David Loeb Music - Performance and scholarship

DAVID LOEB

Performance & Scholarship

During the late fifties and early sixties many composers expressed a kind of prejudice towards composer-performers as people not genuinely committed to composition. This provided a convenient excuse to stop playing the flute, a decision also prompted by an increasing amount of theory teaching, a busy composition schedule and the time required to learn as much as possible about Japanese music as quickly as possible, to permit a thoroughly knowledgeable approach to composing for Japanese instruments, including writing these pieces in traditional tablature notation when preferable to do so.

A peculiar set of unrelated circumstances in the summer of 1982 led to the acquisition of four different shinobue, each one excellent in a different way. It seemed really wasteful to have these merely as souvenirs, so I began experimenting with them, extensively revised a solo piece written four years earlier, and performed with those instruments for the first time the following year. Performing one's own compositions is often the most practical way for a composer to obtain performances of his or her compositions, which led to writing a large number of pieces for the shinobue and other similar Japanese flutes acquired over the next few years. Over time a wide variety of opportunities became available, leading to performances as soloist with orchestras, with a chorus, with guitar ensemble, percussion ensembles, viol consort, an ensemble of Japanese instruments, and many duo combinations with Western, Japanese and occasionally Chinese instruments. Eventually four of the CDs in the Vienna Modern Masters anthology were devoted to compositions for Japanese flutes, mostly solo pieces, but also two duos and a piece with orchestra.

Current performing activity includes lecture recitals, with repertoire reconstructed from ancient sources as well as compositions relating to the many different genres of Japanese music in which these flutes play a role.

PRINCIPAL RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS

Mathematical Aspects of Music
The Music Forum: Columbia Univ. Press, 1970, New York, pp.110-129

An Analytic Study of Japanese Koto Music
The Music Forum: Columbia Univ. Press, 1976, New York, pp.335-393

Dual-Key Movements
Schenker Studies: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1990, Cambridge, pp.76-84

The Analysis of East Asian Music:
Structure and Meaning in Tonal Music, Pendragon, 2006, Hillsdale, pp. 133-143

The Tonality/Atonality Divide Reconsidered
Essays from the Fourth International Schenker Symposium Vol.1, 2008, Olms, Hildesheim, pp.173-179

Shorter articles and reviews in various American and Japanese journals

PUBLISHED COMPOSITIONS

ALRY: Denver ( -1994), Charlotte (1994-2011), Seattle (2012- ), all works for piccolo solo

Six Preludes, 1982

Four Preludes, 1986

Preludes Vol. III (Meridian 1994, assigned to ALRY)

Preludes Vol. IV, 1999

Balinese Fantasies, 2001

Four Japanese Legends, 2003

Reflections on Sephardic Melodies, 2004

Scenes from the Japanese Countryside, 2005
(A Land of Remote Valleys, and Eight Views)

Nightcolors, 2006

Three Tibetan Fantasias, 2007

Of Dreams and Promises, 2008

Piccolo Perspectives, 2009
(Gokusourin, Unhak, and Winter Dances)

Lyric Pieces, 2010

Snowsounds, 2012

Distant Echoes for two piccolos, 2015

Concertino for four bass flutes, 2015

PRB Productions: Albany, CA

Nine Fantasias for the Japanese Consort, 1991

Six Fantasias on Sephardic Melodies, 1992

Fantasias for 8-12 Viols, 1997

Four Fantasias for the Japanese Consort, 2003

Les Rondes for two lyra viols, 2003

Tre Romanze for violin and small orchestra, 2004

Asian In Nomines, 2006

Asian Madrigaletti, 2008

In Nomine a1 for solo viol, 2016

Jiuta (Commemorative edition), 2017

Two Sephardic Fantasias, 2018

Eighteen Duos for Viols, 2020

Viola da Gamba Society of the US

Alternativements, for six viols, 1989

Het Nieuwe Danserye for four viols, 1997

Viola da Gamba Society of Japan, Tokyo

Akikaze Fantasia, for six viols, 1984

Jiuta, for solo viol, 1984

Two Fantasias for four viols, 1984

Lang Percussion, New York

Sonata for four timpani, 1975

Antiphonary for marimba and violin, 1975

Notturno e due scherzi for clainet and percussion, 1975

Nocturnes and Meditations, 1975

12 Preludes for diverse percussion solo, 1978

Concerto da Camera No.5 for marimba and percussion quartet, 1978

WIGS Publications, Melbourne

Caprices for bass clarinet solo, 1995

Sonata No.3 for bass clarinet solo, 1995

International Trombone Association, Columbia MO

Three Madrigals for trombone quartet, 1997

Other pieces appear in journals, including
Journal of the Viola da Gamba society of the US
Newsletter of the Viola da Gamba Society of the US
Journal of the American Recorder Society
Lute society of America Quarterly
Yokobue Kikan