Denis Smalley

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Denis Arthur Smalley (born May 16, 1946 in Nelson ) is a New Zealand organist , composer ( electroacoustic music ) and music theorist . He expanded the concept of acousmatics from Pierre Schaeffer .

Life

Smalley attended Nelson College as a student . From 1964 he studied at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, where he graduated with an organ diploma and Bachelor of Music in 1966 , and composition at the Victoria University of Wellington until 1967 . He subsequently premiered works by Olivier Messiaen and György Ligeti in New Zealand. In 1960 he became a music teacher at Wellington College. He went to Paris on a scholarship in 1971 and studied composition with Olivier Messiaen at the Conservatoire de Paris and electroacoustic composition (as one of the first students) with Guy Reibel and François Bayle at the Groupe de recherches musicales (GRM). He then did his PhD with Trevor Wishart at the University of York .

He taught at the University of East Anglia in Norwich from 1976 to 1994 and was director of the Electroacoustic Music Studio . Since 1994 he has been Professor and Head of the Music Faculty at City University London . In 1976 he developed the first "Sound Diffusion System" in England. Smalley was very committed to the diffusion of multi-channel sound projections and worked with composers Tim Souster , John Tilbury , Sarah Walker and John Wallace. He was u. a. responsible for sound productions at London's Electric Weekend on the South Bank (1987) and BBC Proms (1989).

Smalley dealt with musicological issues and in 1986 introduced the term " spectromorphology " (English: Spectromorphology), which investigates the auditory perception of electroacoustic music. His work Spectromorphology: Explaining sound-shapes has also been translated into French and Italian. With this he has expanded the concept of Musique concrète by Pierre Schaeffer . With Lelio Camilleri he published the first English-language analysis of electroacoustic music . The term electroacoustic music was included in the renowned New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians on Simon Emmersons and his initiative .

His music has been played all over the world and recorded on numerous CDs.

Prizes and awards

Works

literature

  • Ralph Paland: Denis Smalley . In: Composers of the Present (KDG), 40th subsequent delivery (11/2009), Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-86916-010-8 , p. 1 f.
  • John Young: Denis Smalley. In: Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. August 21, 2012.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Smalley, Denis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Smalley, Denis Arthur (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION New Zealand organist, composer and music theorist
DATE OF BIRTH May 16, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Nelson , New Zealand