AMERICAN MUSIC SERIES                                                       No. 127 e-k

David Rosenboom

With Eva Soltes

June 20 and 21, 2005

Valencia, CA

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Side e                                                                                                                          pp. 1-33

Early childhood—living on a farm in Quincy, Illinois—starting piano lessons—violin lessons—playing trumpet—doing scientific experiments in the attic—beginning to compose—listening to Met broadcasts and to Leonard Bernstein’s Young Person’s Programs—high school music program—playing violin, winning competitions—going to Interlochen—buying a good violin—studying theory, composition, playing in a string quartet—listening to recordings—Contrasts for Violin and Orchestra—other early compositions—Continental Divide—minimalism—time relationships in music—manipulating tape—Six Pieces for Piano—playing in string quartets in summer program at Champaign-Urbana—studying at Illinois—working with Binkerd and Martirano—cognition, modeling, linguistics.

Side f                                                                                                                          pp. 33-56

Illiac Suite, work with Lejaren Hiller—Biological Computing Laboratory—Hiller and confluence of science and music—Experimental Music Studio—Babbitt—Xenakis—computers and music—Hiller and algorithmic composition—Illiac Suite—ONCE Group, Gordon Mumma, Hugh Le Caine, San Francisco Tape Center—John Cage—influence  on him of Cage’s ideas—influence of Japanese and Chinese ideas—Twilight Language—computers—cybernetics—information theory—developments in experimental psychology—the semantic differential—multidimensional scaling as a compositional concept—Ken Gaburo’s work: systems theory—physical nature of the technology available then—analog computers—synthesizers—Buchla and Moog—disruption at performance of Hiller’s Triptych for Hieronymus Bosch—Robert Ashley’s Public Opinion Descends Upon the Demonstrators—working with Martirano—influence of Stockhausen—Martirano’s talents—Lukas Foss’s invitation to him to come to Buffalo—Pauline Oliveros and Stuart Dempster—playing viola—job as creative associate.

Side g                                                                                                                          pp. 56-85

Job as creative associate in Buffalo—Morton Subotnick: his work Laminations—starting a group—A Precipice in Time—Pocket Pieces—tape pieces—percussion music—And Come Up Dripping—experiments in graphic scores—Morton Feldman—his Four Pianos—Feldman’s Lecture: Foundation Music—Then We wound Through an Aura of Golden Yellow Gauze—score for that work—another piece done at Mills for “Challenge”—Stuart Dempster and In C—David Behrman—recording with Columbia—Yugi Takahashi and stochastic music—recording In C—LaMonte Young—analog computers—Robert Moog—music for Jarry’s Ubu Roi—making an instrument with an analog computer, oscillators, tape delay system, etc.—And Come Up Dripping—working with oboist Lawrence Singer—moving to NYC—Treatise—freelancing in New York—commercial work—playing with LaMonte Young—being artistic co-ordinator of the Electric Circus—concert series The Electric Ear—The Kitchen—performing with Young and Riley—new music summer workshop in Illinois—Sal Martirano—developing an instrument—How Much Better If Plymouth Rock Had Landed on the Pilgrims—making an instrument—concert with Martirano—SalMar Construction—pieces with relationship to the moon and other pieces—piece for Roger Reynolds.

Side h                                                                                                                          pp. 85-112

She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not—starting a company with Bill Rouner: the Neurona Company—designing instruments—Tcherepnin—consulting for Yamaha—consulting for ARP instruments—playing instrumental music—brainwaves—Ted Coons—Les Fehmi—influence of La Monte Young—concept of mimimalism—Zen and meditation—biofeedback—experimenting with brain waves and sound experiences—starting a music department at York University in Canada—conference in Vancouver—tour with electronic instruments—playing tabla, spending time with Terry Riley—first year at York University—involvement with new music ensemble, conducting—studying neuroscience—“crisis of theory” in the twentieth century—idea of starting with aspects of cognition in the brain and working out towards the musical experience from there—piece called Ecology of the Skin—working in the experimental psychology department at NYU—making appearances on talk shows—meeting John Lennon—appearing on Mike Douglas show with Lennon and Ono and doing a piece—returning to York University—building a lab: the Laboratory of Experimental Aesthetics—collaboration with Trichy Sankaran and J. B. Floyd—International Carnival of Experimental Sound—Portable Gold and Philosophers’ Stones—record Brainwave Music—European tour—playing with South Indian musicians—improvisation.

Side i                                                                                                                           pp. 112-142

Invisible Gold—1975 book: Biofeedback and the Arts: Results of Early

Experiments—listening as a form of composition—resonance—models of evolution—Portable Gold and Philosophers’ Stones—On Being Invisible—using brain waves to make music in Portable Gold—using transient brain waves in On Being Invisible—his interest in finding neural concomitants to aspects of formal musical perception—technical problems involved—process involved with the computer—returning to York for the second time in 1972—forming the ensemble Light—forming the group Maple Sugar—working with George Manupelli—Music Gallery—film Almost Crying—sabbatical in Berkeley—the Touché—moving to the Bay area—In the Beginning—teaching at Mills—more on the Touché—getting a tenure track position at Mills—Center for Contemporary Music—becoming dean at CalArts—Center for Experiments in Art, Information and Technology—work as conductor of CalArts New Century Players—Redcat Theater—Bell Solaris—Twilight Language—Seeing the Small in the Large—In the Beginning—Zones of Influence—composing instrumental music—concept spaces—new computer language HMSL—Bell Solaris—professional relationship with theater director Travis Preston.

Side j                                                                                                                           pp. 142-173

More on Bell Solaris—subtitle “Canon for Pythagoras”—more on Bell Solaris—

“soul” in electronic music—piece for Vicki Ray—notation and score of that piece—Zones of Coherence—notation system called “musical configuration spaces”—Twilight Language—Seeing the Small in the Large—In the Beginning series—Continental Divide arrangement—Naked Curvature—his idea of tempo melody—“harmonic space” for each piece—choice of pitches—more on Bell Solaris—more on choice of pitches—choosing keys—harmonic relationships—stochastic manipulation in In the Beginning pieces—stochastic manipulation in other pieces—Zones of Coherence—Four Lines—Two Lines—collaboration with Anthony Braxton—Systems of Judgement—Two Lines.

Side k                                                                                                                          pp. 173-202

More on Two Lines and Four Lines—second version of On Being Invisible:  On Being Invisible II (Hypatia Speaks to Jefferson in a Dream—Four Lines—doubling—Systems of Judgement—Almost Crying—In the Beginning series—And Out Come the Night Ears—How Much Better If Plymouth Rock Had Landed on the Pilgrims—piece for Array in Toronto—piece commissioned by a woodwind quintet in Toronto—teaching at York on Partch and Xenakis—record: Music from Mills—Buchla 300 hybrid system—etudes—piece for George Manupelli: In the Beginning: Etude II (Piano and Two Oranges)—In the Beginning V: The Story—reason for title of In the Beginning—record: Future Travel—the Touché—development of a toolkit for algorithmic experimental music—Larry Polansky—JMSL: Java Music Specification Language—Zones of Influence—Champ Vital—DVD of Bell Solaris—other cds to get out—writing projects—plan for book:  Propositional Music—article in John Zorn’s Arcana—interest in theoretical physics and cosmology—Paper “Music Notation and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence”—conference in Paris.