ABOUT THIS BOOK

A work-by-work guide to the composer's groundbreaking music

Robert Wannamaker's monumental two-volume study explores the influential music and ideas of American composer, theorist, writer, performer, and educator James Tenney. Delving into the whole of Tenney's far-ranging oeuvre, Wannamaker offers close, aurally grounded analyses of works linked to the artist's revolutionary theories of musical form, timbre, and harmonic perception.

Written as a reference work, Volume 2, A Handbook to the Pieces, presents detailed entries on Tenney's significant post-1959 experimental works (excepting pieces covered in volume 1). Wannamaker includes technical information, an analysis of intentions and goals, graphs and musical examples, historical and biographical context, and thoughts from Tenney and others on specific works. Throughout, he discusses the striking compositional ideas found in Tenney's music and, where appropriate, traces an idea's appearance from one piece to the next to reveal the evolution of the composer's art and thought.

A landmark in experimental music scholarship, The Music of James Tenney is a first-of-its-kind consideration of the experimental music titan and his work.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Robert Wannamaker is Associate Dean for Academic and Special Projects in the School of Music at the California Institute of the Arts. He is a composer, improviser, music theorist, mathematician, and educator.

REVIEWS

"An astonishing book, a virtual encyclopedia of James Tenney that threatens to leave no remaining scope for further scholarly work on his music. It answered many questions I've long had about Tenney's music, and has already acted as a spur to my own work. The amount of information one could currently find on Tenney's work would comprise only a small fraction of what is included here."--Kyle Gann, author of The Arithmetic of Listening: Tuning Theory and History for the Impractical Musician

"Wannamaker's essential, extraordinary work on the music of James Tenney is a brilliantly detailed and exhaustively researched addition to our comprehensive understanding of Tenney's music and compositional ideas, and to our conception of music of the second half of the twentieth century."--Larry Polansky, Emeritus Strauss Professor of Music, Dartmouth College

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface xiii

1. 1952–59 (Early Works) 1

1.1. Monody (1959) 3

2. 1959–61 (Tape Music) 7

2.1. Improvisations for Medea (1960) 7

2.2. Collage #1 (“Blue Suede”) (1961) 8

3. 1961–64 (Computer Music) 9

3.1. Analog #1 (Noise Study) (1961) 9

3.2. Entrance/Exit Music (1962) 9

3.3. Five Stochastic Studies (1962) 13

3.4. Stochastic String Quartet (1963) and Stochastic Quartet (1963) 16

3.5. Dialogue (1963) 22

3.6. Radio Piece (1963) 27

3.7. Ergodos I (1963) 28

3.8. Phases (1963) 30

3.9. Music for Player Piano (1964) 30

3.10. Ergodos II (1964) 36

3.11. String Complement (1964) and Instrumental Responses (1964) 38

4. 1964–68 (Performance and the Social) 42

4.1. Choreogram (1964) 42

4.2. Chamber Music (1964) 42

4.3. Maximusic (1965) 47

4.4. Metabolic Music (1965) 47

4.5. Three Theater Pieces (1965) 49

4.6. Collage #2 (“Viet Flakes”) (1966) 51

4.7. A House of Dust (1967) and Letters to Gertrude Stein (1968) 60

4.8. Fabric for Che (1967) 66

4.9. Swell Piece (1967) 66

5. 1969–73 (Process and Continuity) 67

5.1. For Ann (rising) (1969) 67

5.2. Quiet Fan for Erik Satie (1970/1971) 67

5.3. Hey When I Sing These 4 Songs Hey Look What Happens (1971) 74

5.4. Postal Pieces (1965–71) 75

5.5. For 12 Strings (rising) (1971) 97

5.6. In the . . . Mode (1971, 1973) 99

6. 1972–79 (Canons and the Harmonic Series) 103

6.1. Clang (1972) 103

6.2. Quintext: Five Textures (1972) 103

6.3. Canon (1973) 117

6.4. The Chorales Series (1973–75) 118

6.5. Spectral CANON for CONLON Nancarrow (1974) 124

6.6. Orchestral Study: The “Creation Field” (1974) 124

6.7. Three Harmonic Studies (1974) 126

6.8. Three Pieces for Mechanical Drum (1974–75) 134

6.9. Three Pieces for Drum Quartet (1974–75) 145

6.10. Symphony (1975) 160

6.11. Harmoniums #1, #4, and #5 (1976–78) 161

6.12. Saxony (1978) 169

6.13. Three Indigenous Songs (1979) 172

7. 1980–85 (Harmonic Spaces) 173

7.1. Harmoniums #2, #3, #6, and #7 (1980–2000) 173

7.2. Chromatic Canon (1980/1983) 178

7.3. Band (1980/1983) 190

7.4. Septet (1981) 193

7.5. Glissade (1982) 199

7.6. Two Koans and a Canon (1982) 217

7.7. Voice(s) (1982/1984) 220

7.8. deus ex machina (1982) 226

7.9. Bridge (1984) 229

7.10. Koan for String Quartet (1984) 229

7.11. Changes: 64 Studies for 6 Harps (1985) 229

7.12. Water on the mountain . . . Fire in heaven (1985) 257

8. 1986–94 (Transition and Tradition) 259

8.1. The Road to Ubud (1986) 259

8.2. Rune (1988) 264

8.3. Critical Band (1988) 275

8.4. Tableaux Vivants (1990) 275

8.5. Three New Seeds (1991) 288

8.6. Pika-Don (1991) 290

8.7. “Ain’t I a Woman?” (1992) 298

8.8. Flocking (1993) 300

8.9. Cognate Canons (1993) 301

8.10. Forms 1–4 (1993) 307

8.11. Ergodos III (1994) 315

9. 1994–2006 (Spectra and Diaphony) 318

9.1. In a Large, . . . (1994–95) 318

9.2. Three Pages in the Shape of a Pear (1995) 318

9.3. The Spectrum Series (1995, 2001) 320

9.4. Diapason (1996) 333

9.5. ’Scend for Scelsi (1996) 337

9.6. Diaphonic Study (1997) 340

9.7. Diaphonic Toccata (1997) 341

9.8. Diaphonic Trio (1997) 342

9.9. Song ’n’ Dance for Harry Partch (1999) 343

9.10. Seegersong #1 and Seegersong #2 (1999) 349

9.11. Last Spring in Toronto (2000) 352

9.12. Prelude and Toccata (2001) 357

9.13. (Fontana) Mix for Six (Strings) (2001) 359

9.14. To Weave (a meditation) (2003) 361

9.15. Essay (after a sonata) (2004) 364

9.16. Just Another Bagatelle (2004) 367

9.17. For Piano and . . . (2005) 368

9.18. Panacousticon (2005) 370

9.19. Arbor Vitae (2006) 372

10. Music in Popular Styles 373

10.1. Three Rags for Pianoforte (1969) 373

10.2. “Listen . . . !” (1981/1984) 375

10.3. Blues Canon (from “Listen . . . !”) (1981) 376

10.4. Nathan’s Song (1983) 376

10.5. Sneezles (an encore) (1985/1995/2000) 376

11. Arrangements 377

11.1. Maple Leaf Rag 377

11.2. Stoptime Rag 377

11.3. General William Booth Enters into Heaven 377

11.4. Blues for Annie 378

11.5. Beatles Song Arrangements 378

11.6. Five Studies for Player Piano 378

Notes 379

References 407

Index 417