Composer Bear Woodson and MKULTRA

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A brief biography of
Modern Classical Composer
"Bear" Thomas C. Woodson

"Bear" Thomas C. Woodson was born in 1954 near Washington D.C. His father was military, so the family moved often around the US and Europe.
That included living on three different occasions, each: near Washington D.C., in Arizona and in Los Angeles Metropolitan. Woodson had some training in several languages and was also educated in Europe.

There was no exposure to Classical Music the Woodson family. As a small child that he could easily overhear conversations in any room of the house, but to prevent from getting into trouble, he learned to not repeat anything he overheard, unless it was spoken directly in front of him.

At age 16 Woodson had not only found all Popular Music boring, but began "hearing" symphonic music in his imagination. Despite having always planned to become a scientist or medical doctor, Woodson went to college as a Composer, and quickly displayed advanced skills at 18th and 20th Century "Music Theory" (the "Science of Harmony and all the Technical Features in Music"), orchestration and "Counterpoint" (the "Science of writing Parallel Melodies, being the Origin of Harmony, and especially used in Canons and Fugues" [pronounced as fyewggs]).

In the 1970's in college, Woodson was discovered to have a near-perfect Phonographic Memory for music and foreign languages, but does Not have Perfect Pitch. So he could perfectly write down pre-existing music that he'd heard, but in the wrong Key. He also had near-perfect scores in "Dichotic Listening", the very rare ability to hear "multiple melodies or multiple conversations, and write them down correctly later".

Woodson was also born with a Rare Genetic Trait for Liver Problems (Thalassemia Minor), so he suffered gall stones and ulcers from infancy onward, causing nightmares from the pain. He learned to control his dreams, so that in later years, he'd write and re-write difficult passages of music in his dreams, wake up and merely write down the final version. His 1970's college work was interrupted by 6 semesters lost to Jaundice from Hepatitis, which is typical for this syndrome.

From 1971 to 1976 Woodson attended Arizona State University with Ronald Lo Presti, who imbued him with an advanced understanding and love of Counterpoint and the 20th Century Harmonic Language called "Chromatic Functional Modality". In Woodson's style these harmonies sound like a blend of those used by "the Mid-20th Century Chromatic Modal Composers" like Hindemith, Bartók, Prokofieff, Shostakovich, Walton, etc.

After being hospitalized for his 7th bout of jaundice, Woodson completed his Bachelor's Degree in 3 semesters at "Cal Arts" ("California Institute of the Arts") by December 1977, where he studied mostly with Alan Chaplin. He was then awarded a Full Fellowship and studied from the summer of 1979 to the summer of 1980 with Dr. Peter Jona Korn, Head Composer and Director of the Richard Strauss Konservatorium in Munich Germany, from which Woodson still speaks German.

During the 1980's, Woodson moved back to Los Angeles, and worked in non-music related fields, but he did manage to take some classes at California State University at Northridge with composers: Drs. Beverly Grigsby, Daniel Kessner, and Aurelio de la Vega.

Woodson went bald in the Early 1980's and grew a beard, which he still has. He usually hides his head under a baseball cap, which everyone says makes him look like a 'redneck trucker'. The nickname "Bear" started and became a legal nickname by the year 2000.

By the Mid-1990's Woodson had moved back to Arizona State University and took his Master's Degree as a Composer and Music Theorist, with Specialties in Counterpoint and "Chromatic Functional Modality" under Drs. Randall Shinn and Chinary Ung. From this point onward, he wrote large amounts of Instrumental Music. (In the Classical Music Tradition most "instrumental works" are a set of three or four "movements" or "pieces of instrumental music", which usually total 15 to 30 minutes of playing time.)

Woodson is deliberately trying to use each major instrument of the orchestra in the roles of: unaccompanied sonatas, sonatas accompanied by piano, "chamber works" ("music for 2 to 12 players"), symphonies, concertos (a "concerto" is a "3-movement symphony with a Solo Instrument"), and "Konzertstücke" [pronounced as kone-SAIRT-shtew-kah] (meaning "concerti with only one-movement"). His "Konzertstücke" are often the Slow Middle Movements from one of his sonatas for an instrument accompanied by piano, but the piano has now been replaced with a String Orchestra. He also usually inserts his Complex, yet Lyrical, Counterpoint in at least one movement of most of his instrumental works.

