DAVID FELDER
DAVID FELDER
David Felder has long been recognized as a leader in his generation of American composers. His works have been featured at many of the leading international festivals for new music, and he is continually recognized through performance and commissioning programs. Felder’s work has been broadly characterized by its highly energetic profile, through its frequent employment of technological extension and elaboration of musical materials (including his “Crossfire” video series), and its lyrical qualities.
Felder has received numerous grants and commissions including many awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, two New York State Council commissions, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, Guggenheim, two Koussevitzky commissions, two Fromm Foundation Fellowships, two awards from the Rockefeller Foundation, Meet the Composer “New Residencies” (1993-1996) composer residency with the Buffalo Philharmonic, two commissions from the Mary Flagler Cary Trust, and many more. In May 2010, he received the Music Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a career recognition award. Current projects include: Le Quatre Temps Cardinaux for soprano Laura Aikin, bass Ethan Herschenfeld, large chamber ensemble/orchestra (BMOP, Signal, and Slee Sinfonietta) and electronics on texts of Neruda, Creeley, Gioia, and Daumal, (Fall, 2012) commissioned by the Koussevitky Foundation; and ensemble works commissioned by Neo Norbotten of Sweden, Norway’s Cikada Ensemble, the New York New Music Ensemble, Talujon Percussion Ensemble, and the New York Virtuoso Singers for the period 2010-13.
Felder serves as Birge-Cary Chair in Composition at SUNY, Buffalo, and has been Artistic Director of the “June in Buffalo” Festival from 1985 to the present. Since 2006, he has been Director of the Robert and Carol Morris Center for 21st Century Music at the University. From 1992 to 1996 he was Meet the Composer "New Residencies", Composer-in-Residence to the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and WBFO-FM. In 1996, he formed the professional chamber orchestra, the Slee Sinfonietta, and has been Artistic Director since that time. In 2008, he was named SUNY Distinguished Professor, the highest rank in the SUNY system. An active teacher and mentor, he has served as Ph.D. dissertation advisor for nearly fifty composers at Buffalo, many of whom are actively teaching, composing and performing internationally at leading institutions. Felder served as Master Artist in Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in February-March, 2010. His work is published by Theodore Presser, and Project Schott New York, and recordings are available on Bridge, Mode, EMF, and Albany. Several new recordings in surround will be released on Albany Records in 2012.
For more information about David Felder, please visit his website
View scores here (roll over to view score title):
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 | 2010: Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters | | 2 Cary Trust Commissions | | 2 Fromm Fellowships | | 2 Koussevitzky Fellowships/Commissions | | 2 NEA Composer Fellowships | | 3 NEA Interarts Fellowships | | Guggenhiem Fellowship | | Meet the Composer New Residencies Composer-in-Residence Program (3 years) | | NYFA Composer's Fellowship | | Recipient, Argosy Fund | | Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship |
Another Face for Solo Violin (1987, rev. 1994) -- 12'
Part of Crossfire
Published: #144-40236
Commission Information: Violinists Janos Negyesy and Karen Bentley
Premiere Information: April 22, 1987, Albright-Knox Museum, Buffalo, New York. Premiere with video, June 10, 1988, June in Buffalo Festival
Additional Information: Can also be presented as media work with two Delcom video walls (16 monitors each), and video playback.
Boxman for Amplified Solo Trombone with Electronics (1986-88, rev. 1999) -- 15'
Part of Crossfire
Published: #144-40244
Commission Information: Trombonist Miles Anderson, the NEA Inter-Arts Program, Hallwalls, Inc., and the Ars Electonica Festival of Linz, Austria
Premiere Information: June 1986. Premiere with video, September 19, 1987, Linz, Austria
Additional Information: Can also be presented as media work with two Delcom video walls (16 monitors each), and video playback.
