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! ! ! ! “FINGERS GLITTERING ABOVE A KEYBOARD:” ! THE KEYBOARD WORKS AND HYBRID CREATIVE PRACTICES OF ! TRISTAN PERICH! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! A Dissertation! Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School! of Cornell University! in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of! Doctor of Musical! Arts! ! ! by! David Benjamin Friend! May 2019! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! © 2019 David Benjamin! Friend! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! “FINGERS GLITTERING ABOVE A KEYBOARD:”! THE KEYBOARD WORKS AND HYBRID CREATIVE PRACTICES OF ! TRISTAN! PERICH! ! David Benjamin Friend, D.M.A.! Cornell University,! 2019! ! !This dissertation examines the life and work of Tristan Perich, with a focus on his works for keyboard instruments. Developing an understanding of his creative practices and a familiarity with his aesthetic entails both a review of his personal narrative as well as its intersection with relevant musical, cultural, technological, and generational discourses. This study examines relevant groupings in music, art, and technology articulated to Perich and his body of work including dorkbot and the New Music Community, a term established to describe the generationally-inflected structural shifts! in the field of contemporary music that emerged in New York City in the first several years of the twenty-first century. Perich’s one-bit electronics practice is explored, and its impact on his musical and artistic work is traced across multiple disciplines and a number of aesthetic, theoretical, and technical parameters. This dissertation also substantiates the centrality of the piano to Perich’s compositional process and to his broader aesthetic cosmology. A selection of his works for keyboard instruments are analyzed, and his unique approach to keyboard technique is contextualized in relation to traditional Minimalist piano techniques and his one-bit electronics practice." ! ! BIOGRAPHICAL! SKETCH! ! !! !David Friend (b. 1983) grew up in southern Louisiana before moving to New York City to further his musical education. He received his bachelor’s degree in 2005 and his master’s degree in 2007, both from the Manhattan School of Music. His principal teachers have been Dorothy Sahlmann, Phillip Kawin, and Xak Bjerken, as well as Laurie Carney (chamber music), Anthony de Mare (extended techniques), Louis Bagger (harpsichord), and Carol Ann Aicher (pedagogy). He was also a fellow at the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival (2007) and held the piano fellowship position in the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble at the Aspen Music Festival for three years (2008-2010). ! !As a pianist, Friend has primarily focused on chamber music and contemporary and experimental music. He is a founding member of several ensembles, including TRANSIT New Music, Grand Band piano sextet, Hotel Elefant, and Bent Duo. He is also a core member of Ensemble Signal and has performed regularly with a wide array of new music ensembles including the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Alarm Will Sound, International Contemporary Ensemble, and the American Composers Orchestra. He has performed at major venues around the world including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Royal Festival Hall (London), Disney Hall (Los Angeles), the Chan Centre (Vancouver), and the National Centre for the Performing Arts (Beijing), and for prominent festivals including Mostly Mozart (New York), Lincoln Center (New York), Bang on a Can Marathon (New York), Gilmore (Kalamazoo), Big Ears (Knoxville), Liquid Music (St. Paul), Next on Grand (Los Angeles), CTM (Berlin), and Beijing Modern Music Festival. " iii He has also frequently performed at underground and DIY spaces including Glasslands (New York), Betalevel (Los Angeles), Bread and Salt (San Diego), and Logos (Ghent).! !Friend has premiered new works by scores of composers, including prominent voices of various generations and aesthetic affiliations such as Tristan Perich, Julia Wolfe, Samson Young, Missy Mazzoli, Daniel Wohl, Michael Gordon, Angélica Negrón, and Steve Reich. Friend’s performances have been broadcast on radio and television in the United States and abroad, including for National Public Radio’s Performance Today, Q2's Hammered!, and WNYC's Fresh Sounds. He has recorded albums for the New Amsterdam, Harmonia Mundi, Cedille, Innova, Albany, Naxos, a wave press, and Dacapo labels, and was featured on Third Coast Percussion's album of music by Steve Reich, which won the Grammy award for best chamber music performance in 2017.! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! iv ! ! ! To Pat,! my number one! omi-palone.! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! v ! ! ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS! ! ! ! !A large number of people have helped make this dissertation—and, more broadly, my pursuit of a D.M.A. at Cornell—possible, and I express my sincere and lasting gratitude to all of them. I should start by thanking the Music Department at Cornell overall for taking a chance on a non-traditional graduate student with a busy performance schedule and for being supportive and adaptable throughout my time in the program. Xak Bjerken was an exceptional mentor, providing guidance in pianism while also helping me learn how to effectively manage a balance between a performance career and academic work. Thanks also to Lisa Moore for being an empathetic set of ears and providing sage advice when I was grappling with the decision of whether or not to go back to graduate school in the first place.! !At Cornell, I benefited tremendously from the brilliant and attentive faculty members whose seminars I had the good fortune to participate in. These include Roger Moseley/Xak Bjerken, Benjamin Piekut, Kevin Ernste/Christopher Stark, David Yearsley, and Bonna Boettcher. The independent studies I pursued with Benjamin Piekut and the late Steven Stucky were meaningful experiences that helped me refine my scholarly interests and articulate them effectively. My teaching assistantships with Kevin Ernste and Annie Lewandowski both had a tremendous impact on my understanding and practice of music pedagogy and also allowed me to see the inner workings of master teachers at work. I must also express thanks to the stellar staff of the Sidney Cox Library of Music and Dance, who are such an important component of graduate " vi students’ experience at Cornell and whose consummate efficacy was always matched with friendliness and genuine care. The staff of the Music Department, including Colette Larkin and Fumi Nagasaki-Pracel were vital advocates, who indefatigably helped me navigate administratively throughout my time at Cornell. I also must express a special thank you to the staff of the Herbert F. Johnson Museum, including Sara Ferguson and Sonja Elena Gandert for their openness to collaboration and the numerous opportunities I had to work on gratifying projects in conjunction with the museum.! !My dissertation committee has been helpful, supportive, and infinitely patient. I appreciate their allowing me the space and time to find a way to approach my topic in a manner that resonated with me—both as a scholar and on a personal level, as a musician with direct connections to many of the topics, organizations, and individuals that are discussed in this study. I am also grateful for their encouragement to pursue this topic from the outset, and for helping me to navigate the complicated circumstances that pursuing it has sometimes entailed. Finally, their encouragement towards the end of this process was key to helping me to meet the final deadlines during a period of intense activity in my performance career. ! !I am also very grateful for the many people in my life not affiliated with Cornell who helped me, supported me, and cheered me on throughout my three years of coursework and the dissertation process. Most importantly, my partner Patrick Bradley has been endlessly understanding and giving, gracefully sharing the burdens of a disruptive schedule and long periods of separation while I pursued my coursework, and without whose bottomless compassion, perseverance, and kindness I surely would not have been able to make it through. I must also thank my family for being enthusiastic " vii about my return to graduate school, and especially my oldest sister, Christy Friend, for her help, advice, and encouragement through the application, coursework, and dissertation processes. ! !Much appreciation also goes to Bill Solomon for dissertation solidarity, to Ryan MacEvoy McCullough and Andrew Zhou for being great colleagues, to all of the other graduate students with whom I did my coursework and from whom I learned so much, and to everyone in Ensemble Signal for putting up with my dissertation-writing on rehearsal and performance breaks backstage at The Shed. Throughout this process, my wonderful friends, family, and colleagues have been unbelievably tolerant of my frequently impossible schedule and my often less-than-stellar efforts to stay in the loop about important life events, while consistently helping me navigate rough patches and what sometimes seemed to be impossibly thorny situations. I feel lucky to have so many amazing people in my life, and thank all of them for putting up with me. I owe many favors, and I genuinely look forward to repaying them.! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! viii TABLE OF CONTENTS! ! ! ! ! Biographical Sketch!!!!!!!!!!iii! Acknowledgements!!!!!!!!!!vi! Introduction: Setting the Scene!!!!!!!!1! Chapter 1: A New Musical Community!!!!!!!23! Chapter 2: Charting Perich’s Personal

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