David First
Illustration — David First. David First (born David Hirsch, August 20, 1953) is an American composer and guitarist. His music most often deals with drones and interference beats, the latter aligning his music with that of Alvin Lucier.
David First
- Born
- 1953 · Philadelphia.
- Nationality
- United States
- Occupation
- composer · musician
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wikidata · Q1174428 · wikipedia · David First
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Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
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Career
Career
He has led the World Casio Quartet, Joy Buzzers, and The Notekillers which originally existed from 1977–81 and reformed in 2004. He is also a member of Matter Waves, which includes Kid Millions on drums and Bernard Gann on bass, and the music collective New Party Systems.
David First played with Cecil Taylor at Carnegie Hall. He studied guitar & jazz theory with Dennis Sandole. He also audited analog & computer synthesis classes at Princeton University. He befriended a grad-student there who allowed him unlimited access to the largely abandoned electronic music studio. He composed his first works in the medium there in after-hours sessions. His albums include 1991's Resolver, instrumental pieces influenced by minimalism and 2002's relatively pop-oriented Universary, which consists of "songs and drones". More recent releases include 2010's We're Here to Help (Prophase Records) by The Notekillers and Privacy Issues, a 3-CD set of droneworks on the XI label. In 1995 First, along with visual artist Patricia Smith created an opera, The Manhattan Book of the Dead, which was presented at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club's Annex Theater in 1995 and The Washaus in Potsdam, Germany in 1996. First received a 2001 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award. In January 2012, the music collective, New Party Systems, an ensemble containing First, released a song First wrote (C2011 Silent Graph Music ASCAP), "We Are" –– an anthem for the 99%, with a video by director, Toni Comas.
Documentary record
David First is described as a musician and composer in the authority records of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
New Party System
New Party System
• "Listen/Watch: Members of TVOTR, Liturgy Record an Occupy Wall Street Anthem", PitchFork.com.
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Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article David First, revision 1350822432 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 21 August 2026.
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