• Recordings
• Reviews
Available Separately:Full Score - Large (#144-40244P)
Canzone XXXI for Brass Quintet (1993) -- 7'
Hn. Tpt. Tbn. B.Tbn. (or Tuba)
Published: #144-40235
Commission Information: The American Brass Quintet with support from the Fromm Foundation
Premiere Information: Aspen Music Festival, August 21, 1993
• Recordings
Available Separately:Set of parts (#144-40235P)
Full Score - Large (#144-40235S)
Coleccion Nocturna for Clarinet (doubling Bass Clarinet), Piano, and Tape (1983) -- 19'
Published: #144-40242
Commission Information: William Powell and Zita Carno
Premiere Information: October 15, 1983
Available Separately:Full Score - Large (#144-40242S)
Crossfire (1986) -- 60'
Commission Information: NEA Inter-Arts and La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art
Premiere Information: May 7, 1987, La Jolla Museum
Additional Information: Consists of four individual works (listed separately). Each work may be presented with or without video, and individually, or with one or more of the others.
Boxman for Amplified Solo Trombone with ElectronicsIn Between for Solo Percussion with Electronics
Dionysiacs for Flute Sextet and "Gli Altri": an ensemble of mixed instruments placed around the audience (2002, rev. 2005) -- 10'
6 Flutes (doubling Picc., A.Fl., B.Fl.); "Gli Altri:" 12-16 musicians in two groups playing the following: a. a principal wind instrument, b. ocarinas; small, medium, and large, c. a nose whistle, d. a "toy," e. a crystal water goblet
Additional Information: Published: #144-40546
In Between for Solo Percussion with Electronics (1991-93) -- 17 min.
Part of Crossfire
Commission Information: New York State Council on the Arts
Premiere Information: Daniel Druckman; April 23, 1995, New York, NY
Additional Information: Can also be presented as media work with two Delcom video walls (16 monitors each), and video playback.
In Between for Solo Percussion with Electronics (version for 4.3 octave Marimba)
Published: #144-40278
In Between for Solo Percussion with Electronics (version for 5 octave Marimba)
Published: #144-40279
Incendio for brass section (2000) -- 6'
0 0 0 0 - 3 3(1Picc.Tpt.) 3(B.Tbn.) 1
Available from the Presser Rental Library
Additional Information: NOTE: INCENDIO may be paired with companion work SHREDDER in a single concert as two movements, or separated with other works intervening. If both works are performed, the title should be listed as TWO TUTTIS, with the separate titles given for each of the movements.
Nexus for Solo Bass Trombone
Available From Composer
November Sky for Flutes and Tape
Available From Composer
Partial [dist]res[s]toration for Ensemble (2002) -- 21'
Flute (Picc., Bsn.), Clarinet (B.Cl), Percussion, Violin (Vla.), Cello, optional Computer & Elec
Available from the Presser Rental Library
• Recordings
Passageways I and II for Ensemble (1979-80) -- 10' 30"
Fl.(Picc./Cel.), Tbn., Vcl., 2Perc.
Available from the Presser Rental Library
Commission Information: Ensemble Nova, University of California, Santa Cruz
Premiere Information: January 21, 1981, Encounter Series, La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art
Available Separately:Full Score - Large (#446-41092S)
Passageways IIA for Chamber Ensemble (1991) -- 4'
Fl.(Picc.), Ob., Cl., B.Tbn., Perc., Pno., Vln., Vcl.
Available from the Presser Rental Library
Commission Information: De Ijsbreker, Amsterdam
Premiere Information: October 16, 1991
Requiescat (2010) -- 12'30"
B.Fl. Cb.Cl. Pno. Perc. Gtr. Tape. Str.
Available from the Presser Rental Library
Commission Information: for Magnus Anderssen and CIKADA, Commissioned by CIKADA to James Avery (and Mister Puss)
Premiere Information: October 2010
Rocket Summer for Piano Solo (1983) -- 8' 30"
Published: #140-40066
Commission Information: Stephan Zegree, Western Michigan University
Premiere Information: September 28, 1983, Kalamazoo, MI
• Reviews
Rondage/Cycle (1977, rev. 1983)
Available From Composer
Shredder for slightly enhanced brass section -- 6'
4Hn. 4Tpt.(1 dbl. Picc.) 3Tbn. B.Tbn. Tu. Timp.(5Drums) Elec.Bass or Bass Synth.(Kurzweil 2000 or equiv.)
Available from the Presser Rental Library
Premiere Information: June 2001. Metallofonica, Buffalo, New York.
