David Borden is one of the foremost exponents of live electronic and minimalist music. He has been active on the new music and contemporary classical scenes for two decades. He first came to attention as the driving force behind Mother Mallard, the world's first all synthesizer ensemble.
Mother Mallard's official website
SMART HUBRIS RUNE 3356 |
David Borden: Johannes Brahms composed the violin part and I composed everything else. The idea of borrowing material from other composers and adapting it to one’s own use has been a part of music history from the beginning. In Composers at Work by Jessie Ann Owens, composer Heinrich Isaac (C. 1445-1517) is noted for his technical mastery of working with pre- composed melodies by leaving the original untouched while adding florid voices around it. Bach lifted bass lines from Handel (The Goldberg Variations) and transcribed and transformed concertos from Vivaldi. Charlie Parker kept the harmonic content of tunes by composers like Gershwin, Cole Porter and others while supplying new melodies or heads for them which totally transformed their character while giving him the needed harmonic context for improvisation. K216.01 (2003) is, like much of my work from that era, a polyphonic composite utilizing a melodic part from another composition. In this case, Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 in G Major. While there are precedents for this kind of work, it has not been in vogue since the 15th century outside of the Baroque Chorale-based pieces. Also, this is a more radical approach since it does not alter the original part in any way. These works receive their inspiration from Buckminster Fuller’s definition of synergy ( . . . behavior of whole systems unpredicted by the behavior of their parts taken separately) and by the work of painters Chuck Close, Roy Lichtenstein and George Deem. Close starts with a photograph whose content and structure he then transforms into a unique painting. Some of Lichtenstein’s work (like Femme Au Chapeau) is based entirely on paintings from history. George Deem has based many of his paintings on Vermeer’s work. In addition his Art School series quotes various aspects of paintings from many artists throughout history. In all cases this method forces the use of techniques different from those normally at the artist’s command. The results are surprisingly different from the catalysts. I hope this is the case with these musical works as well." |
CAYUGA NIGHT MUSIC RUNE 3355 |
A reissue of Borden's 1993 tribute to Cayuga Lake's awe-inspiring beauty. My favorite time to run was between 2:00 and 3:00 am; I did it in all seasons and weather conditions. I sense that this ideal state of affairs is ending as the Ithaca-Lansing area is becoming over- developed; more and more docks appear, a marina, and homes closer to the lake’s edge and along the top of the cliffs. Already more than one of my favorite meditation spots has disappeared as trees are cut down and brush is cleared away. It’s fortunate for me that these pieces were composed before my inspirational scenes became too cluttered with man-made objects or disappeared altogether. THE COMING OF WINTER LAKE ICE SNOW GORGE WITH FULL MOON FIREFLIES NORTHERN LIGHTS CRICKET DREAMS MIST VISIONS FOG, STARS, TRAIN, WEST HILL LIGHTS |
HEAVEN-KEPT SOUL RUNE 3350 |
The title Heaven-Kept Soul is an anagram derived from the name Kathleen Supové, the pianist for whom this piece was composed. She is known for her boundary- breaking ways of dissolving the wall between performer and audience. The piece is patterned structurally on The Goldberg Variations by J. S. Bach. It has thirty variations on a theme stated in the beginning by the piano. The compositional challenge is that starting with "Variation No. 3", every third variation is a canon at a different interval. Most of the variations are composed for synthesizers accompanying an amplified piano; there are a few variations for solo piano. The synthesizer and sampled sounds have been collected on computers, mapped onto keyboards, and played using a USB keyboard controller and laptop with REASON software. Altogether, the piece requires two USB keyboard/ computer performers and one pianist. |
BORDEN ON BORDEN: GABRIEL BORDEN PLAYS DAVID BORDEN RUNE 3349 |
