Douglas Boyce

Bio

Douglas Boyce writes chamber music that draws on Renaissance traditions and modernist aesthetics, building rich rhythmic structures that shift between order, fragmentation, elegance, and ferocity. Regarding A Book of Songs (2006, in process), the Washington Post wrote “[they] can only be described as drop-dead beautiful. Easily the most captivating works on the program, these songs of love and death are extraordinarily well written and insightful.” Regarding La Déploration, (2016) Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim wrote that "...the violinist, cellist... and clarinetist... spread out throughout the crypt. Against vaporous harmonics and ghostly fragments of Renaissance music played by the strings, [a] warm, clear clarinet announced itself as very much alive as it sashayed in and out of blues territory and laughed in the face of their mournful keening."

Current Research and Projects

The Winter Journey for piano and percussion quartet Yarn|wire; A Book of Songs, a cycle of songs for tenor and piano, on texts by Jorie Graham, BJ Ward, Aristotle, Heraclitus, Husserl, and Wallace Stevens, for tenor Robert Baker; A Book of Etudes, 21 pieces for combinations of piano, clarinet and cello, commissioned by pianists Ieva Jokubaviciute (Shenandoah University), Alice Belem (State University of Minas Gerais, Brazil), and Ning Yu (George Washington University, Yarn|wire), cellists Elise Pittenger (Federal University of Minas Gerais) and Schuyler Slack (Richmond Symphony), and clarinetists David Jones (Washington National Opera), Benjamin Fingland (counter)induction), and Gregory Oakes (Iowa State University).

Distinctions

• League of Composers ISCM Composers Award (2005)
• Salvatore Martirano Prize (2006)
• Robert Avalon Prize (2010)
• Fromm Commission (2012)

Publications

Works have been published by:

• New Dynamic Records (Deixo | Sonata for viola and piano. counter) induction: Group Theory. 2012)
• Capstone Records (102nd & Amsterdam for violin, viola, and cello. Journeys. 2006)
• The Society of Composers, Inc. (La Guerra de la Drìada. "Journal of Music Scores,” Vol. 36. 2005.)

A forthcoming portrait CD on New Focus Records (“Fortuitous Variations” (Spring, 2018) features performances by counter)induction, Trio Cavatina, and the Aeolus Quartet.

His works have been praised many times in the press. Regarding his Quintet “l’homme armé”, Allan Kozinn wrote “he couches [the medieval melody] in such thoroughly modern scoring that the ear is lured to other things, including the juxtaposition of eerie string writing with playful material for the clarinet and piano, or the lively interplay among all five instruments.” (The New York Times March 12, 2005.) Regarding A Book of Songs (2006), the Stephen Brookes wrote “[they] can only be described as drop-dead beautiful. Easily the most captivating works on the program, these songs of love and death are extraordinarily well written and insightful.” (The Washington Post May 23, 2006) Regarding La Déploration, Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim wrote that "...the violinist, cellist... and clarinetist... spread out throughout the crypt. Against vaporous harmonics and ghostly fragments of Renaissance music played by the strings, [a] warm, clear clarinet announced itself as very much alive as it sashayed in and out of blues territory and laughed in the face of their mournful keening." (The New York Times May 17, 2015.)

Education

BA in Music & Physics, Williams College
MM in Composition, University of Oregon
PhD in Composition, University of Pennsylvania