Mario Davidovsky
Encyclopedia
Mario Davidovsky is an Argentine
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

-American
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...

. Born in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, he emigrated in 1960 to the US, where he lives today. He is best known for his series of compositions called Synchronisms, which in live performance incorporate both acoustic instruments and electroacoustic sounds played from a tape.

Biography

Davidovsky was born in Médanos
Médanos, Buenos Aires
Médanos is a town in the Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. The town hosts the "Fiesta Nacional del Ajo" and is located in the Buenos Aires wines area that has started producing premium wines at the beginning of the 21st century....

, Buenos Aires Province
Buenos Aires Province
The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...

, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

,
a town nearly 600 km southwest of the city of Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

 and
close to the seaport of Bahía Blanca
Bahía Blanca
Bahía Blanca is a city located in the south-west of the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, by the Atlantic Ocean, and seat of government of Bahía Blanca Partido. It has a population of 274,509 inhabitants according to the...

. He is a first-generation
Argentinian, his family having emigrated there from Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

. Along with the surrounding South American culture, including a strong agrarian economy and Catholic faith, his family's European values and Jewish history shaped his growth and education. At seven he began his musical studies on the violin. At thirteen he began composing. He studied composition and theory under Guillermo Graetzer at the University of Buenos Aires, from which he eventually graduated.

In 1958, he studied with Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...

 and Milton Babbitt
Milton Babbitt
Milton Byron Babbitt was an American composer, music theorist, and teacher. He is particularly noted for his serial and electronic music.-Biography:...

 at the Berkshire Music Center (now the Tanglewood Music Center
Tanglewood Music Center
The Tanglewood Music Center is an annual summer music academy in Lenox, Massachusetts, United States, in which emerging professional musicians participate in performances, master classes and workshops designed to provide an intense training and networking experience...

) in Lenox, Massachusetts
Lenox, Massachusetts
Lenox is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. Set in Western Massachusetts, it is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 5,077 at the 2000 census. Where the town has a border with Stockbridge is the site of Tanglewood, summer...

. Through Babbitt, who worked at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, and others, Davidovsky developed an interest in electroacoustic music. Copland encouraged Davidovsky to emigrate to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, and in 1960, Davidovsky settled in 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
he was appointed associate director of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center.

During the early 1960s, he established himself internationally as a pioneer in electroacoustic music with his three Electronic Studies and the first few of his twelve Synchronisms. Synchronisms No. 6 would win him the Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...

 in 1971. While the Electronic Studies were purely electroacoustic, each of the Synchronisms is performed by one or more musicians playing traditional instruments while a tape machine plays back recorded electroacoustic music previously created in a laboratory. The live performer partially serves to warm the audience to the electroacoustic side of the composition. The performer also adds a certain vitality to the piece since a purely electroacoustic piece is never truly performed.

Many of the people working in electroacoustic composition survived on the medium's novelty. Davidovsky did not work this way; in the words of George Crumb
George Crumb
George Crumb is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He is noted as an explorer of unusual timbres, alternative forms of notation, and extended instrumental and vocal techniques. Examples include seagull effect for the cello , metallic vibrato for the piano George Crumb (born...

:
The advent of electronically synthesized sound after World War II has unquestionably had enormous influence on music in general. Although I have never been directly involved in electronic music, I am keenly aware that our sense for sound characteristics, articulation, texture, and dynamics has been radically revised and very much affects the way in which we write for instruments. And since I have always been interested in the extension of the possibilities of instrumental idiom, I can only regard the influence of electronics as beneficial. I recently participated in a discussion with Mario Davidovsky, who, in my opinion, is the most elegant of all the electronic composers whose music I know. Davidovsky's view is that the early electronic composers had a truly messianic feeling concerning the promise of this new medium. In those euphoric days of intense experimentation, some composers felt that electronic music, because of its seemingly unlimited possibilities, would eventually replace conventional music. Davidovsky now regards the medium simply as a unique and important language at the disposal of any composer who wants to make use of it, and as a valuable teaching tool for the ear. In any case, it is obvious that the electronic medium in itself solves none of the composer's major problems, which have to do with creating a viable style, inventing distinguished thematic material, and articulating form.


Davidovsky worked to solve the "composer's major problems." The electronic medium provided new means by which to control the primal elements of sound: attack, sustain, and decay—aspects that had not previously played a major role in music. Working in the lab, Davidovsky would cut up tapes with razor blades and piece them back together in various ways to control these aspects of the sound. He used his ear to test the quality of each new creation, and working in this way, built a compositional vocabulary.

