Music Is Dying Now: Pauline Oliveros

17 окт. 2012 г.

Pauline Oliveros

Composer Pauline Oliveros is a maverick in the field of electronic music. Oliveros’ first instrument was the accordion; as a teenager in Texas she played in a 100-piece accordion group that appeared at the rodeo. In 1949 she entered the University of Houston, but in 1952 transferred to San Francisco State College. Oliveros studied music privately with Robert Erickson and began to associate with a loose confederation of like-minded composers; Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Morton Subotnick among them. Oliveros was among the first composers to participate when Subotnick and Ramon Sender founded the San Francisco Tape Center in 1961, and served as the Center’s director in the first year following its move to Mills College (1966-1967). Some of the pieces Oliveros created in the 1960s, such as Bye Bye Butterfly (1965) and I of IV (1966; created at the University of Toronto) are acknowledged as classics of electronic music. From the beginning Oliveros was not greatly interested in electronic tape and its manipulation, preferring to explore real-time electronics, interactivity, and the use of delays.

In the early ’70s Oliveros began to amplify the theatrical aspect of her works, in addition to incorporating elements of her growing interests in spirituality and meditation. This touched off a series of pieces that emphasized intuition and consciousness among large masses of people.

American Composer, performer and author, born 1932. In the early '60s, Oliveros — with Morton Subotnick and Ramon Sender — formed the San Francisco Tape Music Center, and, there, she began her pioneering work with electronics and tape. In performances, Pauline Oliveros uses an accordion which has been re-tuned in two different systems of her just intonation in addition to electronics to alter the sound of the accordion. Throughout the years, she has developed the Extended Instrument System (EIS), a sophisticated setup of digital signal processors designed for use in live performances. Examples of her use of the system can be heard on recordings by the Deep Listening Band.

The Deep Listening Band was founded in 1988 by Pauline Oliveros, (accordionist, electronics and composer), Stuart Dempster, (trombonist, didjeridu player and composer) and Panaiotis (vocalist, electronics and composer). David Gamper (keyboards and electronics) replaced Panaiotis in 1990.

The band is named after Oliveros' term, concept, program and registered servicemark of the Deep Listening Institute, Ltd., Deep Listening, and specializes in performing and recording in resonant or reverberant spaces such as cathedrals and huge underground cisterns including the two million gallon Fort Worden Cistern which has a 45 second reverberation time.

They have collaborated with Ellen Fullman and her Long String Instrument with Suspended Music released by Periplum Records, Joe McPhee Quartet with Unquenchable Fire released by Deep Listening. They have also performed, recorded, and released a trope on John Cage's 4'33". Non Stop Flight released by Music&Arts in a 70 minute excerpt from the 4 hours and 33' trope.