X-Nico

3 unusual facts about Douglas Leedy


Douglas Leedy

From 2003, most of his music has appeared under the name Bhisma Xenotechnites, including not only his settings for voice(s)and instruments (in Greek) of Homeric Hymns, but also such obviously anti-Western works as Ein kleines Wagner Notizbuch (2005), a collage of emasculated Wagner quotations for the same ensemble as his 1965 octet Quaderno Rossiniano, and H5N1 (2006) for extremely high-pitched instruments or whistlers and antique cymbals.

Born in Portland, Oregon, Leedy studied with Karl Kohn at Pomona College and at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was in a composition seminar with membership including La Monte Young and Terry Riley.

He has also proposed reconstructions of ancient Greek music, and has prepared, on historical-theoretic principles, settings for musical performance of Homer, Sappho, Pindar, and the Persai (The Persians) of Aeschylus.



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