James Tenney: Selected Works, 1961-1969

Product Description

Product Description:
The work of James Tenney (b. 1934) as a composer, theorist, performer, and teacher, is of singular importance in American music of the past four decades. He is by nature a quiet, almost publicity-shy musician, but his musical and theoretical works are steadily becoming widely known, despite the fact that few have been published and only a relatively small number, to this date, are readily available on recordings. This recording is a reissue of the 1992 Frog Peak/Artifact CD, the first recorded collection of James Tenney’s music of the 1960s. Many of the pieces on this CD were realized at Bell Telephone Laboratories from 1961 to 1969, where Tenney used Max Mathews’s digital synthesis program that eventually became Music IV. This software became the model for many of the common computer music environments of the last forty years, and was the first system of its kind available to composers. Tenney’s pieces from 1961–64 constitute the first significant and developed! body of computer-composed and synthesized music by an American composer. Tenney was a very young composer when he wrote these pieces. He was working with a new medium, a technology that was still being developed, and a new aesthetic. It is perhaps easy to overlook the importance of the latter in the light of the tremendous technical and historical importance of these pieces—but it is characteristic of Tenney that he was not content just to explore the sonic and technical capabilities of a new technology. To this day, his work from this period remains an important example for composers who work with new technologies: the new world of "computer music" needed a radically new definition of music itself. The 32-page booklet includes greatly expanded liner notes by composer and former Tenney pupil Larry Polansky.

James Tenney: Selected Works, 1961-1969,James Tenney,New World Records,Classical,Classical Composers,Classical Music,Electronic & Computer,Electronic/Avant-Garde/Minimalist Music
Selected Works: 1961-1969
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • early computer works
Selected Works: 1961-1969

Manufacturer: New World Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

ComputerComputer | Electronic | Instruments | Classical | Styles | Music
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ASIN: B00008NGH9
Release Date: 2003-03-25

Tracks:

  1. Collage #1 (Blue Suede)
  2. Analog #1 (Noise Study)
  3. Dialogue
  4. Phases (for Edgard Var)
  5. Music for Player Piano
  6. Ergodos II (for John Cage)
  7. Fabric for Ch
  8. For Ann (rising)

Album Description

The work of James Tenney (b. 1934) as a composer, theorist, performer, and teacher, is of singular importance in American music of the past four decades. He is by nature a quiet, almost publicity-shy musician, but his musical and theoretical works are steadily becoming widely known, despite the fact that few have been published and only a relatively small number, to this date, are readily available on recordings. This recording is a reissue of the 1992 Frog Peak/Artifact CD, the first recorded collection of James Tenney's music of the 1960s. Many of the pieces on this CD were realized at Bell Telephone Laboratories from 1961 to 1969, where Tenney used Max Mathews's digital synthesis program that eventually became Music IV. This software became the model for many of the common computer music environments of the last forty years, and was the first system of its kind available to composers. Tenney's pieces from 1961-64 constitute the first significant and developed! body of computer-composed and synthesized music by an American composer. Tenney was a very young composer when he wrote these pieces. He was working with a new medium, a technology that was still being developed, and a new aesthetic. It is perhaps easy to overlook the importance of the latter in the light of the tremendous technical and historical importance of these pieces—but it is characteristic of Tenney that he was not content just to explore the sonic and technical capabilities of a new technology. To this day, his work from this period remains an important example for composers who work with new technologies: the new world of "computer music" needed a radically new definition of music itself. The 32-page booklet includes greatly expanded liner notes by composer and former Tenney pupil Larry Polansky.

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars early computer works.......2003-08-28

Usually anything by James Tenney would get a 5 star, but this CD is early computer works, most of them Cage influenced aleatoric noise studies based around a dichotomy between highly pitched tones and bands of white noise, or tape pieces. Analog #1: Noise Study is my favorite of these, being influenced by the sounds heard while driving through a tunnel. The contrasting last track, his last computer piece, For Ann (rising) is my favorite part of the disc. It's a minimal piece based around the Shepard tone phenomena, up to twelve slightly unevenly spaced rising tones fade in and out of volume, creating the sensation of an ever rising line, yet at the same time the high number of tones makes it impossible to follow and a glistening sheen is created by the consequent disjointedness.
James Tenney: Selected Works 1961-1969
Average customer rating: Not rated
    James Tenney: Selected Works 1961-1969

    ProductGroup: Music
    Binding: Audio CD
    ASIN: B000031XDQ
    Release Date: 1992-06-01

    Tracks:

    1. Collage #1 ("Blue Suede")
    2. Analog #1 (Noise Study)
    3. Dialogue
    4. Phases (For Edgard Varese)
    5. Music for Player Piano
    6. Ergodos II (For John Cage)
    7. Fabric for Ch
    8. For Ann (Rising)

    Album Description

    Tenney is a monumental figure in late 20th century American music. This is the first recorded collection of Tenney's early computer music of the 1960s, some of the very first music composed by and for the computer. The pieces, which include Tenney's 'music concrte' classic "Blue Suede" are beautifully remastered from original analog tapes by Tom Erbe under Tenney's supervision. An essential disk in experimental music.

    Track Listings:

    1. Janacek, Debussy, Ravel, Nielsen: Violin Sonatas
    2. Johan Svendsen: String Octet; Romance; Nielsen: String Quintet
    3. Karajan Spectacular
    4. Lebendige Vergangenheit: Mafalda Favero
    5. Leos Janacek: Chamber Works
    6. Maria Tipo: Piano
    7. MESSIAEN - WEBERN - FORTNER: Gunter Wand Edition
    8. Milhaud, Poulenc, Ibert: Orchestral Works
    9. Mozart: Concertos for piano No17; Quintet in Ef
    10. Mozart: Quintett KV 452/Beethoven: Qunitett Op.16

    Track Listings

    track listings

    Track Listings

    Espresso Logic [Import]

    John Williams Plays Bach [Original recording remastered]

    I Want a Little Girl

    Chasin' the Spots

    Live [Original recording remastered] [Import] [Live]

    No More Drama

    Let Yourself Go

    Four German Basses of the Past

    Medicine of Music: Country Edition, Vol. 1

    Jubilee [Live]

    Group Therapy

    Hellbilly Slappin' Covers V.2 [Import]

    It Ain't What You Do, Pt. 2 [CD-single] [Import]

    The Very Best Of Rev. James Cleveland - Great Day

    Live at the Cavern Club