Ingram Marshall


Ingram Douglass Marshall was an American composer and a onetime student of Vladimir Ussachevsky and Morton Subotnick.

Early life and education

Marshall was born in Mount Vernon, New York. He was the son of Bernice Douglass and Harry Reinhard Marshall, Sr. Marshall's early interest in music was the result of encouragement provided by his mother, herself an accomplished pianist and vocalist. As a youth, he performed as a soprano in the Boy's Choir at the Mt. Vernon Community Church, and during his high school years was influenced early by noted music instructor Victor Laslo. After graduating from the Fox Lane High School in 1960, he pursued musical studies at Lake Forest College and Columbia University, becoming affiliated with the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. In 1970 he became a graduate assistant to Morton Subotnick at Cal Arts, staying on to teach for several years after receiving his MFA in 1971.

Career

Though the composer used the term "expressivist" to describe his music, Marshall's music is often associated with post-minimalism. His music often reflects an interest in world music, particularly Balinese gamelan tradition, as well as influence from the American minimalism trends of the 1960s.
He first gained recognition for his electroacoustic pieces, often performed by the composer himself on synthesizer, tape looping, gambuh, and voice. His acoustic music frequently incorporated tape delay, and later, digital delay. Many of the tape parts of his pieces include the composer's own keening falsetto and gambuh playing. Some of his works were produced in coordination with the assistance of noted Norwegian photographer, James Bengston of Studio Nord in Oslo.
Marshall wrote for the Kronos Quartet: Voces Resonae and Fog Tropes II, featured in the 2010 film Shutter Island, and for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra: Orphic Memories.
He taught at the California Institute of the Arts in the early 1970s, joined the music faculty at The Evergreen State College in the late 1980s, and later moved to New Haven, Connecticut. He taught at the Yale School of Music and the Hartt School, and also held visiting teaching positions at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Brooklyn College. Among his notable students are Timo Andres, Armando Bayolo, Christopher Cerrone, Tyondai Braxton, Jacob Cooper, Adrian Knight, Matt Sargent, and Stephen Gorbos.
Marshall was the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship and studied gamelan music in Bali. In 1990 he was awarded a doctorate of philosophy in music by Lake Forest College, largely in recognition of his Fulbright award and gamelan studies in Bali. In addition to his Fulbright award, he received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Rockefeller Foundation, Fromm Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Music

Chamber works

  • "The Fragility Cycles", electronics, synthesizer, gambuh flute, and voice
  • "Gradual Requiem", electronics, synthesizer, flute, voice, mandolin, and piano
  • Fog Tropes, brass sextet and tape
  • Voces Resonae, string quartet
  • In My End is My Beginning, Piano Quartet in 2 Movements
  • Evensongs, string quartet
  • Fog Tropes II, string quartet and tape
  • Sierran Songs, bass, marimba, and electronics
  • In Deserto: Smoke Creek, violin, bassoon, percussion, guitar, cello, and electronics
  • Muddy Waters, piano, percussion, electric guitar, bass, bass clarinet, and cello
  • Sea Tropes, flute, violin, cello, bass clarinet, marimba, and tape

    Orchestral works

  • "Spiritus"
  • "Sinfonia Dolce far Niente"
  • Peaceable Kingdom
  • "Kingdom Come"
  • Bright Kingdoms
  • Dark Florescence, Variations for Two Guitars and Orchestra
  • ''Orphic Memories''

    Choral works

  • Savage Altars, chamber choir, violin, viola, and tape
  • Hymnodic Delays
  • ''A New Haven Psalter''

    Solo works

  • Soe-pa, solo guitar with electronics
  • Authentic Presence, solo piano
  • September Canons, solo violin
  • Five Easy Pieces, Piano four-hands
  • "Baghdad Blues", solo oboe with electronics
  • "Florescence Soledad", solo guitar

    Interviews

  • by Daniel Varela

  • Listening

  • featuring tracks from Dark Waters and Fog Tropes
  • Weather Report
  • : Various pieces, featuring Theatre of Voices, American Composers Orchestra, etc.
Category:1942 births
Category:2022 deaths
Category:Yale School of Music faculty
Category:20th-century American classical composers
Category:American male classical composers
Category:21st-century American classical composers
Category:Pupils of Vladimir Ussachevsky
Category:Musicians from Mount Vernon, New York
Category:Lake Forest College alumni
Category:Columbia University alumni
Category:California Institute of the Arts alumni
Category:Evergreen State College faculty
Category:Classical musicians from New York
Category:20th-century American male musicians
Category:21st-century American male musicians
Category:Deaths from Parkinson's disease
Category:California Institute of the Arts faculty