Michael Gordon (composer)
Encyclopedia
Michael Gordon is an American composer and co-founder of the Bang on a Can festival and ensemble. His music is associated with the genres of totalism
and post-minimalism.
in 1956 (July, 20) and grew up in Nicaragua
and an Eastern European Jewish community on the outskirts of Managua
until moving to Miami Beach at age 8.
His music is an outgrowth of his experience with underground rock bands in New York City and his formal training in composition at Yale where he studied with Martin Bresnick
. Tuneful, rhythmic and raw, Gordon has embraced elements of dissonance, minimalism, modality and popular culture in what has been considered by some people as a bold and direct sound.
Festival, alongside fellow composers Julia Wolfe
, his wife, and David Lang
. He has collaborated with them on several projects. The opera The Carbon Copy Building, a collaboration with comic book artist Ben Katchor
, received the 2000 Village Voice OBIE Award for Best New American Work, a projected comic strip accompanies the singers, interacting with each other so that the frames fall away in the telling of this story. Gordon, Wolfe and Lang have subsequently collaborated on the 'oratorio' Lost Objects, the recording of which was released in summer 2001 (Teldec New Line).
A further project is Shelter, a multi-media work that was commissioned by the ensemble musikFabrik
and features the Scandinavian vocalists Trio Mediaeval in a staged spectacle that, in the words of librettist Deborah Artman, "evokes the power and threat of nature, the soaring frontier promise contained in the framing of a new house, the pure aesthetic beauty of blueprints, the sweet architecture of sound and the uneasy vulnerability that underlies even the safety of our sleep." Shelter was premiered in Köln in Germany in spring 2005, and received its US premiere in November 2005.
Both Shelter and Carbon Copy Building were staged by New York's Ridge Theater, in collaboration with Laurie Olinder (visual graphics), Bill Morrison
(film-maker) and Bob McGrath
(director), with whom Gordon has often worked. The opera Chaos, with libretto by Matthew Maguire premiered at The Kitchen in New York in autumn 1998 with stage direction by Bob McGrath. The work, which opened to rave reviews and packed houses, is a fast paced science fiction spectacle in 25 short scenes.
/Nonesuch.
Decasia, a large-scale symphony with projections, commissioned by the Europäischer Musikmonat 2001 for the Basel Sinfonietta, was also staged by the Ridge Theater. The orchestra sits on a triangular pyramid structure that surrounds the audience, whilst Bill Morrison's film of black and white 'found' footage in various states of deterioration is projected onto scrim draping the structure. The ensuing Bill Morrison film, Decasia, cut to Michael Gordon's complete score, was shown at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival
and has been screened at film festivals worldwide. Also in 2002, he was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.
A further collaboration with Ridge Theater, Gotham, a commission from the American Composers Orchestra
, incorporates film, projections, lighting and an orchestra of 35 musicians to explore the 'other' New York City. Again directed by Bob McGrath, the work premiered at Carnegie's Zankel Hall
in February 2004 with the American Composers Orchestra and combines Bill Morrison's stunning archival and original footage of New York with Laurie Olinder's photographic projections of the urban landscape.
He has worked extensively with London's Icebreaker
. His work Yo Shakespeare was recorded by Icebreaker on their debut Argo/Decca
recording Terminal Velocity, recently re-released by Cantaloupe Music. Gordon's work Trance was written for Icebreaker with the additional component of eight brass players. The 52-minute work was also originally recorded for Argo and was released in the autumn of 1996; a new re-mixed version is subsequently on Cantaloupe. Link was written for the group in 1998, in collaboration with David Lang, as a complementary piece to Yo Shakespeare and Lang's Cheating, Lying, Stealing for a new ballet by Ashley Page for The Royal Ballet in London, subsequently revived by Page at Scottish Ballet
.
May 2004 saw the release of Light Is Calling (Nonesuch), an album of tracks created with producers R. Luke DuBois
and Damian le Gassick, and scored for a small ensemble of musicians (most notably Todd Reynolds on violin) with complex electronic arrangements orchestrated by DuBois and le Gassick. He has since collaborated with DuBois extensively on the electronic backing arrangements for subsequent pieces, including All Vows for cellist Maya Beiser (2006, for which DuBois also served as a video artist), Sad Park for the Kronos Quartet
(2006), and the opera What to Wear, libretto by Richard Foreman
(2006).