In addition to composing, Davidovsky worked as Edgard Varèse
Edgard Varèse
Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse, , whose name was also spelled Edgar Varèse , was an innovative French-born composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States....

's technician. Varèse would describe the sounds that he was looking for, and Davidovsky would help him configure the equipment in the lab to produce those sounds. Varèse and Davidovsky became close friends, and when Varèse died in 1965, Davidovsky dedicated his Electronic Study No. 3 to him.

Davidovsky continued to compose electroacoustic music until the mid-1970s, when he turned to writing music to be played solely on traditional instruments, including voice. As noted by Crumb, electroacoustic music has had an effect on the larger tradition, and certainly in Davidovsky's non-electronic music the effects are clear: much attention is given to the quality of attack, sustain, and decay of the instruments, which requires special skill of the performer.

Most of his published compositions since the 1970s have been nonelectronic. His only published electroacoustic compositions since that time are Synchronisms No. 9 (1988) and Synchronisms No. 10 (1992). However, Davidovsky has received a commission by a group led by SEAMUS
Seamus
Séamus , is a male first name of Celtic origin. It is the Gaelic equivalent of the name James. The name James is the English New Testament variant for the Hebrew name Jacob...

 to compose two more electroacoustic works in the Synchronisms series. No. 11 and No. 12 premiered in 2007 at the SEAMUS National Conference in Ames, IA.

Davidovsky's association with the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center continued, and from 1981 to 1993 he was the lab's director as well as professor of music at Columbia. In 1994 he became professor of music at Harvard. During his career, Davidovsky has also taught at many other institutions: University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...

 (1964), the Di Tella Institute of Buenos Aires (1965), the Manhattan School of Music
Manhattan School of Music
The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...

 (1968-69), Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 (1969-70), City College of New York
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...

 (1968-80).

In 1982, Davidovsky was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Davidovsky has received numerous awards, fellowships, and commissions:

Awards

  • The American Academy of Arts and Letters' Academy Award (1965)
  • Pulitzer Prize
    Pulitzer Prize
    The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...

     (1971)
  • Brandeis University Creative Arts Award
  • Aaron Copland-Tanglewood Award
  • SEAMUS Lifetime Achievement Award
    SEAMUS Lifetime Achievement Award
    The SEAMUS Lifetime Achievement Award acknowledges the important contributions of its recipients to the field of electro-acoustic music. The recipient is selected by the Board of Directors of SEAMUS...

     (1989)
  • Naumburg Award
    Walter W. Naumburg Foundation
    The Walter W. Naumburg Foundation sponsors competitions and provides awards for young classical musicians in North America. It was founded in 1925 by Walter Wehle Naumburg, a wealthy amateur cellist and son of noted New York music patron and philanthropist Elkan Naumburg. Elkan Naumburg, owner of...

  • Peggy Guggenheim Award (1982)
  • Barlow Endowment for Music Composition - Commission (2003)

Fellowships

  • Koussevitzky fellowship (1958)
  • Rockefeller fellowships
    Rockefeller Foundation
    The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...

     (1963,1964)
  • Guggenheim fellowships (1960,1971)
  • Williams Foundation Fellowship
  • Walter Channing Cabot Fellowship

Works

  • String Quartet No. 1 (1951)
  • Concertino for Percussion and String Orchestra (1954)
  • Quintet for Clarinet and Strings (1955)
  • Suite Sinfonica Para "El Payaso" (1955), orchestra
  • Three Pieces for Woodwind Quartet (1956)
  • Noneti for Nine Instruments (1956)
  • String Quartet No. 2 (1958)
  • Serie Sinfonica 1959 (1959), orchestra
  • Contrastes No. 1 (1960), string orchestra and electronic sounds
  • Electronic Study No. 1 (1961) Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center
    Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center (album)
    Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center was an album of electronic music released in 1961. It was the recording of a concert performed at the McMillin Theatre at Columbia University on May 9 and 10, 1961. The stereo version was MS 6566 and the monophonic version was ML 5966...

