The Composer's Black Box
eBook - ePub

The Composer's Black Box

Making Music in Cybernetic America

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Composer's Black Box

Making Music in Cybernetic America

About this book

Stories about new musical instruments are often told as quests for new kinds of sounds. The Composer's Black Box asks, What happens when new musical instruments produce not only new sounds but also new dynamics of musical agency and control? And what consequences do those new dynamics have for musicality beyond sound? With a focus on five key figures—Morton Subotnick, Pauline Oliveros, Donald Buchla, Alvin Lucier, and Sun Ra—this book explores how scientific and technological developments in mid-twentieth-century America galvanized musicians to reconfigure their conceptions of sociality, freedom, and the creative self. Theodore Gordon shows how cybernetic thinking in a range of disciplines, from experimental music to jazz and electrical engineering, has shaped musical techniques and technologies and changed what it means to be a composer—or, more broadly, a music-making human—in an increasingly informational world.

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Yes, you can access The Composer's Black Box by Theodore Gordon in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Media & Performing Arts & Music. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Imprint
  2. Subvention
  3. Series Page
  4. Title Page
  5. Copyright
  6. Contents
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. Introduction: What Can a Black Box Do?
  9. 1. Morton Subotnick and the Composer’s Black Box
  10. 2. Opening Buchla’s Box: Manifesting the Musical Mind
  11. 3. The Patchwork Girl: Pauline Oliveros and the Cybernetic Body
  12. 4. Alvin Lucier and the Ambiguity of Sound and Signal
  13. 5. Sun Ra and the Minimoog: Freedom, Discipline, and Opacity
  14. Afterword: What Can a Composer Do?
  15. Notes
  16. Sources Cited
  17. Index