{{Short description|American composer}} {{Distinguish|Mark Gustafson}} {{Infobox person | name = Mark Gustavson | image = mark gustavson2.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1959|09|19}} | birth_place = Brooklyn, New York, U.S. | education = Columbia University | alma_mater = | occupation = composer, clarinetist, educator, and record producer | years_active = 1979–present | agent = | known_for = | notable_works = In-Between | style = avant garde | television = | spouse = | children = Marina Gustavson | relatives = | awards = American Academy of Arts and Letters, Fulbright Fellowship | website = {{URL|https://markgustavson.com}} }}
'''Mark Gustavson''' (born September 19, 1959 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American composer<ref>{{Cite web|date=2016-04-22|title=Mark Gustavson|url=https://music.columbia.edu/bios/mark-gustavson|access-date=2020-10-28|website=Columbia University Department of Music|language=en}}</ref> of contemporary classical music.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Mark Gustavson|url=https://www.dubwaymusic.com/new-blog-4/2015/2/5/mark-gustavson|access-date=2020-10-28|website=Dubway Studios, NYC {{!}} Music|date=5 February 2015 |language=en-us}}</ref>
==Biography== Gustavson lives on eastern Long Island and teaches at various universities in the New York City area, including Adelphi University and Nassau Community College. He graduated from the University of Illinois in 1981 and received the D.M.A. from Columbia University in 1990. Gustavson also studied at the Sweelinck Conservatory with Ton De Leeuw on a Fulbright Fellowship in 1985-86 and was a composition fellow at Tanglewood in 1979. His primary composition teachers were Chinary Ung, Ben Johnston and Fred Lerdahl.
==Music== Western classical music, Folk music from around the world, and Jazz blended with Eastern and Western philosophy have all influenced Gustavson's style. He mostly favors notated music that often sounds improvised. Form is often based on different approaches to variations influenced by naturally occurring cycles. Rhythm can at times be very complex or deceptively simple; for example, the third movement of ''Quintet'' for clarinet, two violins, viola, and cello is a four-voice canon of continuous eighth notes that create a background for the solo clarinet. Because of the unpredictable entrances of each voice, an improvisatory quality is suggested. In ''A Fool's Journey'', it is the complex textures that create the illusion of improvisation. The complex layering of lines or polyphony in this example from "A Fool's Journey" purposely avoids the coming together of the independent voices. The Prelude to "Lament" for piano solo demonstrates another way to create the sense of improvisation by using a basso ostinato in the left hand and a rhythmically free right hand. One more example from a recent work "Turning" for bass clarinet, percussion, piano, and double bass explores many ways of creating the illusion of improvisation. This example demonstrates metrical independence of the four instruments, and at times, simultaneously in four different meters. {{listen | filename = Quintet_3.ogg | title = Quintet | description = clip from the 3rd movement | type = music | filename2 = a_fools_journey.ogg | title2 = A Fool's Journey | description2 = clip from 2nd movement | }}
His music has been recognized with various grants, awards, and prizes, including grants from the,<ref>[https://coplandfund.org/past-grants/371 Aaron Copland Music Fund]</ref> Alice M. Ditson Fund, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Walter Hinrichsen Award (1987),<ref>American Academy of Arts and Letters, [http://www.artsandletters.org/awards2_popup.php?abbrev=Hinrichsen List of Walter Hinrichsen Award winners] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140726144704/http://www.artsandletters.org/awards2_popup.php?abbrev=Hinrichsen |date=2014-07-26 }}</ref> the Joseph H. Bearns Prize, the BMI Student Composer Award (1979, 1982, 1983),<ref>Broadcast Music Incorporated, [http://www.bmi.com/genres/detail_basic/535120 BMI Student Composer Award Winners (1952 to 2008)]</ref> and the ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award.<ref>The ASCAP Foundation, [http://www.ascap.com/eventsawards/awards/foundation/awards/morton_gould.html Morton Gould Young Composer Award Recipients 1979-Present]</ref>
