Noah Creshevsky
Encyclopedia
Biography
Trained in composition by Nadia BoulangerNadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger was a French composer, conductor and teacher who taught many composers and performers of the 20th century.From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, but believing that her talent as a composer was inferior to that of her younger...
in Paris and Luciano Berio
Luciano Berio
Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian composer. He is noted for his experimental work and also for his pioneering work in electronic music.-Biography:Berio was born at Oneglia Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (October 24, 1925 – May 27, 2003) was an Italian...
at the Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
, Creshevsky has lived and worked in New York since 1966. He taught at Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...
of the City University of New York for thirty-one years, serving as Director of the Brooklyn College Center for Computer Music (BC-CCM)
Brooklyn College Center for Computer Music (BC-CCM)
The Brooklyn College Center for Computer Music located at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York was one of the first computer music centers at a public university in the United States...
from 1994 to 1999. He also served on the faculties of Juilliard and Hunter College
Hunter College
Hunter College, established in 1870, is a public university and one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York, located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Hunter grants undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees in more than one hundred fields of study, and is recognized...
, and has been a visiting professor at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
.
Creshevsky has been composing electronic music since 1971. Much of his musical vocabulary consists of familiar bits of words, songs and instrumental sounds that he edits but seldom subjects to electronic processing. By obscuring the boundaries of real and imaginary ensembles though the fusion of opposites—music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
and noise
Noise
In common use, the word noise means any unwanted sound. In both analog and digital electronics, noise is random unwanted perturbation to a wanted signal; it is called noise as a generalisation of the acoustic noise heard when listening to a weak radio transmission with significant electrical noise...
, comprehensible and incomprehensible vocal sources, human and superhuman vocal and instrumental capacities—Creshevsky’s music sounds both Western and non-Western, ancient and modern, familiar and unfamiliar.
This alliance of opposites is heard both in his text-sound compositions (1973-1986)—Pop Art
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
works in which extreme and unpredictable juxtapositions of iconographic sonic materials establish links between music and society —and in later pieces, in which the integration of electronic and acoustic sources and processes “creates virtual ‘superperformers’ by using the sounds of traditional instruments pushed past the capacities of human performance.”
Creshevsky’s most recent compositions are examples of "hyperrealism," a term he uses to describe an electroacoustic language constructed from sounds found in our shared environment that he handles in ways that are exaggerated or intense.
A collection of Creshevsky's scores and sound recordings is held at the music library at Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
.
CDs
MAN & SUPERMAN Centaur RecordsCentaur Records
Centaur Records is one of the oldest and largest independent classical labels in America. The company is located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and was founded in 1976. Their recordings are available in major markets throughout the world, and their catalog includes classical, historical, pops,...
CRC 2126
- Variations (1987)
- Electric String Quartet (1988)
- Memento Mori (1989)
- Electric Partita (1990)
- Talea (1991)
AUXESIS Electronic Music by Charles Amirkhanian
Charles Amirkhanian
Charles Amirkhanian is an American composer. He is a percussionist, sound poet, and radio producer of Armenian extraction. He is mostly known for his electroacoustic and text-sound music...
and Noah Creshevsky Centaur Records
Centaur Records
Centaur Records is one of the oldest and largest independent classical labels in America. The company is located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and was founded in 1976. Their recordings are available in major markets throughout the world, and their catalog includes classical, historical, pops,...
CRC 2194
- Politics as Usual (Amirkhanian)
- Borrowed Time (Creshevsky—1992)
- Private Lives (Creshevsky—1993)
- Coup d'état (Creshevsky—1994)
WHO Centaur Records
Centaur Records
Centaur Records is one of the oldest and largest independent classical labels in America. The company is located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and was founded in 1976. Their recordings are available in major markets throughout the world, and their catalog includes classical, historical, pops,...
CRC 2476
- Fanfare (1998)
- Sha (1996)
- Twice (1993)
- Who (1995)
- et puis (1998)
- Gone Now (1995)
- Breathless (1997)
- Nude Ascending (1999)
THE TAPE MUSIC OF NOAH CRESHEVSKY, 1971-1992 EM Records (Japan) EM 1042CD
- Strategic Defense Initiative (1986)
- Highway (1979)
- Circuit (1971)
- Drummer (1985)
- Great Performances (1978)
- Sonata (1980)
- In Other Words (Portrait of John CageJohn CageJohn Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
) (1976) - Cantiga (1992)
HYPERREALISM Mutable Music Mutable 17516-2
- Canto di Malavita (2002)
- Jacob’s Ladder (1999)
- Vol-au-vent (2002)
- Hoodlum Priest (2002)
- Novella (2000)
- Ossi di morte (1997)
- Jubilate (2001)
- Born Again (2003)
TO KNOW AND NOT TO KNOW Tzadik
Tzadik
Tzadik/Zadik/Sadiq is a title given to personalities in Jewish tradition considered righteous, such as Biblical figures and later spiritual masters. The root of the word ṣadiq, is ṣ-d-q , which means "justice" or "righteousness", also the root of Tzedakah...
Tzadik-8036
- Red Carpet (2007)
- Psalmus XXIII (2003)
- To Know and Not to Know (2005)
- Once (2004)
- Chamber Concerto (1998)
- Jubilate (2001)
- Sequenza (for trombone) (2004)
- Independence Day (1997)
- Free Speech (2006)
FAVORITE ENCORES, Music of Noah Creshevsky and If, Bwana
If, Bwana
-History:Al Margolis has been working under the musical pseudonym If, Bwana since New Year's Day 1984. He has since earned an international reputation for his experimental noise music.-Recording history:...
, Pogus
Pogus 21049-2
- Mari Kimura Redux (Creshevsky)
- Xyloxings (If, Bwana)
- Shadow of a Doubt (Creshevsky)
- Scraping Scrafide (If, Bwana)
- Intrada (Creshevsky)
- Cicada #4: Version Barnard (If, Bwana)
- Favorite Encores (Creshevsky)
THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS Tzadik
Tzadik
Tzadik/Zadik/Sadiq is a title given to personalities in Jewish tradition considered righteous, such as Biblical figures and later spiritual masters. The root of the word ṣadiq, is ṣ-d-q , which means "justice" or "righteousness", also the root of Tzedakah...
Tzadik-8069
- Götterdämmerung
- Omaggio
- Three Minute Waltzes
- Brother Tom
- Estancia
- I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now
- La Belle Dame Sans Merci
- Happy Ending
Compilation Albums
- 60x6060x6060x60 is a collection of 60 electroacoustic or acousmatic works from 60 different composers/artists, each work 60 seconds or less in duration. 60x60 project showcases sixty new works, each sixty seconds or less, by sixty composers in a continuous sixty minute concert, for a one-hour cross-section...
(2004-2005) Vox NovusVox NovusVox Novus is an organization promoting contemporary composers. Founded by Robert Voisey in 2000 This organization was created for the purposes of expanding the presence of contemporary music in the public's vision, empowering composers and contemporary musicians to create, produce, and promote...
VN-001 - 60x6060x6060x60 is a collection of 60 electroacoustic or acousmatic works from 60 different composers/artists, each work 60 seconds or less in duration. 60x60 project showcases sixty new works, each sixty seconds or less, by sixty composers in a continuous sixty minute concert, for a one-hour cross-section...
(2003) Capstone RecordsCapstone RecordsCapstone Records is an American classical music record label focusing particularly on contemporary classical music. It was established by Richard Brooks in 1986, and was based in Brooklyn, New York...
CPS-8744
LPs
Circuit (1971) In Other Words (1976) - Opus One No. 45Broadcast (1973) Great Performances (1978) - Opus One No. 47
Chaconne (1974) Portrait of Rudy Perez (1978) Highway (1979) - Opus One No. 50
Sonata (1980) - Opus One No. 58
Celebration (1983) - Opus One No. 101
Drummer (1985) Strategic Defense Initiative (1986) - Opus One No. 111
Articles and reviews
"A Language We Already Understand: Noah Creshevsky's Hyperrealism" By Dennis Báthory-KitszDennis Báthory-Kitsz
Dennis Báthory-Kitsz Dennis Báthory-Kitsz (born March 14, 1949, Plainfield, New Jersey) Dennis Báthory-Kitsz (born March 14, 1949, Plainfield, New Jersey) (pseudonyms: Dennis Bathory, Dennis Kitsz, Dennis J. Kitsz, Dennis Bathory Kitsz, Kalvos Gesamte, Grey Shadé, D.B...
, NewMusicBox
NewMusicBox
NewMusicBox is an e-zine launched by the American Music Center on May 1, 1999. The magazine includes interviews and articles concerning American Contemporary Music, composers, improvisers, and musicians....
, June 13, 2007
"When drawing from preexisting works, how do you balance legal and moral obligations with the potential to create new art?" by Noah Creshevsky, NewMusicBox
NewMusicBox
NewMusicBox is an e-zine launched by the American Music Center on May 1, 1999. The magazine includes interviews and articles concerning American Contemporary Music, composers, improvisers, and musicians....
November 1, 2004
Further reading
- H. Wiley, Hitchcock Music in the United States Prentice Hall, 1988, p. 313.
External links
- CD Review: ‘Twilight of the Gods' by Allan Kozinn New York Times, June 15, 2010
- Brooklyn College Center for Computer Music
- http://www.voxnovus.com/composer/creshevsky/Reviews.htm Listing of Creshevsky reviews
- http://www.scaruffi.com/avant/creshevs.html Piero Scaruffi, A History of Avantgarde Music 2003
- “On Borrowed Time” reprint. Originally published in Contemporary Music Review, Volume 20, Number 4, 2001, pp. 91-98(8).
- http://www.mvdaily.com/articles/2004/09/creshevsky1.htm Malcolm Tattersall, Music & Vision September 22 2004