Since the Early 1970's, Woodson had been asking about he Origins of the Several Kinds of Fugues from dozens of Composers and Music Theorists, only to find that None of them had given it a first thought. By the Mid-1990's, Woodson began investigating the Limits of what had Not Been Done with Canons and Fugues.

Many people don't understand that almost anyone can take a few years of advanced classes and learn how to compose New Melodies set to the Methods of PRE-EXISTING Kinds of Fugues. It takes hard work and talent, but it is far from being historically important.

But in 1936, Béla Bartók (1881-1945) set the standard, that if someone could Invent an ENTIRELY NEW Kind of Fugue, THAT is a Definition of Genius, as he Invented ONE that year! NO ONE else was able to invent another NEW Kind of Fugue since then . . . until Bear Woodson began inventing a Whole Series of them, beginning in 1999! (Johann Sebastian Bach [1685-1750] held the World's Record for arguably having invented as many as FOUR New Kinds of Fugues. The rest of Bach's hundreds of fugues, clearly fit into Pre-Existing Categories of Fugues, that were well-known from before his own birth.)

From 1999 onward Woodson began experimenting with those Contrapuntal Limits, and crossed those lines several times, resulting in writing some of the Longest Examples of Rare Kinds of Canons and Inventing Several Entirely NEW Kinds of Fugues. In 2005, Woodson sent Sample Scores of his first NINE, Copyrighted Fugues to experts in the US and Europe, and they confirmed that they can find "No Similar Fugues have never been written by any previous composer", thereby Proving Woodson to be the Inventor of each.

As of July 2009 Woodson's total includes having Invented 26 Entirely NEW Kinds of Fugues, which can be found in his various works for small ensemble,
7 Concerti (each for a different kind of Solo Instrument) and his huge First Symphony (an hour long). None of his music is for two hands on one piano alone; all his works that involve a piano require at least one other instrument with it. And he has written a number of Duos and Trios for wind instruments, which also use some of his Complex, yet Lyrical, Canons.
Woodson still does his best composing during his dreams, and then writes down the best results of that mental work, including one of his New Kinds of Fugues that uses 20 Overlapping Melodies!

In 1997 Woodson was diagnosed with "Adult Onset Diabetes", which is also called "Type 2 Diabetes". In combination with his Rare Genetic Trait for lifelong Bad Liver, he soon manifested an extremely rare type of Unconscious Episodes. First he will have a Diabetic "Crash", meaning that his "Blood Sugar Levels suddenly drop", often low enough to threaten coma or death within minutes. He quickly eats and drinks sugar to keep from dying, but the Shock of his Blood Sugar Levels rising that quickly force him to go Unconscious even faster, and lasting from one to eight hours each time. He then wakes up with a severe headache and muscle cramps lasting for days, as well as Amnesia for 24 to 48 Hours Surrounding the Unconscious Episode. The whole process is called a "Diabetic Black-Out" or more technically a "Hypoglycemic Syncopic Amnesiac Episode".

There is no cure, and regardless of how little sugar Woodson eats, while taking Almost No Insulin for the last two years, these "Diabetic Black-Outs"
still happen at random intervals with increasing frequency. By March 2010 they occur at a rate of 28 times each month, sometimes happening 2, 3 or 4 times in one day, for a total of Over 1,130 times in just the last 7years!
The fact that he has survived this many "Diabetic Black-Outs" is being investigated as a Possible World's Record.
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A brief Explanation of the
New Kinds of Fugues invented by
Modern Classical Composer
"Bear" Thomas C. Woodson

"Bear" Thomas C. Woodson was born in 1954 into a family that had no exposure to Classical Music at all. The Beatles became famous when he was 9, and at first he was a big fan, but didn't know why he found all Popular Music boring by the age of 14. He always did have a very analytical mind, and had expected to become a scientist or medical doctor. But by age 16 Woodson began "hearing" symphonic music in his imagination and went on to college to be a Composer, learning "Counterpoint" and "Music Theory" at a ravenous pace. As a child he had learned how to control his dreams, so when he began composing, he'd write and re-write complex passages of music in his dreams, wake up and merely write down the final version.