Additional Information: NOTE: SHREDDER may be paired with companion work INCENDIO in a single concert as two movements, or separated with other works intervening. If both works are performed, the title should be listed as TWO TUTTIS, with the separate titles given for each of the movements.
stuck-stücke for String Quartet (2007-2008) -- 17’30"
2Vln. Vla. Vcl.
Commission Information: Commissioned by the Siemens Foundation
Premiere Information: February 27th, 2009. Arditti Quartet, Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall, SUNY-Buffalo, NY.
Additional Information: Published: #144-40526
• Recordings
Third Face for String Quartet
Available From Composer
Tweener for Solo Percussion and Large Chamber Ensemble (2009-10) -- 21'
Solo Percussion; 2(1dbl.Picc., 2dbl.Picc. & A.Fl.) 0 2(1dbl.B.Cl., 2dbl.B.Cl. & Cb.Cl.) 0 - 1 1(dbl.DTpt. or Picc.Tpt.) 3(B.Tbn., Cb.Tbn.or Tu.); 2Perc. E.Gtr. B.Gtr. Pno.(dbl.Synth.) Str
Available from the Presser Rental Library
Premiere Information: 2nd June, 2010. Tom Kolor solo percussion, Slee Sinfonietta, conducted by James Baker; June in Buffalo Festival, Buffalo, NY.
La Dura Fria Hora for Chamber Choir, a cappella
Available From Composer
a pressure triggering dreams for Orchestra (1996) -- 20'
3(Picc., A.Fl., B.Fl.)-3(E.H.)-3(EbCl., B.Cl., Cb.Cl.)-3(Cbsn.); 4-3-3-1; 3Perc., Pno.(Synth.), Hp., Str., Tape
Available from the Presser Rental Library
Commission Information: American Composers Orchestra with the Mary Flagler Cary Trust and NEA
Premiere Information: May 11, 1997, Carnegie Hall, New York, NY
• Recordings
• Reviews
Between for Solo Percussion and Orchestra (1990) -- 21'
Solo Perc.; 3(Picc., 2A.Fl.)-3(E.H.)-3(B.Cl., Cb.Cl.)-3(Cbsn.); 4-4-4-1; 4Perc., Pno., Elec.Gtr., Elec.Bass, Str.
Available from the Presser Rental Library
Commission Information: NEA Consortium Commission
Premiere Information: Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, April 4, 1990
• Reviews
Available Separately:Full Score - Large (#446-41094S)
Coleccion Nocturna for Clarinet, Piano, Orchestra, and Optional Tape (1984) -- 19'
2-2-2-2; 2-2-2-1; 3Perc., Hp., Str.
Available from the Presser Rental Library
Commission Information: With funds from the American Music Center and Steve Horn
Premiere Information: Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra; April 10, 1986
• Recordings
• Reviews
Gone Grey for String Orchestra and optional electronics (2004) -- 13'
Str. Orch. (opt. electronics)
Available from the Presser Rental Library
Commission Information: Musica Vitae, Sweden
Premiere Information: Jan. 17, 19, 2005; Musica Vitae Chamber Orchestra, Växjö, Sweden. (US preview: Nov. 12, 2004; Slee Sinfonietta, SUNY-Buffalo)
Movements:
• I. Triplum
• II. Ton nom
In Between for Solo Percussion and Chamber Orchestra (1999-2000) -- 21'
2(Picc., A.Fl.)-2(E.H.)-2(B.Cl., Cb.Cl.)-2(Cbsn.); 2-2-2-1; Timp., 4Perc., Pno., Str.
Available from the Presser Rental Library
Commission Information: "June in Buffalo Festival" for its 25th anniversary
Premiere Information: June in Buffalo Festival Chamber Orchestra, Buffalo, NY, June 5, 2000
• Recordings
Inner Sky (1994, 1999) -- 17'
Solo Flute; 4Perc., Pno., Str. Orch. (Min. 5-5-6-6-4)
Available from the Presser Rental Library
Commission Information: Koussevitzky and Guggenheim Foundations
Premiere Information: SONOR Ensemble; February 22, 1995, San Diego, CA
• Reviews
Available Separately:Full Score - Large (#446-41088S)
Journal for Chamber Orchestra (1990) -- 12'
1-1-1-1; 1-1-1-0; 2Perc., Hp., Pno., Str.
