Mikel Rouse (born Michael Rouse; January 26, 1957) is an American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

. He has been associated with a

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

movement known as totalism, and is best known for his

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

s, including ''Dennis Cleveland'', about a television talk show host, which Rouse wrote and starred in.

Early life, family and education

Rouse was born in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

, US, the son of a Missouri state trooper. He was raised in

Poplar Bluff, Missouri Poplar Bluff is a city in Butler County, Missouri, Butler County in southeastern Missouri, United States. It is the county seat of Butler County and is known as "The Gateway to the Ozarks" among other names. The population was 16,225 at the 2020 ...

, in the state's Bootheel region. Early in his life, he decided to change the spelling of his first name to "Mikel," to more accurately represent the name's pronunciation. He studied painting and film at the

Kansas City Art Institute The Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) is a private art school in Kansas City, Missouri. The college was founded in 1885 and is an accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design and Higher Learning Commission. The institute ...

as well as music at the

University of Missouri–Kansas City The University of Missouri–Kansas City (UMKC or Kansas City) is a Public university, public research university in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. UMKC is part of the University of Missouri System and has a UMKC School of Medicine, medic ...

Music

When the avant-garde rock band

Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American Rock music, rock band formed in New York City in 1975.Talking Heads

played in

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

, in 1978, Rouse's band Tirez Tirez was the only local band progressive enough to open for them. Tirez Tirez relocated to

in 1979 and continued performing until 1987. Meanwhile, Rouse absorbed African rhythmic techniques from

A. M. Jones Arthur Morris Jones (1889–1980), was an English missionary and musicologist who worked in Zambia during the early 20th century. Jones became a priest in 1923 and served as a curate in Kent before travelling to Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) in ...

's ''Studies in African Music'', and studied Schillinger technique with Jerome Walman, one of the few Certified Schillinger Teachers in America; both influences came to inform his music. In addition to Tirez Tirez he formed a new ensemble, Mikel Rouse Broken Consort, to work out his new rhythmic language in the context of rock-based instrumentation, making him one of the first composers to notate intricate music for rock group. Rouse's association with

Ben Neill Ben Neill (born November 14, 1957) is an American composer, trumpeter, producer, author, and educator. He is the inventor of the "Mutantrumpet", a hybrid electro-acoustic instrument. Early life, family and education Neill was born in Winston-Sa ...

and

Kyle Gann Kyle Eugene Gann (born November 21, 1955, in Dallas, Texas) is an American composer, professor of music, critic, analyst, and musicologist who has worked primarily in the New York City area. As a music critic for ''The Village Voice'' (from 1986 ...

in the early 1990s led to the recognition of a new rhythmic complexity in

minimalist In visual arts, music, and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in the post-war era in western art. The movement is often interpreted as a reaction to abstract expressionism and modernism; it anticipated contemporary post-mi ...

-based music that came to be referred to as totalism. Rouse writes music that is

idiomatic An idiom (the quality of it being known as idiomaticness or idiomaticity) is a syntactical, grammatical, or phonological structure peculiar to a language that is actually realized, as opposed to possible but unrealized structures that could have ...

ally and stylistically indebted to

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...

, yet he uses complex rhythmic techniques derived from

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 ...

, the avant-garde and

minimalism In visual arts, music, and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in the post-war era in western art. The movement is often interpreted as a reaction to abstract expressionism and modernism; it anticipated contemporary post-mi ...

, including a technique he calls " counterpoetry" in which separate lines of a song sung by separate characters or groups are set to phrases of differing lengths (such as 9 and 10 beats) and often played over a background time signature of 4/4. Metric sleight of hand, simple in concept but often complex in perception, is common. One of the basic rhythms of Rouse's

'' Failing Kansas'' is a five-beat

isorhythm Isorhythm (from the Greek for "the same rhythm") is a musical technique using a repeating rhythmic pattern, called a ''talea'', in at least one voice part throughout a composition. ''Taleae'' are typically applied to one or more melodic patterns o ...

(rhythmic

ostinato In music, an ostinato (; derived from the Italian word for ''stubborn'', compare English ''obstinate'') is a motif or phrase that persistently repeats in the same musical voice, frequently in the same pitch. Well-known ostinato-based pieces inc ...

