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David Woodard

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David Woodard
Woodard in 2020
Woodard in 2020
Born(1964-04-06)April 6, 1964(age 60)
Santa Barbara, California,U.S.
OccupationConductor, writer
Citizenship
  • United States
  • Canada
Literary movementPostmodernism
SpouseSonja Vectomov
Children2
Signature

David James Woodard(UK:/ˈwʊdɑːrd/ⓘ,US:/ˈwʊdərd/;[1]born April 6, 1964) is an American conductor and writer.

Los Angeles memorial services at which Woodard has served as conductor or music director include a 2001 civic ceremony held at theAngels Flightfunicularrailway honoring mishap casualty Leon Praport and his injured widow Lola.[2][3]: 125 He has conducted wildlife requiems, including for aCalifornia brown pelicanon theberm crestof a beach where the animal had fallen.[4][5]: 152–153 He is reputed to favor colored inks in preparing a score.[6]: 173 

Woodard's replicas of theDreamachinehave been exhibited in art museums throughout the world. His contributions to literary journals such asDer Freundinclude writings on interspecieskarma,plant consciousness and the ParaguayansettlementNueva Germania.[7]

Early life[edit]

David Woodard grew up in Santa Barbara, California, the youngest child of a CanadianMennonitemother, part of theKleine Gemeinde,and an AmericanBaptistfather. His parents operated apublic relationsfirm. Woodard was educated privately and atThe New School for Social Research.[8]: 34–41 

Career[edit]

From 1989 to 2007 Woodard built replicas of theDreamachine,a mildlypsychoactivelamp /stroboscopicdevice created byBrion GysinandIan Sommerville,involving a slotted cylinder made of copper or paper encircling anelectric lampon a motorized base constructed ofcocoboloorpine.[9]Woodard maintained that, observed with closed eyes, the machine could trigger mental states comparable tosubstance intoxicationordreaming.[10][a]

Agreeing to contribute a Dreamachine toWilliam S. Burroughs' 1996LACMAvisual retrospectivePorts of Entry,[11][12]Woodard also befriended the elderly author and presented him with a paper and pine "Bohemian model" Dreamachine on the occasion of his 83rd and final birthday.[13][14]: 23 Sotheby'sauctioned the former machine to a private collector in 2002,[15]and the latter machine remains on extended loan from Burroughs' estate to theSpencer Museum of ArtinLawrence, Kansas.[16]In a 2019 critical study,BeatscholarRaj Chandarlapatyre-evaluates Woodard's "idea-shattering" approach to the near-forgotten Dreamachine.[17]: 142–146 

Prequiems[edit]

During the 1990s Woodard coined the termprequiem,aportmanteauof preemptive andrequiem,to describe hisBuddhistpractice of composing dedicated music to be rendered during or slightly before the death of its subject.[18][19] Timothy McVeighasked Woodard to conduct a prequiemMasson the eve of his 2001 execution inTerre Haute, Indiana.[20]: 30 [21]: 124–125 Acknowledging McVeigh'shorrible deed,yet intending to provide comfort, Woodard consented by premiering the coda section of his composition "Ave Atque Vale" with a local brass choir at St. Margaret Mary Church, nearUSP Terre Haute,before an audience that included the following morning's witnesses.[22]: 240–241 ArchbishopDaniel M. Buechleinand later CardinalRoger MahonypetitionedPope John Paul IItoblessWoodard'sfull score.[23]: 37 [24][8]: 34–41 

Nueva Germania[edit]

In 2003 Woodard was elected councilman inJuniper Hills(Los Angeles County), California. In this capacity he proposed asister city relationshipwithNueva Germania,Paraguay. To advance his plan, Woodard traveled to the erstwhilevegetarian[citation needed]/feminist[citation needed]utopiaand met with its municipal leadership. Following an initial visit, having encountered a population "in moral and intellectual decline",[25]: 39–40 he chose not to pursue the relationship but had found in the community an object of study for later writings. What particularly interested him were the proto-transhumanistideas of speculative plannerRichard WagnerandElisabeth Förster-Nietzsche,who along with her husbandBernhard Försterfounded and lived in Nueva Germania from 1886 and 1889.[26][27]: 28–31 

In 2004, acknowledgingsustainable aspectsof Nueva Germania's founding ideals, namelycompassion,self-denialandLutheranism,[8]: 34–41 Woodard composed the choral anthem "Our Jungle Holy Land".[28]: 41–50 [29]: ch. 21 

From 2004 to 2006 Woodard led numerous expeditions to Nueva Germania, winning support from then U.S. Vice PresidentDick Cheney.[30]In 2011 Woodard granted Swiss writerChristian Krachtlicense to publish some of their private correspondence, largely concerning Nueva Germania,[31]: 113–138 underUniversity of HanoverimprintWehrhahn Verlag.[32]: 180–189 Of thecorrespondenceFAZrelates, "[The authors] obliterate the boundary between life and art."[33]: 32 Der Spiegelposits thatFive Years[34]constitutes "the spiritual preparatory work" of Kracht's subsequent novelImperium.[35]

According toAndrew McCannin 2015, Woodard embarked on "a trip to what is left of the place, where descendants of original settlers live under drastically reduced circumstances" and was moved to "advance the cultural profile of the community, and to build a miniatureBayreuth opera houseon the site of what was once Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche's family residence. "[36]In recent years Nueva Germania has tempered into a more genial destination, withbed and breakfastsand a makeshift historical museum.

