THEO GOLDBERG
Theo Goldberg, born in Chemnitz, Germany in 1921, studied composition with Boris Blacher at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik. Until his emigration to Canada in 1954, Goldberg worked as a freelance composer for radio, television, the legitimate stage and the political cabaret in Berlin. In Vancouver, Goldberg entered the public education system, acquiring his Masters Degree from Washington State University in 1967 and his Doctorate from the University of Toronto in 1970. He began his teaching career at the University of British Columbia in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts and at the Vancouver Academy of Music. After his retirement in 1986, Goldberg joined the Media and Graphics Interdisciplinary Centre as Professor Emeritus and Research Associate.Coming out of the artistic environment of the Berlin surrealist group, and influenced by the musical aesthetic of his teacher, Goldberg's first twenty years of work reflect an interest in the strict formalism and rhythmic experimentation prevalent during that period. His involvement with electronic music, which began in the late 1940s, continued into the early 1970s in Vancouver with computer music. Initially, Goldberg took advantage of isomorphic relationships between musical and visual structures. His works evolved eventually into collaborative multimedia pieces. This medium, using computer graphics and video, has preoccupied seven of his works in the last decade, and has involved composer Barry Truax and performers such as Lawrence Cherney and Vivienne Spiteri. Theo passed away in 2012.
References:
T. Goldberg & G. Schrack, "Computer-aided correlation of musical and visual structures," Leonardo, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 11-17, 1986.T. Goldberg & G. Schrack, "Computer-aided correlation of music and graphic image," Computers and Graphics, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 109-110, 1984.
Collaborative works with Barry Truax:
Beauty and the Beast (1989), for Narrator (oboe d'amore & English horn), computer images, and two digital soundtracks (23') Graphics: Theo GoldbergDivan (1985), for computer graphic slides and two computer-synthesized soundtracks (11') Graphics: Theo Goldberg
Night of the Conjurer (1992), video tape with optional cello (11') Video: Theo Goldberg
Pacific Dragon (1991), for computer graphic slides and four digital soundtracks (14') Graphics: Theo Goldberg
Song of Songs (1992), for oboe d'amore, English horn, two digital soundtracks and computer graphic images (19') Graphics: Theo Goldberg
The Wings of Nike (1987), for computer graphic slides and two digital soundtracks (16') Graphics: Theo Goldberg
Note: A new video DVD of all of these works is available.
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