Gordon's music has been presented at the Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, The Kitchen, the Kölner Philharmonie, the Royal Albert Hall, the Bonn Oper and the Jewish Museum in Vienna; at the Rotterdam, Edinburgh, St. Petersburg, Holland, Adelaide, Huddersfield, Settembre Musica and Dresden music festivals; in the choreography of Eliot Feld, the Royal Ballet, emio greco/pc, Heinz Spoerli and other dance companies; and as a featured artist in the repertoires of Ensemble Modern
, Alarm Will Sound
, and the Kronos Quartet
. The 2003-04 season saw seven concerts of Gordon's music in New York alone including three world premieres and three American premieres, most notably the world premiere of Gotham at Carnegie's Zankel Hall and the American premiere of Weather by Ensemble Resonanz at Columbia University's Miller Theater.
Recent commissions have been supported by the New York State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, the BBC Proms, The Siemens Kulturprogram, BAM's Next Wave Festival and the Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival. In 1997 he worked with playwright Anna Deavere Smith
on House Arrest, First Edition, which premiered at the Arena Stage
Theater in Washington, DC.
He is published by Red Poppy, a division of G. Schirmer
.
Totalism (music)
In music, totalism is a term for a style of art music that arose in the 1980s and 1990s as a developing response to minimalism—parallel to postminimalism, but generally among a slightly younger generation, born in the 1950s....
and post-minimalism.
Early life
Michael Gordon was born in FloridaFlorida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
in 1956 (July, 20) and grew up in Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
and an Eastern European Jewish community on the outskirts of Managua
Managua
Managua is the capital city of Nicaragua as well as the department and municipality by the same name. It is the largest city in Nicaragua in terms of population and geographic size. Located on the southwestern shore of Lake Xolotlán or Lake Managua, the city was declared the national capital in...
until moving to Miami Beach at age 8.
His music is an outgrowth of his experience with underground rock bands in New York City and his formal training in composition at Yale where he studied with Martin Bresnick
Martin Bresnick
Martin Bresnick is a composer of contemporary classical music, film scores and experimental music.-Education and early career:Bresnick was born and raised in the Bronx, and is a graduate of New York City's specialized High School of Music and Art. He was educated at the University of Hartford ,...
. Tuneful, rhythmic and raw, Gordon has embraced elements of dissonance, minimalism, modality and popular culture in what has been considered by some people as a bold and direct sound.
Bang on a Can
Gordon is one of the founders and artistic directors of New York's Bang on a CanBang on a Can
Bang on a Can is a multi-faceted classical music organization based in New York City. It was founded in 1987 by three American composers who remain its artistic directors: Julia Wolfe, David Lang, and Michael Gordon...
Festival, alongside fellow composers Julia Wolfe
Julia Wolfe
Julia Wolfe is an American composer. She was born in Philadelphia, holds degrees from the University of Michigan, Princeton and Yale, and currently works in New York. Wolfe's music is rhythmically vigorous and often clangorously dissonant...
, his wife, and David Lang
David Lang (composer)
David Lang is an American composer living in New York City. He was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Music for The Little Match Girl Passion.-Biography:...
. He has collaborated with them on several projects. The opera The Carbon Copy Building, a collaboration with comic book artist Ben Katchor
Ben Katchor
Ben Katchor is an American cartoonist best known for his comic strip Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer. He has contributed comics and drawings to The New Yorker and The New York Times...
, received the 2000 Village Voice OBIE Award for Best New American Work, a projected comic strip accompanies the singers, interacting with each other so that the frames fall away in the telling of this story. Gordon, Wolfe and Lang have subsequently collaborated on the 'oratorio' Lost Objects, the recording of which was released in summer 2001 (Teldec New Line).
A further project is Shelter, a multi-media work that was commissioned by the ensemble musikFabrik
Musikfabrik
The musikFabrik is an ensemble for contemporary music located in Cologne. Their official name is: musikFabrik Landesensemble NRW e.V. .-Overview:...
and features the Scandinavian vocalists Trio Mediaeval in a staged spectacle that, in the words of librettist Deborah Artman, "evokes the power and threat of nature, the soaring frontier promise contained in the framing of a new house, the pure aesthetic beauty of blueprints, the sweet architecture of sound and the uneasy vulnerability that underlies even the safety of our sleep." Shelter was premiered in Köln in Germany in spring 2005, and received its US premiere in November 2005.
Both Shelter and Carbon Copy Building were staged by New York's Ridge Theater, in collaboration with Laurie Olinder (visual graphics), Bill Morrison
Bill Morrison (director)
Bill Morrison is a New York-based filmmaker and artist, best known for his experimental collage film Decasia . He is a member of Ridge Theater and the founder of Hypnotic Pictures...
(film-maker) and Bob McGrath
Bob McGrath
Robert Emmet "Bob" McGrath is an American singer and actor best known for playing the human character Bob on Sesame Street. He was born in Ottawa, Illinois. McGrath was named for Irish patriot Robert Emmet....
(director), with whom Gordon has often worked. The opera Chaos, with libretto by Matthew Maguire premiered at The Kitchen in New York in autumn 1998 with stage direction by Bob McGrath. The work, which opened to rave reviews and packed houses, is a fast paced science fiction spectacle in 25 short scenes.
Other work
Since 1991 he has worked extensively with video. His work Van Gogh Video Opera, a collaboration with video-artist Elliott Caplan, was premiered to critical acclaim in New York in 1991 and received its European premiere in Vienna in 1992. Other works with Caplan include Grand Dairy, based on a diner on New York's Lower East Side, which was produced in Vienna in 1996 and Weather (German Tour 1997), in which the 16 string players of Ensemble Resonanz perform on a vertical stage surrounded by video panels. The recording of Weather is available on ArthrobArthrob
Arthrob were an underground arts collective in London during the mid-late 1990s. They organised cultural events such as book readings and theatre in nightclubs, aiming to bring together club culture and the arts.-Founding:...
/Nonesuch.
Decasia, a large-scale symphony with projections, commissioned by the Europäischer Musikmonat 2001 for the Basel Sinfonietta, was also staged by the Ridge Theater. The orchestra sits on a triangular pyramid structure that surrounds the audience, whilst Bill Morrison's film of black and white 'found' footage in various states of deterioration is projected onto scrim draping the structure. The ensuing Bill Morrison film, Decasia, cut to Michael Gordon's complete score, was shown at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
and has been screened at film festivals worldwide. Also in 2002, he was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.
A further collaboration with Ridge Theater, Gotham, a commission from the American Composers Orchestra
American Composers Orchestra
The American Composers Orchestra is an American orchestra based in New York City. It is the only orchestra in the world dedicated solely to the creation, performance, preservation, and promulgation of music by American composers...
, incorporates film, projections, lighting and an orchestra of 35 musicians to explore the 'other' New York City. Again directed by Bob McGrath, the work premiered at Carnegie's Zankel Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
in February 2004 with the American Composers Orchestra and combines Bill Morrison's stunning archival and original footage of New York with Laurie Olinder's photographic projections of the urban landscape.
He has worked extensively with London's Icebreaker
Icebreaker (band)
Icebreaker is a UK-based new music ensemble founded by James Poke and John Godfrey. The group have established themselves as one of the UK's leading new music interpreters specializing particularly in post-minimal and "totalist" repertoire. They always play amplified and have a reputation for...
. His work Yo Shakespeare was recorded by Icebreaker on their debut Argo/Decca
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
recording Terminal Velocity, recently re-released by Cantaloupe Music. Gordon's work Trance was written for Icebreaker with the additional component of eight brass players. The 52-minute work was also originally recorded for Argo and was released in the autumn of 1996; a new re-mixed version is subsequently on Cantaloupe. Link was written for the group in 1998, in collaboration with David Lang, as a complementary piece to Yo Shakespeare and Lang's Cheating, Lying, Stealing for a new ballet by Ashley Page for The Royal Ballet in London, subsequently revived by Page at Scottish Ballet
Scottish Ballet
Scottish Ballet is the national ballet company of Scotland and one of the four leading ballet companies of the United Kingdom, alongside the Royal Ballet, English National Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet...
.
May 2004 saw the release of Light Is Calling (Nonesuch), an album of tracks created with producers R. Luke DuBois
R. Luke DuBois
Roger Luke DuBois is an American composer, performer, conceptual new media artist, programmer, record producer and pedagogue based in New York City.-Biography:...
and Damian le Gassick, and scored for a small ensemble of musicians (most notably Todd Reynolds on violin) with complex electronic arrangements orchestrated by DuBois and le Gassick. He has since collaborated with DuBois extensively on the electronic backing arrangements for subsequent pieces, including All Vows for cellist Maya Beiser (2006, for which DuBois also served as a video artist), Sad Park for the Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...
(2006), and the opera What to Wear, libretto by Richard Foreman
Richard Foreman
Richard Foreman is an American playwright and avant-garde theater pioneer. He is the founder of the Ontological-Hysteric Theater.-Life :...
(2006).
Gordon's music has been presented at the Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, The Kitchen, the Kölner Philharmonie, the Royal Albert Hall, the Bonn Oper and the Jewish Museum in Vienna; at the Rotterdam, Edinburgh, St. Petersburg, Holland, Adelaide, Huddersfield, Settembre Musica and Dresden music festivals; in the choreography of Eliot Feld, the Royal Ballet, emio greco/pc, Heinz Spoerli and other dance companies; and as a featured artist in the repertoires of Ensemble Modern
Ensemble Modern
Ensemble Modern is a chamber ensemble dedicated to the music of modern composers. Formed in 1980, the group is based in Frankfurt, Germany and made up variously of about twenty members from numerous countries....
, Alarm Will Sound
Alarm Will Sound
Alarm Will Sound is a 20-member chamber orchestra that focuses on recordings and performances of contemporary music. Its performances have been described as "equal parts exuberance, nonchalance, and virtuosity" by the Financial Times and as "a triumph of ensemble playing" by the San Francisco...
, and the Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...
. The 2003-04 season saw seven concerts of Gordon's music in New York alone including three world premieres and three American premieres, most notably the world premiere of Gotham at Carnegie's Zankel Hall and the American premiere of Weather by Ensemble Resonanz at Columbia University's Miller Theater.
Recent commissions have been supported by the New York State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, the BBC Proms, The Siemens Kulturprogram, BAM's Next Wave Festival and the Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival. In 1997 he worked with playwright Anna Deavere Smith
Anna Deavere Smith
Anna Deavere Smith is an American actress, playwright, and professor. She is currently the artist in residence at the Center for American Progress.-Early life:...
on House Arrest, First Edition, which premiered at the Arena Stage
Arena Stage
Arena Stage is a not-for-profit regional theater based in Southwest Washington, D.C. Its declared mission"is to produce huge plays of all that is passionate, exuberant, profound, deep and dangerous in the American spirit. Arena has broad shoulders and a capacity to produce anything from vast epics...
Theater in Washington, DC.
He is published by Red Poppy, a division of G. Schirmer
G. Schirmer
G. Schirmer Inc. is an American classical music publishing company based in New York City, founded in 1861. It publishes sheet music for sale and rental, and represents some well-known European music publishers in North America, such as the Italian Ricordi, Music Sales Affiliates ChesterNovello,...
.
Major works
- Thou Shalt!/Thou Shalt Not! (1983) clarinets, percussion, keyboard, electric guitar, violin and viola (18')
- The Low Quartet (1985) for any 4 low instruments (8')
- Strange Quiet (1985) for clarinets, percussion, keyboard, electric guitar, violin and viola (14')
- Acid Rain (1986) for flute, clarinet, organ and string quintet (8')
- Four Kings Fight Five (1988) for oboe, clarinet, percussion, electric guitar, 2 violins and viola
- Paint It Black (1988) for solo double bass (11')
- XY (1998) for solo percussion
- Van Gogh Video Opera (1991) (1h 5') live opera with video
- Romeo (1992) for chamber orchestra (8')
- Yo Shakespeare (1992) for large ensemble (Icebreaker) (11')
- Industry (1992) for solo cello and electronics
- XVI (1993) for chorus of 16 singers (15')
- Chaos (1994) opera (1h 20')
- Trance (1995) for large ensemble (Icebreaker) (50')
- ac dc (1996) for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano (10')
- I Buried Paul (1996) for clarinet, percussion, keyboard, electric guitar, cello, double bass (Bang on a Can All Stars)
- Love Bead (1997) for large ensemble (Ensemble Modern) (10')
- Weather (1997) for 16-piece string orchestra and video
- vera, chuck, and dave (1998) for large ensemble
- Link (1998) (with David Lang) for large ensemble (Icebreaker) (11')
- Sunshine of Your Love (1999) for large orchestra (10')
- The Carbon Copy Building (with Julia Wolfe and David Lang) (1999) opera with video
- Lost Objects (with Julia Wolfe and David Lang) (2000) oratorio with video
- DecasiaDecasiaDecasia is a 2002 found footage film by Bill Morrison, featuring an original score by Michael Gordon. The film is a meditation on old, decaying silent films and is similar in spirit to Lyrical Nitrate. It begins and ends with scenes of a dervish and is bookended with old footage showing how film...
(2001) for orchestra with film (1h 7') - Potassium (2001) for string quartet (15')
- Gotham (2004) for chamber orchestra (30')
- Who By Water (2004) for large ensemble (Alarm Will Sound) (18')
- Light is Calling (2004) studio album, version for band also
- Grey Pink Yellow (2005) for orchestra (12')
- Acquanetta (2005) opera (1h 10')
- Shelter (with Julia Wolfe and David Lang) (2005) oratorio with video
- The Sad Park (2006) for string quartet and pre-recorded voice (25')
Recordings
- Big Noise from Nicaragua (1994)
- Weather (1999)
- Decasia (2002)
- Light is Calling (2004)
- Trance (2005)
- Van Gogh (2008)
- (purgatorio) POPOPERA (2008)