Charles Dodge
with Joan Thomson
39 Claremont Ave., NYC
January 31, l978
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Side A pp. 1-17
beginning of computer involvement--[Godfrey Winham]--Jim Randall at Tanglewood, 1965--Columbia University, 1964-65--Ussachevsky--University of Iowa--Princeton, 1966-67--Muget’s Monologue of a Mass Murderer--Rotar--Columbia studio and lecture contacts--studio equipment--Druckman and Animus I--Ghent and Hex-- University of Iowa--Girl in a Landscape for David Abrahamson film--differing opinions of computer generated music--Princeton--learning Music IV--Bell Labs--A Compositions for Converted Digital Tape--working at IBM’s reseach center, Watson Laboratories, in Westchester--programming electric sounds--Changes-Library of Congress commission and the Changes--Max Mathews--working at Bell Labs--Luening--Babbitt--James Tenney--The Stochastic String Quartet--teaching at Princeton and working on dissertation for doctorate degree--[John Clough]--outside influences on Dodge’s electronic music--Earth’s Magnetic Field--NASA
Side B pp. 17-23
NASA influences: Earth’s Magnetic Field--Nonesuch productions--Tracy Stern--Matthews: Bicycle Built For Two--speech synthesis by analysis--Tanglewood commission--speech at American Society of University Composers--Joe Olive--synthetic speech--”Happy Birthday, Dear Transistor”--Speech Songs--Guggenheim grant
September 28, 1978
Side C pp. 24-39
background for creation of speech synthesis--Ussachevsky’s electronic music course--Ilhan Mimaroglu--from tape to computer--Godfrey Winham--Princeton--Fromm Tanglewood commission--Folia--J.K. Randall commission--Mudget Pieces--Columbia, Fall 1965--University of Iowa acoustics course--electronic music--beginning to compose--family influence--Schumann’s Scenes of Childhood--Stan Kenton’s summer band clinic--Stan Kenton scholarship to Berklee--Boston Symphony--Stravinsky--Hindemith--Leon Kirchner--Nicolai Lopatnikoff--Berlioz--Beethoven--Iowa State Symphony--Minneapolis Symphony--Cincinnati Orchestra--New England Conservatory--private lessons with Richard Hervig at Iowa--electronic music from the pop scene--Jacob Druckman--Beatles--Les Paul and Mary Ford--How High the Moon--Frank Zappa--[John Lansheimer’s] influence--Stockhausen--Boulez--Nono--Berio--[Ronzheimer’s] influence--Schoenberg--Webern--Berg--Dallapiccola--Harvey Sollberger--Charles Wuorinen--Joel Krosnick--Gunther Schuller--Luening working with Ussachevsky--Low Speed--style comparison--Milton Babbitt--Earth’s Magnetic Field--Mozart--computer music analysis
Side D pp. 39-49
[Godfrey Winham’s] course at Princeton--Music IV B--revising process description--early years at Nevis Labs and present at Bell Labs--equipment--IBM system--John Hollander--Max Matthews--Columbia computer center--Kenneth King--Joseph Olive--[Flanagan]--FORTRAN--bugetary issues--disseratation committee--Changes--teaching at Priceton--Columbia DMA--Chowning--PhD programs--Ussachevsky--Columbia and musique concrete--opinion of students
October 12, 1978
Side E pp.49-65
Max Mathews and making vocal music out of speech synthesis--Speech Songs--Jim Tenney--Bennington Composers Conference--Audio Engineering Society--International Lullaby--Joe Olive--David Reck--Festival of Contemporary Music--Jim Randall--John Hollander’s poem, “Humming”--setting the poem to music and computer specific instumentation--formant tracking method of synthesizing speech--Bell Lab’s linear predictive coding method for speech synthesization--comparison of the two methods--American Society of University Composers annual conference in Houston--lectures at Hampshire College and junior high school in Holyoke, MA.--making computer films-- history of Earth’s Magnetic Field--Nonesuch and record success--NASA/Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Bartel’s musical diagrams--progression from Earth’s Magnetic Field to Changes--Crumb’s Ancient Voices of Children--Strand’s poems--When I Am With You, I Am In Two Places At Once.--problems with splicing--Speech Songs--syllabification of sounds--”Happy Birthday”
Side F pp. 65-71
making polyphony out of synthetic voices--The Story of Our Lives--In Celebration--1975 Academy Award--1973 Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary American Music--Ives--Steinberg--Peter Maxwell Davies--Rockwell’s critique in High Fidelity of Speech Songs and discussion of other critics---personal growth after and feelings about Speech Songs
November 30, 1978
Side G pp. 71-85
computer problems at Brooklyn College--Harold Alice--computer equipment--Center for Computer Music, Inc--[Cecil Coker-]-starting the non-profit organization--equipment transportation and connections--Harold Alice’s company, The Crewmar--Music IV--Music V--different types of synthesis--John Chowning--Speech Songs--Joe Olive--Max Matthews--[Dmitri Deviatkin]--ACA--David Cooper--Kitchen festival--TriForm by Leslie Bassett--Machines of Loving Grace by Leon Smith--Study Number 3 by Joe Olive--Ussachevsky--The Victims of Song of My Lai by Elias Tannenbaum--ACA involvement--CRI--former presidents of CRI--Folio & Martha Baird Rockerfeller Foundation--Extensions & ACA--record sales at CRI and Nonesuch--George Crumb--Koussevitsky--Richard Smith at North Texas State
Side H pp. 85-95
