Alvin Lucier: Reflections

Contents

Prefaces

• Pauline Oliveros: Poet of Electronic Music
• James Tenney: The Eloquent Voice of Nature

Interviews with Douglas Simon

• “. . . to let alpha be itself”. Music for Solo Performer
• “. . . and listen to the ocean again”. Chambers
• Taking Slow Audio Photographs of the Space. Vespers
• “Every room has its own melody”. “I am sitting in a room”
• Imitating One Set of Sounds with Another. (Hartford) Memory Space
• A Metaphor for One’s Life. Quasimodo the Great Lover
• Composite Identities. The Duke of York
• Imaginary Imagery. Gentle Fire
• Seeing Sound. The Queen of the South, Tyndall Orchestrations
• Making Audible That Which Is Inaudible. Still and Moving Lines of Silence in Families of Hyperbolas
• “Do you know how robins turn their heads to listen?” Outlines of Persons and Things, Bird and Person Dyning
• The Poetry of Science. Music on a Long Thin Wire
• Sound Shadows. Directions of Sounds from the Bridge

Interviews with Daniel Wolf

• “The gods appear out of nowhere”. Crossings, Nothing is Real
• “The sound melts into the environment”. Fragments for Strings, Navigations for Strings
• “The simple is the difficult”. Panorama, Six Geometries

Conversations

• “Creating a new kind of a music for me” (Barney Childs)
• “. . . when you stutter, you scan the language” (Walter Zimmermann)
• “With and without a purpose” (Robert Ashley)
• “Discovery is part of the experience” (William Duckworth)
• “I’m cutting things down to their simplest form” (James Tenney)
• “The form of the piece is a search” (Arne Deforce)
• “You never know what’s going to happen” (James Saunders)

About Own Work

• Music for Solo Performer 1965
• The Making of North American Time Capsule
• Program Proposal for Pepsi-Cola Pavilion
• The Propagation of Sound in Space
• The Tools of My Trade
• Clocker
• Sferics
• Seesaw
• Wall with Vertical Slit
• Sound on Paper
• Pasta for Tired Dancers
• Thoughts on Installations
• Skin, Meat, Bone
• String Quartets
• Origins of a Form
• My Affairs with Feedback
• Fruits and Vegetables

About Others    

• A Letter to Frederic Rzewski
• An Open Letter to the Artistic Director of the Ojai Music Festival
• I Remember Morty
• Collaborations with John Cage
• Soba
• The Sonic Arts Union
• Avant-garde and Experiment
• The Future of Our Music
• Preface to Robert Ashley’s book Outside of Time
• Notes on Verbal Notation
• The Local is the Universal
• In Memoriam David Tudor, Robert Ashley, Reinhard Oehlschlägel, Pauline Oliveros                                     

Scores      

• Music for Solo Performer
• Shelter
• Chambers
• Vespers
• The Only Talking Machine of Its Kind in the World
• “I am sitting in a room”
• (Hartford) Memory Space
• Hymn
• Quasimodo the Great Lover
• The Duke of York
• Gentle Fire
• The Queen of the South
• Tyndall Orchestrations
• Still and Moving Lines of Silence in Families of Hyperbolas
• Outlines of Persons and Things
• Bird and Person Dyning
• Music on a Long Thin Wire
• Directions of Sounds from the Bridge
• Ghosts
• Words on Windy Corners
• Lullaby
• Music for Pure Waves, Bass Drums and Acoustic Pendulums                                                                  
• Risonanza
• Precious Metals
• Attaché Case
• Silver Streetcar for the Orchestra
• Carbon Copies
• Music for Snare Drum, Pure Wave Oscillators and One or More Reflective Surfaces
• Indian Summer
• Music for Cello with One or More Amplified Vases
• Music for Piano with Half-closed Lid
• Empty Vessels

Program and Liner Notes

• Partita, Fragments for Strings, Action Music
• Music for Solo Performer
• Vespers
• (Hartford) Memory Space
• “I am sitting in a room”
• Quasimodo the Great Lover
• The Queen of the South
• RMSIM 1
• Still and Moving Lines of Silence in Families of Hyperbolas
• Bird and Person Dyning
• Music on a Long Thin Wire
• Shapes of the Sounds from the Board
• Music for Pure Waves, Bass Drums and Acoustic Pendulums                                                                  
• Sferics
• Crossings
• Seesaw
• Spinner
• In Memoriam Jon Higgins
• Serenade (1985)
• Septet
• Homage to James Tenney
• Kettles
• Fideliotrio
• Silver Streetcar for the Orchestra
• Self-Portrait
• Nothing Is Real
• Music for Piano with Amplified Sonorous Vessels
• Amplifier and Reflector One
• Navigations for Strings
• Possible Time and Motion Reversals
• Music for Piano with One or More Snare Drums
• Music for Piano with Slow Sweep Pure Wave Oscillators
• Six Geometries
• Sol 432
• StacksMusic for Piano with Half-closed Lid
• In Memoriam Stuart Marshall
• Serenade (1993)
• Panorama
• Serenade (1994)
• Wind Shadows, Distant Drums, Music for Gamelan Instruments Microphones, Amplifiers and Loudspeakers
• Disappearances
• The Sacred Fox
• Spira Mirabilis
• Spider Paths
• Two Stones
• Unamuno
• Night Sounds with Flame
• Sierpinski Lines
• Chinese Space
• Theme
• Music for Piano with Magnetic Strings
• Still Lives
• Sound on Glass
• Empty Vessels
• Small Waves
• Opera with Objects
• Wave Painting Songs
• Heavier than Air
• On a Carpet of Leaves Illuminated by the Moon
• Piper
• Ovals
• Almost New York
• Ever Present
• Charles Curtis
• Fan
• Tapper
• Coda Variations
• Man Ray
• Twonings
• Broken Line
• Bumps
• Slices
• Trio for Clarinet Cello and Six-valve Tuba
• Miniature                                                                    
• ICEcles
• Check
• Two Circles
• Braid
• Codex
• Criss Cross
• Palimpsest
• Shadow Lines
• Orpheus Variations
• Hanover
• Gondola
• Audibles
• Love Song
• Sickle
• Double Helix
• V
• Flight Paths
• Tilted Arc
• Corner Church and High
• Monteverdi Shapero
• Halo, Bone Moon
• Arrigoni Bridge
• Flips
• Key West
• Three Cardboard Boxes

List of Works

Text Credits

Photo Credits

Index of Names