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posted by Monte at 1:33 a.m.
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Composer, teacher, and author
Born November 4, 1941 in Oklahoma City
B. Mus. (Oklahoma City) 1964
M. Mus. composition (Oklahoma) 1965
Ph.D. composition (ESM, Rochester) 1972
Thursday, December 01, 2005
DR. MONTE KEENE PISHNY-FLOYD was born in Oklahoma City in 1941. At six, he wrote his first composition. He attended Oklahoma City elementary and secondary schools, Oklahoma City University (B.Mus.,1964), University of Oklahoma (M.Mus., 1965) and Eastman School of Music (Ph.D. in composition, 1972).
He studied composition with Bernard Rogers, David Diamond, Burrill Phillips, Ray Luke, among others, and piano with Eugene List. Dr. Pishny-Floyd joined the Faculty of St. Mary's College in South Bend, Indiana in 1968, and in 1971 started teaching composition, theory, music literature, and piano at the University of Saskatchewan, where he was Head of Composition for many years. He is an associate of the Canadian Music Centre.
In addition to composing prolifically for most media, Dr. Pishny-Floyd is a published scholar and poet, and has presented papers on various aspects of composition at conferences, including at the Arnold Schoenberg Center in Austria. He generally writes his own librettos and texts. He also enjoys encouraging young musicians to pursue their talents, and has adjudicated at many music festivals in Saskatchewan and elsewhere.
Pishny-Floyd is a prolific composer, with more than 600 works to his credit. His output includes everything from simple, short pieces to long and involved compositions full of complex counterpoint. Much of his music is serial, but in a way that extends functional tonality and is deliberately eclectic. His consistently dissonant idiom, influenced by Ives, Berg, Carter, Bartók, and Hindemith features elaborate contrapuntal structures manifesting a lineage extending from Perotin to Machaut, Josquin, J.S. Bach and Brahms, through the above-named 20th century composers, and also through the direct influence of his teacher David Diamond, to himself. His music at times manifests a Middle Eastern mysticism profoundly influenced by Judaism, with overtones of Indic traditions. In this respect, characterized by additive/diminutive series, melismatic writing, and colouristic chord voicing (spacing), Messiaen's influence is felt. In addition, all the types of music one hears in North America, especially jazz and blues, but also rock, country and western, bluegrass, the music of native peoples and even gospel music have left a subtle imprint on his style.
He has received commissions from a variety of sources, including the Prairie Winds Ensemble (Three Canadian Postcards, 1977), CBC radio for the shows 'Two New Hours' (Partita for Piano, Winds and Percussion, 1978) and 'Mostly Music' (Variations on Themes of Stravinsky, 1982), Canadian Brass (Sonata for Tuba and Brass, 1981), the Wilson-McAllister Guitar Duo (Sonata for Two Guitars, 1984), the Saskatoon Symphony Chamber Players (Aller Anfang ist schwer, 1986), the University of Saskatchewan Wind Orchestra (Omega: Epilog, 1987), and the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra (Sonorities for Sixty Seasons, 1990).
His compositions have been performed in Canada, the USA, South America, Israel, and Europe and have been recorded, broadcast nationally on CBC, and published. Blues (1977) has been recorded by horn player James MacDonald and pianist Monica Gaylord (1978, Music Gallery Editions MGE-21). The Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra and the University of Saskatchewan Department of Music, with the assistance of CBC radio, devoted an entire concert 3 Mar 1989 to his chamber works, including the premiere of his Four Movements for bassoon and string trio (1983).
Dr. Pishny-Floyd is married and has four daughters, all musical. His wife Annette Floyd (M.A. Eastman, 1970) is a pianist, educator, and conductor, and she both copies and performs his music.
Links
- Selected Major Works
- Highlights and Commissions
- Obtain a Recording
- Canadian Music Centre
- The Canadian Encyclopedia
- ** En français
- Arnold Schoenberg Center
- Edmonton Composers Concert Society
- Canadian League of Composers
- Brundibar
- University of Saskatchewan
- Saskatchewan Arts Board
- Saskatchewan Recording Industry Association
- Fort Bend Symphony Orchestra
Previous Posts
- Phi and Infinity, etc., Part I
- Swarms (Coalescence) and Mathematics
- Aphoristic musings:Cities are self-sorting informa...
- Welcome to my blog