| grovemusic.comLucier, Alvin (Augustus) (b Nashua, NH, 14 May 1931). American composer. He was educated at Yale (BA 1954) and Brandeis (MFA 1960) universities, where his teachers included Boatwright, Arthur Berger, Irving Fine, and Shapero; he also studied under Copland and Foss at the Berkshire Music Center (1958, 1959). After two years in Rome on a Fulbright fellowship, Lucier joined the Brandeis faculty in 1963 as director of the choral union; later he was head of the electronic music studio. In 1970 he moved to Wesleyan University, where he was later appointed John Spencer Camp Professor of Music. He was a co-founder of the Sonic Arts Union, music director of the Viola Farber Dance Company (19727) and a fellow of the DAAD Kunstlerprogramm in Berlin (1990). He has received grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Connecticut Commission on the Arts and the NEA. Many of his works were commissioned by American and European leading organizations. In the mid-1960s Lucier began to explore sonic environments, particularly sounds that would never in ordinary circumstances reach our ears. Using performers, electronics, instruments, architecture and found objects, he devises open-ended processes specifically adapted to the phenomena he chooses to investigate or reveal. Some works exploit unusual sound sources such as brain waves (Music for Solo Performer) or radio frequency emissions in the ionosphere (Sferics), while others focus on the physical characteristics of sound waves. In Vespers (1968), performers take the acoustical measure of a room by means of echo-location devices, thus simulating bats and dolphins, while I am Sitting in a Room uses a tape loop (successively recording its own playback) to transform spoken text in accordance with the rooms resonant frequencies. In Chambers (1968), the timbres of self-sounding objects are altered after being placed in boxes or pots and are in turn influenced by the rooms and hallways through which they are carried during performance. Lucier has also explored diffraction of sound waves around moving or stationary objects (Outlines of Persons and Things); the visualization of sound disseminating from a stringed instrument with the aid of lights and a sweep oscillator (Directions of Sounds from the Bridge); freely vibrating surfaces and solids as visual equivalents of sound (The Queen of the South); the processing of wave forms seen and heard using common surfaces (Music for Pure Waves, Acoustic Pendulums and Sound on Paper); and the employment of solar power to integrate flows of light and sound (Solar Sound, Spira Mirabilis). In Music on a Long Thin Wire (1977), temperature, air current, footsteps and other factors influence a wires vibration to produce subtle changes of pitch, timbre and rhythm. In 1982 Lucier began composing for traditional instruments (some with oscillators and resonating objects) focussing on the audible beating between closely tuned pitches. WORKS acoustic (selective list) Orch: Partita, fl, hpd, str, 1954; Sweepers, 1997; Cassiopeia, 1998; Diamonds, for 1, 2, or 3 Orchestras, 1999 Chbr and solo inst: Fragments for Str, 1961; Chambers, pfmrs, resonant environments, 1968; (Hartford) Memory Space, any no. of insts, 1970; Risonanza, resonating object, 3 insts, 1982; Fideliotrio, va, vc, pf, 1987; Navigations, str qt, 1992; Panorama, trbn, pf, 1993; Spider Paths, lute/gui, 1994; 2 Stones, pfmr, 2 pieces of basalt, 1994; Music for Vn and Alto Sax, 1995; Q, vn, cl, trbn, db, 1996; Op with Objects, pfmr(s), resonant objects, 1997; Rare Books, pfmrs, 1997; Small Waves, trbn, pf, str qt, 1997 Vocal: The Sacred Fox, 1v, sonorous vessels, 1994; Theme (J. Ashbery), vv, sonorous vessels, 1994; Unamuno, 4 equal vv, 1994; I Remember (J. Brainard), vv, resonant objects, 1997; Wave Painting Songs, 1v, 1998; Man Ray, female v, vc, 1999 Kbd: Action Music, pf, 1962; Music for Pf with One or More Snare Drums, 1992; Hands, org, pfmrs, 1994 electro-acoustic Dramatic: Skin, Meat, Bone, actors, resonant objects, tape recorders, moving wall, pure wave oscillators, 1994, collab. K. McDermott and R. Wilson; incid music and TV film scores With inst(s): Music for Solo Pfmr, perc, amp brain waves, elec, perc, 1965; Crossings, small orch, oscillator, 19824; In memoriam Jon Higgins, cl, oscillator, 1984; 1985; Septet, 3 wws, 4 str, pure wave oscillator, 1985; Homage to James Tenney, db, oscillators, 1986; Kettles, 5 timp, oscillators, 1987; Silver Streetcar for the Orch, amp triangle, 1988; Carbon Copies, sax, pf, perc, environmental