More information about Ned McGowan

Research

Architectures of speed: reinventing the tools, functions and potentials of speed within rhythmical frames in music.

The speed of rhythms in live acoustic music, literally the velocity at which notes are sounding, can be defined in absolute terms based on clock time. But there is also the perceived speed that, in the simplest terms, states that musical material can seem fast, slow or some other relational quality.

Speed is articulated by sounding rhythm. Rhythms, however, manifest themselves through a myriad of various implicit and explicit frames, depending on the musical context, including tuplets, meters (traditional and "irrational"), tempo, polytempos, pulses, polypulses, polyrhythms (superimposed frames), additive frames, divisive frames, metric modulation, time brackets and other structures. Through analysis and composition this PhD will research the current practice, precise identities and possibilities of the various time frames in music and the bearing they have individually and in combinations on the speed of the music.

Curriculum vitae

Flutist & composer

Ned McGowan (1970) is a flutist and contemporary classical music composer, born in the United States, living in the Netherlands. Known for rhythmical vitality and technical virtuosity, his music has won awards and been performed at Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw and other halls and festivals around the world by many orchestras, ensembles and soloists. As a flutist he plays classical, contemporary and improvisation concerts internationally and he has a special love for the contrabass flute, in 2016 releasing the album: The Art of the Contrabass Flute.

Compositions

His works include Concerto for iPad & Orchestra (2012) which has been played numerous times in the Netherlands, the US and Brasil, Workshop (2004) for recorder and tape, six pièces mécaniques (2012), written for Calefax & Eric Vloemans, Cleveland Times (2016), commissioned for the NFA Flute Convention, Bantammer Swing (2008), a concerto for contrabass flute and orchestra, which premiered in Carnegie Hall by the American Composers Orchestra, and the recent Garden of Iniquitous Creatures (2016), for the Grammy Award winning sextet Eighth Blackbird, which premieres in November 2016 at De Doelen, Rotterdam.

Academics

Ned is a professor of composition, ensembles and Advanced Rhythm and Pulse at the Utrecht Conservatory and Music and Technology branches of the HKU University of the Arts Utrecht. He holds degrees in composition from the Royal Conservatory Den Haag and in flute from the Cleveland Institute of Music and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. In 2014, he was awarded the Alumni Achievement Award from the Cleveland Institute of Music. In September 2016, Ned started an artistic research PhD about speed, frame and time in music at the Leiden University and the DocARTES program in Ghent. 

Personal website 

PhD supervisors

• Henk Borgdorff
• Marcel Cobussen
• Richard Barrett