Available from the Presser Rental Library
Commission Information: Indiana University Music of Our Time Festival
Premiere Information: Indiana University New Music Group, July 8, 1990
• Recordings
• Reviews
Available Separately:Full Score - Large (#446-41091S)
Linebacker Music for Orchestra (1994) -- 6'
3(Picc.)-3(E.H.)-3(B.Cl.)-3(Cbsn.); 4-3-3-1; 3Perc., Pno., Str.
Available from the Presser Rental Library
Commission Information: Buffalo Philharmonic with the Meet the Composer "New Residencies" program
Premiere Information: October 1, 1994, Kleinhans Hall
• Reviews
Available Separately:Full Score - Large (#446-41093S)
Six Poems from Neruda's "Alturas..." for Orchestra (1990-92) -- 22'
3(Picc., A.Fl.)-3(E.H.)-3(B.Cl.)-3(Cbsn.); 4-3-3-1; 3Perc., Timp., Hp., Pno., Str.
Available from the Presser Rental Library
Commission Information: Buffalo Philharmonic with New York State Council for the Arts, and NEA
Premiere Information: February 1, 1992
• Recordings
• Reviews
Available Separately:Full Score - Large (#446-41090S)
Three Lines From Twenty Poems for Chamber Orchestra (1987) -- 10'
1-1-1-1; 1-1-1-1; 2Perc., Hp., Pno., Str.
Available from the Presser Rental Library
Commission Information: With support from the Research Foundation of SUNY
Premiere Information: Buffalo Philharmonic; June 14, 1987
• Recordings
• Reviews
Available Separately:Full Score - Large (#446-41095S)
Three Pieces for Orchestra (1996) -- 19'
3(Picc., A.Fl., B.Fl.)-3(E.H.)-3(EbCl., B.Cl., Cb.Cl.)-3(Cbsn.); 4-3-3-1; 3Perc., Pno.(Synth.), Hp., Str.
Available from the Presser Rental Library
Commission Information: Buffalo Philharmonic with the Meet the Composer "New Residencies" program
Premiere Information: March 29, 1996, Kleinhans Hall
• Reviews
Available Separately:Full Score - Large (#446-41163)
Two Neruda Texts for Chamber Orchestra (1986, 1996)
Available From Composer
| In Between for Solo Percussion and Chamber Orchestra |
EMF Media No. 133: Felder / Feldman
June in Buffalo Orchestra, Harvey Sollberger and Jan Williams conducting; Daniel Druckman, percussion; Jean Kopperud, clarinets; James Winn, piano.
| Boxman for Amplified Solo Trombone with Electronics |
EMF Media No. 133: Felder / Feldman
June in Buffalo Orchestra, Harvey Sollberger and Jan Williams conducting; Daniel Druckman, percussion; Jean Kopperud, clarinets; James Winn, piano.
"Felder has proven an original composer who takes a lot of chances and usually wins."-James North, Fanfare"David Felder (1953) is currently one of the leading independent and most uncompromising American composers of his generation. …In his own words, his evolution as a composer has been influenced by Roger Reynolds, Donald Erb, Bernard Rands, Robert Erickson and David Cope. … There is in the case of David Felder and his personal and particular powerful language, then, rather the influence of probably the whole band-width of European music, however under the light of a new century."-Neue Musikzeitung
"was full of close-knit, furiously accelerating and crescendoing interwoven trills and repeated notes, very dense; contrasted with crystalline sounds, cold and stabbing, seeming almost a study in light rather than sound."-Kenneth Young, Buffalo News
| Boxman for Amplified Solo Trombone with Electronics |
"Boxman was the artistic high point of the festival (Ars Electronica, 1987, Linz Austria) as a whole. …A piece of music of dynamic power, tender sensibility, and vital humor."-Franz Schwabeneder, Österreich Nachrichten"Boxman was as constricting in its psychological context as it was expansive in its technical complexity. Trombonist Miles Anderson put his horn through a variety of different effects, interacting with pitch dividers, digital delays, sampled portions of his own playing and a video wall display that cut up his image and dealt it out in a wild shuffle. Anderson played his declamatory role with relish, filling the hall with wailing, gut-wrenching tones which were delayed and played back forming an eerie claustrophobic canon. Like any technical innovation in the arts, Felder’s live interactive music-video promised novelty, but proved to be a sharper scalpel for the dissection of the self."-Richard Chon, Buffalo News
| Between for Solo Percussion and Orchestra |
"Felder’s Between is a riveting score…There’s some gorgeous orchestral writing here… The pulsating basses evoke drama building to double mallet toccata-like frenzy with bass drum shots falling like mortars. With nicely engineered transitions, this is a schizophrenic tone-poem, its seeming incoherence part and parcel of its power."-Kenneth Young, Buffalo News
