06.29.11 - 8:00pm

David Borden and the Mother Mallard Ensemble + David First and Kid Millions duo

David Borden founded Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Co. in 1969 with the generous support of Robert Moog. The group is credited as the world’s first synthesizer ensemble and received praise from the New York Times at the time: “Mother Mallard turns out some of the best synthesizer music around.”  His major work, The Continuing Story of Counterpoint, a twelve-part cycle of pieces for synthesizers, acoustic instruments and voice has been called the “Goldberg Variations of minimalism.” His first composition teachers were jazz musicians Jimmy Giuffre and Jaki Byard.  He is the retired founder and Director of the Digital Music Program at Cornell University.

David Borden (born December 25, 1938 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American composer of minimalist music. In 1969, with the support of Robert Moog, he founded the synthesizer ensemble, Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Company in Ithaca New York. Mother Mallard performed pieces by Robert Ashley, John Cage, Terry Riley, Philip Glass, and Steve Reich. In addition to his work with electronics and the Mother Mallard ensemble, Borden has written music for various chamber and vocal ensembles. He is also an accomplished jazz pianist. David Borden was educated at the Eastman School of Music and Harvard University. At Harvard he studied with Leon Kirchner and Randall Thompson, and at Eastman with Bernard Rogers and Howard Hanson. He was also a Fulbright student in Berlin Germany, where he studied at the Hochschule für Musik.

Borden’s compositions are similar to the repetitive minimalist style of Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Terry Riley. Borden is also very interested in counterpoint, best demonstrated in his large scale series of works The Continuing Story of Counterpoint, Parts 1-12.

David Borden was commissioned to write the score to the 1973 film The Exorcist by director William Friedkin. However, less than a minute of Borden’s music was actually used in the film (Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells was prominently featured on the soundtrack instead.)

Borden participated in the many activities surrounding the 30th anniversary of the founding of Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Company in 1999, including several live performances and CD reissues on the Cuneiform record label.

His The Continuing Story of Counterpoint, a twelve-part cycle of pieces for synthesizers, acoustic instruments and voice has been called the “Goldberg Variations of minimalism.’” John DiLiberto
(Bio from Wikipedia, CC-BY-SA)

Also tonight, Darmstadt is pleased to present Oneida and Man Forever drummer, Kid Millions and Notekillers guitarist and composer David First premiere a brand new duo project featuring just intonation and rhythmic beating patterns of hyper frequencies.

The Darmstadt Institute is made possible, in part, through generous support from the Dedalus Foundation and with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council