Alvin Lucier

Alvin Lucier is an American composer of experimental music and sound installations that explore acoustic phenomena and auditory perception. Lucier was a member of the influential Sonic Arts Union, which included Robert Ashley, David Behrman, and Gordon Mumma. Much of his work is influenced by science and explores the physical properties of sound itself: resonance of spaces, phase interference between closely-tuned pitches, and the transmission of sound through physical media.
Lucier was born in Nashua, New Hampshire (May 14, 1931). He was educated in Nashua public and parochial schools and the Portsmouth Abbey School, Yale University and Brandeis University. In 1958 and 1959, Lucier studied with Lukas Foss and Aaron Copland at the Tanglewood Center. In 1960, Lucier left for Rome on a Fulbright Fellowship, where he befriended American expatriate composer Frederic Rzewski and witnessed performances by John Cage, Merce Cunningham, and David Tudor that provided compelling alternatives to his classical training. He returned from Rome in 1962 to take up a position at Brandeis as director of the University Chamber Chorus, which presented classical vocal works alongside modern compositions and new commissions. At a 1963 Chamber Chorus concert at New York's Town Hall, Lucier met Gordon Mumma and Robert Ashley, experimental composers who were also directors of the ONCE Festival, an annual multi-media event in Ann Arbor, Michigan. A year later, Mumma and Ashley invited the Chamber Chorus to the ONCE Festival; and, in 1966, Lucier reciprocated by inviting Mumma, Ashley, and mutual friend David Behrman to Brandeis for a concert of works by the four composers. Based on the success of that concert, Lucier, Mumma, Ashley, and Behrman embarked on a tour of the United States and Europe under the name the Sonic Arts Group (at Ashley's suggestion, the name was later changed to the Sonic Arts Union). More a musical collective than a proper quartet, the Sonic Arts Union presented works by each of its members, sharing equipment and assisting when necessary. Performing and touring together for a decade, the Sonic Arts Union became inactive in 1976. In 1970, Lucier left Brandeis for Wesleyan University. In 1972, Lucier became a musical director of the Viola Farber Dance Company, a position he held until 1979.

Alvin Lucier (né le 14 mai 1931) est un compositeur américain né à Nashua, New Hampshire. Il a étudié à l'Université de Yale et à la Brandeis University. En 1966, il crée l'ensemble de musique électronique Sonic Art Union avec ses collègues Robert Ashley, David Behrman et Gordon Mumma. Lucier a collaboré avec de nombreux autres musiciens, danseurs et artistes interdisciplinaires, notamment John Cage, Pauline Oliveros, Mary Lucier et Merce Cunningham.
Ses œuvres font appel à la mise en situation de phénomènes naturels liés à des principes de physique acoustique ou de psychoacoustique. Durant les années 1970, Lucier crée plusieurs compositions faisant appel à des dispositifs rarement utilisés en musique et habituellement utilisés pour la recherche scientifique. De cette manière, Lucier pousse le développement sur le langage musical traditionnel tout en prônant une méthode d'écoute nouvelle pour l'auditeur, qui doit se concentrer sur l'observation de phénomènes acoustiques extrêmement subtils. Parmi ses composition les plus célèbres on compte I am sitting in a room (pour deux magnétophones enregistreurs et deux systèmes d'amplification), North American Time Capsule (pour narrateurs et système de Vocoder), Music for a Long Thin Wire (pour cordes de piano tendues qui oscillent de manière sympathique par l'induction d'ondes sinusoïdales), Vespers (pour modules d'écholocation) et Music for a Solo Performer (pour ensemble de percussion joués en temps réel par l'activation de modules électromécaniques reliés au modulations des activités cérébrales de l'interprète). Depuis les années 1980, les œuvres de Lucier se construisent souvent autour de principes liés à la microtonalité et font interagir en direct les phénomènes créés par les interférences entre des instrumentistes acoustiques et des oscillateurs électroniques. (read less)

Alvin Lucier is an American composer of experimental music and sound installations that explore acoustic phenomena and auditory perception. Lucier was a member of the influential Sonic Arts Union, which included Robert Ashley, David Behrman, and Gordon Mumma. Much of his work is influenced by science and explores the physical properties of sound itself: resonance of spaces, phase interference between closely-tuned pitches, and the transmission of sound through physical media.
Lucier was born in... (read more)