) against which either the harmony or drum pattern often reinforces the four- or eight-beat meter. Frustrated by the lack of institutional support for

Downtown music Downtown music is a subdivision of American music, closely related to experimental music, which developed in downtown Manhattan in the 1960s. History The scene the term describes began in 1960, when Yoko Ono, one of the early Fluxus artists, o ...

, Rouse has made an ambitious bid for composer self-sufficiency. In 1995 he premiered a one-man "

" ''Failing Kansas'', based on the same story as

Truman Capote Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics ...

's ''

In Cold Blood ''In Cold Blood'' is a non-fiction novel by the American author Truman Capote, first published in 1966. It details the 1959 Clutter family murders in the small farming community of Holcomb, Kansas. Capote learned of the quadruple murder bef ...

'', and in 2000 he produced an entire film with music by himself, rather pointedly titled ''Funding''. In an opposite direction, he premiered a technologically innovative opera, ''Dennis Cleveland'', at The Kitchen in 1996. It is based on a

talk show A talk show is a television programming, radio programming or podcast genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show', pp.3-4Erler, Robert (201 ...

format and with some of the singers/actors spread out among the audience, though with a dense libretto drawn from

John Ralston Saul John Ralston Saul (born June 19, 1947) is a Canadian writer, political philosopher, and public intellectual. Saul is most widely known for his writings on the nature of individualism, citizenship and the public good; the failures of manager-l ...

's critique of Western society in the latter's book '' Voltaire's Bastards''. In 2002, the opera was performed at

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 ...

. He collaborated with Ben Neill on ''The Demo'', based on "

The Mother of All Demos "The Mother of All Demos" was a landmark computer demonstration, named retroactively, of developments by Stanford Research Institute's Augmentation Research Center. It was presented at the Association for Computing Machinery / Institute of Ele ...

", a technological demonstration of 1968. It was performed in 2015 at the Bing Concert Hall of

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. He received a

Foundation for Contemporary Arts The Foundation for Contemporary Arts (FCA), is a nonprofit based foundation in New York City that offers financial support and recognition to contemporary performing and visual artists through awards for artistic innovation and potential. It was ...

Grants to Artists award in 2001.

Discography

* 1980 ''Etudes'' * 1983 ''Story of the Year'' * 1983 ''Under The Door/Sleep'' * 1984 ''Jade Tiger'' * 1984 ''Colorado Suite'' * 1984 ''Quorum'' * 1985 ''A Walk in the Woods'' * 1986 ''Set The Timer/Uptight'' * 1986 ''Social Responsibility'' * 1988 ''A

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the 16th president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincoln (na ...

Portrait'' * 1988 ''Against All Flags'' * 1993 ''Soul Menu'' * 1994 ''Autorequiem'' * 1994 ''Living Inside Design'' * 1995 ''Failing Kansas'' * 1996 ''Dennis Cleveland: An Opera'' * 1999 ''Return'' * 2000 ''Century XXI: Electronics USA 1'', with

Carl Stone Carl Stone (born Carl Joseph Stone, February 10, 1953) is an American composer, primarily working in the field of live electronic music. His works have been performed in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia, South America, and the ...

* 2001 ''Funding'' * 2001 ''Cameraworld'' * 2005 ''The End of Cinematics'' * 2005 ''Music for Minorities'' * 2005 ''Test Tones'' * 2006 ''House of Fans'' * 2006 ''Love At Twenty'' * 2006 ''International Cloud Atlas'', for the

Merce Cunningham Dance Company Mercier Philip "Merce" Cunningham (April 16, 1919 – July 26, 2009) was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of American modern dance for more than 50 years. He frequently collaborated with artists of other discipl ...

* 2009 ''Gravity Radio'' * 2010 ''Recess'' * 2010 ''Corner Loading (vol.1)'' * 2012 ''Boost, False Doors'' * 2012 ''False Doors, Boost'' * 2013 ''Ambulance Chaser'' * 2013 ''The Law of Average'' * 2013 ''Mayan Yours/I Dry Gin'' * 2013 ''Dawn/Tears of Joy'' * 2016 ''Take Down'' * 2017 ''Hemisphere'' * 2019 ''Swingers Castle'' * 2020 ''Community Spread''

References

External links

Official website

Listening