  • Piano 1961 (1961), orchestra
  • Electronic Study No. 2 (1962)
  • Synchronisms No. 1 (1962), flute and electronic sound
  • Trio for Clarinet, Trumpet, and Viola (1962)
  • Synchronisms No. 2 (1964), flute, clarinet, violin, cello and tape
  • Synchronisms No. 3 (1964), cello and electronic sound
  • Electronic Study No. 3 (1965)
  • Inflexions (1965), chamber ensemble
  • Junctures (1966), flute, clarinet, and violin
  • Synchronisms No. 4 (1966), chorus and tape
  • Music for Solo Violin (1968)
  • Synchronisms No. 5 (1969), percussion players and tape
  • Synchronisms No. 6 (1970), piano and electronic sound (won 1971 Pulitzer Prize)
  • Chacona (1971), violin, cello, and piano
  • Transientes (1972), orchestra
  • Ludus 2 (1973), flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano
  • Synchronisms No. 7 (1974), orchestra and tape
  • Synchronisms No. 8 (1974), woodwind quintet and tape
  • Scenes from Shir ha-Shirim (1975), soprano, two tenors, bass soli and chamber ensemble
  • String Quartet No. 3 (1976)
  • Pennplay (1979), sixteen players
  • Consorts (1980), symphonic band
  • String Quartet No. 4 (1980)
  • String Trio (1982), violin, viola, violoncello
  • Romancero (1983), soprano, flute (piccolo, alto flute), clarinet (bass clarinet), violin and violoncello
  • Divertimento (1984), cello and orchestra
  • Capriccio (1985), two pianos
  • Salvos (1986), flute (piccolo, alto flute), clarinet, harp, percussion, violin and cello
  • Quartetto (1987), flute, violin, viola and violoncello
  • Synchronisms No. 9 (1988), violin and tape
  • Biblical Songs (1990), soprano, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano
  • Concertante (1990), string quartet and orchestra
  • Simple Dances (1991-2001), flute (piccolo, alto flute), two percussion, piano, and cello
  • Synchronisms No. 10 (1992), guitar and electronic sounds
  • Shulamit's Dream (1993), soprano and orchestra
  • Festino (1994), guitar, viola, violoncello, contrabass
  • Concertino (1995), violin and chamber orchestra
  • Flashbacks (1995), flute (piccolo and alto flute), clarinet (bass clarinet), violin violoncello, piano and percussion
  • Quartetto No. 2 (1996), oboe, violin, viola, violoncello
  • String Quartet No. 5 (1998)
  • Quartetto No. 3 (2000), piano, violin, viola, and violoncello
  • Cantione Sine Textu (2001), soprano and chamber ensemble
  • RecitAndy (2001), cello
  • Duo Capriccioso (2003), piano and violin
  • Sefarad: Four Spanish-Ladino Folkscenes (2004), baritone voice, flute (piccolo, alto flute), clarinet (bass clarinet), percussion, violin and cello
  • Quartetto No. 4 (2005), clarinet, violin, viola and cello
  • Synchronisms No. 11 (2005), contrabass and tape
  • Synchronisms No. 12 (2006), clarinet and tape
  • Piano Septet (2007)

Discography

  • Works by Martin Brody, Mario Davidovsky, Miriam Gideon, Rand Steiger, Chinary Ung, New World Records, New World 80412-2. Release date: December 8, 1992.
    • Synchronisms No. 6; Fred Bronstein, Piano.
  • Korf: Symphony No.2/Davidovsky: Divertimento/Wright: Night Scenes, New World Records, New World 80383-2. Release date: December 8, 1992.
    • Divertimento; Fred Sherry
      Fred Sherry
      Fred Sherry is an American cello virtuoso who is particularly admired for his work as a chamber musician and concert soloist. He studied with Leonard Rose at the Juilliard School before winning the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 1968. In 1971 he co-founded the Speculum Musicae...

      , cello; Riverside Symphony
      Riverside Symphony
      Riverside Symphony is a New York-based professional orchestra founded in 1981 by conductor George Rothman and composer Anthony Korf. The orchestra performs a three-concert series at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center and is recognized for programs which integrate an international array of...

      , George Rothman conducting.
  • Flashbacks: Music by Mario Davidovsky, Bridge Records, Bridge 9097. Release date: June 27, 2000.
    • Flashbacks; The New York New Music Ensemble.
    • Festino; Speculum Musicae.
    • Romancero; Susan Narucki, soprano; Speculum Musicae.
    • Quartetto No. 2; Peggy Pearson, oboe; Bayla Keyes, violin; Mary Ruth Ray, viola; Rhonda Rider, violoncello.
    • Synchronisms No. 10; David Starobin
      David Starobin
      David Starobin is an American classical guitarist, record producer, and film director. He is married to Rebecca Askew Starobin , and is the father of Robert Joseph Starobin III , and Allegra Rose Starobin David Starobin (born September 27, 1951 in New York City) is an American classical...

