Episode 12
David Tudor: From piano to electronics
The transition of a pianist to electronic music
David Tudor (1926-1996)
In which we listen to works created while Tudor transitioned from playing piano to composing works for homemade electronics.
Playlist
- Bo Nilsson, Quantitäten (1958), for “electronically fortified” piano. Recording from Swedish Radio made in 1960. This is an abbreviated performance of the work made for Swedish Radio.
- John Cage, Cartridge Music (1960). For amplified small sounds; also amplified piano or cymbal; any number of players and loudspeakers; parts to be prepared from score by performers. Recording by John Cage and David Tudor, Time Records (1963).
- John Cage, Variations II (1961), Parts to be prepared from the score, for any number of players, using any sound-producing means. Piano and electronics by David Tudor. Recorded in Japan in 1962.
- Christian Wolff, For 1, 2, or 3 People (1964), Piano by David Tudor. Recorded live by KPFA Radio in 1965 at the San Francisco Museum of Art.
- David Tudor, Bandoneon ! (A Combine) (1966), for bandoneon and live electronics. Recorded live in October 1966 at E.A.T.’s at Nine Evenings: Theatre and Engineering. From the collection, The Art of David Tudor released by New World Records and Radio Bremen.
The Archive Mix in which I conclude the podcast by playing two additional tracks at the same time, to see what happens. This time, I am once again drawing up David Tudor and John Cage from the Folkways recording in 1959 of the lecture Indeterminacy.
- John Cage and David Tudor, Indeterminacy: New Aspect of Form in Instrumental and Electronic Music, the first three minutes of the lecture recorded in 1959 for Folkways Records.
- John Cage and David Tudor, Indeterminacy: New Aspect of Form in Instrumental and Electronic Music, the last three minutes of the lecture recorded in 1959 for Folkways Records.
Read my book: Electronic and Experimental Music (sixth edition), by Thom Holmes (Routledge 2020).
Contact Composers Inside Electronics, c/o John Driscoll and Phil Edelstein, longtime Tudor associates beginning in the 1970s for a history of the group and updates about their ongoing activities.
Read You Nakai’s new book about Tudor: Reminded by the Instruments: David Tudor's Music(Oxford 2020)
Full disclosure: I work for Oxford University Press by day, although not in the trade book division that has published You Nakai’s new book.