Christopher Butterfield

Christopher Butterfield (born November 17, 1952 in Vancouver ) is a Canadian composer, music teacher, performance artist and rock guitarist.

Butterfield grew up in Halifax and received his first musical training as a choir singer at King's College Cambridge under David Willcocks from 1961 to 1966 . From 1969 to 1975 he studied composition with Rudolf Komorous at the University of Victoria in British Columbia , then until 1977 at the State University of New York at Stony Brook with Bülent Arel . He then worked in Toronto as an installation artist (also under the pseudonym Isobel Foot ) and played guitar in a rock band for seven years.

From 1979–80 he taught at the Visual Arts Department of Concordia University in Montreal and from 1986 to 1989 at the School for the Contemporary Arts of Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. In 1992 he became Professor of Composition at the University of Victoria. From 1999 to 2002 was composer in residence with the Victoria Symphony Orchestra . The Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company toured the United States and Europe with his composition of Kurt Schwitters ' Ursonate in 1996–97 . At Banff Summer Festival 1998 his opera Zurich 1916 premiere. The world premiere of Bill Coleman's dance epic Convoy PQ17 with his music took place in Saint Petersburg in 2001, the world premiere of his composition by Jacques Préverts Contes pour enfants pas sages at the Continuum Contemporary Music and Choir 21 in Toronto in 2012. In 2014 his vibraphone concert was given by Rick Sacks and the Aventa Ensemble .

Works

• Dark Set (based on your own text) for voice and fixed media, 1978
• Trotsky in Amherst (text by Leon Trotsky ) for voice, harpsichord, transistor radio and fixed media, 1978
• My World as I Remember It , Part 1 (outdoor installation) for loudspeakers and fixed media, 1979
• She was beautiful II for piano, 1979
• Spring Fever for two pianos, 2 pianos, 1979
• My World as I Remember It , Part 3 (installation with loudspeaker), 8 millimeter film, 1980
• My World as I Remember It , Part 4 (multimedia work), 1980
• Killing off the Past , performance piece, 1980
• Lecture (performance piece) for speakers, bassoon, fixed media and oscillators, 1982
• Music for Firing Squad (performance piece) for electronic organ and fixed media, 1983
• 20 Secrets (multimedia work) for speakers, fixed media and film, 1983
• Five Songs (texts by Rudolf Arnheim , Guy Debord , Thomas von Hartmann ) for two tenors, vibraphone and bongos, 1983
• Dust Pastures (ballet, choreography by Christine Chin ), 1984
• Pillar of Snails for piano, 1984–87
• Transparencies (ballet, choreographed by Grant Strate ), 1986
• Project for an Opera of the Twentieth Century: something that happened once and it is very interesting (libretto by John Bentley Mays ), 1986–93
  • Incipit
  • Act I, Scenes 1-2
  • fragment
• Homework (sound installation, choreography by Lin Snelling ), 1987
• Music for Klein and Beuys , for melodica, bass flute, harp, banjo, violin, double bass and percussion, 1987
• Eating and Sleeping for flute and horn, 1987
• Flamingo Limo for baroque flute and vibraphone, 1988
• Intertête (ballet, choreography by Benoît Lachambre ), 1988
• the vacant goddess (Music for the picture opera by Thom Sokoloski ), 1989
• Garden Truck with option for baroque flute, baroque violin, viol, amplified clavichord and percussion, 1989
• from Orpheus (text by John Bentley Mays ) for tenor, bass and piano, 1989
• Jappements à la lune (text by Claude Gauvreau ) for mezzo-soprano and nine players, 1990
• The Mechanics of Desire , for flute piccolo, bassoon, two horns, three violins and cello, 1990
• Primal Union of the Philosophical Infant with the Maternal Breast and Womb for clarinet and trumpet, 1990
• The Dumbfounding (ballet, text by TS Eliot , choreography by Jennifer Mascall ), 1990
• The Light at the End of the Tunnel May Be the Other Train Coming towards You (ballet, choreography by Jennifer Mascall ), 1990
• Superjack (ballet, choreography by Benoît Lachambre), 1990
• The Inner Sea (multimedia work, choreography by Benoît Lachambre), 1990
• Lullaby for two violins, two violas and two cellos, 1991
• Beuys the wounded Stuka pilot for ocarina, clarinet, trumpet, Hurdy-Gurdy, toy piano and Schilforgel, 1991
• Empress of Russia for clarinet, trumpet, double bass, piano and two percussionists, 1991
• Catalog for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon, 1991
• Arrangement of Morden for clarinet, trumpet, double bass, piano, vibraphone and marimba, 1992
• beach whistle (drowning in the sea of ​​love) for cello, 1993
• Quintet / Dear Stalin for tuba, guitar, piano, accordion and percussion, 1994
• Incessant (ballet, choreography by Jennifer Mascall ), 1994
• Souvenir for piccolo and alto flute, clarinet and bass clarinet, forn, violin, viola, cello, double bass, piano and percussion, 1995
• Souvenir for piano, 1995
• Sonata for piano, 1995
• For Linda C. Smith for piano, 1995
• Philadelphia for guitar, double bass and harmonium, 1996
• Crusader for piccolo, oboe, clarinet, violin, cello, double bass and piano, 1996
• computer felicity church for bass clarinet, violin, cello and piano, 1996
• Philadelphia for guitar, violin, double bass and harmonium, 1997
• prayer / valve for harp, viola and darabukka, 1997
• Quick thinking about the movement of trains for horn, trumpet, trombone, bass trombone, Ondes Martenot and percussion, 1999
• Clinamen for violin, 1999
• Four Short Pieces for Violin and Piano , 1999
• belladonna from maccabaeus canoe for orchestra, 1999
• Monument for Cage for orchestra, 2000
• Praeludium e Fantasia sul BACH for clarinet, violin, viola and piano, 2000

swell

• The Living Composers Project - Christopher Butterfield
• Canadian Music Center - Christopher Butterfield
• Allmusic - Christopher Butterfield
• University of Victoria - School of Music - Christopher Butterfield
• quatuor bozzini - Christopher Butterfield