      , guitar.
    • String Trio; Speculum Musicae.
  • Mario Davidovsky: 3 Cycles on Biblical Texts; Susan Narucki, soprano; Riverside Symphony, George Rothman conducting; Bridge Records, Bridge 1112. Release Date: July 30, 2002.
    • Shulamit's Dream.
    • Scenes from Shir ha-Shirim.
    • Biblical Songs.
  • Harvard Composers, Mendelssohn String Quartet, BIS Records, BIS-SACD-1264. Release date: September 9, 2003.
    • String Quartet No. 5.
  • Salvos: Chamber Music of Mario Davidovsky, Empyrean Ensemble; Susan Narucki, soprano. Arabesque Records, Arabesque Z6777. Release date: January 6, 2004.
    • Simple Dances.
    • Cantione Sine Textu.
    • Quartetto.
    • Salvos.
    • String Trio.
  • The Music of Mario Davidovsky, Vol. 3, Bridge Records, Bridge 9171. Release date: September 1, 2005.
    • Synchronisms No. 5; The Manhattan School of Music Percussion Ensemble, Jeffrey Milarsky
      Jeffrey Milarsky
      Jeffrey Milarsky is one of the leading conductors of contemporary music in New York City.In the United States and abroad, he has premiered and recorded works of many contemporary composers, including Charles Wuorinen, Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, Lasse Thoresen, Gerard Grisey, Jonathan Dawe,...

      , conductor.
    • Synchronisms No. 6 Aleck Karis, piano.
    • Synchronisms No. 9; Curtis Macomber, violin.
    • Chacona; Curtis Macomber, violin; Eric Bartlett, cello; Aleck Karis, piano.
    • Quartetto; Susan Palma Nidel, flute; Curtis Macomber, violin; Maureen Gallagher, viola; Eric Bartlett, violoncello.
    • Duo Capriccioso; Curtis Macomber, violin; Aleck Karis, piano.

Notable students

  • Leslie Bassett
    Leslie Bassett
    Leslie Bassett is an American composer of classical music, and the University of Michigan’s Albert A. Stanley Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Composition...

  • Chester Biscardi
    Chester Biscardi
    Chester Biscardi is an Italian American composer and educator.He received a B.A. degree in English literature from the University of Wisconsin–Madison ; he studied during 1969-1970 at the University of Bologna and the Conservatorio di Musica "G. B. Martini"; he received an M.A...

  • Conrad Cummings
    Conrad Cummings
    Conrad Cummings is an American composer of contemporary classical music. His compositions include works for orchestra, as well as operatic and chamber works. Many of his works are composed in a minimalist style reminiscent of that of Philip Glass.Cummings was born in San Francisco, California,...

  • Michael Daugherty
    Michael Daugherty
    Michael Kevin Daugherty is an American composer, pianist, and teacher. Influenced by popular culture, Romanticism, and Postmodernism, Daugherty is one of the most colorful and widely performed American concert music composers of his generation...

  • Jason Eckardt
    Jason Eckardt
    Jason Eckardt is an American composer. He began his musical life playing guitar in heavy metal and jazz bands and abruptly moved to composing after discovering the music of Anton Webern.-Compositions:...

  • Richard Einhorn
    Richard Einhorn
    Richard Einhorn is a modern classical composer.Graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University in New York City in 1975, studied composition and electronic music with Jack Beeson, Vladimir Ussachevsky, and Mario Davidovsky....

  • Zhou Long
    Zhou Long
    Zhou Long is a Pulitzer-prize-winning Chinese American composer.-Biography:Born into an artistic family, Zhou Long began studying piano from an early age. Due to the artistic restrictions implemented during the Cultural Revolution, he was forced to delay his piano studies and live on a state-run...

  • Yen Lu
    Yen Lu
    Yen Lu was a Chinese-born Taiwanese composer.Yen was educated in National Taiwan Normal University and Mannes College , City University of New York , and University of Pennsylvania . He has received Taiwan's National Cultural Award in 1993 and 1998...

  • Ingram Marshall
    Ingram Marshall
    Ingram Marshall is an American composer and a former student of Vladimir Ussachevsky and Morton Subotnick. Son of Bernice Douglas and Harry Reinhard Marshall, Sr. He was a talented soprano in the Boy's Choir at the Mt. Vernon Community Church, and was influenced early by noted music instructor,...

  • Lei Liang
  • Chen Yi
    Chen Yi (composer)
    Chen Yi is a Chinese composer of contemporary classical music. She was the first Chinese woman to receive a Master of Arts in music composition from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. She is also a violinist....


External links

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