Elodie Lauten
Encyclopedia
Elodie Lauten is a composer
described as postminimalist or a microtonalist.
where she studied Western composition with Dinu Ghezzo and Indian classical music
with Ahkmal Parwez. She became an American citizen in 1984 and has lived in New York since the early seventies. Lauten has received awards from the NEA
, ASCAP, MTC
, and AMC, as well as chamber and orchestral commissions. She owns a recording label and publishing, Studio 21, and produces CDs for other artists on a regular basis. In France she is known by some happy-few to have contributed to the early punk-rock scéne in Paris in 1975/76.
Lauten is a former student of her father Errol Parker and of LaMonte Young, Dinu Ghezzo
, and Akhmal Parwez. A writer of operas, theater pieces, orchestral, chamber and instrumental music, she is recognized in North America and Europe as a pioneer of postminimalism and a force on the new music scene with over 20 releases on a number of labels including Lovely Music, Point/Polygram, 4-Tay, O.O. Discs, and New Tone (Italy). Her music has a strong mystical streak, reflected in correspondences between astrological signs
, hexagrams of the I Ching
, animals, and the modes of her system of improvisation
, called Universal Mode Improvisation (UMI).
, the other a neoclassical
attachment to tonal melody and ostinato
. These two were present from the beginning of her recording career, the first in her Concerto for Piano and Orchestral Memory (1984), the second in her Sonata Ordinaire (1986) for piano. Her 1987 opera The Death of Don Juan—feminist tract and Zen
meditation combined—was one of the major postminimalist works of the 1980s; it has recently been revived in a 2-week run (April 2005) at Franklin Pierce College
, NH, directed by Robert Lawson. Her neoclassical tendency blossomed into a full neo-baroque
idiom in her Deus ex Machina Cycle for voices and Baroque ensemble (1999). Variations On The Orange Cycle (1991, recorded by Lois Svard for Lovely Music in 1998) is one of the cloudier works, an improvisation in a Terry Riley
-ish vein that was recorded and transcribed (as few of her piano works have been) for performance by others. The work has been included in Chamber Music America's list of 100 best works of the 20th century.
Lauten's opera Waking in New York, written on poems by her late friend Allen Ginsberg
, was presented by the New York City Opera VOX and Friends 2004, after being released on 4Tay in 2003. Smoothly suave but with a gentle rock beat, the work pioneered a mixture of genres by combining vocal soloists from three styles: classical, Broadway, and gospel. Orfreo, an opera for Baroque ensemble, was premiered at Merkin Hall by the Queen's Chamber Band, who also included Lauten's The Architect in their CD New Music Alive (Capstone, 2004). Orfreo was released on CD in December 2004 (Studio 21). In 2004 Lauten was composer-in-residence at Hope College
, MI. Lauten's Symphony 2001 was premiered in February 2003 by the SEM Orchestra in New York. Some of her compositions are for an instrument called the "trine", a lyre
-like instrument she designed.
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...
described as postminimalist or a microtonalist.
Biography
Born in Paris, France, Lauten was classically trained as a pianist since age 7. She received a Master's in composition from New York UniversityNew York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
where she studied Western composition with Dinu Ghezzo and Indian classical music
Indian classical music
The origins of Indian classical music can be found in the Vedas, which are the oldest scriptures in the Hindu tradition. Indian classical music has also been significantly influenced by, or syncretised with, Indian folk music and Persian music. The Samaveda, one of the four Vedas, describes music...
with Ahkmal Parwez. She became an American citizen in 1984 and has lived in New York since the early seventies. Lauten has received awards from the NEA
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
, ASCAP, MTC
Meet the Composer
Meet the Composer is an American organization founded in 1974 by the composer John Duffy as a project of the New York State Council on the Arts. It seeks to assist composers in making a living through writing music by sponsoring commissioning, residency, education, and audience interaction...
, and AMC, as well as chamber and orchestral commissions. She owns a recording label and publishing, Studio 21, and produces CDs for other artists on a regular basis. In France she is known by some happy-few to have contributed to the early punk-rock scéne in Paris in 1975/76.
Lauten is a former student of her father Errol Parker and of LaMonte Young, Dinu Ghezzo
Dinu Ghezzo
Dinu Ghezzo received his education in conducting, music education and in composition at the Romanian Conservatory in Bucharest , and subsequently earned a PhD. in composition at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1973. He has concluded a thirty-two years career at New York University,...
, and Akhmal Parwez. A writer of operas, theater pieces, orchestral, chamber and instrumental music, she is recognized in North America and Europe as a pioneer of postminimalism and a force on the new music scene with over 20 releases on a number of labels including Lovely Music, Point/Polygram, 4-Tay, O.O. Discs, and New Tone (Italy). Her music has a strong mystical streak, reflected in correspondences between astrological signs
Astrology
Astrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...
, hexagrams of the I Ching
I Ching
The I Ching or "Yì Jīng" , also known as the Classic of Changes, Book of Changes and Zhouyi, is one of the oldest of the Chinese classic texts...
, animals, and the modes of her system of improvisation
Improvisation
Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
, called Universal Mode Improvisation (UMI).
Musical style
Lauten's music has always been a combination of two contradictory streams, one of them a cloudy, beatless stasis derived from minimalismMinimalism
Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts...
, the other a neoclassical
Neoclassicism (music)
Neoclassicism in music was a twentieth-century trend, particularly current in the period between the two World Wars, in which composers sought to return to aesthetic precepts associated with the broadly defined concept of "classicism", namely order, balance, clarity, economy, and emotional restraint...
attachment to tonal melody and ostinato
Ostinato
In music, an ostinato is a motif or phrase, which is persistently repeated in the same musical voice. An ostinato is always a succession of equal sounds, wherein each note always has the same weight or stress. The repeating idea may be a rhythmic pattern, part of a tune, or a complete melody in...
. These two were present from the beginning of her recording career, the first in her Concerto for Piano and Orchestral Memory (1984), the second in her Sonata Ordinaire (1986) for piano. Her 1987 opera The Death of Don Juan—feminist tract and Zen
Zen
Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...
meditation combined—was one of the major postminimalist works of the 1980s; it has recently been revived in a 2-week run (April 2005) at Franklin Pierce College
Franklin Pierce College
Franklin Pierce University is a small, private, regionally-accredited university in rural Rindge, New Hampshire, founded in 1962, combining a liberal arts foundation with coursework for professional preparation...
, NH, directed by Robert Lawson. Her neoclassical tendency blossomed into a full neo-baroque
Neo-baroque
The Baroque Revival or Neo-baroque was an architectural style of the late 19th century. The term is used to describe architecture which displays important aspects of Baroque style, but is not of the Baroque period proper—i.e., the 17th and 18th centuries.Some examples of Neo-baroque architecture:*...
idiom in her Deus ex Machina Cycle for voices and Baroque ensemble (1999). Variations On The Orange Cycle (1991, recorded by Lois Svard for Lovely Music in 1998) is one of the cloudier works, an improvisation in a Terry Riley
Terry Riley
Terrence Mitchell Riley, is an American composer intrinsically associated with the minimalist school of Western classical music and was a pioneer of the movement...
-ish vein that was recorded and transcribed (as few of her piano works have been) for performance by others. The work has been included in Chamber Music America's list of 100 best works of the 20th century.
Lauten's opera Waking in New York, written on poems by her late friend Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
, was presented by the New York City Opera VOX and Friends 2004, after being released on 4Tay in 2003. Smoothly suave but with a gentle rock beat, the work pioneered a mixture of genres by combining vocal soloists from three styles: classical, Broadway, and gospel. Orfreo, an opera for Baroque ensemble, was premiered at Merkin Hall by the Queen's Chamber Band, who also included Lauten's The Architect in their CD New Music Alive (Capstone, 2004). Orfreo was released on CD in December 2004 (Studio 21). In 2004 Lauten was composer-in-residence at Hope College
Hope College
Hope College is a medium-sized , private, residential liberal arts college located in downtown Holland, Michigan, a few miles from Lake Michigan. It was opened in 1851 as the Pioneer School by Dutch immigrants four years after the community was first settled...
, MI. Lauten's Symphony 2001 was premiered in February 2003 by the SEM Orchestra in New York. Some of her compositions are for an instrument called the "trine", a lyre
Lyre
The lyre is a stringed musical instrument known for its use in Greek classical antiquity and later. The word comes from the Greek "λύρα" and the earliest reference to the word is the Mycenaean Greek ru-ra-ta-e, meaning "lyrists", written in Linear B syllabic script...
-like instrument she designed.
Chamber music
- Links, solo flute, 2004
- The Wish of the Quickening Moon, string quartetString quartetA string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...
, 2003 - Sex and Pre-Anti-Post Modernism, contrabass/voice, setting of text by Michael AndreMichael AndreMichael Andre is a Canadian, disc jockey, poet, critic and editor living in New York City.Andre was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to a civil engineer doing wartime work on a military hospital. His mother's father was a newspaperman, Eyton Warburton; he died when Andre was an infant. Andre was...
