Description

This volume collects, for the first time, essential interviews and aesthetic writings from throughout James Tenney's five-decade artistic career.

The eminent American-Canadian composer James Tenney (1934–2006) made groundbreaking contributions to sampling culture, digital sound synthesis, algorithmic composition, minimalism, spectral music, music in non-standard tuning systems, contemporary theories of form and harmony, and the consolidation of an American experimental-music tradition. This book documents both his own work and his involvements with influential figures in mid-century American music, film, art, and technology. The writings are accompanied by photographs, artworks, compositional sketches, archival documents, and previously unpublished scores. Appendices supply, for the first time, exhaustive lists of Tenney's compositions and published writings, as well as performance chronologies that capture his influential contributions to the experimental arts in New York City and elsewhere in the 1960s and 1970s.

Table of Contents

List of Figures
Preface

1. Introduction
2. Early Years (1934–1961)
3. Electronic and Computer Music (1961–64)
4. With Carolee Schneemann (1955–1968)
5. Media, Performance, and Society (1963–69)
6. Continuity and Harmony (1970–1985)
7. Entropy and Agency (1986–2006)
8. On Other Artists
9. On Harmonic Theory

Appendix A List of Works
Appendix B List of Writings
Appendix C Performances by Tenney (1954–79)
Appendix D Performances of Tenney's Music (1956–76)
Bibliography
Index

Product details

Bloomsbury Academic Test
Published 02 May 2025
Format Ebook (PDF)
Edition 1st
Extent 320
ISBN 9798765121344
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Anthology Editor

Robert Wannamaker

Robert Wannamaker is Associate Dean in the School…

Anthology Editor

Lauren Pratt

Lauren Pratt is the executor of the estate of Jame…

Anthology Editor

Tashi Wada

Tashi Wada is an independent scholar and composer.

ONLINE RESOURCES

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