#4568, A Tribute to Alvin Lucier
American composer and electroacoustic explorer Alvin Lucier (1931-2021) challenged audiences for over half a century with his musical experiments and performance art, and the myriad ways in which one can blur the line between sound and music. His 1969 masterpiece of sound art, I am sitting a room, for voice and electromagnetic tape, harnessed the natural acoustics of physical space to produce sound/music over time as the initial utterance decays, while gradually eliminating some frequencies and amplifying others. Lucier also used the piece as a way to smooth out his own stuttering (which is woven into the piece in the initial explanation of what takes place.)
Ultimately, the Museum of Modern Art bought the work in 2014, noting its significance and influence in the history of sound art. As Martha Joseph, Curatorial Assistant writes, "Indeed, the conceptual crux of the work is a radical reversal of the logic of musical composition: rather than using traditionally musical means to create sounds, Lucier used a technological process to reveal naturally occurring acoustic phenomena.” (MOMA, 2014)
A singular figure in experimental music, Lucier also shaped and inspired new, young voices as a professor of music at Wesleyan University until 2011, when he retired from faculty. His freewheeling approach to composition, whether that was strapping dolphin echolocation devices to performers, or using the purity of sine waves—they have no overtones—to induce audible beating between tones as a structural component in his works (Lucier, Still Lives Notes), proved influential to other composers.
His work ranged from high concept, long-process pieces, like I am sitting a room, or his series of works dealing with vibration (including “Exploration of the House” which re-records Beethoven riffs until they decay), to tunes as simple and playful as “Nothing Is Real, ” Lucier’s work for piano and resonating teapot based on the Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever.” For this New Sounds, listen to music from his “long, innovative, strange, but influential career,” (Schaefer).
Hear the Bang on a Can All-Stars play Alvin Lucier from a New Sounds Live at Merkin Hall in 2014, inspired by the tracks left by insects on a piece of firewood, and coupled with an onstage interview in which he said. “I avoid electronics unless I need them.” Plus, listen to a tribute to Lucier by clarinetist/composer Jeremiah Cymerman. And more. -Caryn Havlik
Program #4568, a tribute to Alvin Lucier (First Aired 12/03/2021)
ARTIST: Alvin Lucier
WORK: I Am Sitting In A Room, samples [3:25]
RECORDING: I Am Sitting in a Room
SOURCE: Lovely Music, #1013
INFO: lovely.com
ARTIST: Aki Takahashi
WORK: Alvin Lucier:Nothing Is Real [9:01]
RECORDING: Hyper Beatles 2
SOURCE: Eastworld #6655
INFO: Japanese import, now out of print. Try discogs.com
ARTIST: Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra, Petr Kotik conductor
WORK: Alvin Lucier: Exploration of the House [5:37]
RECORDING: Alvin Lucier - Orchestra Works
SOURCE: New World Records 80755
INFO: newworldrecords.org
ARTIST: Bang on Can All-Stars
WORK: Alvin Lucier: Firewood [6:26]
RECORDING: New Sounds Live, March 13, 2014
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: A different performance, recorded in Poland is available at Bandcamp.
ARTIST: Trio Nexus
WORK: Alvin Lucier: Risonanza [12:06]
RECORDING: Broken Line
SOURCE: Mode Records
INFO: moderecords.com
ARTIST: Jeremiah Cymerman
WORK: Spheres of Humanity (for Alvin Lucier) [5:11]
RECORDING: Citadels & Sanctuaries
SOURCE: 5049 Records
INFO: jeremiahcymerman.bandcamp.com
