Biography
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Born
20 March 1932
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Born In
Saint Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota, United States
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Died
27 February 2015 (aged 82)
Tod Dockstader (born March 20, 1932 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States, died February 27, 2015) was an American composer of electroacoustic music, and particularly musique concrète. He studied painting and film while at the University of Minnesota, before moving to Hollywood in 1955, to become an apprentice film editor. He moved into work as a sound engineer in 1958, and apprenticed at Gotham Recording Studios, where he first started composing. Dockstader's first record, Eight Electronic Pieces, was released in 1960, and was later used as the soundtrack to Federico Fellini's "Satyricon" (1969). He continued to create music throughout the first half of that decade, working principally with tape manipulation effects. In 1966 Owl Records released four albums of his work from this period including what many consider to be Dockstader's masterpiece, Quatermass.
After achieving modest recognition and radio play alongside the likes of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Edgard Varèse, and John Cage, Gotham Studios shut down and Dockstader found himself without access to recording facilities. He applied to a number of established electronic music institutions but was rejected from them for his lack of academic experience in the field. Notably, he received separate rejection letters from both Otto Luening and Vladimir Ussachevsky at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. He moved instead into audio-visual work, producing filmstrips and videos for use in schools. Dockstader returned to music at the start of the 21st century, adopting computer composition in favor of tapes.
Tod Dockstader passed away on February 27, 2015, at the age of 82.
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