Brian Hulse
Composer/
Theorist-Philosopher-Teacher-
Activist
Composer/
Theorist-Philosopher-Teacher-
Activist
Brian Hulse is Associate Professor of Composition and Theory at
the College of William & Mary (U.S.) and Director of Composition
at the soundSCAPE Festival in Maccagno, Italy (www.
soundscapefestival.org). He holds degrees from the University of
Utah (B.M.), University of Illinois (M.M.), and Harvard
University (Ph.D. 1999). Hulse’s compositions include works for
chamber and choral ensembles, as well as several chamber
operas, and have received awards from BMI, ASCAP, Meet the
Composer, Harvard University, and other organizations. Noted
ensembles which have performed and/or commissioned his music
include, Flexible Music Ensemble, Duo 46, Speculum Musicae,
20th Century Unlimited, the Empyrean Ensemble, the Rire-
Woodbury Dance Company, the Harvard Glee Club, the William
& Mary Choir, and the HBO series “The Sopranos.” He served
as Composer-in-Residence for Intermezzo: the New England
Chamber Opera Series, and was a Visiting Composer at Eastern
Mediterranean University in Cyprus. His CD Pseudosynthesis
appears on Albany Records.
Hulse's most recent musical projects have focused on opera (he is
currently engaged in a long-term project to adapt Edith Wharton's
novel The Age of Innocence as a full-scale opera), cross-cultural
experimentation (for example, his Pseudoragas I), and musical
projects which involve settings of Buddhist writings, poetry, and
philosophically-oriented topics (examples include ONE, for two
vocalizing pianists composed for the Kinsella Duo [the text is a
"mashup" of Rumi, Shakespeare, Parmenides, Kabir, Derrida,
Lao Tzu, Maitreya, Deleuze, and T.S. Eliot. click HERE for
youtube video of the premier], and The Eternally Clear Water of
Mind based on a 7th century Zen poem commissioned by the
William and Mary Women's Choir, Wind Symphony, and faculty
brass quintet). Hulse's music is vivid and quirky in nature, open-
ended, rhythmically robust, and freely incorporates various
musical styles without imitating them.
Hulse’s theoretic/philosophical pursuits are eclectic: rethinking
musical repetition, overturning hierarchies and identities,
discovering "rogue" connections, thinking musical cultures as
complex, changing, and interrelated, rejecting the
historical/cultural determinism of contemporary musical styles (or
fads) in favor of a more embracing idea of what "new" music is or
can become. His work builds on that of music theorist/philosopher
Christopher Hasty, and extends Deleuzian and Bergsonian ideas
to music. These philosophers argue for a radical new concept of
difference which rejects thinking difference in relation to identity.
Concepts such as the "virtual," which theorizes
time/immanence/becoming/potential as experienced, invite
experimental yet rigorous listening/analysis of music as well as a
vigorous critique of established modes of musical understanding.
Hulse has given many papers and has published articles and a
book chapter (see below) on these and related topics. He co-edited
the volume Sounding the Virtual: Gilles Deleuze and the Theory
and Philosophy of Music (Ashgate) with Nick Nesbitt which has
received a number of strong reviews.
"Activism" as Hulse understands it frames most of what he
engages in, be it composing, writing/criticism, teaching, or
promoting contemporary music. In his view, there is no coherent
new music scene that has "inherited” Western music history and
hence constitutes the latest stage of this history, however many
times contemporary composers themselves reify this belief.
Fundamental changes in culture, technology, institutional support,
a growing critique of what constitutes or authorizes "art music,"
and the complete rupture of common practices forces composers
(and theorists and historians and ethnomusicologists, etc etc) not
only rethink the role of the composer and his/her relationships to
audiences, institutions, and performers, and so on, but perhaps to
redraw entirely how these relationships and communities have
been in constant flux and interaction all along. The familiar
narrative that would "rescue" western art music is one Hulse
rejects. Rather, what concerns him is the expansion of networks of
musical creativity, of the collaborative, long-term relationships
between composers, performers, traditions, institutions, their
virtual and real communities and networks, world-wide. This
imperative he engages for himself, but he also attempts to
explore/problematize/promote this activist philosophy with other
composers, especially those in training. This is the theory behind
the soundSCAPE Festival (the “anti-Darmstadt”).
the College of William & Mary (U.S.) and Director of Composition
at the soundSCAPE Festival in Maccagno, Italy (www.
