Music on a Long Thin Wire

Editorial Reviews
Publisher Comments
"Lucier sets things in motion, then leaves them alone. The thin wire is set vibrating four times at four frequencies; the results are great stillness, a churning disturbance, a restless coil of supressed energy, and a profound but not untroubled peace. Fundamental pitches never change, but timbre, volume, and rhythm (from beats between not-quite-in-tune overtones) shift unpredictably, sometimes after long periods of rest. The wires four personalities leave me deeply moved." Gregory Sandow, The Village Voice

Album Description
A 50foot length of taut wire passes through the poles of a large magnet and is driven by an oscillator; the vibrations of the wire are miked at either end, amplified and broadcast in stereo. The thin wire is set vibrating four times at four different frequencies; what results is not the low drone one might expect from a long, vibrating wire, but a complexity of evocative, ethereal chords. First released on Lovely Music in 1980, Music on a Long Thin Wire is a classic example of Alvin Luciers investigations into the physics of sound and the sonic properties of natural processes.

Tracks:

Valse Sentimentale - Clara Rockmore
Oraison - Ens D'Ondes De Montreal
Etude Aux Chemins De Fer - Pierre Schaeffer
Williams Mix - John Cage
Klangstudie II - Herbert Eimert/Robert Beyer
Low Speed - Otto Luening
Dripsody - Hugh Le Caine
Forbidden Planet: Main Title - Louis Barron/Bebe Barron
Elektronische Tanzste: Concertando Rubato - Oskar Sala
Poem Electronique - Edgard Varese
Sine Music (A Swarm Of Butterflies Encountered Over The Ocean) - Richard Maxfield
Apocalypse-Part 2 - Tod Dockstader
Kontakte - James Tenney/William Winant
Wireless Fant - Vladimir Ussachevsky
Philomel - Milton Babbitt
Spacecraft - MEV

Tracks:

Cindy Electronium - Raymond Scott
Pendulum Music - Sonic Youth
Bye Bye Butterfly - Pauline Oliveros
Projection Esemplastic For White Noise - Joji Yuasa
Silver Apples Of The Moon, Part 1 - Morton Subotnick
Rainforest Version 1 - David Tudor
Poppy Nogood - Terry Riley
Boat-Woman-Song - Holger Czukay
Music Promenade - Luc Ferrari
Vibrations Composees: Rosace 3 - Francois Bayle
Mutations - Jean-Claude Risset
Hibiki-Hana-Ma - Iannis Xenakis
Map Of 49's Dream The Two Systems Of Eleven Sets Of Galactic Intervals: Drift Study '31/69 c.... - La Monte Young

Tracks:

He Destroyed Her Image - Charles Dodge
Six Fants On A Poem By Thomas Campion: Her Song - Paul Lansky
Appalachian Grove - Laurie Spiegel
En Phase/Hors Phase - Bernard Parmegiani
On The Other Ocean - David Behrman
Stria - John Chowning
Living Sound, Patent Pending Music For Sound-Joined Rooms Series - Maryanne Amacher
Automatic Writing - Robert Ashley
Canti Illuminati - Alvin Curran
Music On A Long Thin Wire - Alvin Lucier
Melange - Klaus Schulze
Before And After Charm (La Notte) - Jon Hassell
Unfamiliar Wind (Leeks Hills) - Brian Eno

