Music 109: Notes on Experimental Music - Softcover

Lucier, Alvin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0819574929 ISBN 13: 9780819574923

Publisher: Wesleyan University Press, 2014

Synopsis

Composer and peformer Alvin Lucier brings clarity to the world of experimental music as he takes the reader through more than a hundred groundbreaking musical works, including those of Robert Ashley, John Cage, Charles Ives, Morton Feldman, Philip Glass, Pauline Oliveros, Steve Reich, Christian Wolff, and La Monte Young. Lucier explains in detail how each piece is made, unlocking secrets of the composers' style and technique. The book as a whole charts the progress of American experimental music from the 1950s to the present, covering such topics as indeterminacy, electronics, and minimalism, as well as radical innovations in music for the piano, string quartet, and opera. Clear, approachable and lively, Music 109 is Lucier's indispensable guide to late 20th-century composition. No previous musical knowledge is required, and all readers are welcome.

About this title

About the Author

ALVIN LUCIER is the John Spencer Camp Professor of Music emeritus at Wesleyan University. Since the mid-1960s, he has explored the natural characteristics of sound and the spaces in which they are heard. He is the author of Reflections/Reflexionen and coauthor, with Douglas Simon, of Chambers.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0819574929
• ISBN 13: 9780819574923
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 232