Dr. Matthew D. Harder
Interim Chair, Department of Music and Theater
Associate Professor of Music
Professor of Music Technology
Recording Studio Director
Dr. Matthew Harder
Dr. Matthew D. Harder is Associate Professor of Music and Interim Chair of the Department of Music and Theater at West Liberty. Dr. Harder teaches classes in the Music Technology curriculum including Introduction to Music Technology, Electronic Music, Recording Techniques, Music Technology Practicum, and Composition. Dr. Harder has also taught Percussion, Private Lessons, Percussion Ensemble, and The Panhandle Steel Ensemble.
Dr. Harder holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Illinois Wesleyan University, two Masters degrees from Bowling Green State University in Percussion and Composition, and a Doctor of Music degree in Composition from Northwestern University. He studied drumming with the Ewe people of Ghana in the summer of 1998 and often leads Ghanaian drumming workshops.
Dr. Harder is active as a composer, performer, and clinician and is currently Secretary of the West Virginia chapter of the Percussive Arts Society. As a composer, he has had his works performed in numerous cities around the country. In July 2008, he performed his piece Dark Wood for marimba and bassoon at the International Double Reed Society Conference in Provo, Utah. Dr. Harder has been commissioned to write music for a wide variety of instruments and electronic media. His compositions have received numerous awards, including a First Place award for Skies of Couple Color from the Music Teacher’s National Conference (East Central Division), the William T. Faricy award for creative composition from Northwestern University for Chin Music, and a performance of his orchestral piece Catharsis by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony.
RECENT ACTIVITY:
Presenting “Make Your Own Music Software – exploring Graphical Programming Environments for Music.” at the 2013 MAD Fest.
Accepted to present “Big sound. Small devices. A compact solo electronic music performance.” at the joint meeting of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction and The College Music Society in Cambridge, MA Oct 31-Nov. 2, 2013.
Presented “Graphical Programming Environments for Audio Instruction” at the Ohio Music Educators Association Conference in Columbus, OH (February 6-9, 2013).
Accepted to present “Graphical Programming Environments for Audio Instruction” at the Texas Music Educators Association Conference in San Antonio, TX (February 13-16, 2013).
Dr. Harder’s composition “Carrier” for alto saxophone and electronic sound was premiered by Dr. Christopher Barrick at the North American Saxophone Alliance conference in Arizona in 2011.
Dr. Harder presented two sessions at the Annual TI:ME Conference in Louisville, KY (Jan 4-7, 2012). “TI:ME” stands for “Technology Institute for Music Educators” – www.ti-me.org
Download the session materials (PDF):
Software Synthesizers in Logic and GarageBand – Electronic Music EnsemblesDr. Harder’s composition “Fantasy (on victorious known triads)” was premiered by the WLU Wind Ensemble on April 28th, 2011 at the Capitol Music Hall in Wheeling, WV.
ORIGINAL COMPOSITIONS:
Fantasy (on victorious known triads)
Premiered by the WLU Wind Ensemble on April 28, 2011 at the Capitol Music Hall in Wheeling, WV.Catharsis for orchestra (excerpt)
The Cleveland Chamber Symphony performing.
MP3Skies of Couple Color movement 1 (excerpt)
Chamber piece for flute, clarinet, cello, piano, and two percussionists.
MP3Skies of Couple Color movement 2 (excerpt)
MP3
ORIGINAL ELECTRONIC MUSIC:
Dub Paper Scissors
This piece was composed by using original recordings of various sounds created by manipulating paper and scissors – either together or separately. The working title of the piece was “Paper Scissors Rock”, because my original intention was to create a virtual “rock drum kit” using only the aforementioned source material. As I worked with the recordings however, I found myself creating a groove more akin to today’s pop/dance music. The term “Dub” therefore replaced “Rock” in the title.
MP3With A Bang for snare drum and live electronic sound
MP3hanginthebalance
MP3fauxvertones (excerpt)
This piece is an experiment in tone and envelope generation in MaxMSP.
MP3A Memory (excerpt)
This piece is essentially one long, complicated, yet always soothing texture.
MP3linearclusterhymn (excerpt)
This piece is the conglomeration of three different MaxMSP patches originally created for my choir-orchestra-electronics piece VoiceSpace.
MP3AF 2.5 (excerpt)
“AF” (which stands for “After Feldman”) was created using MaxMSP. Morton Feldman’s atmospheric, slowly-evolving works were the inspiration.
MP3UDP (excerpt)
This piece was created using pure tones (sine, sawtooth, square waves) as raw material.
MP3
OTHER MUSIC:
Processional written for my sister’s wedding, which took place in Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Michigan
MP3Mystery Groove (excerpt)
MP3TV Music 2 (excerpt)
MP3Untitled
MP3
PERFORMANCE RECORDINGS:
Inspirations Diabolique by Rickey Tagawa
5th movement. Recorded at West Liberty.
MP3Wind in the Bamboo Grove by Keiko Abe (excerpt)
Marimba solo.
MP3