Recently his collaborative audio-visual work with media artist Chris Myhr ''In-Between'' was a “Semi-Finalist” in the Blowup Film Fest,<ref>[http://www.blowupfilmfest.com/#!about-festival.html Blowup Film Fest]</ref> an international film festival in Chicago; shown at the Psychedelic Music and Film Festival 2022 in New York City;<ref>[https://www.psychedelicfilmandmusicfestival.com/ Psychedelic Music and Film Festival 2022 in New York City]</ref> and presented at the Convergence Leicester 2022 in Leicester, UK, "Immersions and Resonances" at <ref>[https://naisa.ca/ NAISA North Media Center]</ref> in South River, ON, Canada; and the.<ref>2022 Ammerman Biennial Symposium for Arts and Technology in New London, CT [https://www.conncoll.edu/academics/majors-departments-programs/majors-and-minors/ammerman-center-for-arts-and-technology/symposium-2022/]</ref>
In the first decade of the 21st century, Gustavson's attention turned to texts and vocal music. Two works of note are ''The Fisherman Songs'' for bass/baritone and piano and ''Lament'', a monodrama for bass/baritone, bass clarinet, percussion, piano, female chorus, and contrabass, using a poem "Lament" by Dylan Thomas and the Welsh hymn “Llef”.
Prelude from ''Lament'' for bass clarinet, percussion, piano, and double bass is performed by the pianist Jacob Rhodebeck and ''Turning'' was performed by the Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players. A recording with ''Quintet'' performed by Contempo<ref>Contempo (the University of Chicago Contemporary Chamber Players) is a collective dedicated exclusively to the performance of contemporary classical music</ref> and ''Dissolving Images'' for solo piano performed by Lisa Moore are available on Albany Records,<ref>[http://www.albanyrecords.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=AR&Product_Code=TROY1424&Category_Code=a-NR Albany Records]</ref>{{update after|2010|12|31}} and "Dissolving Images" and "Quintet" are published by Edition Peters.<ref>Edition Peters, [http://www.edition-peters.com/php/main_search.php?composer=GUSTAVSON&restrict=CW Gustavson, Mark]</ref>
===Select list of compositions=== '''Orchestra'''
*''Dust Dance'' (2010) *''Hymn to the Vanished'' (2001) for string orchestra *''Silent Moon'' (1998) *''Waves'' (1988)
'''Band & Wind ensemble''' *''Hymn to the Vanished'' (2017) arranged for concert band *''The Emperor's Music'' (2000) for twelve antiphonal solo brass
'''Chamber''' *''Wheel'' (2014) for violin and piano *''Hymn to the Vanished'' (2013) for clarinet and piano *''Turning'' (2012) for bass clarinet, percussion, piano and double bass *''Chiftetelli'' (2010) for clarinet, 2 violins, viola and cello *''A Fool's Journey'' (1999) for flute (pic, alto), clarinet (bcl), percussion, violin and cello *''Two of Cups'' (1999) for clarinet and viola *''Albion'' (1997) for wind quintet *''Quintet'' (1993) for clarinet, 2 violins, viola and cello *''Bag o'Tales'' (1992) for saxophone quartet *''Plexus'' (1991) for flute(pic), harp, viola and cello *''Jag'' (1990) for flute, clarinet, trombone, violin and cello *''Twenty Variations'' (1982) for flute and piano
'''Vocal''' *''Lament'' (2021) text: Dylan Thomas and Welsh hymn “Llef” monodrama for bass/baritone, bass clarinet, percussion, piano, female chorus, and contrabass *''I Heard an Angel Singing'' (2016) text: Mark Gustavson for soprano and fixed media *''Fisherman Songs'' (2010) text: collection for bass/baritone and piano *''The Four Love Songs'' (1984) for soprano, 2 clarinets, 2 percussion, viola and cello *''The Three Mirrors'' (1979) text: Edwin Muir for soprano, flute(alto), clarinet, trombone, piano(hammond organ), 3 percussion (tuned water glasses)
'''Solo instrumental''' *''The Lounge Pianist'' (2010) for vocalizing pianist *''Trickster'' (1997) for clarinet solo *''Dissolving Images'' (1986) for piano solo
'''Electroacoustic''' *''Wingbeat'' (2021) for harp & 2-channel fixed audio *''I Heard an Angel Singing'' (2016) for soprano & 2-channel fixed audio *''Footfalls'' (2015) for fixed media *''Air'' (2014) for fixed media
'''Multimedia ''' *''In-between'' (2020) for 2-channel fixed audio & video (Chris Myhr, artist)
==Discography== *''Dissolving Images'', Lisa Moore, Edward Gilmore, Either/Or, Parnassus, Albany Records, Release date: July 1, 2013. *''Chiftetelli'', Contemporary Chamber Players of the University of Chicago, CD Baby, Release date: September 10, 2010. *''Air: Music for Yoga and Meditation'', Electroacoustic, Gustavson Sounds Records, Release date: September 2, 2016. *''In-Between'', Soundtrack, CD Baby, Release date: September 30, 2021.