Amazon.com

Opening with Clara Rockmore's reworking of Tchaikovsky with the theremin, and finishing with one of Brian Eno's ambient soundscapes, OHM artfully succeeds in its goal of giving a representative (as opposed to the impossible, comprehensive) overview of the first several decades of electronic music. Over 3 discs, 42 compositions, and 96 pages of notes and photos, OHM clearly illustrates the producers' and contributing writers' point that early electronic music is much of the foundation of contemporary music. Herein lies the connective tissue bridging musique concrète, 20th-century classical, electronic experimentation, and the theoretical avant-garde to psychedelia, ambient, dub, techno, electro, and synthpop and the globalization of sound. The groundbreaking uses of loops, sampling, drones, remixes, and cut-and-paste technology are put fully into context. The diversity of music included makes any sort of summation impossible, but that is also the point: electronic music is not really a genre, but an open field of endless possibility. From John Cage's famous "William's Mix" of tape snippets to Karkheinz Stockhausen's electronic orchestral compositions, from David Tudor and Holger Czukay's experiments in unrelated blendings of audio elements to David Behrman's supremely peaceful duet between computers and musicians, the aural renegades on OHM tread where none (save a few of their contemporaries) had gone before. The liner notes convey the incredible amount of hard work and experimentation it took to stitch together many of these pieces in the predigital era. Putting aside the inevitable quibbles about what's missing (much of it due to legal and/or logistical issues), a more complete collection of musical eggheads, eccentrics, and visionaries is hard to imagine. --Carl Hanni

Customer Reviews:

excellent but uncomplete.......2006-11-12

Althought most of the music here is an excellent collection of electronic music history, this 3 CDs lack of the important contribution given by the RAI phonology studios of Milan, Italy in the 50s
(which was bigger than Koln's WDR studios) with Bruno Maderna, Luciano Berio and Luigi Nono.
This is a big mistake. Milans studios were the biggest of europe and produced many important electroacoustic pieces.
If the collection aim to describe faithfully electronic music history, it should include this artists too.

To call it music may be a bit limiting. .......2006-10-24

Some of the tracks on here are "music". That is that they contain all the bits we're trained to experience as music -- melody, etc. Some are not, and the composers would be the first people to tell you that. A lot of these works are reactions to ingrained rules, so they're bound to be jarring.

A more successful way to approach such a broad and varied collection of audio experimentation is to think of it as curated sound. This isn't something to wash the dishes to, or to seduce someone to (although if you did manage to seduce someone with the recordings on this anthology, HOLD ON TO THAT PERSON, because they've got to be a keeper). These are unique sound textures that deserve a close, probably solitary listen, and I think if you're in the right frame of mind, it can be a very rewarding listen.

My main complaint is sequencing: each dicrete piece follows it's own internal logic, so there are more than a couple rough gear changes. However, since each piece is so different, and the collection is so varied, I'm not sure that you could totally escape that.

A worthwhile collection.......2006-01-11

The OHM collection contains some of those ground breaking electronic compositions that have shaped today's styles, from the early electronic instruments of Theremin and Martenot, through Pierre Schaeffer's Music Concrete tape music and the electronic music of Stockhausen and Subotnick, to the mainframe computer output of Risset and Chowning.

It is unfair to mark this collection down due to the production quality and 'musicality' of its contents, to do so would be to staggeringly miss the point of the development of electronic music through the 20th Century. What this collection shows is the ideas behind those at the cutting edge of the genre before many could even conceive of such output. That said it is hard going at points, as experimental music can be.

Highlights for me are no doubt Olivier Messiaen's 'Oraison' on CD 1, David Tudor's 'Rainforest Version 1' on CD 2 and on CD 3 David Behrman's 'On the Other Ocean' and Maryanne Amacher's 'Living sound Patent Pending'.

OhMyGodHowDreadful.......2005-08-15

Ok, this collection is supposed to be early works and, thus not expected to be very sophisticated or polished. But the OHM collection sounds like the first attempt of a spastic cat turned-loose on a Moog keyboard. When it is not boreing, this collection of random and dissonant sounds (I can't call it music) is without any redeeming qualities to make it worth while. Don't get me wrong, I am a long-time fan of Wendy (nie Walter) Carlos and some other real pioneers of electronic music. However, I find that the Ohm collection has no similar qualities and is a major disappointment.

Kid Stockhausen.......2003-01-17

This is required listening for anybody interested in the history of electronic music. Although implicitly aiming for the techno music audience, this audio history is overwhelmingly focused on the classical avant-garde of electro-acoustic composers. The closest you'll get to pop electronica is the Brian Eno track at the end of the third disc. No Kraftwerk, no Moroder, etc. Instead "OHM" manages to point to the continuities between, say, John Cage and artists currently working at the experimental edges of electronica (so-called IDM). It seems to be saying, "You think Kid 606 is visionary? Well check out this Stockhausen track from '59!"

