AMERICAN MUSIC SERIES                                                                  252 a-f

Tom Johnson

with Libby Van Cleve

June 4-5, 1997

Paris, France

TABLE OF CONTENTS

[DAT 1 begins]

Side a:                                                                                                                        pp. 1-18

early musical memories--attending Yale--trip to Soviet Union--music at Yale (Allen Forte, Elliott Carter)--playing piano in a dance band--army years--music in California (Berio, Robert Garfius)--studying with Edgar Varèse--studying Art at Yale--graduate classes at Yale--

Side b:                                                                                                                       pp. 18-36

moving to New York City--accompanying dance classes (Richard Bull, Bill T. Jones)--collaborating with Richard Bull--theater in New York City--writing criticism for The Village Voice--Four Note Opera--self-promotion/freedom from music publishers--Failing--Riemannoper--opera--

Side c:                                                                                                                                    pp. 36-53

The evolution of Minimal music in New York in the 1970s (Jim Burton, Alvin Lucier, Paul Bunt, Annea Lockwood, Frederic Rzewski, Phill Niblock, La Monte Young)--writing criticism for The Village Voice--New York City music scene in the 1970s-- transition of money from uptown to downtown music--

[DAT 1 ends]

[DAT 2 begins]

Charlie Morrow--Jackson Mac Low--Bob Ashley, Gordon Mumma, David Behrman, and Alvin Lucier's music shows on WBAI--Petr Kotik's music festival in New Hampshire (David Tudor, Bill Viola)--Charlemagne Palestine--important change due to influence of two books: Gödel , Escher, Bach, and Fractals--composing with logical predictability--Rational Melodies --Self-Similar Melodies--

Side d                                                                                                                               pp. 53-70

influence of mathematics--Nine Bells--Jim Tenney--is mathematics invented or discovered?--reactions to predictable things in my music--example of predictable sequence in music: performance Italian counting piece --"Counting" music in different languages--Composing music everyone can understand--Formulas for String Quartets--studying with Morton Feldman--Spaces--John Cage--

Side e                                                                                                                         pp. 70-87

influence of John Cage--Charles Ives and The Unanswered Question--Feldman and Cage--uptown/downtown rift--John Cage's visit to Yale--music in Europe vs. America--World music--guilt because of European colonialism/America's treatment of African Americans--African importance of music theory in Europe--Una Opera Italiana--becoming more religious--

Side f                                                                                                                         pp. 87-102

becoming more religious [continued]--The Bonhoeffer Oratorium--

[DAT 2 ends]

[DAT 3 begins]

The Bonhoeffer Oratorium [continued]--Bonhoeffer's influence--impact of the computer on music--impact of recordings--impact of pop music--colloquium about computer music in Lyon--Two Hundred Years in Italy--Trigonometrie--planning international colloquium with Victor Eckimovsky--composing "laboratory reports"--Recycled Ostinato.

[DAT 3 ends]