"During the summer of 1987 Trudy and I took our son Gabriel to see guitarist David Torn perform in Trumansburg, NY at the Rongovian Embassy, AKA The Rongo. Gabe was eighteen. He had had a few years of piano lessons when he was younger, but had given them up at around age 11. The next day, after hearing David Torn’s beautiful performance, Gabe bought a Stratocaster, and proceeded to teach himself the guitar. That is to say, he spent eight to twelve hours a day learning the instrument on his own with the help of various guitar method books he bought along the way. About a year later, he contacted Chris Woitach, a local guitarist who now lives in Washington State, for lessons. He also discussed with me and with Les Thimmig, the woodwind virtuoso and great jazz improviser who was a member of my ensemble Mother Mallard, how best to learn about improvisation. I wasn’t much help, but Les recommended a book by Howard Roberts, the noted jazz guitarist. So Gabe added that to his daily routine or should I say marathon, because, really, from the summer of 1987 until the end of summer 1989 he spent practically all of his waking hours practicing the guitar. Many, many hours were spent methodically upping the tempo of the metronome so that he could play things perfectly at any tempo he chose, no matter how fast or slow. By the end of the summer of 1989 he sounded like a virtuoso. Actually, he WAS one.” David Borden "Having heard my father's pieces, especially The Continuing Story of Counterpoint (TCSOC) series, throughout my childhood, as they were being composed and premiered, I had subconsciously begun to develop my own arrangements and interpretations. The process of learning some of the parts and recording and performing them led to the conscious crystallization of these ideas.” Gabriel Borden |
LIKE A DUCK TO WATER RUNE 147 |
Like A Duck To Water was Mother Mallard's 2nd & final release, and was originally released in 1976. The music is a unique and extremely enjoyable blend of space electronics (ala Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze), minimal music (Terry Riley, Philip Glass), and contemporary classical & electronics (Gordon Mumma, John Cage). This album showcases a uniquely American slant on synthesizer music by a band whose pioneering contributions to the genre had been forgotten until now. Includes the original album, 20' of previously unheard bonus material, and bonus CDRom material; a QuickTime video of the band in performance in 1976. With David Borden, Steve Drews & Judy Borsher. "A marvel of pioneering electronica." - The Wire |
1970-73 RUNE 109 |
1970-73 collects the first album by Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Co. and previously unreleased recordings. MMPMC were also one of the very first [possibly the first] performing synthesizer ensembles, working closely with Robert Moog, whose first factory was nearby. This material pre-dates or is contemporary with the first contributions to the genre and had been forgotten until now. With Steve Drews & Linda Fisher. |
PLACES, TIMES & PEOPLE RUNE 58 |
Places, Times & People is a collection of ten medium length, mostly solely keyboard performances. It showcases a broad spectrum of Borden's compositional skills. Compositions on this disc range from piano duets, to electronic soundscapes, to dense, interlocking multi-keyboard works. Places, Times & People contains something for everyone, for all established Borden fans and newcomers alike. |
COUNTERPOINT PARTS 1-4 + 8 RUNE 28 |
The Continuing Story Of Counterpoint is a remarkable 12 part musical cycle that Borden composed between 1976-87. Lasting 3 hours, Cuneiform has released this seminal work on 3 CDs, each containing 4 parts. The music is a pleasing and highly listenable mixture of classical forms, dense textures, strict counterpoint, and high energy electronics. AUDIO Magazine had this to say about the series: "When released in its entirety, this series may stand as the 'Goldberg Variations' of minimalism, a canon of work that defines a style and an era." |
COUNTERPOINT PARTS 5-8 RUNE 21 |
The release of The Continuing Story Of Counterpoint, Parts 5-8 caused one reviewer to note that "David Borden's music has always stood alone with its logic of motion, elegance of line and form, and deft use of state of the art technology." |
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David Borden is one of the foremost exponents of live electronic and minimalist music. He has been active on the new music and contemporary classical scenes for two decades. He first came to attention as the driving force behind Mother Mallard, the world's first all synthesizer ensemble. |
PRESS RELEASES
Like a Duck to Water press release
1970-1973 press release
Places, Time & People press release
The Continuing Story Of Counterpoint: 1-4+8 press release
The Continuing Story Of Counterpoint: 5-8 press release
The Continuing Story Of Counterpoint: 9-12 press release
CUNEIFORM E-BLASTS
4/2015: Celebrating Springtime with David Borden's "Easter"
6/2011: David Borden / Mother Mallard perform The Continuing Story of Counterpoint @ the Issue Project Room, Brooklyn, NY, 6/29/2011
4/2010: David Borden performs @ the Museum of Making Music
3/2009: Mother Mallard's 40th Anniversary concerts