Colin Carhart McPhee (March 15, 1900 – January 7, 1964) was a Canadian-American composer and

ethnomusicologist Ethnomusicology is the multidisciplinary study of music in its cultural context. The discipline investigates social, cognitive, biological, comparative, and other dimensions. Ethnomusicologists study music as a reflection of culture and investiga ...

. He is best known for being the first Western composer to make a musicological study of

Bali Bali (English:; Balinese language, Balinese: ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller o ...

, and to develop American gamelan along with fellow composer

Lou Harrison Lou Silver Harrison (May 14, 1917 – February 2, 2003) was an American composer, music critic, music theorist, painter, and creator of unique musical instruments. Harrison initially wrote in a dissonant, ultramodernist style similar to his for ...

. He wrote original music influenced by that of Bali and

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

, decades before compositions based on

world music "World music" is an English phrase for styles of music from non-English speaking countries, including quasi-traditional, Cross-cultural communication, intercultural, and traditional music. World music's broad nature and elasticity as a musical ...

became widespread.

Early life and career

Childhood

McPhee was born on March 15, 1900, in

Montréal, Québec Montreal is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest in Canada, and the ninth-largest in North America. It was founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", and is now named after Mount Royal, the triple-peak ...

, Canada, to a family of mostly Scottish and German ancestry. His father, Alexander McPhee, was an advertising executive for

Bell Telephone Company The Bell Telephone Company was the initial corporate entity from which the Bell System originated to build a continental conglomerate and monopoly in telecommunication services in the United States and Canada. The company was organized in Bost ...

. His mother, Lavinia McPhee (''née'' Carhart) was originally from New Jersey and settled in Montréal after marrying Alexander.

First musical education

In 1918 he enrolled in the

Peabody Institute The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University is a Private university, private music and dance music school, conservatory and College-preparatory school, preparatory school in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1857, it became affiliat ...

at the

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

, studying composition with Gustav Strube and piano with Harold Randolph; subsequently he studied with the avant-garde composer

Edgard Varèse Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse (; also spelled Edgar; December 22, 1883 – November 6, 1965) was a French and American composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States. Varèse's music emphasizes timbre and rhythm; h ...

before marrying Jane Belo, a disciple of

Margaret Mead Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist, author and speaker, who appeared frequently in the mass media during the 1960s and the 1970s. She earned her bachelor's degree at Barnard Col ...

, in 1931.

Career

McPhee joined the circle of experimental composers known as the "ultra-modernists" and was among those—along with the group's leader,

Henry Cowell Henry Dixon Cowell (; March 11, 1897 – December 10, 1965) was an American composer, writer, pianist, publisher, teacher Marchioni, Tonimarie (2012)"Henry Cowell: A Life Stranger Than Fiction" ''The Juilliard Journal''. Retrieved 19 June 2022.C ...

, John J. Becker, and Cowell protégé

—particularly interested in what would later become known as "world music". McPhee and his wife moved to Bali together for Belo's anthropological work. Once there McPhee studied, filmed and wrote extensively about the culture and music of the

gamelan Gamelan (; ; , ; ) is the traditional musical ensemble, ensemble music of the Javanese people, Javanese, Sundanese people, Sundanese, and Balinese people, Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussion instrument, per ...

s, and in 1936 wrote an original musical score, ''Tabuh Tabuhan'', in the Balinese style. McPhee, who was gay, divorced Belo in 1939. In the early 1940s he lived in a large brownstone in Brooklyn, which he shared with

W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry is noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in tone, ...

and

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, o ...

, among others. In 1942, he arranged Britten's ''

Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge ''Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge'', Opus number, Op. 10, is a work for string orchestra by Benjamin Britten. It was written in 1937 at the request of Boyd Neel, who conducted his orchestra at the premiere of the work at that year's Salzbu ...

'', a work for string orchestra, for two pianos, to be used for

Lew Christensen Lewellyn Farr Christensen (May 6, 1909 – October 9, 1984) was a ballet dancer, choreographer and director for many companies. He was largely associated with George Balanchine and the San Francisco Ballet, which he directed from 1952–1984. O ...

's ballet ''Jinx''. McPhee was responsible for introducing Britten to the Balinese music that influenced such works by the British composer as ''The Prince of the Pagodas'', '' Curlew River'', and ''

Death in Venice ''Death in Venice ''() is a novella by German author Thomas Mann, published in 1912. It presents an ennobled writer who visits Venice and is liberated, uplifted, and then increasingly obsessed by the sight of a boy in a family of Polish tourist ...

''. In 1947, McPhee published a book ''A House in Bali'', about Balinese culture and music during the 1930s."The Best Travel Books About Bali"
''National Geographic'', February 24, 2016, By Don George Later in the decade, McPhee fell into an alcohol-fueled depression, but began to write music again during the 1950s. He became professor of ethnomusicology at UCLA in 1958 and was also a respected jazz

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as Art criticism, art, Literary criticism, literature, Music journalism, music, Film criticism, cinema, Theater criticism, theater, Fas ...

