Mary Jane Leach (born 1949)
Mary Jane Leach was born in Vermont and is now based in New York City. Her website states:
In many of her works Leach creates an otherworldly sound environment using difference, combination, and interference tones; these are tones not actually sounded by the performers, but acoustic phenomena arising from Leach’s deft manipulation of intonation and timbral qualities. The result is striking music that has a powerful effect on listeners.
Mary Jane Leach is also the primary archivist of the music of the late composer Julius Eastman, and she co-edited the book Gay Guerilla: Julius Eastman and His Music.
This is her gorgeous and haunting 1993 composition Xantippe’s Rebuke for solo oboe and 8 taped oboes:
Xanthippe was the much younger wife of Socrates. Although the 8 prerecorded oboe parts are rather rhythmically rigid (which is helpful for the solo part of keep time), the solo part is more flexible and lyrical.
Her 2007 composition Bach’s Set uses overdubbed cellos with a motif from one of Bach’s cello suites: