James Dashow

Updated on Jan 11, 2024

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Name James Dashow Role Composer		Music director Oedipus Orca
Education Brandeis University, Princeton University Awards Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts, US & Canada

James dashow reconstructions for harp electronics

James Dashow (born November 7, 1944, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American composer of electro-acoustic music, instrumental music and opera.

James dashow mnemonics 1981

Life and career

Dashow was born in 1944, outside of Chicago (USA). His musical studies began in high school with Horace Reisberg; his principal teachers at the university level were J. K. Randall, Arthur Berger and Seymour Shifrin. In 1969, Dashow went to Italy on a Fulbright Fellowship to complete his studies with Goffredo Petrassi. For many years, he studied the music of Luigi Dallapiccola independently.

One of the first to compose music for digital audio synthesis (“computer music”), Dashow was invited by Graziano (Giuliano) Tisato to work at the computer center of the University of Padova, where he created the first computer music compositions in Italy. He was the first vice president of the International Computer Music Association, has taught at MIT and Princeton University, and continues to actively hold master classes, lectures and concerts in Europe and North America. In 2003 he was composer-in-residence at the 12th Annual Florida Electroacoustic Music Festival in Gainesville, Florida.

For several years he and Riccardo Bianchini coproduced a weekly contemporary music program for RAI. He is the author of the MUSIC30 language for digital sound synthesis, and invented the Dyad System, a method that both integrates pitch structure based on dyads into electronic sounds as well as develops the pitch structure itself in terms of dyadic elaborations.

Following on his extensive use of audio spatialization as an integral part of the compositional process, Dashow composed the first opera designed to be performed in a Planetarium (ARCHIMEDES), taking advantage of the depth projection capabilities of the digital planetarium projectors and the multichannel audio systems that together provide a full immersion theatrical experience. He continues to develop the idea of a double approach to spatialization, through the complementary concepts of Movement IN Space, and Movement OF Space.

His most important recognitions include the Prix Magistere at Bourges in 2000, Guggenheim (1989) and Koussevitzky (1998) Foundation grants, and in 2011 the Fondazione CEMAT distinguished career award “Il CEMAT per la Musica” in recognition of his outstanding contributions to electro-acoustic music.

Principal compositions

Soundings in Pure Duration n.6 (2014)

octophonic electronic sounds

Soundings in Pure Duration n.5 (2012)

harp and octophonic electronic sounds

Soundings in Pure Duration n.4 (2012)

viola and octophonic electronic sounds

Soundings in Pure Duration n.3 (2011)

guitar and hexaphonic electronic sounds

Album of Small Forms vol. 1 (2010)

violin, clarinet, piano

Soundings in Pure Duration n. 2a (2009)

pre-recorded percussive and hexaphonic electronic sounds

ARCHIMEDES, a Planetarium opera (1999-2008)

Libretto by Cary Plotkin and Theodore Weiss based on a conception of the composer

Sul Filo dei Tramonti (2004)

version for flute, harp and stereophonic electronic sounds

Soundings in Pure Duration n.1 (2003)

hexaphonic electronic sounds

Messages from Ortigia (2002)

bass flute (alto), bass clarinet, viola, harp and hexaphonic electronic sounds

Sul Filo dei Tramonti (2000)

soprano, piano and stereophonic electronic sounds on poetry by Giangiacomo Menon

...at other times, the distances (1999)

quadraphonic electronic sounds

Far Sounds, Broken Cries (1998)

13 instruments and quadraphonic electronic sounds

Media Survival Kit (1996)

a lyric satire for radio broadcast text by Bruno Ballardini

First Tangent to the Given Curve (1995-1996)

piano and stereophonic electronic sounds

Le Tracce di Kronos, i Passi (1997)

clarinet, dancer and stereophonic electronic sounds

A Sheaf of Times (1992-1994)

flute (alto, piccolo) clarinet (b. cl.), vln, vc, piano, harp, percussion

Morfologie (1993)

for trumpet player (doubling cornet, flugelhorn) and stereophonic electronic sounds

Reconstructions (1992)

for harp and stereophonic electronic sounds

4/3 - trio (1989–90)

violin, cello and piano

Oro, Argento & Legno (1987)

for flute (piccolo, alto flute) and quadraphonic electronic sounds

Songs from a Spiral Tree (1984-1986)

for mezzo-soprano, flute (piccolo, alto) and harp on poems by Theodore Roethke

In Winter Shine (1983)

quadraphonic electronic music

Mnemonics (1981-1982, rev. 1984)

violin and quadraphonic electronic sounds

Second Voyage (1977-1979)

tenor voice with stereophonic electronic sounds poem “Voyage in the Blue” by John Ashbery

Effetti Collaterali (1976)

clarinet in A and stereophonic electronic sounds

Whispers Out of Time (1975-1976)

stereophonic electronic music

Some Dream Songs (1974-1975)

soprano, violin and piano poems from “The Dream Songs” by John Berryman

Ashbery Setting (1971-1972)

soprano, flute and piano poem “Clepsydra” by John Ashbery

Timespace Extensions (1969)

flute, piano and 2 percussionists

Songs of Despair (1968)

soprano and 11 instruments poems by E.A. Robinson, A. MacLeish, V. Lindsay, T.S. Eliot

Awards and recognition

CEMAT per la Musica, outstanding career recognition

Prix Magistere, Bourges (France)

Koussevitzky Foundation

Guggenheim Foundation

Prague Musica Nova (Czech Republic)

Ars Elettronica, Linz (Austria)

Rockefeller Foundation

American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters

U.S. National Endowment for the Arts

Commissions from Harvard Musical Association, La Biennale di Venezia, RAI - Radio 3 (Italian National Radio), Fromm Foundation, various soloists and ensembles.

References

James Dashow Wikipedia

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