Michael Boyd is a composer, scholar, and experimental improviser who holds graduate degrees from the University of Maryland (DMA, composition) and the State University of New York at Stony Brook (MA, theory and history) where he studied composition with Thomas DeLio, Dan Weymouth, Peter Winkler and Lawrence Moss, and theory/musicology with DeLio, Richard King, Judy Lochhead, Joseph Auner, and others. This fall Boyd will begin teaching at Chatham University as an assistant professor of composition, music theory, and history.
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Compositionally, Michael Boyd is primarily concerned with (re)integrating performer creativity into the music making process through graphic scores that facilitate a rethinking of performance possibilities. See below for descriptions and samples of recent compositions.
Current composition projects: a series of shorter pieces for performers using everyday, found objects; an indeterminate piece for an electronic/computer studio performer whose performance creates a tape work/audible artifact; and another large-scale installation or perhaps environmental work for performers. Recent performances of compositions: SCI Region II/Long Island Composers Alliance Festival (Queens NY, 11/07); Electronic Music Midwest (Kansas City KS, 10/07); American Composers Forum New Music Salon (Washington DC, 7/07); Artomatic (Crystal City VA, 5/07); Art Enables Benefit Concert (Washington DC, 5/07); University of Maryland Baltimore County (Baltimore MD, 4/07); SEAMUS National Conference (Ames IA, 3/07); Towson University Faculty Recital (Towson MD, 2/07); SCI Region VI Conference (Warrensburg MO, 2/07) As a scholar he primarily works with recent composers such as Roger Reynolds and Luigi Nono, and popular music analysis and criticism. Boyd helped organize Reynolds's archive at the Library of Congress, and recently presented papers at the Region VII Society for Composers Inc. Conference (2006) and Society for American Music/Music Library Assoc. Joint Conference (2007) that analyze The Palace (Voicespace IV) and discuss the archive. "The Roger Reynolds Collection at the Library of Congress," an article that provides an overview of the collection as it relates to Reynolds's composition process, will appear in Notes next year. Boyd has published reviews in American Music (forthcoming), Computer Music Journal and Popular Music and Society, and his essay "Perception/Form: Thomas DeLio's Though for solo piano" will appear as a chapter in the forthcoming book (Spring 2008) from Mellen Press Thomas DeLio: Composer and Scholar (ed. T. Licata). Boyd periodically performs with The Bay Players, a collective of experimental composers, performers, and scholars dedicated to boundary-pushing music created during the second half of the twentieth-century and beyond - in this ensemble, he plays trombone, electric bass, computer, and found objects. The Bay Players have become very active in the Washington DC/Baltimore area during the past year, and are currently planning performances for the late spring 2008. |
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All of Michael Boyd's compositions are (or will be) published by Silent Editions.
Contact Michael Boyd at mboyd50@gmail.com Photo by Lisa Boyd |
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Compositions | |||
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Hand Leg Suit |
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| Hand Leg Suit.mp3 - excerpt | |||
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Hand Leg Suit (2003) for mixed instrumental ensemble reflects this approach; Hi Red Center performs the version you can hear here. In this piece, players are provided with two general types of information that they interpret and amalgamate to generate the performance: simple graphic images, and charts that list actions, parts of the body, and parts of the instrument. Though each performer generally presents these interpretations without specific consideration for other members of the ensemble, the group periodically coordinates through the repetition of specific segments of the score. Ultimately, the players are required to continually rethink how their instrument and body are used in performance, creatively producing material that both represents their individuality and at times generates a unique sense of ensemble. This recording features Russell Greenberg, Ben Lanz, Lawrence Mesich, and Mike McCurdy | |||
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Becoming...everything else |
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| Becoming...everything else.pdf - excerpt | |||
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I am interested in the possibility to taking performance outside of traditional venues and integrating it into public spaces and life. Becoming...everything else (2004) is a performance installation I created for three or more performers from any discipline. In this work, sights, sounds and actions encountered randomly throughout a building in the course of a day, week, month, etc. trigger creative responses from the performers that are be heard and seen throughout the halls, stairwells, and other public spaces of the building. I created a blog to document performances of this piece by posting commentary, photos, and video from performers and "audience members." I have given talks about this composition at the Extensible Toy Piano Project, the 2006 McGill Music Graduate Student Symposium, and the 2007 SCI Region VI Conference. In March 2006 I also collaborated as performer and sound artist with three dancers on Bathroom 1900, a site specific multimedia piece in the University of Maryland Department of Dance. | |||
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Bit of nostalgia... |
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| Bit of nostalgia....mp3 - complete | |||
| Bit of nostalgia....pdf - excerpt | |||
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This piece investigates the ways that objects with which performers interact (instruments) shape their actions. The percussionists take an active role in designing the stage set-up for each performance by utilizing various combinations of instrument-types (listed in the piece’s instructions including objects made of metal, wood, glass, paper, plastic, and stone) in different sectors of the performance space. Each group of instruments also contains three of eighteen relatively similar graphic score pages. The score page similarities require that performers frequently reinterpret some visual materials with greatly varying groups of instruments (and objects). While the performance proceeds, another performer interprets the same score using Cycling 74’s MAX/MSP (software that accomplishes real-time sound synthesis and processing) to process and playback sound segments from recordings of previous rehearsals and/or performances. The percussionists directly respond to these sounds as well as each other while interpreting certain pages of the score. These interactions bring a sense of self-history into the piece and create an interesting notion of depth which reflects a broader perspective of what constitutes a “work” by actively incorporating previous rehearsals and performances into the fundamental structure of the composition. This recording features Michael Lipsey (perucssion) and Michael Boyd (computer). | |||
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isolation/feedback |
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| isolation/feedback.pdf - complete | |||
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In isolation/feedback, the string quartet is conceived of as a network in which information is passed from one player (node) to the next in dynamic patterns and shifts in these patterns define sections of the composition. The string quartet is an ideal ensemble to employ for such a composition because its instruments are all of basically the same design – thus the listener’s attention is more likely to be drawn to the communication and interaction within the ensemble rather than to variations in instrumentation. Contrasting these networks of communication, the ensemble members simultaneously establish their individuality by interpreting dissimilar graphic images and exploring different parts of their instrument and body. | |||
©2005 by Michael Boyd
All Rights Reserved
Michael Boyd is a member of Society of Composers, Inc. SCI is dedicated to the promotion of composition, performance, understanding and dissemination of new and contemporary music.