"Felder was conductor in his Coleccion Nocturna after a poem by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda in which the composer felt ‘powerfully evocative images of a surreal nocturnal landscape...’ ...Neruda’s poem contains a phrase, ‘I am rent by the shock of my dreaming’, which reflects the quality of this music. The clarinet is alternately lyrical, then used as the shrill leading edge of massed sonorities. Orchestral textures are generally quite dense but the strings were often given surprisingly consonant supporting chordal passages. Four loud speakers bracketed the hall, the tape tracks used not as a major element but to shadow the solo instruments or for heightening effect."-Herman Trotter, Buffalo News"Extroverted and kinetic, sometimes harmonically spiky sometimes sweetly lyrical…Jean Kopperud’s agile clarinet playing and her ability to move easily between graceful, songlike lines and brash passages full of leaps and incongruities served Mr. Felder’s music well."-Allan Kozinn, New York Times"His instrumental writing is virtuostic (at times stunningly so), most notably in the clarinet part of Coleccion Nocturna (1982-83); here one finds tasteful use of extended techniques, including color shift fingerings, wide vibrato, pitch bends, and glissandi, as well as challenging traditional passagework on occasion suggesting a delightfully demented take on Klezmer stylings. …And, in best Mario Davidovsky fashion, Felder mixes electronic material into his textures most effectively. In Coleccion, scored for clarinet/bass clarinet, piano, and tape, the last two entities meld wonderfully with each other to suggest a colorful ‘super piano.’"-David Cleary, The New Music Connoisseur"…just breathtaking. …captivates instantly. Suddenly, the complex compositional structure becomes irrelevant; there is ingenious music in its purest sense, which with its sheer power, aesthetics and depth does not ask any theoretical questions, but wants to be listened to many times. The overflowing evocative tension, the sensual atmosphere, the sometimes depressive, but soon again playful gestures as well as the sublime irony in all three movements breathe an incredible tenseness. Felder combines his deep knowledge of the past and the present with a constant searching on a philosophical, human and musical level – a Gustav Mahler for the 21st century. … this work earns a constant place in the repertoire of any great orchestra."-Hans-Theodor Wohlfahrt, Classical Music on the Web (UK)
"The most technologically advanced undertaking of the festival was Inner Sky, complex and gorgeously scored."-Alan Rich, LA Reader
"The piece is striking in its mercurial shifts from a very exciting and precisely violent music to a music of extreme repose and calm. Throughout both musics there is an extremely refined sense of color and orchestrational balance. and the progression through the various musical moods seems always very tasteful and ‘right.’"-Soundout (Digizine)"David Felder’s Journal was, to this listener, the most effective of the three commissioned works.... The work didn’t sound very lyrical at the outset, but during the course of ten minutes or so, Felder has created a poignant, spirit-filled, almost serene tone poem. Journal is well scored. There is no chaos here with each instrument clearly audible and contributing to the sense of the ensemble, yet still retaining its individuality. Rather, there is a strong sense of coming together as the music unfolds."-Peter Jacobi, Bloomington Herald
"Don’t expect Linebacker Music to remind you of the Blue Danube. Wholly consistent with its subject matter, it has a very declamatory opening, then proceeds to be stridently aggressive and percussion-laced, and to convey a feeling of massive strength at all times, even in a brief, quiet section. It resembles Pacific 231, an acknowledged mini-masterpiece, in its driving insistence."-Herman Trotter, Buffalo News
