Christopher Gable
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Director of Graduate Studies, Teaching Associate Professor, Music
- Rock History, Music History, Music Technology, Composition
Contact Info
- Email: christopher.gable@UND.edu
- Office: 701.777.6190
- Dept: 701.777.2644
Office Address
Hughes Fine Arts Center Room 276
3350 Campus Road Stop 7125
Grand Forks, ND 58202-7125
Office Hours
Tuesdays, 1-2pm
Fridays, 11am-12pm
Websites
Biography
Christopher Gable is a composer, author, and music instructor based in Grand Forks, North Dakota, where he also teaches theory and Rock History at the University of North Dakota. His music has been performed all across the Americas and in Shanghai, China. His music frequently includes references to and variations on all kinds of popular music. His commissions include works premiered by several UND ensembles and performers, including the UND Piano Studio, North Dakota Trombone Choir, the UND Trumpet Ensemble, the UND Concert Choir, Duo Cantabile, the Steel Pan Ensemble, Dr. Nariaki Sugiura, and several student performers. Other ensembles that have commissioned works from Dr. Gable are the Anderson Duo, the International Music Camp, the Minnesota Philharmonic, One Voice Mixed Chorus, Trio Carrefour, the dream songs project, Zeitgeist, and the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra (Minneapolis). Dr. Gable’s most recent opera is The Ladysmith Story, which celebrates the town of Ladysmith, Wisconsin and premiered in July 2010. He has previously taught at Macalester College, the University of Minnesota and St. Olaf College. Gable studied at the University of Minnesota and UC Santa Barbara; his principal teachers were Dominick Argento, Judith Lang Zaimont, and Emma Lou Diemer. His music is published by Tap Space, Dorn Publications and Warwick Music. He has written two books about popular musicians, The Words and Music of Sting and The Words and Music of Sheryl Crow, which were both published by Praeger Publishers. Dr. Gable was named a 2013 Artist Fellow from the North Dakota Council on the Arts.
MUSC 201 Rock & Roll History 1: From WWII to 1975
MUSC 202 Rock & Roll History 2: From 1975 to the Present
MUSC 277 New Music Ensemble
MUSC 310 Music History 1
MUSC 311 Music History 2
MUSC 340 Introduction to Music Technology
MUSC 341 Music Technology & Orchestration
MUSC 345 Introduction to Songwriting
MUSC 454 Composition lessons
MUSC 490/508 Seminar in Music (Spring 2023: The Beatles)
MUSC 500 Introduction to Graduate Study in Music
MUSC 502 Perspectives in Music Theory
Past courses:
MUSC 101 Fundamentals of Music (online)
MUSC 203 Music & Culture
MUSC 230 Theory III
MUSC 234 Theory IV
MUSC 231 Aural Skills III
MUSC 235 Aural Skills IV
MUSC 423 Instrumental & Choral Arranging
MUSC 427 Analysis of Musical Form
MUSC 428 Counterpoint
MUSC 429 Class Composition
MUSC 501 Graduate Theory Review
Fine Arts 150 Introduction to the Fine Arts (online)
20th- and 21st-century music
Popular Music theory & analysis
Composition
BOOKS:
The Words and Music of Sting. Praeger Publishers, 2009.
The Words and Music of Sheryl Crow. Praeger Publishers, 2016.
RECENT PERFORMANCES (as composer):
Alarum Within, for trombone octet, commissioned and premiered by the North Dakota Trombone Choir at the International Trombone Festival (July 2022)
Suite of Uncommon Dances, for cello & piano, commissioned by the Music Teachers Association of North Dakota, premiered by Erik and Dianna Anderson (June 2022)
Shadows Blue and Red, for bass clarinet, loop pedal, and piano, performed by Jeremy Wohletz and David Sorenson for Virtual ClarinetFest (July 2021)
Songs of Childhood for string orchestra, performed by the UND Chamber Orchestra. (December 2019)
Waltztumble for brass quintet, performed by the International Brass Quintet. Commissioned by the International Music Camp. (June 2019)
Hold On (Pueblo Blessing) for SATB choir & piano, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Commissioned by the St. Amant High School Choirs. (April 2018)
Homesteading for SATB choir a capella, performed by the Otterbein University Concert Choir, Westerville, Ohio. Part of the Great Lakes Regional Conference of the College Music Society. (April 2018)
Circuit Dance for percussion trio, performed by Dr. Brian Pfeifer, Alec Hepper, and Yuesen Yang. (October 2017)
North Dakota Council on the Arts Special Projects Grant, 2022
North Dakota Council on the Arts Artist Fellowship, 2013.
PhD, Music Composition, University of Minnesota
MA, Music Composition, University of Minnesota
BA, Music, University of California Santa Barbara