John Holland (composer)


John Holland is an American composer, author, performer, and recording artist. He is Professor Emeritus in the Studio for Interrelated Media at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston. Holland headed the Electronic Music Studio and taught music and performance classes before he retired from teaching in 2009.

Background

John Holland grew up in midwest Ohio where he was surrounded by music and athletics. In the 1950s he was a boy soprano, soloing regularly in church and on television. His father Kenneth was a well-known conductor and composer, and a famed basketball star in high school and college. Before retiring from teaching in 2010, his brother David, a Big Ten quarterback at Indiana University in the 1960s, taught viola at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan and was conductor of the Traverse City Symphony Orchestra. Holland's sister, Marla Rathbun, is a professional violinist specializing in contemporary music.
Growing up, American conductor Dennis Russell Davies, a contemporary and friend of Holland, conductor of the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and principal conductor of the music of Philip Glass, was a regular at the Holland house, studying music theory with Holland's father, and playing chamber music. In the early 1960s, Holland befriended Joseph Kossuth, also a Toledo native, one of the pioneers of American conceptual art.
Holland's artistic influences include Charles Ives, Elliott Carter, John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen; music, literature, science, art.

Music

Holland has produced a variety of acoustic, digital, and electronic music. Holland has composed electronic music since the 1970s. Some of the music is referred to today as ‘mixups’, often mixing unlikely musical elements. The popularity of some of these ‘mixups’ is due to their reflection of current world issues in which people are still learning to live together with differing cultures.
Holland's music has been performed largely in Boston and New York City. He has produced a number of recordings, and has published music scores for most solo instruments, chamber music, songs, music for orchestra, concertos, operas.
For a number of years Holland has produced a ‘live’ music series in Boston, New Music at the Pozen Center, that mixes contemporary and electronic music with innovative performative features. In addition he is founder and producer of The Chocolate Ear online music series.
Holland has produced many online recordings, including Symbiotica - A Cross-Cultural Mixup Vols. 1 and 2., The Continents, Listen, and The Musical Landscape. The Adam and Eve Diaries, A Web Opera based on Mark Twain's The Diaries of Adam and Eve is perhaps the first opera of its kind to be composed for the Web.
In many of these recordings, there are original complementary texts that precede various musical pieces and that were intended to be read aloud in a ‘live’ setting. The texts complement the music in ways that may change the way we hear the music.
In 1997 Holland produced the first comprehensive full color poster-size Acoustic Wave Spectrum. It was later presented at the MIT Media Lab and in 2007 producer and composer DJ Spooky attached it to his audio CD companion to Sound Unbound.
John Schaefer, host of New Sounds on WNYC Radio in New York cited Holland's Natural Phenomena as “one of the notable CD’s of 2005.”Richard Perry, music critic, writes “Mr. Holland’s music has a compelling, insistent fascination…” Tia Kimberk says “John Holland’s music is often based on extra-musical ideas related to science and nature. Listening to the music informs us about ourselves and our larger context in the world.” In 1982 Holland was interviewed on National Public Radio for his recording of Music for a Small Planet in Three Parts.
The composer's scores and texts are published by American Sound Press.
All of Holland's online music recordings and writing projects are free, and whenever possible presented without advertisement. Many scores are freely downloadable.
Website:

Integer music

In the 1970s Holland developed a compositional technique known as 'Integer Music' that features integer groups in which an integer represents a group of musical tones, each operating independently of other groups. The integer groups generally range from 1 thru 26 tones, which conveniently correlates with the English alphabet, making it possible to construct musical scores that are based on specific non-musical ideas. The player is asked to provide specific tones within each group, while the composer creates the form and structure of the work, typically supplying remarks as to how each group is to be expressed. Many of the composer's scores, including music for solo instruments, chamber music, and music for voice, involve the use of integer notation.
In much of his piano music, integer notation is combined with fragments of standard notation, creating a mix of complexity and order, a theme found throughout Holland's music. There is also music with standard notation that explores the theoretical aspects of the western musical scale, such as Mapping the Musical Genome, and String Quartet No. 4.

Organizations

Holland founded the in 1974, which was in residence at Massachusetts College of Art and Design from 1975 to 1985. In 1986 he founded and directed the Text-Sound Chorus in Boston.
In the early 1980s Holland co-founded , an artists group that met weekly to discuss ideas in art and science. The group has presented work at the MIT Media Lab, the Harvard Smithsonian Observatory, Habitat Institute, Copley Society of Art, and Axiom Gallery. He also taught a class for three decades that introduced artists to leading-edge ideas in science.

Works

Online recordings

The online recordings are freely available to libraries on audio CD's with liner notes linked to the online sites.
Holland has created performance texts designed to be read aloud, including Phenomena: Simple Descriptions of Complex Phenomena, Complete Short Texts for Speaking Voice, Strategies for Survival, and Facts of Life, all of which contain subjects related to nature, science and art.
Writings, including The Chicken and the Egg - A Collection of writings on Nature, Science, and Art, Curious: An Introduction to Big Ideas in Nature, Science, and Art, If A Tree Falls In The Forest: Simple Descriptions of Complex Phenomena, Quantum Wave Theory: A Model of Unity in Nature, and Ten By Ten: Artificial Intelligence Models Accompanied by True or False Statements have been designed specifically as online artworks.
ASR = American Sound Recordings''

Catalog of scores

standard notation
includes optional signal processing
PIANO SOLO
PIANO AND ELECTRONIC MUSIC
PIANO SOLO
PIANO SOLO WITH SIGNAL PROCESSING
PIANO WITH ELECTRONIC MUSIC
PIANO SOLO WITH THEATRICS
PIANO SOLO WITH PROJECTIONS
TWO OR MORE KEYBOARDS

SOLO VIOLIN
VIOLIN AND PIANO
VIOLIN AND ELECTRONIC MUSIC
ELECTRIC VIOLIN AND KEYBOARD SYNTHESIZER
SOLO VIOLA
VIOLA AND PIANO
ELECTRIC VIOLA AND KEYBOARD SYNTHESIZER
MIDI VIOLA AND KEYBOARD SYNTHESIZER
SOLO CELLO
ELECTRIC CELLO AND KEYBOARD SYNTHESIZER
CELLO AND PIANO
DOUBLE BASS AND PIANO
SOLO FLUTE
FLUTE AND PIANO
ELECTRIC FLUTE AND KEYBOARD SYNTHESIZER
SOLO OBOE
OBOE AND PIANO
SOLO CLARINET
CLARINET AND PIANO
SOLO FRENCH HORN

SOLO BASSOON
SOLO TRUMPET
SOLO TROMBONE
SOLO TUBA
SOLO HARP
VOICE AND PIANO
VOICE AND ELECTRONICS
PERCUSSION

UNSPECIFIED INSTRUMENT
SMALL ENSEMBLE
CHAMBER MUSIC
STRING TRIO
STRING QUARTETS
SPEAKING VOICE AND PIANO
SPEAKING VOICE AND VIOLIN
SPEAKING VOICE AND ELECTRONICS
SPEAKING VOICE AND COMPLEMENTARY MUSIC
CHORAL MUSIC
ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
CONCERTOS
OPERAS
TEXTS FOR SOLO SPEAKING VOICE
TEXTS FOR MULTIPLE SPEAKING VOICES
Published books include: The Nature of Music for the Performing Musician, Time, Sound Waves and Their Properties in the Surrounding Media, Studies on the Human Ear, and a book that explores the perception of music, The Musical Brain. The last three books form an online trilogy: The Path of Sound.