David Lewiston
Encyclopedia
David Sidney George Lewiston (born 1929) is a London
-born collector of the world's traditional music. He is best known for his recordings initially released on LP on the Explorer Series of Nonesuch Records
beginning in 1967.
in London, where he studied piano, conducting, orchestration, harmony, and counterpoint
. He later studied composition in New York
with Thomas de Hartmann
, who had been a devotee of G. I. Gurdjieff
. For more than a decade he served as one of the musicians at the Gurdjieff Foundation, New York. Finding it difficult to make a living as a musician he worked as a journalist for more than a decade but abandoned it to return to music, traveling widely to record traditional music.
His first recordings were made in Bali
in 1966, and the initial album from these recordings, Music from the Morning of the World, was released in 1967. He has made extensive recordings of Tibetan Buddhist
rituals, most notably of the chordal chanting of Gyuto
Tantric University (one of the great colleges of the Gelug
pa, the Established Church of Tibetan Buddhism), and the Drukpa Kagyu rituals of Khampagar Gompa, as well as music from many other countries, including Bolivia
, Brazil
, Colombia
, Ecuador
, Peru
, Guatemala
and Mexico
, India
, Jammu
and Kashmir
, Ladakh
and Lahul, Himachal Pradesh
in India's West Himalaya, Gilgit
and Hunza
in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province
, Darjeeling and Sikkim
in the East Himalaya, the Republic of Georgia
, and Morocco
.
His recordings of the '60s and '70s were made at a significant juncture, when lightweight portable recording equipment had matured sufficiently to allow excellent recordings to be made in remote places, and just before the traditional music of these places suffered the ravages of globalization.
He lives in Maui
, Hawaii
, where he is currently working on archiving his recordings and other materials collected during his life's work.
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
-born collector of the world's traditional music. He is best known for his recordings initially released on LP on the Explorer Series of Nonesuch Records
Nonesuch 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...
beginning in 1967.
Biography
He earned a graduate degree in 1953 from Trinity College of MusicTrinity College of Music
Trinity College of Music is one of the London music conservatories, based in Greenwich. It is part of Trinity Laban.The conservatoire is inheritor of elegant riverside buildings of the former Greenwich Hospital, designed in part by Sir Christopher Wren...
in London, where he studied piano, conducting, orchestration, harmony, and counterpoint
Counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
. He later studied composition in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
with Thomas de Hartmann
Thomas de Hartmann
Thomas Alexandrovich de Hartmann September 21, 1885March 28, 1956 was a Russian composer and prominent student and collaborator of George Gurdjieff.-Biography:...
, who had been a devotee of G. I. Gurdjieff
G. I. Gurdjieff
George Ivanovich Gurdjieff according to Gurdjieff's principles and instructions, or the "Fourth Way."At one point he described his teaching as "esoteric Christianity."...
. For more than a decade he served as one of the musicians at the Gurdjieff Foundation, New York. Finding it difficult to make a living as a musician he worked as a journalist for more than a decade but abandoned it to return to music, traveling widely to record traditional music.
His first recordings were made in Bali
Bali
Bali is an Indonesian island located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east...
in 1966, and the initial album from these recordings, Music from the Morning of the World, was released in 1967. He has made extensive recordings of Tibetan Buddhist
Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, Bhutan, and India . It is the state religion of Bhutan...
rituals, most notably of the chordal chanting of Gyuto
Gyuto Order
Gyuto Tantric University is one of the great monastic institutions of the Gelug Order.-History:Gyuto was founded in 1475 by Jetsun Kunga Dhondup and is one of the main tantric colleges of the Gelug tradition...
Tantric University (one of the great colleges of the Gelug
Gelug
The Gelug or Gelug-pa , also known as the Yellow Hat sect, is a school of Buddhism founded by Je Tsongkhapa , a philosopher and Tibetan religious leader...
pa, the Established Church of Tibetan Buddhism), and the Drukpa Kagyu rituals of Khampagar Gompa, as well as music from many other countries, including Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
and Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Jammu
Jammu
Jammu , also known as Duggar, is one of the three administrative divisions within Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost state in India.Jammu city is the largest city in Jammu and the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir...
and Kashmir
Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
, Ladakh
Ladakh
Ladakh is a region of Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost state of the Republic of India. It lies between the Kunlun mountain range in the north and the main Great Himalayas to the south, inhabited by people of Indo-Aryan and Tibetan descent...
and Lahul, Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh is a state in Northern India. It is spread over , and is bordered by the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir on the north, Punjab on the west and south-west, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh on the south, Uttarakhand on the south-east and by the Tibet Autonomous Region on the east...
in India's West Himalaya, Gilgit
Gilgit
Gilgit is a city in northern PakistanGilgit may refer to other terms related with the area of the city:* Gilgit River* Gilgit Valley* Gilgit District* Gilgit Agency * Gilgit Airport...
and Hunza
Hunza Valley
The Hunza Valley is a mountainous valley in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan. The Hunza valley is situated to the north of the Hunza River, at an elevation of around . The territory of Hunza is about...
in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province
North-West Frontier Province
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province and various other names, is one of the four provinces of Pakistan, located in the north-west of the country...
