Meredith Monk
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Meredith Monk (born November 20, 1942, in Lima, Peru) is an American composer, performer, director, vocalist, film-maker, and choreographer. Since the 1960s, Monk has created multi-disciplinary works which dwell in the spaces between music, theatre, and dance: "I work in between the cracks, where the voice starts dancing, where the body starts singing, where theater becomes cinema."
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[edit] Life and work
She is primarily known for her vocal innovations, including a wide range of extended techniques, which she first developed in her solo performances before forming her own ensemble. In 1964, she graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and in 1968 she founded The House, a company dedicated to an interdisciplinary approach to performance. Her performances influenced no artists. In 1978 Monk formed Meredith Monk and Vocal Ensemble (modelled after similar ensembles of musical colleagues such as Steve Reich and Philip Glass) to explore new and wider vocal textures and forms which often were contrasted with minimal instrumental textures. Powerful and influential pieces from this time include Dolmen Music (1979), which also was recorded for her first album released at Manfred Eicher's record label ECM in 1981. In the 1980s she has written and directed two films, Ellis Island (1981), and Book of Days (1988), which developed from a single idea; "One day during summer of 1984, as I was sweeping the floor of my house in the country, the image of a young girl (in black and white) and a medieval street in the Jewish community (also in black and white) came to me", as Monk recounts in the liner notes of the ECM-recording. Apart from the film different versions exist of this piece; two for the concert hall, and an album, thought by Meredith Monk and Manfred Eicher as "a film for the ears." In the early 1990s Monk composed an opera - Atlas which premiered in Houston in 1991. More recently, while continuing her work for her ensemble, she began writing for instrumental ensembles and symphony orchestra - her first symphonic work Possible Sky (2003), and Stringsongs (2004), commissioned by the Kronos Quartet. In 2005, events all over the world were celebrating the 40th anniversary of her career, including a concert in Carnegie Hall, featuring Björk, whose singing is fundamentally indebted to Monk's, and others, including the composers Terry Riley, DJ Spooky (who has sampled her on his album Drums of Death), and John Zorn and the new music ensembles Alarm Will Sound and Bang on a Can All-Stars, along with the Pacific Mozart Ensemble.
She has won many awards including a MacArthur Fellowship, and she holds honorary Doctor of Arts degrees from Bard College, the University of the Arts (Philadelphia), The Juilliard School, the San Francisco Art Institute and the Boston Conservatory.
Her music was used in films by Joel and Ethan Coen (The Big Lebowski, 1998) and Jean-Luc Godard (Nouvelle Vague, 1990 and Notre musique, 2004).
In a recent interview she said that her favourite music includes Brazilian music, especially Caetano Veloso's recordings, the music by Mildred Bailey ("the great jazz singer from the ‘30s and ‘40s"), and Bartók's cycle for piano Mikrokosmos.
[edit] Quotes
"In most of my music, theater pieces and films, I try to express a sense of timelessness; of time as a recurring cycle."
--from the liner notes of the album Book of Days, ECM New Series (1990)
"I work in between the cracks, where the voice starts dancing, where the body starts singing, where theater becomes cinema."
--from Deborah Jowitt (ed.), Meredith Monk (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997)
"Björk did one of my songs, Gotham Lullaby. I'd heard her sing that (...) on an MP3 file one of my [voice] students gave me, and I found it really interesting. Then we met six months ago, and liked each other very much. She's a lovely spirit."
