Episode 12

 

David Tudor: From piano to electronics

 

The transition of a pianist to electronic music

 

David Tudor (1926-1996)

 

In which we listen to works created while Tudor transitioned from playing piano to composing works for homemade electronics.

 

Playlist

Bo Nilsson, Quantitäten (1958), for “electronically fortified” piano. Recording from Swedish Radio made in 1960. This is an abbreviated performance of the work made for Swedish Radio.

John Cage, Cartridge Music (1960). For amplified small sounds; also amplified piano or cymbal; any number of players and loudspeakers; parts to be prepared from score by performers. Recording by John Cage and David Tudor, Time Records (1963).

John Cage, Variations II (1961), Parts to be prepared from the score, for any number of players, using any sound-producing means. Piano and electronics by David Tudor. Recorded in Japan in 1962.

Christian Wolff, For 1, 2, or 3 People (1964), Piano by David Tudor. Recorded live by KPFA Radio in 1965 at the San Francisco Museum of Art.

David Tudor, Bandoneon ! (A Combine) (1966), for bandoneon and live electronics. Recorded live in October 1966 at E.A.T.’s at Nine Evenings: Theatre and Engineering. From the collection, The Art of David Tudor released by New World Records and Radio Bremen.

 

The Archive Mix in which I conclude the podcast by playing two additional tracks at the same time, to see what happens. This time, I am once again drawing up David Tudor and John Cage from the Folkways recording in 1959 of the lecture Indeterminacy.

John Cage and David Tudor, Indeterminacy: New Aspect of Form in Instrumental and Electronic Music, the first three minutes of the lecture recorded in 1959 for Folkways Records.

John Cage and David Tudor, Indeterminacy: New Aspect of Form in Instrumental and Electronic Music, the last three minutes of the lecture recorded in 1959 for Folkways Records.

 

Read my book: Electronic and Experimental Music (sixth edition), by Thom Holmes (Routledge 2020).

 

Contact Composers Inside Electronics, c/o John Driscoll and Phil Edelstein, longtime Tudor associates beginning in the 1970s for a history of the group and updates about their ongoing activities.

 

Read You Nakai’s new book about Tudor: Reminded by the Instruments: David Tudor's Music(Oxford 2020)

 

Full disclosure: I work for Oxford University Press by day, although not in the trade book division that has published You Nakai’s new book.