MEREDITH MONK

'Meredith Jane 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."

Contents

Life and work

Quotes

Works

Instrumental works

Vocal works

Discography

References

Films

External links

Listening

Life and work

Meredith Monk 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.
Monk's performances have influenced many artists, including Bruce Nauman, whom she met in San Francisco in 1968. 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. 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, Monk wrote 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, produced by Meredith Monk and Manfred Eicher as "a film for the ears."
In the early 1990s, Monk composed an opera called ''Atlas'', which premiered in Houston in 1991. She has also written pieces for instrumental ensembles and symphony orchestras. Her first symphonic works were ''Possible Sky'' (2003) and ''Stringsongs'' (2004), which was 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, 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.
Monk 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 the Coen Brothers (''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''.

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''

Works

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)

★ '' 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)

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)

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)

References

★ Meredith Monk. Encyclopaedia Britannica.

★ Jowitt, Deborah, ed. (1997). ''Meredith Monk''. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-5539-X.

Films

★ 1993 - ''The Sensual Nature of Sound: 4 Composers - Laurie Anderson, Tania León, Meredith Monk, Pauline Oliveros''. Directed by Michael Blackwood.

★ 1996 - ''Speaking of Dance: Conversations With Contemporary Masters of American Modern Dance''. No. 22: Meredith Monk. American Dance Festival. Directed by Douglas Rosenberg.

External links

★ Meredith Monk's official site

★ Meredith Monk

★ Guide to the Meredith Monk Archives

★ A Performance Art Pioneer, With Friends

★ Meredith Monk: Composer First

★ The Struggle for Form

★ Kronos Quartet

★ Our Lady of Late

★ Meredith Monk: magician of the voice

Listening

★ Meredith Monk interview

★ Meredith Monk performs ''Our Lady of Late'', for solo voice, wine glass, and percussion, July 23rd, 1975, Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, Naropa Institute, Boulder, Colorado