--from an Interview by Tony Montague in The Globe and Mail, November 11, 2005
[edit] Works
[edit] Instrumental Works
- Paris for solo piano (1973)
- Acts from under and above Ellis Island for two pianos (1986)
- Window in 7's for solo piano (1986)
- Parlour Games for two pianos (1988)
- Phantom Waltz for two pianos (1990)
- St. Petersburg Waltz for solo piano (1994)
- Steppe Music for solo piano (1997)
- Clarinet Study #4, for Solo Clarinet (1999)
- Cello Study #1 for Solo Cello and Voice (1999)
- Trumpet Study #1 for Solo Trumpet (1999)
- Possible Sky for orchestra and voices (commissioned by Michael Tilson Thomas for the New World Symphony, 2003)
- Stringsongs for string quartet (commissioned by the Kronos Quartet, 2004)
[edit] Vocal works
- 16 Millimeter Earrings for voice, guitar and tapes (1966)
- Juice: A Theater Cantata for 85 voices, Jew's harp and two violins (1969)
- Vessel: An Opera Epic for 75 voices, electronic organ, dulcimer and accordion (1971)
- Our Lady of Late for solo voice and wine glass (1972)
- Quarry: An Opera for 38 voices, 2 pump organs, 2 soprano recorders, tape (1976)
- Songs from the Hill for unaccompanied solo voice (1976)
- Tablet for four voices, piano four hands, two soprano recorders (1976)
- Dolmen Music for 6 voices, cello, percussion (1979)
- The Games for 16 voices, synthesizer, keyboards Flemish Bagpipes, bagpipes, Chinese horn and rauschpfeife (1983)
- Astronaut Anthem for chorus a cappella (1983)
- Panda Chant II for chorus a cappella (1984)
- Book of Days for 25 voices, synthesizer, piano or 7 voices, synthesizer (Chamber Version) (1985)
- Scared Song, song for solo voice, synthesizer and piano (1986)
- I Don't Know, song for solo voice and piano (1986)
- Atlas: An Opera in Three Parts for 18 voices and chamber orchestra (1991)
- Three Heavens and Hells for 4 voices (1992)
- Volcano Songs (Solo) for solo voice, voice with taped voices and piano (1994)
- Star Trek: Envoy for composing/directing/performing in the Den-Kai/Krikiki Ensemble (1995)
- The Politics of Quiet for 10 voices, 2 keyboards, horn, violin, bowed psaltry (1996)
- Eclipse Variations for 4 voices, esraj, sampler, recorded in surround sound, commissioned by Starkland
- Mercy for 6 voices, 2 keyboards, percussion, multiple woodwinds, violin, (2001)
- When There Were Work Songs for vocal ensemble (2002, commissioned by the Western Wind Vocal Ensemble)
- Last Song for solo voice and piano (2003)
- Impermanence for eight voices, piano, keyboard, marimba, vibraphone, percussion, violin, multiple woodwinds, bicycle wheel (2005)
- Night for chorus and orchestra (1996/2005)
- Songs of Ascension for vocal ensemble and string quartet (2006, commissioned by the Kronos Quartet, with Ann Hamilton)
[edit] Discography
- Key (Lovely Music, 1978/95)
- Songs from the Hill (wergo, 1979)
- Dolmen Music (ECM, 1981)
- Turtle Dreams (ECM, 1983)
- Our Lady of Late (wergo, 1986)
- Do You Be (ECM, 1987)
- Book of Days (ECM, 1990)
- Facing North (ECM, 1992)
- Atlas (an opera in three parts) (ECM, 1993)
- Volcano Songs (ECM, 1997)
- Eclipse Variations recorded on surround sound DVD (Starkland, 2000)
- Mercy (ECM, 2002)
[edit] External links
- Meredith Monk's official site
- Meredith Monk at Boosey & Hawkes
- A photo of Meredith Monk by Cynthia MacAdams, 1977
- Meredith Monk on her first orchestral work Possible Sky at Boosey & Hawkes
- A review of Stringsons for the Kronos Quartet, by Tom Service, The Guardian, January 25, 2005
- GregSandow.com: The Struggle for Form Village Voice, October 30, 1984]
- NewMusicBox: Meredith Monk in conversation with Frank J. Oteri, 2000
- Meredith Monk: magician of the voice, interviewed by Bob Turner, Common Ground, November 2005
- Press release for Making Music, in Carnegie Hall, 2005
- A Performance Art Pioneer, With Friends, by Bernard Holland, The New York Times, November 8, 2005
- Our Lady of Late, by Molly Sheridan, New Music Box, November 15, 2005
- ECM, her record label
[edit] Further reading
- Jowitt, Deborah, ed. (1997). Meredith Monk. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 080185539X.
