Harold Budd
Harold Montgomory Budd (May 24, 1936 – December 8, 2020) was an American music composer and poet.[2] Born in Los Angeles and raised in the Mojave Desert, he became a respected composer in the minimal music and avant-garde scene of Southern California in the late 1960s, and later became better known for his work with figures such as Brian Eno and Robin Guthrie.[3] Budd developed what he called a "soft pedal" technique for playing piano, with use of slow playing and prominent sustain.
For the Olympic rower, see Harold Budd (rower).
Harold Budd
Harold Montgomory Budd
May 24, 1936
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
December 8, 2020 (aged 84)
Arcadia, California, U.S.
- Musician
- composer
- poet
- professor
- Piano
- keyboards
- guitar
1962–2020
Early life[edit]
Budd was born in Los Angeles, California, and spent his childhood in Victorville, California on the southwestern edge of the Mojave Desert.[4]
Harold was only 13 when his father died, and soon his family fell out of their comfortable middle class existence. He was sent up to the desert to live with friends and relatives as often as possible, but the reality in Los Angeles was growing up in a tough neighborhood, and as the oldest son, being the man of the house. During this time Black culture had an enormous impact on Harold, especially jazz music and bebop, and he could be found in his teenage years playing drums in bars and jazz clubs in South Central Los Angeles.
Drafted into the army, he joined the regimental band where he played drums at Presidio of Monterey (POM).[5] Jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler was drafted at the same time and was also a member of the band.[5] Budd joined him in gigs around the Monterey area.[4] Budd's experience of the army made him determined to get an education.[6]
Education, academic career and early works[edit]
Budd attended high school at Los Angeles High School, but did not graduate. He worked as "everything from cowboy to mailman,"[7] including a stint at Douglas Aircraft. At the age of 21, he left Douglas, and briefly moved to San Francisco. While there, he worked at Gump's. Unable to continue living in San Francisco, Budd returned to Los Angeles, and enrolled in an architecture course at Los Angeles City College.[8] He switched to a course in harmony and renaissance counterpoint and his musical talent was spotted by a teacher who encouraged him to compose.[8] He began to attend performances by artists like Chet Baker and Pharoah Sanders.[7]
“From that moment on,” he recalls, “I had an insatiable appetite. Harmony, counterpoint, Renaissance music: I really heard it for the first time.”
Budd's career as a composer began in 1962. In the following years, he gained a notable reputation in the local avant-garde community.[9] Budd studied music at California State University, Northridge, under Gerald Strang (a protege of Arnold Schoenberg) and Aurelio de la Vega. He graduated from CSUN, and then went on full scholarship to the University of Southern California, under the tutelage of Ingolf Dahl,[10][11] graduating in 1966.[12] Budd's work of this period was primarily minimalist drone music influenced by John Cage and Morton Feldman, as well as the abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko, with whom he corresponded.[12]
After completing his degree in composition in 1969, Budd took up a teaching position at the California Institute for the Arts.[8] In 1970, he released his first piece, The Oak of the Golden Dreams, which he recorded with an early model Buchla modular synthesizer at the institute.[7]
At the encouragement of Brian Eno and Marion Brown, he left CalArts for London. Soon afterwards, Budd gave up composition, disgusted by the "academic pyrotechnics" of the avant-garde community.[6]
In London, he found his composing community of Eno, Gavin Bryars, Michael Nyman, and the members of the Cocteau Twins.
In 2004, Budd and his wife moved to Monument House in Joshua Tree, California.
Death[edit]
Budd was undergoing therapy at a short-term rehabilitation facility after suffering a stroke on November 11, 2020. It was there he contracted COVID-19 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in California. He died from complications of COVID-19 at a hospital in Arcadia, on December 8, 2020.[26] He was 84.[26][27][28]
