Hykes, David (Bond)

Hykes, David (Bond), distinctive American composer and vocalist; b. Taos, N.Mex., March 2, 1953. He studied filmmaking at Antioch Coll. in Ohio (1970–74), and arts administration at Columbia Univ. (M.F.A., 1984). He also studied classical Azerbaijani and Armenian music with Zevulon Avshalomov (1975–77) and north Indian räga singing with S. Dahr (1982). In 1975 he founded the Harmonic Choir, whose members employ vocal techniques borrowed from Tibetan and Mongolian music in which strongly resonated upper partials are produced in addition to the fundamental tone. From 1979 the ensemble was in residence at the ideal location of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in N.Y., and from 1980 made tours of the U.S. and Europe. In 1981 Hykes traveled to Mongolia under the auspices of the Asian Cultural Council. In 1987 he settled in Paris, where he founded the Choeur Harmonique, which, in 1999, made a major U.S. tour. Hykes’s compositions for voice use harmonics to produce rich waves of slowly changing sounds over diatonic melodies; the result resembles a sort of modernized chant with an ethereal haze of overtones. Among such compositions are Hearing Solar Winds (1977-83), Current Circulation (1983-84), and Harmonic Meetings (1986). Particularly noteworthy CD recordings are Let the Lover Be (1996), with Chemirani, zarb, and True to the Times (How to Be?) (1993), with Peter Biffin, dobro, Bruno Caillât, darf and zarb, and Tony Lewis, tabla. Hykes has also written several film and television scores and a number of instrumental works.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire