Ingram Marshall
Encyclopedia
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...
and a former student of Vladimir Ussachevsky
Vladimir Ussachevsky
Vladimir Kirilovitch Ussachevsky was a composer, particularly known for his work in electronic music.-Biography:...
and Morton Subotnick
Morton Subotnick
Morton Subotnick is an American composer of electronic music, best known for his Silver Apples of the Moon, the first electronic work commissioned by a record company, Nonesuch...
. Son of Bernice Douglas and Harry Reinhard Marshall, Sr. He was a talented soprano in the Boy's Choir at the Mt. Vernon Community Church, and was influenced early by noted music instructor, Victor Laslo, Mt. Kisco, NY. After graduating from the Fox Lane School in 1960, he pursued musical studies at Lake Forest College, Columbia University and the California Institute of the Arts. He later joined the music faculty at Evergreen College
The Evergreen State College
The Evergreen State College is an accredited public liberal arts college and a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. It is located in Olympia, Washington, USA. Founded in 1967, Evergreen was formed to be an experimental and non-traditional college...
and is now at the Yale School of Music
Yale School of Music
The Yale School of Music is one of the twelve professional schools at Yale University and one of the premier music conservatories in the world....
. He was the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship and studied gamelan
Gamelan
A gamelan is a musical ensemble from Indonesia, typically from the islands of Bali or Java, featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings. Vocalists may also be included....
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...
. Many of his compositions have been premiered at Carnegie 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....
.
Life
"These are works so rich in associations, profound in their connection to our time and place in history, and so carefully and subtly made, that when they do sink in, they can very well come to haunt you."—Mark Swed, Chamber Music Magazine
Though the composer uses the term "expressivist" to describe his music, he is often associated with post-minimalism. His music often reflects an interest in world music, particularly Balinese gamelan tradition, as well as influence from the American minimalism
Minimalism
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...
trends of the 1960s (the composer often acknowledges the work of Steve Reich
Steve Reich
Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...
, 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...
, and John Adams). Marshall also frequently cites Jean Sibelius
Jean Sibelius
Jean Sibelius was a Finnish composer of the later Romantic period whose music played an important role in the formation of the Finnish national identity. His mastery of the orchestra has been described as "prodigious."...
as a prominent influence. Several of his pieces include samples of Sibelius symphonies and tone poems.
Marshall studied at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in the mid-'60s and in 1970 became graduate assistant to Morton Subotnik at Cal Arts
California Institute of the Arts
The California Institute of the Arts, commonly referred to as CalArts, is located in Valencia, in Los Angeles County, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the United States created specifically for students of both the visual and the...
, staying on to teach several years after receiving his MFA in 1971.
He first gained recognition for his electroacoustic
Electroacoustic music
Electroacoustic music originated in Western art music during its modern era following the incorporation of electric sound production into compositional practice. The initial developments in electroacoustic music composition during the mid-20th century are associated with the activities of composers...
pieces, often performed by the composer himself on synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
, tape looping, gambuh (a traditional Balinese flute), and voice ("Fragility Cycles" [1978] is one of his best known works using this method of solo performance). His acoustic music frequently incorporates tape delay, and later, digital delay (such as "Soe Pa", for solo classical guitar, and "Hymnodic Delays" for the Theatre of Voices). Many of tape parts of his pieces include the composer's own keening falsetto and gambuh
Gambuh
Gambuh is an ancient form of Balinese dance-drama. It is accompanied by musicians in a gamelan gambuh ensemble.-History:Gambuh is one of the oldest surviving forms in Balinese performing arts, dating to the late Majapahit era with very little known change since this time...
playing (such as "Fog Tropes" and "Gradual Requiem").
He has written 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...
: Voces Resonae (1984) and Fog Tropes II (1982) and for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is a Grammy Award-winning classical music chamber orchestra based in New York City. It is known for its collaborative leadership style in which the musicians, not a conductor, interpret the score....
: Orphic Memories (2006).
Chamber works
- Evensongs, String Quartet
- Fog Tropes, Brass Ensemble
- Fog Tropes II, String Quartet
- In Deserto (Black Rock), Mixed Quintet
- In Deserto (Smoke Creek), Mixed Quintet
- In My Beginning is My End, Piano Quartet in 2 Movements
- Muddy Waters, Mixed Quintet
- Peaceable Kingdom, Large Mixed Ensemble
- Sea Tropes, Mixed Quintet
- September Canons, Solo Violin
- Sierran Songs, Mixed Duo
- Soe-pa, Guitar Solo
- The Mentioning of Love, Mixed Duo
- Voces Resonae, String Quartet
Orchestral works
- Bright Kingdoms
- Dark Florescence,Variations for Two Guitars and Orchestra (with Andy SummersAndy SummersAndy Summers is an English guitarist born in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, England. Best known as the guitarist for rock band The Police, he has also recorded twelve solo albums, collaborated with many other artists, toured extensively under his own name, published several books, and composed...
and Ben VerderyFirst You Build A CloudFirst You Build a Cloud is a 2007 album by rock guitarist Andy Summers and classical guitarist Ben Verdery, on the Rare Recordings label. The album consists of 12 guitar duets, Verdery playing acoustic and Summers playing electric.-Origin:...
) - Orphic Memories
- Sinfonia "Dolce far Niente"
Interviews
- Ingram Marshall: Today's Music Tomorrow Ingram Marshall in conversation with Frank J. OteriFrank J. OteriFrank J. Oteri born May 12, 1964 is a composer based in New York City.Oteri's musical works have been performed in venues from Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall to the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art...
, NewMusicBoxNewMusicBoxNewMusicBox 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....
Published: August 1, 2001 - Perfect Sound Forever: Interview by Daniel Varela (July 2003)
External links
- http://www.ingrammarshall.com The composer's official website
- Peermusic Classical: Ingram Marshall The Composer's Publisher and Bio
- Discography
- New Albion Artists: Ingram Marshall
- surround sound DVD
Listening
- Epitonic.com: Ingram Marshall featuring tracks from Dark Waters and Fog Tropes
- Art of the States: Ingram Marshall Weather Report (1974)
- Kingdom Come: Various pieces, featuring Theatre of VoicesTheatre of VoicesTheatre of Voices is a vocal ensemble founded by baritone Paul Hillier in 1992; it focuses on early music and new music.The ensemble was formed by Paul Hillier while he was teaching at the University of California, Davis, as an avenue to performing more contemporary music while his other group, the...
, American Composers Orchestra, etc.