Harold Budd Dead at Age 84: Celebrate the composer surrounding Eno Collabs
Harold Bode, a famous composer known for his simple works and collaborations with Brian Eno, passed away on Tuesday. He was 84 years old. Steve Takaki, director of the iPod company, confirmed his death, adding that the cause of death was complications due to the Corona virus.
“There’s a lot to digest,” says Robin Guthrie, Cocteau Twins’ frontman and buddy’s longtime collaborator. Books on Facebook. “We have shared a lot with Harold since we were little, since he was sick, we have shared a lot with Harold over the past 35 years. Feeling empty, lost, unprepared for it … his last words to me were” Goodbye Amigo “… it was always … he left a very big hole in the shape of “Harold’s friend” no matter which direction we’re headed. “
Bud began his musical career as a drummer, and his early music education included a music theory course at Los Angeles Community College, playing drums in a military band, and eventually studying under the auspices of Schoenberg Gerald Strange in Cal State Northridge. Bio on their website. An early achievement was Bode’s orchestral piece, “Rothko” (named after and inspired by painter Mark Rothko), and Bud soon became part of an influential group of composers that also included Terry Riley, John Cage and Morton Feldman.
Like many of his peers, Bode was interested in “more contemplative forms of music,” and some of his works from the late 1960s included visual artistic elements, such as 1969’s “Magnus Colorado”, in which instructions called for a “very light color” to flood the performance area. Ultimately, the Buddhas began to focus on minimalism, but instead of focusing on “model music” like Steve Reich, he found inspiration in medieval and Renaissance music.
“When I took a break from the avant-garde in 1970, psychologically and aesthetically, I pretty much rejected everything I had done up to then, but I didn’t quite know which direction to take,” Bode recalls. “But as soon as I caught my interest in old music, I found a new direction, in which I intentionally tried to create music so sweet, beautiful and ornate that it would disturb and positively evoke the avant-garde, whose ugly sounds were now neo-orthodox. It’s hard to imagine now, the beauty of my music was a political statement. To a large extent at that time. “
To make the transformation, Bode began teaching himself the piano – an instrument he had long avoided, rejecting the notion that all composers needed to be keyboardists – and he ended up developing a highly influential style of “soft pedal” playing. His “Madrigals of the Rose Angel” (1972) caught the attention of Brian Eno, who went on to produce the beginnings of the iPod in 1978. Dream Suite. Budd and Eno would work together frequently over the next decade, and collaborate in the 1980s Ocean 2: Mirror Plateaus, 1984 The pearl And 1988 White corridors.
Another notable Bode collaboration came during the 1980s after he moved to England and linked him to Cocteau Twins. They released a collaborative album, Moon and melodies, In 1986, while Budd and Guthrie worked together on several projects during the first decade of the 21st century.
The Buddhas continued to work regularly as a solo artist and propelled himself with a variety of unique collaborations. Collaboration with 1994’s XTC’s Andy Partridge Across the hillHector Zazou, French techno rock producer in 1995 My graphics Punk / New Wave pioneer Jah Wobble in a 2002 live performance Solaris. In 2003, iPad was released Beautiful view, A compilation of piano compositions surreptitiously recorded by U2 producer Daniel Lanua. After a brief “retirement” in the early 2000s, iPod quickly returned to music and launched a host of projects. Only this year he composed music for the HBO series, I know that’s true so farAnd she released another album with Guthrie, Another flower.
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