Steve Tittle

Education and Training

Steve Tittle studied composition at Kent State University with Harold Miles, John White and Fred Coulter, and at the University of Wisconsin in Madison with Hilmar Luckhardt, Robert Crane and Burt Levy. He received a bachelor’s degree (B SC) in music education from Kent State University (1965), as well as a master’s degree (M MUS; 1966) and a doctorate (DMA; 1974) from the University of Wisconsin.

Career Highlights

Steve Tittle was a school music teacher in Ohio (1962–65), and his early performance experience was as a trumpet player in US Navy bands and in ensembles in Ohio and Wisconsin. In 1970 he joined Dalhousie University, where in 1990 he was associate professor of composition and theory.

Founder and co-designer of the Dalhousie Experimental-Electronic Sound Studio, he also inaugurated an improvisation ensemble, Murphy's Law, which has evolved into the new music ensemble. He was a 1971 charter member, secretary and artistic director (1981–86) of NOVA MUSIC and in 1989, together with several other Halifax professional musicians, created its successor, Upstream.

In these enterprises, and in numerous solo and ensemble appearances in the city, as conductor, organizer, trumpet and flügelhorn player, and mallet percussionist, he was a catalyst for new music performance life in the Maritimes, in particular introducing the potential of synthesizer and tape composition to the region. He was a charter member of the Atlantic Canadian Composers Association and producer of its chamber music recording.

Tittle was commissioned by the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra and Symphony Nova Scotia, Music Gallery, New Music Concerts, CBC Radio, the Canadian Electronic Ensemble, the Kronos Quartet, Lawrence Cherney, Rivka Golani, Philippe Djokic, the Atlantic Camera Trio, the Karr-Lewis Duo, Scotia Festival, Technical University of Nova Scotia, and Dalhousie University. He also wrote for CBC Radio drama, the National Film Board, and the Nova Scotia Communications and Information Centre. He was an associate of the Canadian Music Centre.

Work as a Composer

Steve Tittle was a prolific composer, primarily in smaller forms; he recorded only one album, (one of the) merely players. Drawing on influences from jazz, minimalist, and non-Western musics, he created in each piece an original statement that is subtle, novel, and engaging both for the performer and the listener. Works such as “orange-blossom book,” “it is all there all the time,” “where there is no other (only we),” “let it shine all the time,” “messages (four),” and “what finally matters most is grace” are poised between Western and Asian aesthetics: an impression of timelessness and of the mobile tend to disguise tight control of material and logical, dynamic conclusions. The interplay between tape and performer in “innocence and natural right,” “salvation dharma band,” and “only/other/always” achieves a linear unity and contrapuntal contrast that is both lyric and deft.

Selected Compositions

• “It is all there all the time” (1972)
• “Orange-blossom book” (1976)
• “Where there is no other (only we)” (1976)
• “Let it shine all the time” (1977)
• “Messages (one)” (1978)
• “Mourning the loss of our demons” (1978-82)
• “Dreamspeaker” (1979)
• “Innocence and natural right” (1980)
• “Salvation dharma band” (1981)
• (One of the) merely players (1982)
• “Just like yr daddy done” (1983)
• “Mediterranean eyes” (1984)
• “Messages (four)" (1984)
• “What finally matters most is grace” (1985)
• “Only/other/always” (1987)
• “Dreams about dancing” (1989)