References[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^In 1990 Woodard invented a psychotechnographic machine, theFeraliminal Lycanthropizer,effects of which are purportedly opposite those of a Dreamachine.

Citations[edit]

  1. ^Roach, P. J.,Hartman, J.,Setter, J.,&Jones, D.,eds.,Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary,17th ed. (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press,2006),p. 563.
  2. ^Reich, K.,"Family to Sue City, Firms Over Angels Flight Death",Los Angeles Times,March 16, 2001.
  3. ^Dawson, J.,Los Angeles' Angels Flight(Mount Pleasant, SC:Arcadia Publishing,2008),p. 125.
  4. ^Manzer, T.,"Pelican's Goodbye is a Sad Song",Press-Telegram,October 2, 1998.
  5. ^Allen, B.,Pelican(London:Reaktion Books,2019),pp. 152–153.
  6. ^Kracht, C., &Nickel, E.,Gebrauchsanweisung für Kathmandu und Nepal: Überarbeitete Neuausgabe(Munich:Piper Verlag,2012),p. 173.
  7. ^Carozzi, I.,"La storia di Nueva Germania",Il Post,October 13, 2011.
  8. ^abcWoodard, D., "Musica lætitiæ comes medicina dolorum", trans. S. Zeitz,Der Freund,Nr. 7, March 2006, pp. 34–41.
  9. ^Allen, M.,"Décor by Timothy Leary",The New York Times,January 20, 2005.Archivedfrom the original on April 22, 2015.
  10. ^Woodard,Program notes,Program,Berlin, November 2006.
  11. ^Knight, C.,"The Art of Randomness",Los Angeles Times,August 1, 1996.
  12. ^Bolles, D.,"Dream Weaver",LA Weekly,July 26–August 1, 1996.
  13. ^U.S. Embassy Prague,"Literární večer s diskusí",October 2014.
  14. ^Woodard,"Burroughs und der Steinbock",Schweizer Monat,March 2014, p. 23.
  15. ^Carpenter,"A vision built for visionaries",Los Angeles Times,October 31, 2002.
  16. ^Spencer Museum of Art,Dreamachine,KU.
  17. ^Chandarlapaty, R., "Woodard and Renewed Intellectual Possibilities", inSeeing the Beat Generation(Jefferson, NC:McFarland & Company,2019),pp. 142–146.
  18. ^Carpenter, S.,"In Concert at a Killer's Death",Los Angeles Times,May 9, 2001.
  19. ^Rapping, A.,Portrait of Woodard(Seattle:Getty Images,2001).
  20. ^Günther, M.,Gesichter Amerikas: Reportagen aus dem Land der unbegrenzten Widersprüche(Bottrop:Henselowsky Boschmann Verlag, 2006), p. 30.
  21. ^Deaglio, E.,Cose che voi umani(Venice:Marsilio Editori, 2021),p. 124–125.
  22. ^Siletti, M. J.,Sounding the last mile: Music and capital punishment in the United States since 1976,dissertation under the tutelage of Prof. J. Magee,University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign,2018,pp. 240–241.
  23. ^Wall, J. M.,"Lessons in Loss",The Christian Century,July 4–10, 2001, p. 37.
  24. ^Vloed, K. van der,Entry on Woodard,Requiem Survey,February 5, 2006.
  25. ^Tenaglia, F.,Momus—A Walking Interview(Turin/Milan:Noch Publishing, 2015),pp. 39–40.
  26. ^Kober, H.,"In, um und um Germanistan herum",Die Tageszeitung,May 18, 2006.
  27. ^Lichtmesz, M.,"Nietzsche und Wagner im Dschungel: David Woodard & Christian Kracht in Nueva Germania",Zwielicht2, 2007,pp. 28–31.
  28. ^Scheidemandel, N.,"Der Traum in der Maschine",Der Freund,Nr. 1, September 2004, pp. 41–50.
  29. ^Horzon, R.,The White Book(Berlin:Suhrkamp Verlag,2021), ch. 21.
  30. ^Epstein, J.,"Rebuilding a Home in the Jungle",San Francisco Chronicle,March 13, 2005.Archivedfrom the original on October 9, 2016.
  31. ^Schröter, J., "Interpretive Problems with Author, Self-Fashioning and Narrator", in Birke, Köppe, eds.,Author and Narrator(Berlin:De Gruyter,2015),pp. 113–138.
  32. ^Woodard,"In Media Res",032c,Summer 2011, pp. 180–189.
  33. ^Link, M.,"Wie der Gin zum Tonic",Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung,November 9, 2011, p. 32.
  34. ^Kracht & Woodard,Five Years(Hanover:Wehrhahn Verlag, 2011).
  35. ^Diez, G.,"Die Methode Kracht",Der Spiegel,February 13, 2012, p. 102.
  36. ^McCann, A. L.,"Allegory and the German (Half) Century",Sydney Review of Books,August 28, 2015.

External links[edit]

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