recordings, 1989; Music for Snare Drum, Pure Wave Oscillator, 1 or more reflective surfaces, 1990; Nothing is Real, pf, amp teapot, tape recorder, 1990; Music for Pf with Amp Sonorous Vessels, 1991; Music for Cello with One or More Amp Vases, 1992; Music for Pf with Slow Sweep Pure Wave Oscillators, 1992; Music for Accdn with Slow Sweep Pure Wave Oscillators, 1993; Distant Drums, amp perc, 1994; Music for Gamelan Insts, mics, amp, loudspkr, 1994; Spira Mirabilis, b inst, elec light, 1994; Music for Pf with Magnetic Strings, 1995; Wind Shadows, trbn, oscillators, 1994; Still Lives, pf, slow sweep pure wave oscillator 1995; 40 Rooms, vn, cl, trbn, vc, db, Lexicon Acoustic reverberance system, 1996, arr. orch, reverberance systems, 1997; CW25, pf, slow sweep pure wave oscillator, 1997; Sizzles, org, amp b drums with fine strewn materials, 1997; Islands, 5 insts, amp snare drums, 1998; other el-ac works with insts With voice: The only Talking Machine of its Kind in the World, spkr, tape delay, 1969; I am Sitting in a Room, v, elec tape, 1970; The Duke of York, v(v), synth, 1971; Still and Moving Lines of Silence in Families of Hyperbolas, vv, insts, dancers, perc, 19734, rev. as 11 Solos and a Duet, S, insts, oscillators, 19824; Tyndall Orchestrations, female v, sensitive flame pfmrs, bunsen burners, glass tubes, recorded birdcalls, 1976; Words on Windy Corners, vv, mics, moving loudspkrs, 1980; Intervals, vv, sound-sensitive lights, 1983; 6 Geometries, SATB, oscillators, 1992; Music for Baritone with Slow Sweep Pure Wave Oscillators, 1993; Music for Soprano with Slow Sweep Pure Wave Oscillators, 1993 Live elec works: Shelter, vibration pickups, amp, enclosed space, 1967; Vespers, pfmrs, echolocation devices, 1968; Quasimodo the Great Lover, relays of amp systems, 1970; Gentle Fire, multiple synths, 1971; The Queen of the South, pfmrs, resonant environment, live video, 1972; The Fires in the Minds of the Dancers, 4-track playback environment, 1974; Bird and Person Dyning, pfmr, binaural mics, amps, loudspkrs, elec birdcall, 1975; Outlines of Persons and Things, pfmrs, mics, loudspkrs, oscillators, 1975; Clocker, pfmr, galvanic skin response sensor, elecs, 1978; Ghosts, pfmr, light, oscillator, loudspkrs, 1978; Reflections of Sounds from the Wall, moving wall, elecs, 1981; Sferics, antennas, tape recorders, 1981; Amplifier and Reflector One, umbrella, roasting pan, amp clock, 1991; other elec works Sound installation: Music on a Long Thin Wire, audio oscillator, elec monochord, 1977; Directions of Sounds from the Bridge, 1 str, oscillator, sound-sensitive lights, 1978; Solar Sound I, solar elec music system, 1979; Music for Pure Waves, Bass Drums and Acoustic Pendulums, 1980; Seesaw, 1983; Spinner, 1984; Sound on Paper, paper, loudpkrs, oscillators, 1985; Chambers (installation version), self-sounding objects in resonant vessels, 1988, Locales, 1995; Empty Vessels, resonant objects, 1997; Sound on Glass, 1997; other installations Principal publishers: Material Press, Frankfurt WRITINGS Three Points of View: with Ellie Siegmeister and Mindy Lee, MQ, xlv/2 (1979), 28690 with D. Simon: Chambers (Middletown, 1980) The Tools of My Trade, Contiguous Lines, ed. T. DeLio (Lanham, 1985), 14360 Reflections/Reflexionen: Interviews, Scores, Writings (Cologne, 1995) Origins of a Form, Leonardo Music Journal, viii (1999) BIBLIOGRAPHY G. Mumma: Alvin Lucier's Music for Solo Performer (1965), Source, ii (1968), 689 J.D. Simon: Vespers: an Interview with Alvin Lucier, Arts in Society, ix/2 (1972), 27785 R. Reynolds: Alvin Lucier: Music for Solo Performer (1965), Mind Models (New York, 1975), 20004 W. Zimmermann: Desert Plants: Conversations with 23 American Musicians (Vancouver, 1976), 13748 A. Sondheim: Alvin Lucier, Parachute, xii (1978); repr. in Ear, iv/89 (19789) T. DeLio: Avant-Garde Issues in Seventies Music, Breaking the Sound Barrier, ed. G. Battock (New York, 1981), 254, 2679 T. DeLio: Circumscribing the Open Universe: Essays on Cage, Feldman, Wolff, Ashley and Lucier (Lanham, MD, 1984), 89105 T. Johnson: The Voice of New Music (Eindhoven, 1989), 313, 689, 28891 M. Parsons: Beats that can Move Sugar, Resonance, iv/10 (1995), 1016 [interview] A. Rovner: I am Sitting in a Room with Alvin: Lucidity from Lucier, 20th Century Music, v/10 (1998), 14 W. Duckworth: 20/20: 20 New Sounds of the 20th Century Demystified and Explained (New York, 1999) LINDA SANDERS/KEITH MOORE © Macmillan Publishers Ltd, 2001-2002 How to cite | |
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