James Tenney

Although his name is familiar mainly to specialists, James Tenney is a highly influential figure in American music, especially to advertise various strands of twentieth century avant-garde, from Ives forward. He in addition has been a prolific composer, composing extensively for numerous unusual instrumental mixtures (some involving guitar, gamelan, percussion, or tape hold off), and he was a respected number in the electro-acoustic motion from the 1960s, also creating some essential early pc compositions. Tenney’s desire for computer systems, acoustics, psychoacoustics, and music cognition isn’t surprising taking into consideration he studied executive at the University or college of Denver from 1952 to 1954. Just after that do he spend himself full-time to music, learning piano with Eduard Steuermann at Juilliard and structure with Lionel Nowak at Bennington University (that he received his bachelor’s level in 1958). Following this arrived studies in the University or college of Illinois (where he got his master’s in 1961); mentors there have been Kenneth Gaburo in structure and Lejaren Hiller in info theory and digital music. Tenney also worked well for some time with such maverick numbers as Harry Partch, Carl Ruggles, and Edgard Varèse. The 1960s discovered Tenney conducting study in the Bell Laboratories (1961-1964), Yale (1964-1966), as well as the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute (1966-1970), where he deeply explored the first possibilities of digital music. Old age noticed him teaching on the California Institute from the Arts (1970-1975), the School of California at Santa Cruz (1975-1976), and lastly at Toronto’s York School (from 1976). Through the 1960s and ’70s, Tenney collaborated with live music artists whilst he caused consumer electronics. He co-founded and aimed the Tone Streets Outfit, which from 1963 to 1970 was a substantial force within the Ives revival. He also performed using the ensembles of early minimalists Steve Reich and Philip Cup while fostering interactions with such statistics as Stan Brakhage, John Cage, Morton Feldman, and Potential Neuhaus. In afterwards years, Tenney became even more influential being a theorist than as a composer or performer. His method of form is due to his knowledge of the phenomenological bases of music notion. He in addition has looked into “harmonic space,” his term for experimental intonation. His best-known publication is certainly A BRIEF HISTORY of Consonance and Dissonance (1988).