Alvin Lucier, American composer of contemporary music, has died

American composer Alvin Lucier has died at the age of 1^{There is} December, 90, at his home in Middletown, Connecticut. His numerous productions, which oscillated between electrophysiological experiments and conceptual proposals, made him one of the leaders in the work that appeared in the descendants of John Cage, such as Robert Ashley (1930-2014), who founded Sonic Arts in 1966. Union.

Alvin Lucier was born on May 14, 1931, in Nashua, New Hampshire. Although he listened to music everyday at home, he was more sensitive to the music of baby birds, whose echoes he preferred to follow in the woods, and to follow jazz rather than classical song. Composers describe his father as a violinist and his mother a pianist and amateur. To his parents’ chagrin, he listens to a drum in which he improves for several hours. Again, spreading sounds in space (the barrier of his room) is more interesting to him than music.

Later, at Yale University, he performed in the Snare section of the parade band and enjoyed the echo of the tracks in the parade opening hall. At the same time, he studied composition and music theory until receiving his diploma in 1954. Alvin Lucier then completed his training under the supervision of Aaron Cobland and Lucas Foss, during the summer at Tanglewood (Massachusetts) Academy in 1958 and 1959 at Brandeis University (near Boston) until 1960. A scholarship later allowed him to stay in Rome for two years, where the European avant-garde invention encouraged him to abandon the neoclassical style he had followed during his studies.

“Now I’m a composer”

However, the decisive shock for its musical future took place in Venice. Alvin Lucier attends the concert of the famous pianist David Tudor, who at one point took refuge under the instrument, echoed by John Cage (1912-1992). ” Now I am a composer », Starts with a musician known for his provocative poses to the public. Inspired by Alvin Lucier, who formally declared himself a composer, his return to the United States could prove to be a work in progress.

In 1965, with Music for solo, He gains experience worthy of solo singing to use his brain waves (thanks to a specific amplifier invented by Edmund Diwan) to vibrate various percussion instruments. Inspired by the unprecedented study of the field of acoustics, I’m sitting in a room (1969), his “hit”, was based on the repetition of a long speech by two tape recorders until it was completely distorted to allow only specific frequencies for the broadcast area. Taking for granted Vespers By Claudio Monteverdi (with Vespers, 1968) or a Beatles song (Nothing is true [Strawberry Fields Forever] In 1990), Alvin Lucier wanted to create echoes, which he underlined in an interview given in 2019, “Personal control should not be exercised In sounds, according to him, there can be no reality other than the acoustic phenomenon.

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