CRI--RCA--Columbia--Joan Tower--Da Capo Chamber Players--International Society for Contemporary Music--Wourinen & Sollberger & Roussakis--political problems a composer faces--American Composer’s Alliance--Group for Contemporary Music--Boulez--Maxwell Davies--Michael Colgrass--Elliott Carter--Gunther Schuller--Lukas Foss--academic versus cultural institutions--Third String Quartet--Double Concerto--Concerto for Piano and Harpsichord--contemporary music--John Cage--emotional reactions and communicative composing--Luciano Berio--Jacob Druckman--Karlheinz Stockhausen--Bruno Maderna--Luigi Nono--Varese--Milton Babbitt--American Music Center--Ezra Laderman--Leo Kraft--American Academy of Arts and Letters--Stuart Pope--Claire Brook--Stereo Review article on Wuorinen--In Celebration--Evanston conference--Cascando--balancing thoughts and responsibilities
January 24, 1979
Side I pp. 95-110
commission for trumpet and tape--Bennington Composers Conference--Ron Anderson--Earth’s Magnetic Field--Speech Songs--Jacques Monod--Mario Davidovsky--Cascando--glissandoing--problems and potentials of electronic music--Stokowski Modern Museum--live music in a tape format--Palinode--Extensions--live performance--Ronnie Anderson--Thomas Stevens--Group for Contemporary Music at the Manhattan School--The Story of Our Lives--Mark Strand poetry--pitched glottal simulation--Stevie Wonder choruses--Columbia conversion system--NEA grant--Strand and Beckett--In Celebration--comparison with Speech Songs--The Story of Our Lives--imagry, texture, and emotion--Cascando--[Sam Tsoutsouvas]--[Steven Gilborne]--musicalizing Beckett
Side J pp.110-119
Cascando--musicalizing Samuel Beckett--legal issues--BMI--ASCAP--payment schedules--characters in Cascando--Extensions--analysis of Cascando--stage performance--future technology--Story of Our Lives
February 22, 1979
Side K pp.119-124
Max Mathews and development of techniques for computer music--compossitional algorhythms--International Lullaby--Boulez- IRCOM
Side L pp. 124-133
Dodge’s view on conferences--interdependence between musicians and technologists (Barry Vercoe) Brahms, Corelli, Stradivarius, Hal Alles)--next generation of equipment--the computer music journal--universities and computer music (Columbia Computer Center)--setting up Dodge’s system at Brooklyn (Dick Moore, John Appleton, Dave Wessel, Gary Nelson, Dexter Moore, John Melby, Larry Austin, Joel Chadaby, Roger Reynolds, Morton Subotnick)--interest in Dodge’s speech synthesis work--the commission at Tully Hall (Copland, Thomson, Dennis Russell Davies, Changes--trade off between composing and getting exposure--history and usage of Caruso voice--That Time--the Alice system and real time (Anthony Braxton)--reasons for Dodge’s interest in computer music.
AMERICAN MUSIC SERIES 205 n-q
Charles Dodge
With Ingram Marshall
July 29, 2003
Putney, VT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Side n pp. 1-29
Growing up in Ames, Iowa--his family--playing piano, violin and saxophone--playing in concert band, marching band, dance bands--exposure to jazz--Berklee School of Music--study at University of Iowa--Harvey Sollberger--study with Richard Hervig--Compositions in five Parts--influence of Varèse--influence of Ralph Shapey--John Ronsheim--arrival at Columbia in 1964--Folia--study at Columbia--scholarship at Tanglewood summer of '64--influences--Folia--Group for Contemporary Music--Rota--study with Ussachevsky--study at Princeton with Godfrey Winham--influence of J.K. Randall--James Tenney--working with the computer at that time--Changes: Columbia dissertation--working with Bell Labs and Max Matthews--running computer programs at Columbia--opening up of Columbia musicology to more recent music--defending the dissertation.
Side o pp. 29-61
Being the first DMA in composition at Columbia--Earth's Magnetic Field--release of Earth's Magnetic Field on Nonesuch and its popularity--teaching at Columbia--switch to Brooklyn College--Milton Babbitt--using speech recordings as the basis for computer synthesis--John Cage: Roratorio and HPSCHD--Speech Songs--Mark Strand--concert at the Kitchen in NYC--Story of Our Lives--In Celebration--giving lectures in Europe--text-song people in Sweden--festival in Bourges, France--American Composers Alliance--American Music Center--national composer/music information centers--Extensions--Palinode--Samuel Barber--offer of an associate professorship at Brooklyn College--Cascando--performing in Cascando.
Side p pp. 61-91
Cascando--other things with Beckett--Any Resemblance is Purely Coincidental--using Caruso's voice--Steven Montague--difficulties at Columbia--Brooklyn College--role as an educator--book Computer Music: Synthesis, Composition, and Performance--pieces done in the eighties--The Waves--Fractal for Wiley Hitchcock--making naturally evolving melodic lines artificially--one over F noise--Profile--Viola Elegy--Morton Feldman: King of Denmark--Rondelay--Baird Dodge--family--Swedish text-sound work--John Cage--Warsaw Autumn Festival--lack of support at Brooklyn College--move to Dartmouth College--commission from L. A. Philharmonic: The One and the Other.
Side p pp. 91-105
L. A. commission--Etudes--Fades, Dissolves, Fizzles: using just intonation--piece for Christian Wolff: Just Harmonies--piece for Dartmouth Choir: The Staff of Aesclepius--Postcard from the Volcano--making wine--Conversation--connections in Vermont.