, 2002 - T.E.V.B. (The Elusive Virgin Bachelor), trio (piano, violin, cello), 2002
- Space-Time Sextet, string sextet (3 violins, viola, cello, contrabass), 2001
- Mantra, vocal sextet, 2001
- American Dreamscape, solo piano, 2000
- Lunaticity, Baroque ensemble, 1999
- Prophecy, solo viola, 1999
- Irrational Synergies, baritone, flute, clarinet, saxophone, cello; setting of poems by Gertrude SteinGertrude SteinGertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...
, Ezra PoundEzra PoundEzra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...
, E. E. CummingsE. E. CummingsEdward Estlin Cummings , popularly known as E. E. Cummings, with the abbreviated form of his name often written by others in lowercase letters as e.e. cummings , was an American poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright...
, commissioned by The Lark Ascending, 1998 - Discombobulations, electronic, electric guitar, flute, and soprano, lyrics by Steven Hall, 1997
- Variations on the Orange Cycle, solo piano, 1991
- Concerto for Piano and Orchestral Memory, piano, tape, synthesizer, cello, trombone, violin, viola, 1984
Dance
- The Soundless Sound, electronic, 2004
- She-Wolf, electronic (Fairlight computer), 1987
- Oedipus Rex, electronic/computer (Fairlight), 1984
Operas & Cycles
- The Death of Don Juan, revision of 1985 opera, 2005
- Orfreo, soprano, mezzo, countertenor, baritone, and Baroque orchestra: harpsichord, string quartet, oboe, flute, contrabass; librettoLibrettoA libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
by Michael Andre, commissioned by Harpsichord Unlimited, 2004 - Waking in New York, baritone, soprano, mezzo, full orchestra, libretto by Allen Ginsberg, 2004
- Waking in New York, soprano, mezzo, baritone, string quartet, flute, contrabass, percussion, synthesizer, libretto by Allen Ginsberg, 1999
- The Deus Ex Machina Cycle, two sopranos, baritone, harpsichord, string quartet, flute; libretto by: Lauten, RilkeRainer Maria RilkeRené Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke , better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language...
, VerlainePaul VerlainePaul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.-Early life:...
, PascalBlaise PascalBlaise Pascal , was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Catholic philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen...
, Melody Sumner Carnahan, Steven HallSteven HallSteven Hall is a British author. He has written one novel, produced a number of plays, music videos, concrete prose/conceptual art pieces, and short stories....
, 1995 - Existence, yenor, soprano, mezzo-soprano and narrator, piano, synthesizer, percussion; music and libretto by Lauten, 1990
- The Death of Don Juan, computer generated tape, 4 sopranos, harpsichord, Trine (custom lyre), cello, synthesizer, Grand Trine (custom harp); music and libretto by Lauten, 1985
Soundtracks
- Crossroads Variations, solo piano, 2004
- Harmonic Protection Circle 2004, synthesizer, electric guitar, percussion, contrabass, 2004
- Harmonic Protection Circle 2003, Trine, electric guitar, 2003
- The Mystery of the Elements, piano, electronic, 2002
- S.O.S.W.T.C., electronic, 2001
- Double X, electronic, voice, flute, 1999
- Inscapes from Exile, electronic, 1995
- Tronik Involutions, electronic, 1993
- Remembrance of Things Past, electronic, cello, music for sound installation based on the writing of Marcel ProustMarcel ProustValentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu...
, 1988 - Untitled , 5 pieces for live Fairlight computer, electric violin, cello, Trine, piano; commissioned by the Lincoln Center Serious Fun Series, 1988
- Blue Rhythms, piano and electronic, 1987
- Krash Music, electronic, singers, 1986
- Sonate Ordinaire, solo piano, 1986
- Sonate Modale, piano and tape, 1985
- Action Music, piano and sound environment, 1985
- Music for the Trine, a custom-designed amplified lyre, electronic, Trine, voice, cello, 1985
- Magnetic Fields, electronic, Trine, 1985
- The Soundless Sound, electronic, 1984
- The Enigma of a Lovely/Loveless Existence, concrete, Casiotone, voice, 1983
- Piano Works, piano, concrete, synthesizer, 1983
Listening
- The Death of Don Juan - Vision
Discography
- Tronik Involutions: From the Gaia Cycle Matrix a Work in Umi (1995/1996). Studio 21/OO Discs: 7108. Composed and performed by Elodie Lauten.
- The Deus Ex Machina Cycle: New music for voices and Baroque ensemble (1999). 4Tay Inc.: CD 4013.
- Inscapes from Exile (2000). Robi Droli/Newtone: 7004.