"The full orchestra sound is complemented by a companion ‘orchestra’ consisting entirely of computer-processed flute sounds, by live sampler keyboards, electric bass and by selectively amplified solo instruments. For Felder, some quotes from Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy serve as a kind of mental godfather. But any literal impulse as well as any compositional detail are secondary compared to the overwhelming unfolding of the musical impact – 20 minutes of fulfilled music, which absorbed the past and creates on the basis of an universal view of life new and fascinating energies."-Hans-Theodor Wohlfahrt, Classical Music on the Web (UK)"In a pressure triggering dreams, the inspiration comes from Nietzsche—the title is an expression of Nietzsche’s thoughts about Wagner’s music and its consequences on the listener. The orchestra is here supplemented by computer processed flute sounds and amplified-effects. What we hear here is not a synthesis between natural and synthetically processed sounds, but an effect-full ‘concertino’ — an orchestra within the orchestra. This creates an almost schizophrenic experience, which supports the tension-filled, compressed character. …In all, David Felder’s music is filled with an immediate appeal and is penetrated by an outstanding control of compositional techniques."-Dansk Musiktijdskrift"The orchestral entity a pressure triggering dreams (1997) employs samples and tape as well as electric bass and selective amplification of various ensemble members to excellent effect, giving the impression (not often encountered in pieces of this type) that these disparate elements belong together in the same stewpot. And such necessities as form and balance are not neglected."-David Cleary, The New Music Connoisseur
"…professional craftsmanship is immediately displayed from the first seconds of Six Poems… where one is suddenly surprised by an effect-full, hard-edged orchestral writing. In what follows, the listener quickly understands that David Felder has an impressive ability to establish a sound universe, in which one is taken through every corner of experience, with Felder’s special love for the brutally hammered, dramatic contrasts, thrilling effects (as in film music), and with a well developed formal thread in the shape of long, expansive melodic lines. …We are dealing with a combination of a well-known expressionistic tradition, and something immediate, and elemental, that cannot escape making an impression."-Dansk Musiktijdskrift"Elegance has a place of its own. …The American composer David Felder’s Six Poems… was extremely elegant varying between explosive energy and austere lyricism, and at the same time so skillfully written that it brought Richard Strauss to mind – if one can imagine a Strauss who landed in today’s swarming city life."-Thomas Anderberg, Svenska Expressen"A far greater inventiveness and even a true personal expression characterized the American, David Felder’s music. His Six Poems… is difficult to describe: melodic, but not melodious, rhythmic but only with a clear pulse in the highly original last movement, intangible, yet substantial, especially in the long, elegiac middle movement which is surrounded by the two riotous outer movements."-Carl-Gunnar Ahlen, Svenska Dagbladet"The music has an overriding feverish quality which is very well projected via turbulent sometimes jumbled lines and effective percussion bursts… The longer second movement lies in quiet linear expressions in the strings with subtle wind subtexts colored by some extraordinary percussion effects. This continual, intimate unfolding of musical thoughts is suffused with a subtle beauty and guided by a sense of logic which makes the relatively consonant concluding string chord absolutely right. On second hearing, Felder’s music made the same strong impression."-Herman Trotter, Buffalo News"One might expect that its lopsided tripartite construction, consisting of a short cataclysmic opener, lengthy pensive center, and mid duration outgoing finale shouldn’t work at all – but somehow, Felder manages to pull it off with aplomb. The fact that this composition (as well as the others) unfolds fascinatingly is no small part of its success."-David Cleary, The New Music Connoisseur
"Felder’s Three Lines from Twenty Poems was excellently crafted and very communicative."-Herman Trotter, Buffalo News
"Felder’s Three Pieces for Orchestra is loosely based upon episodes from the composer’s experience. The outer movements are dense yet form a purposeful continuum that clearly is going somewhere. This is music with an epic reach, cosmic energy, and unconcern with the commonplace. The central movement, however, is a study in sonority, open textures, and spare orchestral colorations, largely in slower, measured statements with a more reflective ambience. Heralding horns make thematic suggestions that never develop but give the form useful reference points. Summoning brass and timpani usher in the final movement, which resumes the character of the first movement, but is punctuated by interior exclamations and melodic fragments concluding with massive percussion hammer blows."-Herman Trotter, Buffalo News
Page last updated May 23, 2012
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