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Beth Anderson is an American neo-romantic composer. She studied with John Cage,
NewMusicJukeBox.org: Beth Anderson
1950 births 20th-century classical composers 21st-century classical composers American women composers Living people Pupils of John Cage American women in electronic music 21st-century American composers Women classical composers 20th-century American women musicians 20th-century American musicians 20th-century American composers 21st-century American women musicians University of California, Davis alumni 20th-century women composers 21st-century women composers {{US-composer-20thC-stub
Beth Anderson is an American neo-romantic composer. She studied with John Cage, Terry Riley
Terrence Mitchell "Terry" Riley (born June 24, 1935) is an American composer and performing musician best known as a pioneer of the minimalist school of composition. Influenced by jazz and Indian classical music, his music became notable for it ...
, Robert Ashley
Robert Reynolds Ashley (March 28, 1930 – March 3, 2014) was an American composer, who was best known for his television operas and other theatrical works, many of which incorporate electronics and extended techniques. His works often involv ...
, and Larry Austin
Larry Don Austin (September 12, 1930 – December 30, 2018) was an American composer noted for his electronic and computer music works. He was a co-founder and editor of the avant-garde music periodical '' Source: Music of the Avant Garde''. Aus ...
, among others. She studied at the University of Kentucky, UC Davis, New York University and Mills College
Mills College at Northeastern University is a private college in Oakland, California and part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was r ...
.
Anderson is best known in her field for her swales, a musical form she invented based on collages and samples of newly composed music rather than existing music. She told a reporter for ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' in 1995 she named the form based on this definition of the word: "A swale is a meadow or marsh where a lot of wild things go together."
Biography
Early life
Anderson was born in Lexington,Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virgini ...
in 1950 and grew up in Mt. Sterling, Kentucky. Her parents, Marjorie and Sidney Anderson, encouraged her to pursue music. She began playing the piano as a child and began composing shortly after. At age 14 she began studying piano with composer Helen Libscomb. Liscomb taught Anderson the rules of counterpoint, enabling her to compose simplistic traditional music. During her last two years of high school she began to compose serial music, learning from books on the topic.
Education
Anderson attended the University of Kentucky after graduating from high school. After two years there she transferred to the University of California at Davis. After completing her undergraduate degree she received her Master of Fine Arts Degree in Piano Performance. Shortly before completing that degree, her piece ''Peachy Keen-O'' was performed at Mills College.Bob Ashley
Robert G. Ashley (born July 4, 1953, Charleston, West Virginia) is an American politician from West Virginia. A Republican, Ashley served in the West Virginia Senate for the 3rd district between 2015 and 2017. He was previously a member of th ...
, director of the Mills College Center for Contemporary Music, upon hearing the performance, urged her to stay there and study. She completed her M.A. in Composition there.
Later life
In California, Anderson became known as one of the prominent "avant-garde feminist composers, critics, and poets." She married the computer book authorElliotte Rusty Harold
Elliotte Rusty Harold (born ca. 1960) is an American computer scientist, lecturer and author of several books on Java and XML and the creator of XOM, an open source Java class library for processing XML
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a mar ...
on July 28, 1995, one year after they met at a potluck dinner held by the New York Macintosh Users Group. A 1995 ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' feature story on Harold's wedding called her both old-fashioned and conventional and observed, "She giggles often, as lightly as wind chimes. And yet she listens to the band Megadeth
Megadeth is an American thrash metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1983 by vocalist/guitarist Dave Mustaine. Known for their technically complex guitar work and musicianship, Megadeth is one of the "big four" of American thrash metal along wi ...
when cleaning her apartment."
Discography
* ''Feminae in Musica'' ( Feminae Records, 2007) ** ''Tale One'' ** ''Tale Three'' ** ''Belgian Tango'' *** Performed by: Aleksandra Maslovaric (violin), Tania Fleischer (piano)References
External links
*Listening
NewMusicJukeBox.org: Beth Anderson
1950 births 20th-century classical composers 21st-century classical composers American women composers Living people Pupils of John Cage American women in electronic music 21st-century American composers Women classical composers 20th-century American women musicians 20th-century American musicians 20th-century American composers 21st-century American women musicians University of California, Davis alumni 20th-century women composers 21st-century women composers {{US-composer-20thC-stub