Profile for David Dies
Specialty area(s)
Music composition and theory
21st century music for voice and/or orchestral instruments
Brief biography
Dr. David Dies is a composer and music theorist. As a composer, his most recent major work was an oboe concerto for Adam de Sorgo and ensemblenewSRQ in 2018 which was the ensemble's first commission. He current and immediate future projects include a set of four songs on poetry by the Colombian poet Lucía Estrada, a one-hour song cycle on El Diván del Tamarit by Federico García Lorca for the tenor James Kryshak, and an extended work for mezzo and string quartet for the mezzosoprano Clara Osowksi.
His music has been described as having a "sensitivity to subtle shades of timbre, exploitation of spare textures...and predilection for a certain ceremonial austerity that evokes ancient, remote, or hieratic ritual” (American Record Guide on Dies' 2011 Albany records CD, agevolmente). His music has also been described as “sometimes dissonant, sometimes lyrical, and always hugely inventive” (Wisconsin State Journal on Sketches for String Orchestra).
Dr. Dies's chapter "Defining 'Spiritual Minimalism'" appears in The Ashgate Research Companion to Minimalist and Postminimalist Music and has been cited extensively since publication.
Current courses at UWL
MUS 115: Musical Elements: Language and Systems
MUS 266: Theory of Music I with MUS 268: Aural Skills I
MUS 366: Theory of Music II with MUS 368: Aural Skills II
MUS 367: Theory of Music III with MUS 369: Aural Skills III
MUS 385: Advanced Music Theory
MUS 320: Orchestration and Arranging
Education
D.M.A in Music Composition from the University of Wisconsin–Madison
Doctoral minor in Music Theory
M. Mus. in Music Composition from SUNY–Potsdam, Crane School of Music
B. A. in Music, concentration in composition, from Bemidji State University
Minor in piano
Career
Teaching history
MUS 115 Musical Elements
MUS 266 Theory of Music I
MUS 268 Aural Skills I
MUS 320 Orchestration & Arranging
MUS 364 Music History II
MUS 366 Theory of Music II
MUS 367 Theory of Music III
MUS 368 Aural Skills II
MUS 369 Aural Skills III
Research and publishing
Co-editor and engraver, with Mimmi Fulmer and Bethany Beardslee: Milton Babbitt’s Vision and Prayer: A Critical Edition, incorporating performance notes by Fulmer and Beardslee and theoretical notes by Godfrey Winham. Verona, NJ: Subito Music Corp., 2016.
“Defining Spiritual Minimalism,” in The Ashgate Research Companion to Minimalist and Postminimalist Music, edited by Keith Potter, Kyle Gann, and Pwyll Ap-Sion, 315–336. London: Ashgate Publishing, 2013.
agevolmente: chamber music of David Dies. Featuring performances by Mimmi Fulmer, soprano, Judith Kellock, soprano, Christopher Taylor, piano, Marc Vallon, bassoon, and Jakub Omsky, cello. Albany NY: Albany Records, 2011.
Kudos
served