Composer/Performer David T. Little (b. 1978, New Jersey) is actively committed to music of dramatic intensity and direct expression. A composer of great diversity, Little’s music has been concurrently praised as “smoothly euphonious” (American Record Guide), and “clanking, almost industrial” (The Stage). Show more
Alex Ross of The New Yorker was “completely gripped” by Little’s “ultra-dissonant” Sunday Morning Trepanation, proclaiming: “every bad-ass new-music ensemble in the city will want to play him.” Little’s music has been featured at venues ranging from the Knitting Factory and Tonic to Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood, and Aspen, and has been performed by such musicians and groups as eighth blackbird, So Percussion, Newspeak, The Formalist Quartet, The Grand Rapids Symphony, The Albany Symphony, and conductor Marin Alsop.
Holding a Bachelor’s degree in Percussion Performance, Little holds a Master of Music degree in Composition from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Princeton University. His primary teachers have included Osvaldo Golijov, Steven Mackey, Paul Lansky, William Bolcom, and Michael Daugherty. He has received grants, fellowships and awards from BMI, ASCAP, the Aspen Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Center, American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Music Center, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Meet The Composer, The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the University of Michigan, and Princeton.
He is the founder, artistic director and drummer for the band / ensemble Newspeak and co-founder / co-director of Free Speech Zone Productions. Currently a PhD candidate at Princeton University, Little’s research deals with the past, present and future of political/revolutionary music in America. Forthcoming works include those for the Third Coast Percussion Quartet, NOW Ensemble, and an opera exploring the mythology of the Molly Maguires, written in collaboration with author Alex Rose, and to be performed by Newspeak. For more information, see www.DavidTLittle.com Show less
I would like to extend my most sincere thanks to the following individuals, without whom Soldier Songs would not have been possible: Yuval Sharon, Beth Morrison, Kevin Noe, Timothy Jones, Rich Girardin, Joseph W. Little, Gene Little, Justen Bennett, Amber Ferenz, Gene Woznicki, Missy Mazzoli, Judd Greenstein, Utah Phillips, Jeff Edelstein, Steven Mackey, Paul Lansky, and my parents.
It begins with an interview. “I’ve never ever talked with anybody about this,” the voice says. A theme of silence emerges as each of the seven veterans tells their stories. Super-8 footage from Vietnam, never before viewed, shows people we’ve never met but whose stories we think we know. A closed mouth hums.* Show more
Part I: Youth
The interviews fade, and we are presented with a boy; six years old and playing war with little green men.* Next, a twelve-year old plays video games. It’s all the same, we see: war is fun. War is a game. Eighteen years, and a boy is a man. He registers for the draft. A closed mouth hums.
Part II: Warrior
At twenty-one, a man drives a tank, listens to metal. Still playing video games, in a way, he thinks. At twenty-eight, almost out, a man tells his story: the tale of the car bomb that went off outside his base, killing 35.* The feeling he has when running from incoming ordnance, known in the military as “steel rain.” War has become hell, as those at home think of their old friends currently in combat.* A closed mouth hums.
Part III: Elder
Time passes and a man grows older. He contemplates walls, both as protector and memorial. He contemplates oil as medieval weapon. He watches the news, as the new recruits hunt for their proverbial Emmanuel Goldstein. A son is killed in action. A father reacts. A Marine Corps van is torched.*
At sixty-six, a man sits down to play chess. He plays against himself. He wonders when the king will fight his own fight. The bishop rallies the pawns. The monarchy is protected. A closed mouth hums.
“I’ve never ever talked with anybody about this,” the voice says, returning. A closed mouth opens to speak.
*Indicates excerpt performed in VOX 2008 Show less