"Counterpoint" is the "Science of manipulating Melodies into Canons and Fugues" [pronounced as fyewggs], which are basically "Musical Puzzles". All Modern Harmony evolved from Counterpoint.

In Counterpoint the word "Voice" means "a Melody Line", regardless if it is "scored for" a singer, instrument, or is just one of several melody lines being played on a keyboard instrument. When a Bach Fugue says it is "written in 3 Voices" it only uses only "3 Melody Lines", (only "3 Notes at any
time") throughout the piece, but sometimes he'd use more "Voices" or "Notes"
in the very last few chords.

"Music Theory" is the "Science of Harmony and all the Technical Things in Music". An Expert in Harmony is properly called a "Music Theorist".

Harmony evolved in stages of complexity over the centuries, with a "Harmonic Language Era" lasting about 250 years. There is "Functional Harmony" which includes "Tonality" or "Modality", while "Non-Functional Harmony" consists of things like "12-Tone-Formula" and "Aleatoric"
("Random") Harmony which are commonly called "Noise" by most people. Woodson has always opposed Non-Functional Harmony and only uses "Chromatic Functional Harmony" which is "mainly Modal Harmony, but includes some Tonal and Quartal Harmony".

The term "Popular Music" was coined in the Middle Ages by Music Conservatory Students, and basically means "music written by and for Music-Theory-Illiterate people". Not only does 21st Century Popular Music rarely use anything more clever than the baby-simple standards of 4/4 Meter and 5 Chords or Less, it still uses Key Signatures. Key Signatures began to evolve in the 1400's, were Common Knowledge by 1700, and were abandoned by many "Modern Classical Composers" in the Early 20th Century! Most 21st Century Popular Music never uses anything more modern than 1830's Harmony.
It's no wonder that a natural-born Music Theorist and Contrapuntist like Woodson would find all 20th and 21st Century Popular Music wanting.

Woodson began his studies of Counterpoint and Music Theory in 1971. He soon started asking questions about he Origins of the many Kinds of Fugues, from many Composers and Music Theorists, only to find that None of them had given it a first thought.

Many Canons are in "2 Voices" or "2 Melody Lines", with one "Voice"
following the other In the Same Key.

For example, "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" is a "4-Voiced Canon" built entirely on only ONE Chord, so even if everyone sings it in tune, it gets boring quickly.

"Frère Jacques" is a Canon built on 2 Alternating Chords, so it has a little more Harmonic Interest. (When trying to prove a point to Counterpoint-Illiterate audiences, Bear Woodson often uses the rule: The more Complex the Fugue is, the Simpler the Harmony should be. He sometimes does this '2-Alternating-Chords Method' for his Highly Complex Fugues.)

But in a Fugue, each time a new "Voice" enters with the Melody, it is in a Different Key! The Harmony can be Very Complex in a Fugue, so a Fugue is like a Canon, but with a Higher IQ.

In a "4-Voiced" ("4-Melody-Line") Fugue, a Short Melody called a "Fugue Subject" is tossed about by the "4 Voices". Each "Voice" gets to have a turn playing that "Fugue Subject". After each "Voice" has played the "Fugue Subject", it then can either play simple accompaniment or goes silent, while the next "Voice" enters with the "Fugue Subject" in a Different Key.

Fugues evolved out of Canons from the 1480's until there were about a Dozen Categories of Fugues in common usage by the to 1680's, when Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was born. Although we know the names of many of the Early Fugal Composers, we can Not PROVE Exactly WHEN each new Kind of Fugue was Invented, nor WHO invented it. This is because they almost never wrote the Exact Dates on their music. But they did show their works to their Apprentices and competing Master Composers, who would then Out-Do them by one more step of complexity, as soon as possible. Therefore we may never know Who invented Which of these Kinds of Fugue:

Small Form Fugues,
Large Form Fugues (with 4 Expositions),
Canonic Fugues (Fugues that "overlap" the Subjects in 2 Voices), Stretto Fugues (Fugues that "overlap" the Subjects in 3 or 4 Voices), Tonal Answer Fugues, Real Answer Fugues, Repeated Note Fugues, Motivic Fugues, Fugues that use Inversion, "Mirror" Fugues, which can be different from Contrary Motion Fugues, Fugues using Diminution, Fugues using Augmentation, Fugue Voices with additional accompaniment, Fugues with a Toccata Ending, Fugues that use Extra Voices in the Final Chords, Counter Subject Fugues, Double Fugues, Triple Fugues, Quadruple Fugues, True 4-Voiced Fugues on an Unaccompanied Violin, Fugues with a whole Exposition in Inversion, Fugues with a whole Exposition in Inversion on an Unaccompanied Violin, etc.