soundscapefestival.org). He holds degrees from the University of
Utah (B.M.), University of Illinois (M.M.), and Harvard
University (Ph.D. 1999). Hulse’s compositions include works for
chamber and choral ensembles, as well as several chamber
operas, and have received awards from BMI, ASCAP, Meet the
Composer, Harvard University, and other organizations. Noted
ensembles which have performed and/or commissioned his music
include, Flexible Music Ensemble, Duo 46, Speculum Musicae,
20th Century Unlimited, the Empyrean Ensemble, the Rire-
Woodbury Dance Company, the Harvard Glee Club, the William
& Mary Choir, and the HBO series “The Sopranos.” He served
as Composer-in-Residence for Intermezzo: the New England
Chamber Opera Series, and was a Visiting Composer at Eastern
Mediterranean University in Cyprus. His CD Pseudosynthesis
appears on Albany Records.
Hulse's most recent musical projects have focused on opera (he is
currently engaged in a long-term project to adapt Edith Wharton's
novel The Age of Innocence as a full-scale opera), cross-cultural
experimentation (for example, his Pseudoragas I), and musical
projects which involve settings of Buddhist writings, poetry, and
philosophically-oriented topics (examples include ONE, for two
vocalizing pianists composed for the Kinsella Duo [the text is a
"mashup" of Rumi, Shakespeare, Parmenides, Kabir, Derrida,
Lao Tzu, Maitreya, Deleuze, and T.S. Eliot. click HERE for
youtube video of the premier], and The Eternally Clear Water of
Mind based on a 7th century Zen poem commissioned by the
William and Mary Women's Choir, Wind Symphony, and faculty
brass quintet). Hulse's music is vivid and quirky in nature, open-
ended, rhythmically robust, and freely incorporates various
musical styles without imitating them.
Hulse’s theoretic/philosophical pursuits are eclectic: rethinking
musical repetition, overturning hierarchies and identities,
discovering "rogue" connections, thinking musical cultures as
complex, changing, and interrelated, rejecting the
historical/cultural determinism of contemporary musical styles (or
fads) in favor of a more embracing idea of what "new" music is or
can become. His work builds on that of music theorist/philosopher
Christopher Hasty, and extends Deleuzian and Bergsonian ideas
to music. These philosophers argue for a radical new concept of
difference which rejects thinking difference in relation to identity.
Concepts such as the "virtual," which theorizes
time/immanence/becoming/potential as experienced, invite
experimental yet rigorous listening/analysis of music as well as a
vigorous critique of established modes of musical understanding.
Hulse has given many papers and has published articles and a
book chapter (see below) on these and related topics. He co-edited
the volume Sounding the Virtual: Gilles Deleuze and the Theory
and Philosophy of Music (Ashgate) with Nick Nesbitt which has
received a number of strong reviews.
"Activism" as Hulse understands it frames most of what he
engages in, be it composing, writing/criticism, teaching, or
promoting contemporary music. In his view, there is no coherent
new music scene that has "inherited” Western music history and
hence constitutes the latest stage of this history, however many
times contemporary composers themselves reify this belief.
Fundamental changes in culture, technology, institutional support,
a growing critique of what constitutes or authorizes "art music,"
and the complete rupture of common practices forces composers
(and theorists and historians and ethnomusicologists, etc etc) not
only rethink the role of the composer and his/her relationships to
audiences, institutions, and performers, and so on, but perhaps to
redraw entirely how these relationships and communities have
been in constant flux and interaction all along. The familiar
narrative that would "rescue" western art music is one Hulse
rejects. Rather, what concerns him is the expansion of networks of
musical creativity, of the collaborative, long-term relationships
between composers, performers, traditions, institutions, their
virtual and real communities and networks, world-wide. This
imperative he engages for himself, but he also attempts to
explore/problematize/promote this activist philosophy with other
composers, especially those in training. This is the theory behind
the soundSCAPE Festival (the “anti-Darmstadt”).
NEW: Margins,
Afterwards
for SATB Choir and
Trumpet
based on poems by
Josh Poteat
live recording
featuring the William
& Mary Choir, with
David Vonderheide
trumpet, conducted
by Dr. James
Armstrong
Listen HERE
Afterwards
for SATB Choir and
Trumpet
based on poems by
Josh Poteat
live recording
featuring the William
& Mary Choir, with
David Vonderheide
trumpet, conducted
by Dr. James
Armstrong
Listen HERE
or to another
performance HERE
performance HERE