Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

An engaging inside view of experimental music

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.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Foreword (p. ix)
• 1 Symphony (p. 1)
• 2 Studio Fonologico (p. 5)
• 3 Indeterminacy (p. 12)
• 4 Graphic Notation (p. 23)
• 5 Town Hall (p. 27)
• 6 Rose Art Museum (p. 44)
• 7 Cage and Tudor (p. 56)
• 8 Sonic Arts Union (p. 70)
• 9 Bell Labs (p. 94)
• 10 Lenses, Intervals (p. 99)
• 11 Tape Recorders (p. 103)
• 12 Repetition (p. 109)
• 13 Prose (p. 126)
• 14 The Piano (p. 128)
• 15 Long String Instrument (p. 144)
• 16 Recording (p. 150)
• 17 Opera (p. 154)
• 18 Words (p. 169)
• 19 Voices (p. 177)
• 20 String Quartets (p. 182)
• Author's Note (p. 201)
• Index (p. 203)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

While reading this volume, readers can picture themselves "sitting in a room" with the avuncular Lucier reminiscing ("and that's the way it was") about the American experimental music scene (primarily the third quarter of the 20th century) from a New Englander's vantage point. Lucier conducted the exemplary Brandeis Chamber Chorus as a faculty member of that university (1962-70) prior to relocating to Wesleyan University, where he is now emeritus. (Near contemporaries of Lucier may have been introduced to some of the works dealt with in this book via the CBS recording of the Brandeis Chamber Chorus.) Drawn from his Wesleyan lecture notes, these essays reveal Lucier at his liveliest--when discussing compositions he has "loved and been personally involved with, either as a performer or friend of the composer." Composers profiting from his trenchant observations include Robert Ashley, Earle Brown, John Cage, Morton Feldman, Ellen Fullman, Philip Glass, Gordon Monahan, Gordon Mumma, Pauline Oliveras, Steve Reich, Christian Wolff, La Monte Young, and of course Lucier himself (including Am Sitting in a Room). Among those not in Lucier's purview: Henry Brant, George Crumb, Charles Dodge, Lou Harrison, and Harry Partch. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers. J. Behrens Wolf Museum of Music and Art