappointed by an unsuccessful application to medical school in 1950, Dlugoszewski spontaneously moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where she would spend the rest of her life. In New York, Dlugoszewski took piano lessons from Grete Sultan
Grete Sultan
Grete Sultan was a German-American pianist.Born in Berlin into a musical family, she studied piano from an early age with American pianist Richard Buhlig, and later with Leonid Kreutzer and Edwin Fischer...
and studied analysis with Felix Salzer
Felix Salzer
Felix Salzer was an Austrian-American music theorist, musicologist and pedagogue. He was one of the principal followers of Heinrich Schenker, and did much to refine and explain Schenkerian analysis after Schenker's death....
and composition with Edgar Varèse. Apart from a handful of piano preludes and sonatas, Dlugoszewski had written little music prior to 1950, but once in New York, she quickly became a prolific composer of experimental music, including several open-form works.
Major works
Dlugoszewski’s compositions have been recorded for Nonesuch RecordsNonesuch Records
Nonesuch Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Bros. Records.-Company history:Nonesuch was founded in 1964 by Jac Holzman to produce "fine records at the same price as a trade paperback", which would be half the price of a normal LP...
, Folkways
Folkways
Folkways can refer to:*Folkways —theory by the sociologist William Graham Sumner.*Folkways Records—a record label founded by Moe Asch....
, CRI
CRI
-Business:* Community Rowing, Inc.* Composers Recordings, Inc.* Computer Resources International, a Danish aerospace company* Copyright infringement* Cricklewood railway station, London; National Rail station code CRI...
, and other important contemporary music labels. Her 1975 piece Abyss and Caress, for trumpet and small orchestra, was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and premièred by Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
. In 1977, she became the first woman to win the Koussevitzy International Recording Award with Fire Fragile Flight, for 17 instruments – the work became a signature piece for the Philadelphia ensemble Orchestra of Our Time. The recordings for Nonesuch and CRI released in the 70s were reissued by CRI in 2002 as Disparate Stairway Radical Other along with new work for string quartet and timbre piano..
Beginning in 1957, Dlugoszewski cultivated a professional and personal relationship with the dancer and choreographer Erick Hawkins
Erick Hawkins
Frederick Hawkins known as Erick Hawkins was a leading American modern-dance choreographer and dancer...
. Dlugoszewski, a dancer herself, wrote chamber and orchestral scores for the Erick Hawkins Dance Ensemble as well as for the Foundation for Modern Dance. Her music for dance includes Journey of a Poet, written for and executed by Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov is a Soviet and American dancer, choreographer, and actor, often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev as one of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century. After a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he defected to Canada in 1974...
, and Taking Time to be Vulnerable, for Pascal Denichou. She also contributed music for chamber ensemble to the soundtrack of the 1962 avant-garde film Guns of the Trees, directed by Jonas Mekas
Jonas Mekas
Jonas Mekas is a Lithuanian-born American filmmaker, writer, and curator who has often been called "the godfather of American avant-garde cinema." His work has been exhibited in museums and festivals across Europe and America.-Biography:...
. A very early performance of her timbre piano can be heard in her music for Marie Menken
Marie Menken
Marie Menkevicius was an American experimental filmmaker and socialite.-Early life:The daughter of Catholic-Lithuanian immigrants, she grew up in Brooklyn.-Personal life:...
's1945 film "Visual Variations on Noguchi.," a score perhaps added later in the early 50s when the composer had arrived in New York.
During a conversation with Cole Gagne in the early 1990s, Dlugoszewski expressed ambivalence at having composed so many collaborative pieces, pointing out that while writing for film and dance allowed her music to be heard by enormous numbers of listeners, those audiences could not give her music their undivided attention.
Inventions
Like that of Pauline OliverosPauline Oliveros
Pauline Oliveros is an American accordionist and composer who is a central figure in the development of post-war electronic art music....
, Harry Partch
Harry Partch
Harry Partch was an American composer and instrument creator. He was one of the first twentieth-century composers to work extensively and systematically with microtonal scales, writing much of his music for custom-made instruments that he built himself, tuned in 11-limit just intonation.-Early...
and Moondog
Moondog
Moondog, born Louis Thomas Hardin , was a blind American composer, musician, poet and inventor of several musical instruments. Moving to New York as a young man, Moondog made a deliberate decision to make his home on the streets there, where he spent approximately twenty of the thirty years he...
, Dlugoszewski’s music was animated by the invention and construction of new musical instruments, many of which she performed on. In her interview with Gagne, the composer estimated that she had constructed or designed at least a hundred instruments during her career (a frequent partner was the sculptor Ralph Dorazio, who built instruments to Dlugoszewski’s specifications). She was inspired, she told Gagne, by her teacher Varèse
Varese
Varese is a town and comune in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, 55 km north of Milan.It is the capital of the Province of Varese. The hinterland or urban part of the city is called Varesotto.- Geography :...
, who used electronic tools to create disorienting and exciting new sonorities. “It’s not that I was out to invent instruments,” said Dlugoszewski, “but that I wanted to create an ego-less sound possibility, a suchness possibility, so that you would help the ear just to hear the sound for its own sake.”
Most of Dlugoszewski’s invented instruments are percussive: pianos, drums, rattles and gourds. She created dozens of new instruments, many made of plastic, for a single 1961 work, Eight Clear Places. Dlugoszewski retreated from invention after the early 1960s, preferring to explore the possibilities of the huge array of instruments which she by then had at her disposal.
Philosophy
Dlugoszewski, like other composers of her generation, claimed a wide and varied assortment of influences, many of them Eastern in origin (Noh drama and haikuHaiku
' , plural haiku, is a very short form of Japanese poetry typically characterised by three qualities:* The essence of haiku is "cutting"...
, for example). She was exceptional, though, for her belief in the power of subtlety in music. Virgil Thompson
Virgil Thompson
Virgil Thompson is an American author. Her first published novel was the 2002 crime drama Final Things: A Novel of Suspense. She lives in Connecticut.-Bibliography:...
described hers as “music of great delicacy.” Dlugoszewski's music is remarkable for its use of silence and of gentle, muffled sounds, especially considering that much of her repertoire is for percussion instruments.