Admittedly, some of the songs are much more interesting to think about than they are to listen to. Some of the early pieces that were made through thosuands of hours of pains-taking tape-splicing could be made today in an afternoon with a digital audio editor and a few effects plug-ins.

It is a beautiful package, containing a 90 page booklet of essays, quotations from the featured artists, and photographs. What all music should be: an education in daring.

Music on a Long Thin Wire
Average customer rating:

This is THE stuff

Beauty in Simplicity

Drone magic from Lucier

Music on a Long Thin Wire

Manufacturer: Lovely Music
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music
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ASIN: B00000G1FH
Release Date: 1992-12-01

Tracks:

Music on a Long Thin Wire (74:47)

Album Description

A 50foot length of taut wire passes through the poles of a large magnet and is driven by an oscillator; the vibrations of the wire are miked at either end, amplified and broadcast in stereo. The thin wire is set vibrating four times at four different frequencies; what results is not the low drone one might expect from a long, vibrating wire, but a complexity of evocative, ethereal chords. First released on Lovely Music in 1980, Music on a Long Thin Wire is a classic example of Alvin Luciers investigations into the physics of sound and the sonic properties of natural processes.

Customer Reviews:

This is THE stuff.......2007-01-20

I bought this at RecRec in Zurich about 20 years ago. It was a double-disc set from Lovely Music and consists of a recording of a long vibrating thin wire. Exceptional and unique.

Beauty in Simplicity.......2006-03-30

There is beauty in simplicity. Alvin Lucier proves this with four very simple compositions. The Amazon description is very accurate here, so I use "composition" very loosely. Lucier really does just walk away from his invented instrument and allow the hall, passers by and even air vibration to effect the sound! This is how sensative to the elements of the room his long thin wire was.

I find it helpful when reviewers compare a recording or artist to another to see if I might be interested in a new piece of music or a new artist. So in this vein here are artists and their music that I find are akin to Lucier's "Music on a Long Thin Wire..." First and foremost the work that Robert Fripp and Brian Eno did together in the early and mid 1970's. If you find these composers collaborations even the least bit interesting then you'll love this record by Alvin Lucier!

Secondly if you enjoy the Minimalist school of composition, Reich, Adams, Young, Glass and Riley, etc, then again You can't go wrong with this disc.

Third, those who have created their own instrument because there exists no instrument that makes the sounds in the composers head. These composers include Todd Machover, Harry Partch and John Cage.

And finally if you're a Rock and Roller and love the "minimalist" vein of Neil Young's one note solos from "Cinnamon Girl" & "Down By The River" or Johnny Ramone's blistering one note solo on "I Wanna Be Sedated" or better yet the scorching one note drone organ solo on the Warlock's "Shake the Dope Out" then you have found an excellent addition to your cd collection!

So there you have it. If you like any of the above composers, pieces or Rock bands mentioned I think you'll really enjoy this recording. But be prepared there isn't much here. These are truely one note drones that have very little variation from start to finish. Harmonic variations, dymanic and tambre changes do occur, but over all you have to be patient and let this piece unfold at a very slow pace.

I hope you enjoy this piece as much as I do, it is a work that has beauty in it's simplicity.

Drone magic from Lucier.......2000-05-08

This is such a simple piece. A long, thin wire...as advertised...is tuned, then set into motion (in a sense, 'bowed') using an electromagnet driven by a sine oscillator, which on this release is tuned to four different frequencies for the different parts of this release. The results sometimes work, especially the last two tunings, where the wire is set into all sorts of chordal tones, harmonic reinforcements and disruptions, and it's really made to ring out in the resonant space the work is installed in. But this doesn't always work, as at least one of these is so static as to be very unchanging and as a result, not all that interesting listening. So, I can't give this four stars, even though the 'uninteresting result' is, of course, a perfectly valid end-result of Lucier's piece. But most of what's here is really nice, and works well in an Eno-like ambient vein, played back at a low level as sonic coloring. A very austere yet elegant (and elegantly-devised) work.

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