Where to go after Alvin Lucier for 'resonance music'?

[orangettecoleman]

I've been a big fan of Lucier's work for a while and was wondering if there were other composers who specifically work a lot with things like room resonance and the physics of sound... I'm familiar with some things like James Tenney, people who work with overtones, but I'm specifically interested in works that use physical resonance of instruments and spaces as the compositional focus rather than just the relationships between notes.... I know all composers work with acoustics and resonance but I think you all know what I'm asking
Thoughts? Also recommendations of books and what not having to do with this area would be welcome.

[nirav]

Phill Niblock

[yonhosago]

David Tudor
La Monte Young
yeah, old references.

(I'm not really sure, but Eliane Radigue and Max Neuhaus should be mentioned here?)

I'm specifically interested in works that use physical resonance of instruments and spaces as the compositional focus rather than just the relationships between notes.

Isn't the physical resonance (just) a relationship between notes?

[kp*]

No one knew more about how a piano resonates than Feldman. He knew it in his bones. But I am guessing this is not what you are after.

But the most obvious answer that comes to mind is: Toshiya Tsunoda. He, like Lucier, has a several pieces that involve the use of small resonant spaces (teapots, bottles, containers and such) and also sounds moving through various media.

I know that Mumma has a piece or two that attempt this on a virtual level with analog circuits that mimic moving resonant spaces. I can't recall which ones off hand.

But really. Toshiya Tsunoda. He is a master at this kind of acoustical "minimalism" of sorts. So much of his stuff is about resonance it seems to me. Such a unique and beautiful way of working with sound.

-kp--

[orangettecoleman]

Isn't the physical resonance (just) a relationship between notes?

Yeah, but specifically Lucier works with the acoustics of physical spaces in stuff like "bird and person dyning", where the resonance of the space in which it is performed is one of the key ingredients of the piece (if I understand it correctly). I think Radigue did write a cello piece that focuses on the resonant 'wolf tones'- that might be exactly the type of thing I'm thinking of ... I'm just curious to hear more work that deals specifically with spatial acoustics and the resonances of objects or 'instruments as objects', and explores that... I'm obviously having a hard time explaining it clearly :/ I'm not too familiar with Tudor's work but I've been meaning to investigate it.
Putting it another way, you can play two sinewaves against each other and get phenomena like interference tones and such, but playing the same notes in a resonant space or on an instrument that resonates at that frequency or one of the overtones could cause all sorts of other things to happen, ghost notes and feedback reactions and what not. Sympathetic vibrations, unplanned acoustical phenomena... I'm going to go back and listen to Feldman again in that light, and track down that Radigue piece. I need to give Tudor's work a serious listen anyway, I'm not sure I've ever heard any of his work. He's going on the list...

[orangettecoleman]

Thanks for reminding me of Tsunoda. I have one CD of his, but I just had him mentally filed under 'field recording composer' so I wouldn't have thought of revisiting his work in this context. I also read about a Brandon Labelle record where he took other CDs, played them through a speaker with a copper wire attached to it, and recorded only the sympathetic vibrations of the wire. Harnessing unpredictable inherent acoustic phenomena of objects/spaces to create a sort of generative music is an interesting idea to me... like 'music on a long thin wire', where the initial conditions are set by the composer but the development of the piece is ultimately a function of the wire reacting with the room and its contents

[kp*]

oh. i thought you mean something more along the lines of Lucier's Opera with Objects.

[orangettecoleman]

Put the Zeitkratzer disc on that track... not exactly what I meant, but interesting nonetheless! Also the website says the next two Old School discs will be dedicated to Feldman and Stockhausen. squeeee!

[corey_larkin]

maryanne amacher's music is worth looking into
http://maryanneamacher.org/Maryanne_Ama ... oject.html

don't listen to the tzadik cd, though

[c_sns]

don't listen to the tzadik cd, though

Why do you say that Corey? I normally dislike the production and quality of performances on most tzadik disc's but both of Mary Anne's discs are pretty great. The first one especially represents her pretty well. The first track on Sound Character's at loud volume will really get the resonance's kicking.

[bryan]

Toshiya Tsunoda

^^^ definitely

I was just thinking of Mitsuhiro Yoshimura today, wondering what happened to him (anyone?.. where's that recording with Toshi?). Mitsuhiro Yoshimura's work (all couple discs worth) is all resonance.

Other stuff too, maybe not quite a match here, like Rafael Toral - Aeriola Frequency.

[Dan Warburton]

Yes, I like the Tzadik disc too, at Borbeto volume. What's so awful about it?

[jon abbey]

I was just thinking of Mitsuhiro Yoshimura today, wondering what happened to him (anyone?.. where's that recording with Toshi?).

he dropped out of the scene a few years ago, I think soon after he was in the AMPLIFY 2008 fest.

[orangettecoleman]

Toshiya Tsunoda

^^^ definitely

I was just thinking of Mitsuhiro Yoshimura today, wondering what happened to him (anyone?.. where's that recording with Toshi?). Mitsuhiro Yoshimura's work (all couple discs worth) is all resonance.

Other stuff too, maybe not quite a match here, like Rafael Toral - Aeriola Frequency.

Wow, I wasn't familiar with Mitsuhiro Yoshimura but his work sounds perfect for what I'm looking for. Tracking down...

[bryan]

I was just thinking of Mitsuhiro Yoshimura today, wondering what happened to him (anyone?.. where's that recording with Toshi?).

he dropped out of the scene a few years ago, I think soon after he was in the AMPLIFY 2008 fest.

That's too bad, I was curious to hear where he'd take his music.

[corey_larkin]

the editing and sequencing seem a bit choppy -
and I don't think her music is meant to be heard through a home stereo system in five to twenty minute samples.

might just be me... I guess you should listen to it if you just want a glimpse.

[corey_larkin]

and yeah I mentioned Amacher because of the resonance thing and listening to that CD doesn't have very much to do with resonance

not like her installations and long performances, that is

[theblackplume]

You might have seen it before but I really enjoyed reading this book last summer:

http://www.amazon.com/Spaces-Speak-Are- ... 318&sr=8-1

It touches on some very interesting things, technically and aesthetically.

Another nice book from MIT is David Huron's "Sweet Anticipation", on the psychology of expectation in music. Not really about resonance and space but it does discusses things like duration, tension, immersion, teleology, sensitivity of listening etc, which some what applies to Niblock, Lucier, Feldman and such.

[Matt Wuethrich]

Try Lethe's series of Catastrophe Point releases. The one on Intransitive is fantastic, really immersive. The improvised duo disc with Masayoshi Urabe on Songs From Under The Floorbaords (the Intransitive sub-label) also explores the same idea of instrumental performance + space. Not as scientific sounding as Lucier. More intuitive, I would say.

[mshiflet]

Damion Romero

Some of his noisier work wouldn't qualify, but early post-Speculum Fight works such as 'Feedback In A Lover's Telegraph' fit the bill.