Composer and performer 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.An engaging inside view of experimental musicForeword by Robert Ashley
Symphony
Studio di Fonologia
Indeterminacy
Graphic Notation
Town Hall
Rose Art Museum
Cage and Tutor
Sonic Arts Union
Bell Labs
Tape Recorders
Repetition
Prose
The Piano
Long String Instrument
Recording
Opera
Words
Voices
String Quartets
Author’s Note
Index
“Plain and direct-spoken and with an uncluttered prose style, Lucier easily blends analysis, anecdote and digression into a reader-friendly first-person account of some of the most interesting music to come out of the postwar period.”—Daniel Barbiaro,Avant Music News
“For those with the ears to hear, Lucier’s warm prose will sound a few notes of welcome clarity.”—J. Bryan Lower,Slate
“In looking for a guide to the world of American experimental music, it would be hard to think of a better one than Alvin Lucier.”—David Revill,Times Higher Education
“A book that says what it needs lp
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