David Borden

Biography

David Russell Borden (born December 25, 1938, in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American composer and keyboard player of minimalist music.
David Borden was educated at the Eastman School of Music and Harvard University. At Harvard he studied with Leon Kirchner and Randall Thompson, and at Eastman with Bernard Rogers and Howard Hanson. He was also a Fulbright student in Berlin Germany, where he studied at the Hochschule für Musik. His first composition teachers were jazz musicians Jimmy Giuffre and Jaki Byard.
He collaborates and performs with his son, Gabriel Borden and stepson, Sam Godin. Borden resides in Ithaca, NY with his wife, Rebecca Godin. He is the retired founder and Director of the Digital Music Program (now the Cornell Electroacoustic Music Center) at Cornell University.
In 1969, with the support of Robert Moog, he founded the synthesizer ensemble Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Company in Ithaca New York. Mother Mallard performed pieces by Robert Ashley, John Cage, Terry Riley, Philip Glass, and Steve Reich. In addition to his work with electronics and the Mother Mallard ensemble, Borden has written music for various chamber and vocal ensembles. He is also an accomplished jazz pianist.
Borden's compositions are similar to the repetitive minimalist style of Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Terry Riley. Borden is also very interested in counterpoint, best demonstrated in his large scale series of works The Continuing Story of Counterpoint, Parts 1-12.
David Borden was commissioned to write the score to the 1973 film The Exorcist by director William Friedkin. However, less than a minute of Borden's music was actually used in the film (Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells was prominently featured on the soundtrack instead.)
Borden participated in the many activities surrounding the 30th anniversary of the founding of Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Company in 1999, including several live performances and CD reissues on the Cuneiform record label.
His The Continuing Story of Counterpoint (a twelve-part cycle of pieces for synthesizers, acoustic instruments and voice) has been called the "Goldberg Variations of minimalism.'" John DiLiberto
Four books have cited and discussed his work. In keeping with his interdisciplinary approach to his life and work, two books deal with American music history, one with music technology and one with the paintings of George Deem:

America's Music in the Twentieth Century by Kyle Gann (Schirmer Books, New York, 1997)
America's Musical Life: A History by Richard Crawford (W. W, Norton & Company, New York, London, 2001)
Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer by Trevor Pinch and Frank Trocco (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England, 2002)
How to Paint a Vermeer by George Deem (Thames & Hudson, N.Y., 2004)
Borden's music is recorded by the Cuneiform, New World Records, Lameduck and Arbiter labels.

Discography (Mother Mallard and David Borden)

1973 Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Co. [Earthquack]
1999 Reissued as 1970-1973 with previously unissued recordings [Cuneiform]
1976 Like A Duck To Water [Earthquack]
1999 Reissued with previously unissued recordsings [Cuneiform]
1981 Music For Amplified Keyboard Instruments [Red Music]
1983 Anatidae [Cuneiform: LP only]
1988 Migration [Cuneiform: LP only]
1988 The Continuing Story of Counterpoint Parts 9-12 [Cuneiform]
1990 The Continuing Story of Counterpoint Parts 5-8 [Cuneiform]
1990 The Continuing Story of Counterpoint Parts 1-4+8 [Cuneiform]
1992 Double Portrait (1987) included in collection U.S. Choice by Double Edge piano duo [CRI]
1993 Cayuga Night Music [Lameduck]
1995 Places, Times, and People [Cuneiform]
1997 As Time Goes By [Lameduck], piano duos and solos, with Edward Murray
2003 Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Co., music by David Borden (previously unissued 1976-77 recordings of "Counterpoint" Parts 1 & 3 and "C-A-G-E" part 3) [Arbiter]
2005 Waterwheel (by Steve Drews) (excerpt: Film by Edin Velez, Music by Mother Mallard) included in collection Ohm+ [DVD, Ellipsis Arts]
2011 FRKWYS07 [Rvng Intl], with James Ferraro, Laurel Halo, Daniel Lopatin and Sam Godin.
2021 Heaven-Kept Soul [Cuneiform]
2021 Smart Hubris [Cuneiform]

Film scores

Composer:

Marathon (1965)
Flatland (1965)
Branches (1970)
The Exorcist (1973)
They Made Movies in Ithaca (1975)
It's Tough To Make It In This League (1977) CBS Sports
Louisville (1998)