William Duckworth (composer) facts for kids

William Duckworth (born January 13, 1943 – died September 13, 2012) was an American composer, writer, teacher, and a pioneer of the internet. He wrote over 200 pieces of music. He is known for creating the first 'post-minimal' music, like his piano work The Time Curve Preludes (from 1977–78). This was a new style of music that used simple, repeating patterns. Duckworth was a music professor at Bucknell University. With his wife, Nora Farrell, he ran a music publishing company called Monroe Street Music.

About William Duckworth

William Duckworth was born in North Carolina in 1943. He studied music at East Carolina University. Later, he earned advanced degrees in music education from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He learned how to compose music from Ben Johnston. For his doctorate, he studied the music notes of John Cage.

Duckworth received important awards for his art. These included a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts in 2002. He also got a fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts in 1977. Before they married, he worked with Nora Farrell, who later became his wife, on his internet projects. He often worked closely with James Jordan. Jordan's famous choirs often performed Duckworth's music. Duckworth passed away at his home in West New York, New Jersey, in 2012.

Music He Wrote

Duckworth created more than 200 pieces of music. Some of his most famous works include:

• The Time Curve Preludes: These are 24 short pieces for the piano.
• Southern Harmony: This work has 20 pieces for an eight-part choir. It uses ideas from old American shape note singing and minimalism.

Other pieces he wrote include Mysterious Numbers for a small orchestra, and Imaginary Dances for solo piano. The Time Curve Preludes were recorded by Bruce Brubaker in 2009. They were also recorded by R. Andrew Lee in 2011. In the last months of his life, Duckworth finished a piano concerto for Brubaker.

Teaching Career

Duckworth was a professor and former head of the Music Department at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. A magazine called Rolling Stone described him in 1992 as a "hip, bright, innovative teacher." He taught Martin Rubeo, who later started the rock band Gramsci Melodic, when Rubeo was a student at Bucknell.

Internet Projects

Much of Duckworth's later music was created and performed as part of a project called 'Cathedral'.

• What is Cathedral? It was started in 1996 and launched in 1997. Cathedral is a big project that combines music and art. It shows five special moments in history:
  • The building of the Great Pyramid in Giza.
  • The building of Chartres Cathedral.
  • The Native American Ghost Dance movement in the 1800s.
  • The explosion of the atomic bomb.
  • The creation of the World Wide Web.

The iPod Opera

More recently, Cathedral was used to share The iPod Opera 2.0: The Myth of Orpheus, the Chronicler and Eurydice. This was a podcast with 26 episodes. You could download them as MP3 audio files or QuickTime video files. The video episodes could be played on many computers, like Apple, Windows, and Linux. The MP3 files could be downloaded and burned onto an audio CD. The podcast was finished in February 2007. This was to celebrate 400 years since the first performance of Monteverdi's opera L'Orfeo.

PitchWeb Instrument

Cathedral also features an instrument called the PitchWeb. This allows anyone with a computer to play along with the Cathedral Band. They play together live over the internet. Duckworth himself played the PitchWeb on a laptop when the band performed live.

Duckworth came up with the idea for Cathedral while talking with his wife, Nora Farrell. She is a software designer who works with music and publishing websites. Farrell worked with Duckworth on Cathedral and parts of it, like "The iPod Opera 2.0." She is also a member of the Cathedral Band. She helps edit the music contributions from other musicians using the PitchWeb.

Duckworth wrote a book in 2005 called Virtual Music: How the Web Got Wired for Sound. One chapter in this book talks about the Cathedral website.