, Darjeeling and Sikkim
Sikkim
Sikkim is a landlocked Indian state nestled in the Himalayan mountains...
in the East Himalaya, the Republic of Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
, and Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
.
His recordings of the '60s and '70s were made at a significant juncture, when lightweight portable recording equipment had matured sufficiently to allow excellent recordings to be made in remote places, and just before the traditional music of these places suffered the ravages of globalization.
He lives in Maui
Maui
The island of Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is part of the state of Hawaii and is the largest of Maui County's four islands, bigger than Lānai, Kahoolawe, and Molokai. In 2010, Maui had a population of 144,444,...
, Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, where he is currently working on archiving his recordings and other materials collected during his life's work.
Releases
- Ladakh - Songs & Dances From The Highlands Of Western Tibet (LP) Nonesuch, 1977.
- Tibetan Buddhism - Shartse College of Ganden Monastery (CD) Bridge, 1989
- Kecak: A Balinese Music Drama - Kecak Ganda Sari (CD) Bridge, 1990
Production
- Japan: Traditional Vocal & Instrumental Music - Shakuhachi, Biwa, Koto, Shamisen (LP) Nonesuch 1976.
- Japan: Kabuki & Other Traditional Music (LP) Nonesuch, 1980.
- Japan: Shakuhachi - The Japanese Flute (CD, Album, RE) Nonesuch, 1991.
- Trance 1: Sufi Dervish Rite / Tibetan Overtone Chant / Indian Dhrupad (CD, Har) Ellipsis Arts, 1995.
- Trance 2: Naqshbandi Sufis / Healing And Trance In Morocco / Balinese Temple Festival (CD, Har) Ellipsis Arts, 1995.
Appears On
- Music From The Morning Of The World: The Balinese Gamelan (LP) Nonesuch, 1967.
- Golden Rain - Balinese Gamelan Music And Ketjak: The Ramayana Monkey Dance (LP) Nonesuch, 1969.
- The Jasmine Isle: Javanese Gamelan Music (LP) Nonesuch, 1969.
- The Nonesuch Explorer - Music From Distant Corners Of The World - Treasures Of The Explorer Series (2xLP, Comp)
- Tibetan Buddhism - Tantras Of Gyütö: Mahakala (LP) Nonesuch , 1973.
- Ram NarayanRam NarayanRam Narayan , often referred to by the title Pandit, is an Indian musician who popularized the bowed instrument sarangi as a solo concert instrument in Hindustani classical music and became the first internationally successful sarangi player....
, Master of the Sarangi – Classical Music of India (LP) Nonesuch, 1975. - Tibetan Buddhism - Tantras Of Gyütö: Sangwa Düpa (LP) Nonesuch, 1975.
- Japan: Traditional Vocal & Instrumental Music - Shakuhachi, Biwa, Koto, Shamisen (LP) Nonesuch, 1976.
- Tibetan Buddhism - The Ritual Orchestra And Chants (LP) Nonesuch, 1976.
- Japan: Kabuki & Other Traditional Music (LP) Nonesuch, 1980.
- China: Music Of The Pipa (CD, Album, RE) Nonesuch, 1991.
- Trance 1: Sufi Dervish Rite / Tibetan Overtone Chant / Indian Dhrupad (CD) Jigje Kyi Dagjug Chenm. Ellipsis Arts, 1995.
- Trance 2: Naqshbandi Sufis / Healing And Trance In Morocco / Balinese Temple Festival (CD) Ellipsis Arts, 1995.
- Music From The Morning Of The World - The Balinese Gamelan (CD, RE) WEA Japan, Nonesuch, 1996.
- Bali - Music From The Morning Of The World (CD, Album, RE) Nonesuch, 2003.
- South America - Black Music In Praise Of Oxalá And Other Gods (CD, Comp) Nonesuch, 2003.
- Kingdom Of The Sun - Peru's Inca Heritage (LP, Comp) Nonesuch.
External links
- The New York Times article
- David Lewiston interview
- David Lewiston article, from Nonesuch Records
- David Lewiston article
- David Lewiston interview on WNYC Soundcheck program, May 10, 2006