David Tudor S & D

http://www.bruceduffie.com/tudor3.html

BD: Now you say you listen to the music and make changes so that you are a participatory member in this. How much involvement and participation do you expect out of the audience?

DT: (laughs) I don’t expect anything. I just hope.

BD: What do you hope for, then, from the audience?

DT: Well, I hope that they realize that it’s a human being that’s doing the music.

This may seem like an obvious comment, but after listening to one of his pieces for a good stretch while reading this interview, it strikes me as a fairly important point

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmaN7J846-k

it's sinking in, this one's the best compilation of his piano music out there. those people at Editions RZ really know exactly what sounds good. I nearly, very almost nearly, would write a review of this myself I like it so much

Playing the Music for Piano sections atm, all killer.

(Mean the John Cage "Music for Piano (Number)" stuff)

Tudor in Darmstadt

Some believed that he was simply the greatest pianist of the twentieth century; others, like
his piano student Gertrud Meyer-Denkmann (one of the two enrolled students in his
piano course that year), noted his subtle power as a figure who hovered ‘quietly and
almost anonymously in the background’ while demonstrating tremendous influence
on the musical thinking of the people he encountered (Metzger, 1997 [1996];
Denkmann, 1997). His stoic yet virtuosic performances helped boost Cage’s position
in Germany, and, by association, the reputations of a whole generation of young
American composers.

not exaggerations

recently bought this: http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/n/neo11213a.php

fantastic cage & tudor recording at darmstadt in 1958. cage reads a series of questions about the nature of music while tudor plays piano, then they end with an amazing version of 'variations I', the room increasingly exploding into laughter after each odd event from the radios & the piano really captures the sense of joy from the music, this isn't dry, it's inexplicable

Darmstadt 1958, nearly exhausted in its discussion of serial and electronic
approaches to parametric composition, has been well documented, and Cage’s role as
provocateur much discussed. Cage himself viewed 1958 as a turning point in his European
reception: ‘As late as [1954], David Tudor and I were thought to be idiots’, he said, but
added, ‘in 1958 there was a marked change’ since that year ‘we were taken quite seriously—for
the most part’. Tudor and Cage gave a two-piano performance with music by
Brown, Cage, Feldman, and Wolff on 3 September. They also collaborated in the
performance of Cage’s three lectures (‘Changes’, ‘Indeterminacy’ and ‘Communication’,
later published by Wesleyan University Press in Silence: Lectures and Writings by
John Cage [1961]). While Cage delivered his lectures, Tudor played from Cage’s
Music of Changes, Stockhausen’s Klavierstuck XI, and several other works by Cage, Bo
Nilsson and Christian Wolff. The Darmstadt audience that year, many members of
which witnessed these unconventional lecture-recitals, included dozens of established
or up-and-coming composers (Berio, Bussotti, Cardew, Davies, Kagel, Lachenmann,
Ligeti, Maderna, Misha Mengelberg, Nono, Paik, Penderecki, Pousseur, Stockhausen,
Xenakis, Isang Yun, and Bernd Alois Zimmermann, to name just a few), musicians
(Caskel, Paul Jacobs, the Kontarskys), and writers (Daniel Charles, Ulrich Dibelius,
Hans G. Helms, Heinz-Klaus Jungheinrich, Heinz-Klaus Metzger, Hans Heinz
Stuckenschmidt), who would come to steer the direction of new music—
aesthetically, critically and institutionally—in central Europe for decades to come.

V good article, I want to read everything Beal has written (more articles on her site btw). I listen to Lachenmann's Guerro for solo piano as a continuation of what Cage was doing but also of serial music, in parallel. The batton was then passed on to Mathias Spahlinger.

So its no surprise that its fruitful to think of many of these working the tension between post-Webern/Boulez and Cage. I find an irony in Cage's late music -- opera, those number pieces, slight sadness that the radicalism was incorporated into more classical modes, whereas Kagel or Nono were far more openingly questioning when writing an opera or re-inventing themselves (Nono's late music). Cage seemed to become more of a blank-avangardist. Tudor's departure from performing could have been a blow to a lot of those American composers. Perhaps another line to explore.

Because Tudor practically abadoned piano I wouldn't say pianist of the century. He became something else, equally interesting. A parallel between him and Richard Barrett (both of whom became electronic musicians, although Barrett carries on as a composer) could be worth a think.

This blog Post is relevant (came across Lauren's blog recently and its really great, wish I had more time to go right back) and specific to graphic notation and Tudor with this line:

In some ways this tradition can be seen as restrictive (many people try to emulate David Tudor’s performances, for example, so many performances sound similar for this reason), but it can also provide a basis of practice from which to work.

Anyone know where a geezer could find a vinyl rip of the version of Rainforest which is so tantalizingly bigged-up throughout this thread?

Say, WHAT?

http://thewire.co.uk/news/23057/david-tudor-recordings-collected-and-released-as-box-set

can not wait

I hope the 1980 Rainforest in that box is the Edition Block version Jon was in search of...

I hope it's a different one

I dug a bit deeper and apparently it is. Hope you can handle that!

I love that recording & it'll be nice to have a good digital transfer of it, but I would also buy a 20 CD box set of just performances of Rainforest IV, my only disappointment is that this is not a 21 CD box set

need to hear

http://www.discogs.com/Various-Musicworks-52-John-Cage/release/1003241

John Cage – Atlas Eclipticalis With Winter Music (Electronic Version, 1957) Excerpt- 14:35
Clarinet – Morton Subotnick
Conductor – Ramon Sender
Double Bass – Loren Rush
Electronics – Michael Callahan
Flute, Piccolo Flute – Ian Underwood
French Horn, Tuba – Pauline Oliveros
Horns – Douglas Leedy
Percussion – John Chowning
Piano – Ann Riley, David Tudor, Dwight Pelzer, Warner Jepson
Timpani – Jack van der Wyck
Trombone – Stuart Dempster
Trumpet – Stanley Shaff
Viola – Linn Subotnick
Viola, Viola [D'amore] – Robert Mackler

Makng my way through some of Tudor's cuts in Music for Merce. The world needs a longer version of 'toneburst'.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/819ZK2-U1OL._SL1500_.jpg

http://www.eastofborneo.org/articles/subcontinental-synth-david-tudor-and-the-first-moog-in-india

decent review - http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/sounds-heard-the-art-of-david-tudor-1963-1992/

lead me to amazing article linked at bottom of page - http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/cage-tudor-concert-for-piano-and-orchestra/

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/david-tudor-cage-stockhausen-piano-electronics-indeterminacy/Content?oid=9991915

http://www.pointofdeparture.org/PoD44/PoD44Tudor.html

Posted a youtube of a film on John Cage/Roland Kirk, David Tudor makes an appearance

Pathological avoidance of the title of composer

http://rosewhitemusic.com/piano/2013/12/22/unclear-boundary-david-tudor-john-cage/

http://www.amazon.com/Music-Tudorfest-Francisco-Tape-Center/dp/B00NY2TFUC

Music from the Tudorfest: San Francisco Tape Music Center, 1964

Disc: 1
1. 34'46.766" for two pianists
2. Duo for Accordion and Bandoneon with Possible Mynah Bird Obbligato
3. Music for Piano No. 4
Disc: 2
1. Music for Piano No. 4, Electronic Version
2. Variations II
3. Music Walk
Disc: 3
1. Atlas Eclipticalis with Winter Music, Electronic Version
2. Concert for Piano and Orchestra
3. Cartridge Music

^^ that compilation is good; need to play through it again. disc 3 is my kind of fun.

came here to post this, though. hope this gang tours with this version -- I saw Driscoll play at Mills a few months ago, probably in my top 2 shows of this year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWs-iqdny7s&feature=youtu.be

Published on Dec 10, 2014
December 10, 2014 - First day of 2 day performance of David Tudor's RAINFOREST IV at Granoff center, Brown University,
Steve Bull John Driscoll Matt Rogalsky Phil Edelstein and the gang

This weekend at Wesleyan

Idiopreneurial Entrephonics: Workshops and Talks
Saturday, February 21, 2015 at 11:00 AM
Music Rehearsal Hall 105, 60 Wyllys Avenue
FREE!

Saturday, February 21, 2015 at 2:00 PM
World Music Hall
FREE!

Saturday, February 21, 2015 at 11am in Music Rehearsal Hall 105, 60 Wyllys Avenue: "The David Tudor and David Behrman Collections of Electronic Instrumentation"

A working session on the electronic instruments, instrumentation, and associated paraphernalia included in Wesleyan World Instrument Collection, including the David Tudor and David Behrman collections of electronic instrumentation.

Saturday, February 21, 2015 at 2pm in World Music Hall: “Compadres Inside Electronics"

Michael Johnsen (Pittsburgh Modular) will present his archeological investigations of the electronics of David Tudor, Gordon Mumma, and David Behrman; Mark Verbos (Verbos Electronics) will demonstrate his own line of Eurorack analog modules and discuss his work with the Buchla synthesizer; Thom Holmes will discuss his work at developing a definitive history of the Moog Synthesizer; Asha Tamirisa will provide a detailed peek into the functioning of the legendary ARP 2500 synthesizer; John Driscoll and Phil Edelstein will show their current work on “Rainforest V” and their work with Matt Rogalsky on realizing David Tudor’s microphone; and Matt Wellins will recount some of his adventures with homemade electronics.

are you going?

and did the Dreyblatt actually sound like Tudor?

John Driscoll's reconstruction of 'Rainforest V' online. Sounds authentic to me.

http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2016/06/01/moma-collects-david-tudors-rainforest-v-variation-1

https://mroztronium.blogspot.com/p/david-tudor-instruments-presented.html?fbclid=IwAR3WpLw6C-OsH1IjTaZfOtAWXk0912ZGqnROBToVHLf6cFaKBcXa2SMM3iM

Cool.

https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/5965?happening_type=performances&preview=true&fbclid=IwAR0GqdHRmqLFY5XLmL4gn_3iVW3cwqPrSgopoTdnkkhVdqG4p73vv4bOjYA#occurrences

luckily I'm in NYC for the November shows

"a lot of the tapes are reconstructions of birds"

https://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/interviews/electronic-india-moog-interview-paul-purgas

Good stuff