Charlemagne
Palestine (born Charles Martin or Chaim Moshe Tzadik Palestine August
15, 1945, or 1947, in Brooklyn, New York) is an American composer,
performer, and visual artist. Palestine has studied at New York
University, Columbia University, Mannes College of Music, and the
California Institute of the Arts.
A contemporary of Robert Filliou, Philip Glass, Terry Riley, Phill
Niblock and Steve Reich. Palestine wrote intense, ritualistic music in
the 1970s, intended by the composer to rub against Western
audiences’ expectations of what is beautiful and meaningful in
music. A composer-performer originally trained to be a cantor, he
always performed his own works as soloist. His earliest works were
compositions for carillon and electronic drones, and he is perhaps best
known for his intensely performed piano works. He also performs as a
vocalist: in Karenina he sings in the countertenor register and in
other works he sings long tones with gradually shifting vowels and
overtones while moving through the performance space or performing
repeated actions such as throwing himself onto his hands.
Palestine's Strumming Music (1974) remains his best-known work. It
features over 45 minutes of Palestine forcefully playing two notes in
rapid alternation that slowly expand into clusters. He performed this
on a nine-foot Bösendorfer grand piano with the sustain pedal
depressed for the entire length of the work. As the music swells (and
the piano gradually detunes), the overtones build and the listener can
hear a variety of timbres rarely produced by the piano.[1] A recording
of Strumming Music was also Palestine's second vinyl album in the
1970s, reissued on CD in 1991. Since then, several additional
recordings (featuring Palestine on piano, organ, harmonium, and voice)
from the 1970s—including new recordings of more recent works such
as Schlingen-Blängen—have become available.
Palestine's performance style is ritualistic: he generally surrounds
himself (and his piano) with stuffed animals, smokes large numbers of
kretek (Indonesian clove cigarettes), and drinks cognac.
Sendungen im ORF KUNSTRADIO:
20.01.2013: “Art's Birhtday Review"
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