Mario Davidovsky is an American composer who was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on March 4, 1934. Beginning in 1958, he was a student of Aaron Copland at the Berkshire Music Center (currently the Tanglewood Music Center) in Lenox, Massachusetts. At Berkshire, he also met American composer, Milton Babbitt, who persuaded him to work at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center (currently the Computer Music Center at Columbia University) in New York City. Davidovsky was appointed Associate Director of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in 1960 where he inevitably began experimenting with the relationships between live instruments and electronic sounds.
Synchronisms No. 10 for guitar and tape (1992) is a piece for solo classical guitar and pre-recorded synthesized sounds. The piece was dedicated to David Starobin, the current Professor of Guitar at the Manhattan School of Music, who also edited the guitar part. This particular piece in the Synchronisms series shows that Davidovsky is aware of the limitations of the guitar in regard to dynamic range and decay of sound. Knowing these limitations, Davidovsky utilizes the various abilities of the instrument including its wide timbral range and use as a percussive medium. Although Davidovsky himself has been quoted as not using pitch-class sets of any kind, a post-tonal analysis can be applied to this piece in order to further understand individual sections and interaction between guitar and recording. Also, a review of the performance techniques necessary to approach this piece, and how said techniques are implemented, will help the musician perform at a higher level.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uky.edu/oai:uknowledge.uky.edu:music_etds-1103 |
| Date | 01 January 2017 |
| Creators | Serce, Andrew J. |
| Publisher | UKnowledge |
| Source Sets | University of Kentucky |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Theses and Dissertations--Music |
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