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Daniel Trueman

Department/Program(s):

Music

Position: Professor

Title: Professor of Music

Area(s):

Composition

Office: Woolworth Ctr

Email: dtrueman@princeton.edu

Homepage: http://www.music.princeton.edu/~dan/

Office Hours: by appointment only

Profile

As a performing composer, I play various kinds of violins, including the 6-string electric violin, the Hardanger fiddle, and instruments of my own design and construction. Much of my music arises from my relationships with these instruments, either directly (through improvisation) or metaphorically (where the design of the instrument becomes a metaphor for some kind of musical construction). Recognizing that musical instruments embody both compositional and cultural ideas, I build my own instruments, both "hardware" and "software," and regard this as part of my compositional process. I perform these instruments in various ensembles, including Trollstilt (a duo for Hardanger/electric fiddles and guitar, with Monica Mugan) and "interface" (an electronic improvisation ensemble, with Curtis Bahn and Tomie Hahn). These projects inevitably lead me into interdisciplinary explorations with dancers, visual artists, and computer scientists. I studied Physics at Carleton College (B.A. 1990), Composition and Theory at the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati (M.M. 1995), and Composition at Princeton (Ph.D. 1999). At Princeton I teach composition, electronic/computer music and theory at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and seminars that explore: "crossover" music and musical appropriation; musical instruments, music and culture; interdisciplinary creative spaces, and others.

Recent Compositions:

Silicon/Carbon: an anti-Concerto Grosso, for orchestra and laptop concertino
Five (and-a-half) Gardens, for Trollstilt and So Percussion and animated paintings
Triptick, for piano trio
Scales and Metronomes, for solo cello
PLahara, for the Princeton Laptop Orchestra and Zakir Hussain
Transparent Body, for dancers (the Terrain Dance Company) and electric violin/laptop

Recent CDs:

Five (and-a-half) Gardens, Shhh/New Amsterdam 0001

· Machine Language, Bridge 9149

· Recording Field, H, Deep Listening DL-DVD-27

· Trollstilt, Azalea City/ACCD-2004

· Jswank, c-74-002

Recent Publications:
• "BoSSA: the Deconstructed Violin Reconstructed." Dan Trueman and Perry Cook. Journal of New Music Research, vol. 29, #2, 2000.