. He died in Los Angeles. In the 1990s, Alex Pauk's Esprit Orchestra recorded and released renditions of several never previously recorded compositions by McPhee. This resulted in McPhee receiving posthumous

Juno Award The Juno Awards (stylized as JUNOS), or simply known as the Junos, are awards presented by Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding achievements in Canada's mu ...

nominations for Best Classical Composition for "Symphony No. 2" at the Juno Awards of 1998 and "Concerto for Wind Orchestra" at the Juno Awards of 1999. He won the award in 1999. American composer Evan Ziporyn wrote an opera about McPhee's life, titled ''A House in Bali''. The opera premiered at Puri Saraswati in

Ubud Ubud () is a town in the Gianyar Regency of Bali, Indonesia. Ubud has no status, that is part of the eponymous Ubud District of Gianyar. Promoted as an arts and culture centre, Ubud has developed a large tourism industry. It forms a northern p ...

, Bali, on June 26 and 27, 2009. In 2017, an album ''Peter Pears: Balinese Ceremonial Music'', performed Thomas Bartlett & Nico Muhly and partly based on McPhee's transcriptions, was released on the Nonesuch/Warners label.

Published works

McPhee's ''A House in Bali'', the chronicle of his life there, is still considered a valuable introduction to Balinese culture. His posthumously published ''Music in Bali'' was the first comprehensive analysis of Balinese music published in English. His best-known musical work is ''Tabuh-Tabuhan: Toccata for Orchestra,'' composed and premiered in Mexico in 1936. Its title translates as "collection of percussion instruments", and it combines Balinese and traditional Western musical elements. It is scored for Western orchestra but, in McPhee's description, the core of the ensemble is a "'nuclear gamelan' composed of two pianos,

celesta The celesta () or celeste (), also called a bell-piano, is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard. It looks similar to an upright piano (four- or five-octave), albeit with smaller keys and a much smaller cabinet, or a large wooden music ...

, xylophone,

marimba The marimba ( ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the mari ...

, and

glockenspiel The glockenspiel ( ; or , : bells and : play) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a Musical keyboard, keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the v ...

," giving it a percussive balance of sound. The orchestra is augmented by two Balinese gongs and cymbals. The work is in three movements: "Ostinatos," a flute-related "Nocturne," and a syncopated "Finale." Some of the themes in it derive from Balinese folk sources. In 2013, the piece was choreographed and performed by the American Ballet Theater Company."American Ballet Theater's 'Sylphides' and 'Gong'"
''The New York Times'' - November 3, 2013, Allistair Macaulay * ''Angkloeng gamelans in Bali''. (1937?) * ''Balinese wajang koelit and its music''. (1936?, 1981) * ''Children and music in Bali''. (1938) Publisher: Overdruk Uit Djawa * ''A House in Bali''. (1944) Publisher: The Asia Press with The John Day Company, New York * ''Transitions for orchestra''. (1954) * ''Music in Bali: a study in form and instrumental organization in Balinese orchestral music''. (1966, 1976) * ''A House in Bali''. (1980) (introduction by

James Murdoch James Rupert Jacob Murdoch (born 13 December 1972) is an American - British businessman. He is the younger son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the former chief executive officer (CEO) of 21st Century Fox from 2015 to 2019. He was the chairma ...

) * ''Club of small men : a children's tale from Bali''. (2002)

Films

* 1985: ''Colin McPhee: The Lure of Asian Music'' (dir. Michael Blackwood)

References

External links

UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive: Finding Aid for the Colin McPhee Collection 1930-1964

Colin McPhee's entry in the ''Canadian Encyclopedia''
* Larry Polansky. Ethnomusicology

Listening

Portrait of Composer Colin McPhee by Charles Amirkhanian (November 5, 1980)

Colin McPhee: the Lure of Asian Music
- a clip from the documentary offering a brief gamelan concert followed by an excerpt of a piece by Colin McPhee. {{DEFAULTSORT:McPhee, Colin 1900 births 1964 deaths 20th-century American composers 20th-century American educators 20th-century American essayists 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century American pianists 20th-century Canadian LGBTQ people 20th-century Canadian male musicians 20th-century Canadian classical composers 20th-century Canadian classical pianists 20th-century Canadian musicologists American avant-garde musicians American gay musicians American gay writers American LGBTQ composers Canadian ethnomusicologists Canadian gay musicians Canadian gay writers Canadian LGBTQ composers Canadian male classical composers Canadian people of English descent Canadian people of German descent Canadian people of Scottish descent Experimental composers Gamelan Gay composers Jazz writers Juno Award for Classical Composition of the Year winners LGBTQ classical composers Modernist composers Music & Arts artists Music theorists Musicians from Montreal University of California, Los Angeles faculty