Leedy, Douglas

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Leedy, Douglas

Leedy, Douglas, American composer and conductor; b. Portland, Ore., March 3, 1938. He studied at Pomona Coll. (B.A., 1959) and at the Univ. of Calif, at Berkeley (M.A., 1962). He played the horn in the Oakland (Calif.) Sym. Orch. and in the San Francisco Opera and Ballet orchs. (1960–65). In 1965-66 he held a joint U.S.-Polish government grant for study in Poland. From 1967 to 1970 he was on the faculty of the Univ. of Calif., Los Angeles. From 1973 to 1978 he taught at Reed Coll. in Portland, Ore. He was conductor of the Oregon Telemann Ensemble, later known as the Harmonie Universelle. In 1984-85 he was music director of the Portland Baroque Orch. In 1985 he conducted the Portland Pro Musica in complete, period-instrument performances of Handel’s Jephtha and Theodora. His early works cultivated avant-garde methods of electronic application to mixed media, but later he sought to overcome the restrictions of Western music and its equal temperament; for this purpose, he began in 1979 to work with the Carnatic vocalist K.V. Narayanaswamy in Madras, India. He wrote “A Question of Intonation” which appeared in the Journal of the Conductor’s Guild (Fall 1987). He contributed the article “Tuning Systems” to The New Grove Dictionary of American Music (1986), and also was a contributor to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (second ed., 2000). His investigation into the musical aspects of Classical epic and lyric poetry resulted in his article “Some Experiments in Singing Ancient Greek and Latin Verse,” which appeared in M. Cole and J. Koegel, eds., Music in Performance and Society: Essays in Honor of Rolana Jackson (Warren, Mich., 1997).

Works

Exhibition Music (1965; continued indefinitely); Decay, theater piece for Piano, Wagner Tuba, and Tape (1965); Antifonia for Brass Quartet (1965); Usable Music I for Very Small Instruments with Holes (1966); Teddy Bear’s Picnic, audio-tactile electronic theater piece (1968); Ave Maris Stella for Soprano, Instrumental Trio, Organ, and Electronic Sound (1968); 88 Is Great, theater piece for Piano, 8-hands (1968); The Electric Zodiac, electronic music (1969); Entropical Paradise: 6 Sonic Environments for Electronic Recordings (1970); Gloria for Soprano, Chorus, and Instruments (1970); The 24^th Psalm for 6 Solo Soprano Voices, Chorus, and Orch. (1972); Sebastian, chamber opera for Soprano, Baritone, Chamber Ensemble, and Tape, based on documents of J.S. Bach (1971–74); Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, chorale fantasia for Organ and Unseen Soprano (1972); String Quartet, in just intonation (1965–75); Canti: Music for Contrabass and Chamber Ensemble (1975); Symphoniae sacrae for Soprano, Bass, Viola da Gamba, and Harpsichord (1976); Sur la couche de miettes for Flute, Oboe, Violin, Viola, Cello, Guitar, Piano, Equal-temperament Harpsichord, and Just-intonation Harpsichord (1981); Harpsichord Book, Parts I-II, in traditional mean-tone temperament (1974, 1982); Toccata, Utremifasolla and Chorale for Just-intonation Harpsichord (1982); 4 Hymns from the Rigveda for Chorus and Javanese or American Gamelan (1982–83); 5 Organ Chorales (1983); Music for Meantone Organ (1983–84); arrangement of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Canons, S.1087, for Strings and Continuo (1984); Pastorale for Solo Voices, Chorus, and Just-intonation Piano (1987); Fantasy on “Wondrous Love” for Organ and Optional Chorus (1990); 3 Symphonies for Unison Orch. (1993); Piano Sonata (1994); White Buffalo, string quartet (1995).