Julius Eastman facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Julius Eastman
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Undated portrait of Eastman
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| Born | October 27, 1940 |
| Died | May 28, 1990 (aged 49) |
| Alma mater | Ithaca College (1959-60) Curtis Institute of Music (1960-63) |
| Occupation | |
Julius Eastman (born October 27, 1940 – died May 28, 1990) was an American composer, pianist, and singer. He was also a performance artist. His music is often linked to a style called minimalism. Julius Eastman was one of the first composers to mix minimalist ideas with pop music sounds. He used new ways to change and grow his music, calling it "organic music."
About Julius Eastman
Julius Eastman grew up in Ithaca, New York, with his mother, Frances, and younger brother, Gerry. He started learning piano when he was 14 years old. He quickly became very good at it.
He first studied at Ithaca College. Then, he moved to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. There, he studied piano with Mieczysław Horszowski. He also studied composition, which is how to write music. He changed his main focus from piano to composing and finished his studies in 1963.
Julius Eastman performed his first piano concert in 1966 in New York City. He had a very strong and flexible singing voice. He became famous for his 1973 recording of Eight Songs for a Mad King. This piece was by the British composer Peter Maxwell Davies.
His talents caught the eye of composer and conductor Lukas Foss. Foss invited Eastman to join a special program at SUNY Buffalo. This program was for new and experimental classical music. It gave artists time to create without teaching.
While there, he met Petr Kotik, a composer and flutist from the Czech Republic. Eastman and Kotik performed together a lot in the early 1970s. Julius Eastman also helped start the S.E.M. Ensemble with Kotik.
From 1971, he performed and toured with this group. He wrote many pieces for them. During this time, 15 of his early works were performed. One important piece was Stay On It (1973). This work was one of the first classical pieces to use ideas from popular music. It showed a new style called postminimalism. Julius Eastman left Buffalo in 1975.
Soon after, Eastman moved to New York City. He often wrote his music using what he called an "organic" idea. This meant that each new part of his music would contain all the ideas from the parts before it. Sometimes, he would slowly remove parts of the music in a logical way.
In 1976, Eastman performed Eight Songs for a Mad King again. This time, it was conducted by Pierre Boulez at Lincoln Center. He was also the first male singer in Meredith Monk's music group. You can hear him on her album Dolmen Music (1981).
He also worked closely with Arthur Russell. Eastman conducted almost all of Russell's orchestral recordings. He also played organ and sang on the recording of 24-24 Music (1982). This was a disco-influenced song that included popular dance hits.
During this time, he also played in a jazz band with his brother, Gerry. Gerry had played guitar in the Count Basie Orchestra. Julius Eastman also played in and conducted an orchestra funded by a government program. He helped organize community concerts with other composers. By 1980, he was touring all over the United States and other countries. A recording from a 1980 performance was released later.
In 1981, a piece for Eastman's cello group, The Holy Presence of Joan d'Arc, was performed in New York City. In 1986, the dancer Molissa Fenley used music by Philip Glass and two of Eastman's works for her dance, Geologic Moments. This dance premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
His Music Style
Eastman's music often used repeating sounds that slowly changed. These changes could sometimes be unexpected or random. He also used pop song structures, especially in pieces like Stay on It (1973). These pieces would repeat catchy musical parts but change them a lot.
His long piano pieces, like Gay Guerrilla (around 1980), showed how he explored his identity. He used musical ideas that sounded like growing conflict. This was very emotional for minimalism music. Eastman called his works "organic music." He said it involved "gradual growth and collection, often followed by gradual falling apart." He would slowly, and sometimes suddenly, change repeated musical phrases. This created the basis for his written music and how it was performed.
Known Works
- Piano Pieces I - IV (1968) for solo piano
- Thruway (1970) for flute, clarinet, trombone, violin, cello, soprano solo, off stage jazz trio, SATB choir, electronics
- The Moon's Silent Modulation (1970) for dancers, vocalists and chamber ensemble
- Touch Him When (1970) for piano 4 hands
- Trumpet (1970) for 7 trumpets
- Macle (1971) for voices and electronics
- Comp 1 (1971) for solo flute
- Mumbaphilia (1972) for solo performer and dancers
- Wood in Time (1972) for 8 metronomes
- Tripod (1972) instrumentation unknown, score fragment for one treble voice and one tape part exists
- Colors (1973) for 14 women's voices and tape
- Stay on It (1973) for no fixed instrumentation, although piano, percussion, and voice were always included
- 440 (1973) for voice, violin, viola and double bass
- That Boy (1974) for small instrumental ensemble
- Joy Boy (1974) for 4 treble instruments
- Femenine (1974) for chamber ensemble
- Masculine (1974) for small instrumental ensemble
- If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich? (1977) for violin, 2 French horns, 4 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba, piano, 2 chimes and 2 basses
- The Holy Presence of Joan d'Arc (1981) for ten cellos
- Untitled [Prelude to The Holy Presence of Joan d'Arc] (1981) for solo voice
- Symphony No. II - The Faithful Friend: The Lover Friend's Love for the Beloved (1983) for orchestra
- His Most Qualityless Majesty (1983) for piano and voice
- Hail Mary (1984) for voice and piano
- Buddha (1983) for unspecified instrumentation
- Piano 2 (1986) for solo piano
- Our Father (1989) for 2 male voices
Death
Julius Eastman passed away at age 49 in Buffalo, New York. He died alone in a hospital. His death was not widely known until an article about him appeared in a newspaper eight months later. Because Eastman's way of writing music was often loose and open to interpretation, it has been hard to bring his music back to life. People who worked with him have been very important in helping to understand and perform his works again.
See also
In Spanish: Julius Eastman para niños
