Overview

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 The writings are accompanied by photographs, artworks, compositional sketches, archival documents, and previously unpublished scores.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.

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Reviews

James Tenney was one of the greatest musical minds of our times. In this book, his words and his thoughts resonate with the same expansive clarity and depth as his music. * John Luther Adams, Composer of Become Ocean, USA * What a pleasure to wander at leisure through the mind of composer James Tenney! His ruminations on recreating music from scratch make the art form seem more open and multidimensional, and yet, paradoxically, somehow simpler, because harmony, form, rhythm, timbre, are separated out and considered in their most basic aspects. His scientific mind liberated him from the musical habits, prejudices, and mandates of history, and reading these pithy interviews and essays liberates us. * Kyle Gann, composer and author of Charles Ives’s Concord: Essays after a Sonata * A brilliantly assembled collection of documents illuminating the vast scope of James Tenney’s life, work, influences, and interests, this is the first book to give us a full picture of Tenney, the human being, from every angle. And there are many! Connecting the dots between 1960s performance art, feminism, socialism, tuning systems, process-based composition, mindful listening, parenting, and just plain old living is no small task, but this window into the world of James Tenney does exactly that. Tenney aficionados are sure to discover something new, while any newcomers with an interest in the 20th century avant-garde are in for a treat. * Seth Horvitz (Rrose), Multidisciplinary Artist and Musician, UK/USA *

Author Information

Robert Wannamaker is Associate Dean in the School of Music at the California Institute of the Arts, USA. He is the author of The Music of James Tenney, Vols. 1 & 2 (2021) and co-editor of James Tenney’s From Scratch: Writings in Music Theory (2015). Lauren Pratt is the executor of the estate of James Tenney, Canada. She is co-editor of James Tenney’s From Scratch: Writings in Music Theory (2015). Tashi Wada is a composer and independent scholar based in Los Angeles, USA. Wada studied composition with James Tenney at the California Institute of the Arts and has helped oversee Tenney's archive for the past decade.

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