Richard Beaudoin
The music of Richard Beaudoin (b. 1975) has been performed by some of the finest musicians in Europe and America. He has received commissions from the Konzerthaus Dortmund, Staatstheater Kassel, Boston Lyric Opera, and the President of Harvard University. He has written instrumental works for Mark Knoop, Marilyn Nonken, Constantine Finehouse, Wolfram Rieger, Carl Rosman, Serge Vuille, Clive Driskill-Smith, the Chiara String Quartet, the Kreutzer Quartet and Sound Icon. His vocal music has been sung by Annette Dasch, Joseph Kaiser and Kevin Burdette.
Mr Beaudoin's works have been heard at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Wiener Konzerthaus, Hamburg's Laeiszhalle, the Brucknerhaus in Linz, the Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele, New York’s Weill Recital Hall, Boston's Institute for Contemporary Art, and in London at the Royal Festival Hall, Duke’s Hall, The Forge, Wilton’s Music Hall and King’s Place. His writings on music have been published in the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Perspectives of New Music, Journal of the CeReNeM, and The Journal of Music Theory. Some of his recent works pioneer a compositional technique involving micro-temporal measurements of recorded performances. He holds the post of Preceptor on Music in the Faculty of Music at Harvard University.
In Development
Some of Mr. Beaudoin’s recent works inaugurate a new compositional approach involving micro-temporal measurements of recorded interpretations. Labeled variously as 'temporalism' and 'musical photorealism', this methodology has links to both photography and the musical tradition of cantus firmus. It was developed in collaboration with Dr. Olivier Senn of the Hochschule Luzern in Switzerland. Performances of these works began in 2009 and will continue during the 2012-13 season; eleven of these works were released in 2012 on the 2-CD set, Microtimings (New Focus Recordings, New York).
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THE ARTIST AND HIS MODEL
The Artist and his Model I — La fille floutée, for solo piano (2010, 9')
The Artist and his Model II — La durée sans contacts s'affaiblit, after Paul Valéry, for string quartet (2010, ca. 23')
The Artist and his Model III — La fille rythmée, for solo percussion (2011, 6')
The Artist and his Model IV — La tradition française, for clarinet and piano (2011, 8')
The Artist and his Model V — Brûlage, 3 versions: solo soprano saxophone, solo clarinet, solo oboe (2011-12, 10')
The Artist and his Model VI — La fille dérivée, for sextet (2012, 11')
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NOW ANYTHING CAN HANG AT ANY ANGLE
Now anything can hang at any angle, for solo piano (2011, 2')
based on a fragment of an improvisation by Thelonious Monk
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NACH WEBERN, NACH POLLINI
nach Webern, nach Pollini, for solo piano (2010-11, 9')
I. Neuordnung nach Dauern (Reorganization according to Duration)
II. Bewegungen in Zeitlupe (Movements on Slow-motion, or Magnified Time)
III. Neuordnung nach Lautstärken (Reorganization according to Volume)
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ÉTUDES D'UN PRÉLUDE
The new approach was inaugurated by Mr. Beaudoin’s Études d’un prélude [Studies of a prelude], which engage with Martha Argerich’s 1975 recording of Chopin’s Prélude Op. 28/4, published in 1839. These works commemorate the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth. Mr. Beaudoin has given lectures on these works at Cambridge University's Centre for Music and Science (23 March 2010), The Royal Academy of Music, London (19 March 2010), The Steinhardt School at New York University (4 Feb 2010), The New England Conservatory (16 April 2010), Harvard University (20 September 2010), Dartmouth College (6 October 2011), the Hochschule, Luzern - Musik in Switzerland (3 May 2012) and Yale University (12 December 2012). Completed works in this series include:
Étude d'un prélude I — Chopin desséché, for solo piano (2009, 7’30”)
Étude d'un prélude II — Flutter echoes, for string quartet (2009, 8’30”)
Étude d'un prélude III — Wehmut, for voice and piano (2009, 3’)
Étude d'un prélude IV —Black Wires, for solo piano (2009, 7’)
Étude d'un prélude V — Photorealism, for orchestra (2009, 12’30”)
Étude d'un prélude VI — The Real Thing, for string quartet (2009, 5’)
Étude d'un prélude VII — Latticed Window, for solo piano (2009, 1’51”)
Étude d'un prélude VIII — Kertész Distortion, for string quartet (2009, 7’30”)
Étude d'un prélude IX — And they talked about Chopin again (2009, 10’)
Étude d'un prélude X — Second String Quartet (2009, ca. 38’)
Étude d'un prélude XI — four28, for solo piano (2009, 22’15”)
Étude d'un prélude XII — The After-Image, for two voices and ensemble (2010, ca. 20')
New Recordings
[Microtimings cover image: Glenn Brown, The Real Thing, 2000, Oil on panel, 82 x 66.5 cm, © 2012 Glenn Brown]
MICROTIMINGS—Mark Knoop and Kreutzer Quartet
This 2-CD set includes the first recordings of Richard Beaudoin's music based on microtiming. The discs include eleven recent works, all recorded in England, including pieces based on micro-temporal measurements of Martha Argerich playing Chopin, Alfred Cortot playing Debussy, and Maurizio Pollini playing Webern. The discs are accompanied by a full-color 20-page booklet which includes photographs, an essay on the pieces, and miniature reproductions of pages from the scores.
Disc One includes six piano pieces played by Mark Knoop. These include works in the Étude d'un prélude series (Chopin desséché, Black Wires, Latticed Window and four28), as well as The Artist and his Model I—La fille floutée and nach Webern, nach Pollini.
Disc Two includes five string quartet works played by the Kreuzter Quartet. These include Étude d'un prélude X—Second String Quartet (comprised of Flutter echoes, The Real Thing, Kertész Distortion and 28four) and The Artist and his Model II—la durée sans contacts s'affaiblit.
This 2-CD set was released on 24 April 2012 by New Focus Recordings in New York, and distributed by Naxos of America. It is available internationally, including at Amazon (US), Amazon (UK), Amazon (Germany), Amazon (France), Amazon (Japan), Archiv, iTunes, New Focus Recordings.
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Upcoming Performances
MARK KNOOP, piano
The première of Étude d'un prélude XI—four28
Berlin, Germany, 17 February 2013
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YOHANAN CHENDLER, violin
Four Drawings (2006)
Cambridge, Massachusetts, 31 January 2013
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SOUND ICON conducted by JEFFREY MEANS
The première of The Artist and his Model VI—La fille dérivée
Commissioned by Harvard's First Nights, with the support of the Fromm Foundation for Music
Sanders Theatre, Harvard University, 4 December 2012
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TIME IN THE NEW MUSIC — MARK KNOOP, piano
Paine Hall, Harvard University, 8 November 2012