==Bibliography== *Gustavson, Mark (1994) [https://books.google.com/books?id=jKnUAroodQIC&q=Gustavson "Conversation in New York"], ''Contemporary Music Review'', Volume 10, ''American Composers: The Emerging Generation'', pp. 121 – 132. {{ISBN|3-7186-5529-2}}
==Notes and references== {{reflist}}
==Sources== *Maurice Hinson and Wesley Roberts, "Guide to the Pianist's Repertoire, Fourth Edition", Indiana University Press, 2013, p. 459 *Patrick Hanudel, Album Review: "Gustavson: Chamber Music", "American Record Guide", January/February 2014, p. 114 * Buell, Richard, [https://web.archive.org/web/20121103054314/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-8639337.html "The Smart, Persuasive Sounds of Young Dinosaurs"], ''Boston Globe'', 7 February 2001. Accessed via subscription 2 March 2010. *Dyer, Richard, [https://web.archive.org/web/20121103054322/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-7975633.html "Tanglewood Festival Celebrates Diversity of Contemporary Music"], ''Boston Globe'', 6 August 2006. Accessed via subscription 2 March 2010. *Gowan, Bradford, "Review: Dissolving Images by Mark Gustavson", ''The Piano quarterly'', Issue 148, Winter 1988/89, p. 16 *Griffiths, [https://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/10/movies/music-review-looking-eastward-for-patterns-and-a-quiet-sensuality.html?pagewanted=1 "Looking Eastward for Patterns and a Quiet Sensuality"], ''New York Times'', 10 October 1997. Accessed 2 March 2010. *Kozinn, Allan, [http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/08/02/arts/music/02cont.html "The Classical and the Vernacular, a Cohesive Choice of the Contemporary"], ''New York Times'', 2 August 2006. Accessed 2 March 2010. *''Symphony Magazine'', "BMI's 28th annual Student Composer Awards", Volume 31, Issues 3-5
==External links== *[http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/sound-heard-mark-gustavson-dissolving-images/ NewMusicBox Sound Heard: Mark Gustavson—Dissolving Images] Album Review, September 2, 2013 *[http://www.markgustavson.com Mark Gustavson | American Composer] Official Website *[http://www.kalvos.org/playf03.html#nov29 Kalvos & Damian Chronicle of the NonPop Revolution: A Fool's Journey] Interview with Mark Gustavson, November 29, 2003
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gustavson, Mark}} Category:American male classical composers Category:20th-century American classical composers Category:20th-century American male composers Category:21st-century American classical composers Category:1959 births Category:Living people Category:Musicians from Brooklyn Category:Writers from Brooklyn Category:University of Illinois System alumni Category:Columbia University School of the Arts alumni Category:People from Mastic Beach, New York Category:Classical musicians from New York (state) Category:21st-century American male composers