Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T01:25:36.632Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

“Why We Sing”: David Mahler's Communities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2013

Abstract

American composer David Mahler (b. 1944) has nurtured a career that is independent, diverse, and hard to classify. Democratic, inclusive, and community oriented, Mahler thinks deeply about sound in specific environments, and how music gets made, both by amateurs and professionals. Mahler's work is thus integrally connected to places, to the people in them, and to the songs those people sing. He is influenced and inspired by U.S. traditions of band music arrangements, the ragtime of Joseph Lamb, the songs of Stephen Foster, the bitonality of Charles Ives, the simple harmonic motion of classic minimalism, and the indeterminacy of John Cage. His teachers included Harold Budd, Morton Subotnick, and James Tenney, and he has been an important influence on many composers of his generation, including Michael Byron, Peter Garland, Larry Polansky, Thom Miller, and Stuart Dempster. Defining himself as a “Listener-in-Residence,” he has composed, performed, taught, organized, and directed, all while remaining almost completely unaffiliated with academic institutions. This article provides a portrait of Mahler's career in the context of the communities that have shaped his work and explores how his music responds to the world around him.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Music 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Selected Writings By David Mahler

Mahler, David. A Celebration of Audio Tape: Writings, Pieces, and Reports of Pieces. Frog Peak Music special projects, 1989.Google Scholar
Mahler, David. “Bicycle Sounds.” Sound Rights Newsletter (Summer 1997): 2.Google Scholar
Mahler, David. “Blind Jurying in Music Composition Competitions.” Unpublished, 1991.Google Scholar
Mahler, David. “Both Sides of the Record.” SPAR (November 1981): 17–18.Google Scholar
Mahler, David. “The Composer Meets Sound in Public Spaces.” In A Field Guide to Seattle's Public Art, ed. Shamash, Diane and Huss, Steven, 4951. Seattle: Seattle Arts Commission, 1991.Google Scholar
Mahler, David. “Conversation with Mardy Mavor.” Unpublished, 1998.Google Scholar
Mahler, David. “David Mahler.” In Public: 1991; Artists From Seattle—Documents Northwest. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum (1991).Google Scholar
Mahler, David. “Fancies.” (1988).Google Scholar
Mahler, David. “I Didn't Want to Talk.” 15 Word Pieces. Seattle: Wind-Up Press, 1978.Google Scholar
Mahler, David. “Lamb” (two-act play). Unpublished, 2002.Google Scholar
Mahler, David. “Listening to the Sounds Around Us.” Lecture prepared for the Tacoma Art Museum. Unpublished, date uncertain.Google Scholar
Mahler, David. “On the Radio.” SPAR (February 1982): 13–14.Google Scholar
Mahler, David. “On the Radio, Part 2.” SPAR (March 1982): 22.Google Scholar
Mahler, David. “Pauline's Questions.” In Arcana: Musicians on Music, ed. Zorn, John, 238–49. New York: Granary Books, 2000.Google Scholar
Mahler, David. “The Plateaux of Mirror (A Review).” Soundings 11, ed. Garland, Peter (Santa Fe, NM: Soundings Press, 1981): 1819.Google Scholar
Mahler, David. “The Prime Minister: Ferde Grofé Talks About His Father.” The American Society of Twenties Orchestras Newsletter (Seattle, 1994): 1–9.Google Scholar
Mahler, David. “A Rag of Hearts for Jim Tenney.” Perspectives of New Music 25/1–2. (Winter–Summer 1987): 528–33.Google Scholar
Mahler, David. “Reflections on a Festival.” Poets, Painters, and Composers 1 (Seattle: Joseph Keppler, 1984): 1922.Google Scholar
Mahler, David. “Scorecard.” Seattle: Wind-Up Press, 1979.Google Scholar
Mahler, David. “Sounding City Spaces.” SPAR (December 1981): 21.Google Scholar
Mahler, David. “Soundings: An Appreciation.” Poets, Painters, and Composers 2 (1985): 78.Google Scholar
Mahler, David. Word Pieces [“Composed Outbursts”; “Pacific International”; and “Time Piece”]. Portland Review 28/2 (1982): 6265.Google Scholar

Secondary Sources

Beal, Amy C. “‘Nature is the Best Dictator’—Twentieth-Century American Violin Music.” Liner notes for Miwako Abe, violin; and Michael Kieran Harvey, piano; Works for Violin by George Antheil, Johanna Beyer, Henry Cowell, Ruth Crawford, Charles Dodge, David Mahler, Larry Polansky, Stefan Wolpe. New World Records 80641-2, 2006, 2–22.Google Scholar
Beal, Amy C. “Why We Sing.” Liner notes for David Mahler, Only Music Can Save Me Now. New World Records 80702–2, 2010, 2–26.Google Scholar
Childs, Barney. “1982 A.S.U.C. National Conference.” Perspectives of New Music 20/1–2 (Autumn 1981–Summer 1982): 600603.Google Scholar
Cummings, Robert. “Review: David Mahler, The Voice of the Poet: Works on Tape, 1972–1986.” Computer Music Journal 23/1 (Spring 1999): 8890.Google Scholar
Goode, Daniel. “Rock Music Redefined.” In Frog Peak Rock Music Book, ed. Daniel Goode, n.p. Lebanon, NH: Frog Peak Music, 1993.Google Scholar
Hicks, David. “A Cross-Country Music Tour: New Music America, July 1–17, 1984 Hartford, CT.” Perspectives of New Music 22/1–2 (Autumn 1983–Summer, 1984): 519–31.Google Scholar
Johnson, Tom. The Voice of New Music: New York City 1972–1982. Eindhoven: Apollohuis, 1989.Google Scholar
Levy, Herb. “Serious Fun: Music and Humor.” In New Music Across America, ed. Brooks, Iris, 7274. Valencia, CA: California Institute of the Arts in conjunction with High Performance Books, 1992.Google Scholar
Marchisano-Adamo, Matteo. “David Mahler's Voices [interview].” Posted online 13 December 2010. http://matteomarchisanoadamo.com/12/Google Scholar
Miller, Steve. Review of Hearing Voices, by David Mahler. Computer Music Journal 25/4 (Winter 2001): 9899.Google Scholar
Palmer, Robert. “Master Eclectician in the Kitchen.” New York Times, 31 December 1976.Google Scholar
Polansky, Larry. “David Mahler's Place.” Preface to the liner notes for David Mahler, The Voice of the Poet: Works on Tape 1972–1986, Artifact ART 1019 (1997).Google Scholar
Polansky, Larry, and Levin, John. “The Mills College Center for Contemporary Music's Seminar in Formal Methods Series: A Documentary Survey.” Leonardo 20/2, Special Issue: Visual Art, Sound, Music and Technology (1987): 155–63.Google Scholar
Rockwell, John. “Music: 53 Composers in 9-Day Festival.” New York Times, 18 June 1979.Google Scholar
Schafer, R. Murray. The Tuning of the World. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977.Google Scholar
Whiting, Melinda. Recorded interview with David Mahler, WHYY Philadelphia, 7 November 1994.Google Scholar