Corey Dargel (born October 19, 1977, in

McAllen, Texas McAllen is the largest city in Hidalgo County, Texas, United States, and the 22nd-most populous city in Texas. It is located at the southern tip of the state in the Rio Grande Valley, on the Mexico–United States border. The city limits exte ...

) is a composer, lyricist, and singer of electronic art songs that "smartly and impishly blur the boundaries between contemporary classical idioms and pop" .

Career

Formally trained in music composition, Dargel studied with

Pauline Oliveros Pauline Oliveros (May 30, 1932 – November 24, 2016) was an American composer, accordionist and a central figure in the development of post-war experimental and electronic music. She was a founding member of the San Francisco Tape Music Ce ...

John Luther Adams John Luther Adams (born January 23, 1953) is an American composer whose music is inspired by nature, especially the landscapes of Alaska, where he lived from 1978 to 2014. His orchestral work '' Become Ocean'' was awarded the 2014 Pulitzer Prize ...

, and

Brenda Hutchinson __NOTOC__ Brenda Hutchinson is an American composer and sound artist who has developed a body of work based on a perspective about interacting with the public and non-artists through personal, reciprocal engagement with listening and sounding. Hu ...

, and received a B.M. from

Oberlin Oberlin may refer to: ; Places in the United States * Oberlin Township, Decatur County, Kansas ** Oberlin, Kansas, a city in the township * Oberlin, Louisiana, a town * Oberlin, Ohio, a city * Oberlin, Licking County, Ohio, a ghost town * Oberlin, ...

. Dargel writes words and composes music for all of his songs. In his earlier compositions, he accompanied his own voice with a prepared electronic soundtrack. His debut album, ''Less Famous Than You'', released in May 2006 on Use Your Teeth records, is in the singer-songwriter tradition despite incorporation of

totalist Totalism is a style of art music that arose in the 1980s and 1990s as a response to minimalism. It paralleled postminimalism but involved a younger generation of creators, born in the 1950s. This term, invented by writer and composer Kyle Gann, h ...

rhythmic relationships.The next album, ''Other People's Love Songs'', released in 2008 on the contemporary classical label

New Amsterdam Records New Amsterdam Records is a record label in New York City that was formed in 2008 by Judd Greenstein, Sarah Kirkland Snider, and William Brittelle to promote classically trained musicians who fall between traditional genre boundaries. Often abbre ...

, blurs the lines between indie pop and the conceptual and post-minimalist conceits of downtown contemporary classical music. In May 2010, New Amsterdam released a 2-CD set entitled ''Someone Will Take Care of Me'', which combines two song-cycles performed by Dargel with live musicians most usually associated with contemporary classical music performance: On ''Removable Parts'', he is joined by pianist

Kathleen Supové Kathleen Supové is an American pianist specializing in modern classical music. She has premiered the works of dozens of composers on her Exploding Piano series. Her recitals involve recitation, costume, theatrical elements such as lighting, and ...

, and on ''Thirteen Near-Death Experiences'' he is joined by members of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and composer/drummer

David T. Little David T. Little (born October 25, 1978) is a Grammy-nominated American composer, record producer, and drummer known for his operatic, orchestral, and chamber works, most notably his operas ''JFK,'' ''Soldier Songs'', and ''Dog Days'' which was na ...

. The instrumentation for these two cycles clearly references the classical song cycle tradition; the former voice and piano combination is the original instrumentation for 19th century romantic song cycles (e.g.

Franz Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...

's ''

Die schöne Müllerin ' (,"The Fair Maid of the Mill", Op. 25, D. 795), is a song cycle by Franz Schubert from 1823 based on 20 poems by Wilhelm Müller. It is the first of Schubert's two seminal cycles (preceding ''Winterreise'')'','' and a pinnacle of ''Lied'' r ...

'',

Robert Schumann Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...

's ''

Dichterliebe ''Dichterliebe'', "A Poet's Love" (composed 1840), is the best-known song cycle by Robert Schumann ( Op. 48). The texts for the 16 songs come from the ''Lyrisches Intermezzo'' by Heinrich Heine, written in 1822–23 and published as part of Heine' ...

'', etc.), while the latter's small ensemble of flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano was introduced by

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...

for his 1912 song cycle ''

Pierrot Lunaire ''Dreimal sieben Gedichte aus Albert Girauds "Pierrot lunaire"'' ("Three times Seven Poems from Albert Giraud's 'Pierrot lunaire), commonly known simply as ''Pierrot lunaire'', Op. 21 ("Moonstruck Pierrot" or "Pierrot in the Moonlight"), is a m ...

'' and, with or without the addition of a percussionist, has become a ubiquitous ensemble for the performance of 20th and 21st century classical music and has been also used in countless vocal works including

Peter Maxwell Davies Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (8 September 1934 – 14 March 2016) was an English composer and conductor, who in 2004 was made Master of the Queen's Music. As a student at both the University of Manchester and the Royal Manchester College of Mus ...

's ''

Eight Songs for a Mad King ''Eight Songs for a Mad King'' is a monodrama by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies with a libretto by Randolph Stow, based on words of George III. The work was written for the South-African actor Roy Hart and the composer's ensemble, the Pierrot Playe ...

''. Dargel has also performed and recorded music by other composers, including Oliveros,

Eve Beglarian Eve Beglarian (born Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S., July 22, 1958) is a contemporary American composer, performer and audio producer of Armenian descent. Her music is often characterized as postminimalist.Woodard, Josef"A Bird’s Eye, a Wonderer’ ...

, k. terumi shorb,

Phil Kline Phil Kline (born 1953) is an American composer, sound artist, and performer most recognized for his '' Unsilent Night'' (1992) and ''Zippo Songs'' (2004). Beginning as a guitarist and singer in the New York City art punk scene, Kline has since ...

, and Nick Brooke.

Discography

Studio albums

* ''Less Famous Than You'' (Use Your Teeth, 2006) * ''Other People's Love Songs'' (New Amsterdam Records, 2008) * ''Someone Will Take Care of Me'' (New Amsterdam Records, 2010), with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Kathleen Supové and David T. Little * ''Last Words from Texas'' EP (Automatic Heartbreak, 2011) * ''OK It's Not OK'' (New Amsterdam Records, 2015)

Compilations

* ''Unreleased Songs (2001–2011)'' (Automatic Heartbreak, 2011)

References

External links

Corey Dargel's official website

Interview with Culturebot
1977 births 21st-century American composers 21st-century American male musicians 21st-century classical composers 21st-century American LGBT people American classical composers American male classical composers Classical musicians from Texas LGBT classical composers LGBT classical musicians American LGBT musicians Living people Oberlin College alumni Pupils of Pauline Oliveros {{US-composer-20thC-stub