
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
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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Information
Table of contents
- Imprint
- Subvention
- Series Page
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: What Can a Black Box Do?
- 1. Morton Subotnick and the Composer’s Black Box
- 2. Opening Buchla’s Box: Manifesting the Musical Mind
- 3. The Patchwork Girl: Pauline Oliveros and the Cybernetic Body
- 4. Alvin Lucier and the Ambiguity of Sound and Signal
- 5. Sun Ra and the Minimoog: Freedom, Discipline, and Opacity
- Afterword: What Can a Composer Do?
- Notes
- Sources Cited
- Index