The only times when we can PROVE that someone Invented a New Kind of Fugue were Two Times in the 20th Century: by composers Ernst Toch and Béla Bartók.

In the 1920's in Berlin, Ernst Toch (1887-1964) invented the "Rhythmic Fugue" in his "Geographical Fugue" for Spoken SATB Choir. Since it is NOT a "Pitch-Based" ("Melody-Based) Fugue, many Music Theorists have dismissed it as a petty joke. Ernst Toch admitted that he wrote it as a joke, but by the Late 20th Century a growing number of Music Theorists started to consider it more seriously. Bear Woodson does too, with the caveat that it is a "NON-Pitch-Based Fugue".

Then in 1936, there is the famous "Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta" by Béla Bartók (1881-1945). This work did Many Impressive, Original things, for which some of Academia initially snubbed him, but eventually he was recognized to be a Genius! It may be the First and Only Nine-Voiced Fugue albeit without a Conventional Separate "Development Exposition". It is also the First "Changing Meters Fugue" in Modern Functional Harmony, clearly making it a NEW Kind of Pitch-Based Fugue. NO ONE else "Invented" another New Kind of Fugue after that, until "Bear" Woodson Invented a whole series of them starting in 1999.

By the 1480's, Music Notation had finally evolved enough for composers to discover, what Woodson calls, the "Four Directions of a Melody" of:

"Original",
"Inversion" ("Upside-Down"),
"Retrograde" ("Backwards") and
"Retrograde-Inversion" (which is both "Backwards and Upside-Down").

On rare occasions, a few composers would overlap "Two Directions of a Melody" in Canons.

Johannes Ockeghem (ca. 1410-1497) wrote his lovely "Cancrizans Canons", which we now call "Retrograde Canons", because they would overlap the Original melody with itself written-out going Backwards.

Bach and Mozart wrote a few "Inversion Canons", where the Original melody would overlap itself written out Upside-Down.

In the Tafelmusik Era (1650 to 1750) there were a few "Retrograde-Inversion Canons", but they were usually in "Diatonic Intervals"
("notes within the Key Signature"). "Retrograde-Inversion Canons" in "REAL Intervals" would usually violate the Key Signature and sound "out of tune", so that would make harmony too complex for that time period, but worked just fine in 20th Century Classical Music.

By the Mid-1990's, Woodson began investigating the Limits of what had Not Been Done in Canons and Fugues, and was soon expanding across those limits. In 1999 he invented his First New Kind of Fugue, being a "Variation Fugue", akin to the concept of Canonic Variations in the Bach "Goldberg Variations", but basing Each Next Fugal Exposition on a New Variation of the Fugue Subject.

Before May 2003, no one ever heard of overlapping All FOUR Directions of a Melody at the Same Time, in "Functional" ["NON-12-Tone-Formula"] Harmony, until Bear Woodson invented the First "Quadruple Directional Stretto Fugue"
("QDS Fugue").

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) held the World's Record for arguably having invented as many as FOUR New Kinds of Fugues. The rest of Bach's hundreds of fugues, clearly fit into Pre-Existing Categories of Fugues, that were well-known from before his own birth.) But in 2005, Bear Woodson sent Sample Scores of his first NINE, Copyrighted Fugues to experts in the US and Europe, and they Authenticated them saying, "No Similar Fugues have never been written by any previous composer", thereby Proving Woodson to be the Inventor of each.

By July 2009, Bear Woodson has invented 26 New Kinds of Fugues, including one that uses 20 Overlapping Melodies! His favorite is the "QDS Fugue" which he has used over 20 times in various Chamber and Orchestral Works. To date, none of his Fugues is for 'two hands on one piano alone', as all require 'at least one other instrument with a piano', if not three instruments, to a full orchestra. Some of his New Kinds of Fugues appear in at least one movement of his several sonatas for an instrument accompanied by piano, and concerti for a solo instrument accompanied by an orchestra.
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