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1961- | 57+ 72-note microtonal orchestral, chamber, vocal. Performances in Boston, New York, San Francisco, Chicago,Tokyo, Darmstadt, Salzburg, Amsterdam, Haarlem, etc. |
4 quarter-tone chamber, vocal. Performances in San Francisco, New York, Salzburg, Boston, etc. | |
1959-77 | 29 tape pieces 25 dance (Boston, N.Y.), 3 concert (Boston), 1 TV (Tokyo) |
1951-75 | 35 12-note orchestra, theater music, vocal, chamber, piano. San Francisco, Boston, New York, etc. |
ARIZONA FRIENDS of CHAMBER MUSIC | String Quartet #5 |
KOTO TAKASHI | Kumo sudare |
CHRISTINA ASCHER & CHRISTOPH von ERFFA | If I Told Him |
INTERNATIONAL MICROTONE SOCIETY, BERN | Invocation |
Theodore MOOK | Duo (1992) |
AEDM in mem. | |
Solo in Four Movements | |
ANNE BLACK/ PRO ARTE ORCH. of BOSTON | Concert Piece |
HANNEKE PROVILLY | Flight |
IAN GREITZER | Quintet (1987) |
ARIEL | The Conversions |
NEWBAND | Brief Elegies |
NEC JUNIOR YOUTH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA | Pictures for an Institution |
KOUSSEVITZKY FOUNDATION | String Quartet #4 |
DINOSAUR ANNEX | -- furthermore |
Stanzas | |
Night Piece | |
Quartet (1982) | |
This Way To the Egress | |
JANET PACKER | All Done From Memory |
AARON PICHT | and, as I was saying |
KIJIMA MASATAKA | Midorigaoka |
GOETHE INSTITUTE of BOSTON | Elegie nach Rilke |
CAMBRIDGE ARTS COUNCIL | The Owl and the Pussycat |
The Walrus and the Carpenter | |
Longfellow Sparrow | |
BOSTON MUSICA VIVA | String Quartet #2 (1962) |
Phenomena | |
Musing and Reminiscence | |
Landscapes | |
KEVIN DEWEY | including the |
NEW ENGLAND DINOSAUR DANCE COMPANY | Where the Wild Things Are |
CAROL BECKWITH | Museum Piece |
ELINA MOONEY | Elinas Piece |
CLIFF KEUTER | Warts & All |
Real Toads | |
INA HAHN | Cat's Cradle |
TOBY ARMOUR | After Lyle |
Ground Cover | |
5 Toby Minutes | |
Interlope | |
Clement Wenceslaus | |
A Frank Overture | |
McDowell's Fault | |
Antimatter | |
THE ENDICOTT FUND | Third quartet |
CATHY BERBERIAN | Cantata III |
NHK-TV | Music for Sakoku |
THE ACTORS WORKSHOP (S.F.) | The Ticklish Acrobat |
WELLAND LATHROP | Masque |
ARCH LAUTERER | Music for The Trojan Women |
born | 16 January 1928, Birmingham, Alabama |
died | 30 January 2015, Cambridge, Massachusetts |
studies | Mills College | MA 1956 |
US Army Language School | Diploma (Chinese) 1953 | |
Yale University School of Music | BMus 1952 | |
Birmingham Conservatory of Music | 1945-48 | |
Birmingham Southern College | BA 1947 |
microtones | Since 1961, most of what that Ive done all my major pieces that havent been tape music has been microtonal. At first, it was ¼-tone, but from 1964 it has been 72-note, using at any moment one transposition or another of an asymmetrical mode of 18 or 24 pitches drawn from a 72-note division of the octave, much as Tonal music used a 7-note mode drawn from a 12-note chromatic. The mode consist of a 8 pitches of superior importance, the 8-15th harmonics of the tonic of the moment, plus 10 (or 16) chromatic pitches also drawn from its harmonic series. The 72-note division permits an all-but-exact description of the sequialteran succession of Just ratios making up the mode (25/24–30/24 [or in the alternate version: 33/32 –5/4] followed by 21/16–31/16), while retaining the conceptual and modulatory convenience of a closed cyclic notation. I trust the performers naturally to play as near Just perfection as their musicality permits, but sometimes it helps to remind them. |
computers | In 1988, I began using David Rayna's RTMPII program and synthesizer to make demo tapes of new pieces and produce the electronic parts for the three pieces that have them. |
I consulted with Stephen Smoliar on his EUTERPE system, developed in the AI Lab, MIT. The electronic parts of Elina's Piece were made using it, as well as a transcription of From an Oboe Quartet. | |
As programmer for Harvard Music Library, I worked with Mary Lou Little and Helen Black in the development of the MARC format for music scores and recordings, since amended as published by the Library of Congress. |
electronic music | 1988 - | Three electro-acoustic pieces using RTMP II. |
1959, 1968-1977 | Tape pieces, mainly for dance and theater, largely tape collage or musique concrete or a combination of the two (combine tapes.) | |
1962-63 | For several months observer and composer at the electronic music studio of NHK Tokyo Composed Music for Sakoku there. |