Neil Rolnick’s “Balkanization”
For over 30 years now, Neil Rolnick, a composer and educator, has been on the frontier of a constantly evolving musical landscape within the United States. Surprisingly enough, however, Rolnick, born on October 22, 1947 in Dallas, Texas, did not initially choose to pursue a career in music. Upon entering Harvard University, he had a fundamental knowledge of music theory after having studied at the Aspen Music School with Darius Milhaud and at the Manhattan School of Music with Fritz Kramer, but ultimately chose to pursue an English literature degree. He spent his post-undergraduate years working in a hospital in Wyoming, where he was fired for unionizing the hospital workers, and as a counselor for teenagers in Vermont. Neil Rolnick had always shown a demonstrated interest in folk and rock music, playing in a rock band through his undergraduate and post-undergraduate years, but when commercial synthesizers first appeared on the market, Rolnick, excited about the possibilities brought on by the new technology at the time, headed to California, where he studied composition first at the San Francisco Conservatory …show more content…
Much of Rolnick’s work involves a combination of acoustic instruments (e.g. vocal, chamber, and orchestral works) and electronic sounds and modulation, routinely involving the processing of acoustic instruments electronically in real time. While Rolnick’s work is often times considered experimental electronic music, combining music and technology in ways that defy convention, his pieces are easily melodically accessible to any audience. “Balkanization”, one of Rolnick’s earlier works, is unusual in that it is entirely a solo work, neither requiring a live interpreter nor an acoustic instrument, only a laptop and a synthesizer, an electronic instrument Rolnick worked closely with and used in almost all his pieces through his entire