Lucier, then 38, with a strong New England accent and a periodic stutter, pressed record and began to speak.
"I am sitting in a room different from the one you are in now," he said. "I am recording the sound of my speaking voice, and I am going to play it back into the room again and again, until the resonant frequencies of the room reinforce themselves so that any semblance of my speech, with perhaps the exception of rhythm, is destroyed."
After roughly nine repetitions of the text — and about 15 minutes — Lucier's speech, including his stutter, becomes impossible to make out, and is eventually overtaken by high-pitched tones, sounding somewhere between a bowed vibraphone and the creaking of a rusty swing set. By 23 minutes, speech has fully transformed into noisy drones.
At least that's what one hears in that 1970 recording. Lucier's work has been performed and recorded many times since then, and every recording sounds different — because how the piece unfolds depends on the particular acoustics of a given space. This range of possibilities will be on display on Thursday — continuing through Friday, Lucier's 90th birthday — when Issue Project Room in Brooklyn hosts a 26-hour streamed "I am sitting in a room" marathon , featuring 90 performers.
It isn't the only birthday celebration. On Friday, the Ever Present Orchestra , an ensemble dedicated to Lucier's music, will premiere his "Adagio for Strings," streamed by the ZKM Center for Art and Media .
"One of my fondest compliments," he added, "was when our plumber, as he was leaving my house after having finished a job at my home, remarked as he was walking out the door: 'Are you the guy who wrote the piece about sitting in a room? My kids love it. You are ahead of your time.'"
Over 50 years ago, when Lucier began teaching at Wesleyan University in Middletown, he was already fascinated by environmental and bodily sounds, with works like "Music for Solo Performer" (for amplified brain waves); "Sferics" (for natural radio emissions caused by lightning); and "Chambers" (for resonant spaces ranging from seashells to subway stations). Recording his own body, in his own domestic space, was a logical next step.
One impetus to focus on his voice stemmed in part from his brief stint acting in experimental films. "I've started paying attention to the characteristics of my speech which are original to my personality and don't sound like anybody else's," he told an interviewer in 1970. "You know I'm a stutterer."
For composers steeped in the mid-20th-century avant-garde techniques of John Cage, in which personality and self-expression were frowned on — and often actively avoided by using procedures of chance — Lucier's emphasis on his own voice was a bit taboo.
The Weeknd to Perform at 2021 Billboard Music Awards | Billboard
Up for awards in 16 categories -- including top artist, top male artist and top Hot 100 artist -- The Weeknd is the top finalist at this year's show, hosted by Nick Jonas. The "Save Your Tears" singer is only the second artist in history to have three No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 in three different years from one album -- After Hours .
It was previously revealed that P!nk, who will receive the Icon Award honoring record-breaking artists and their impact on music, will also take the stage for a performance.
The BBMAs celebrate music's greatest achievements, with finalists determined by performance on the Billboard charts. Finalists and winners are based on key fan interactions with music -- album and digital song sales, streaming, radio airplay and social engagement -- tracked by Billboard and its data partners, including MRC Data. This year's awards are based on the chart period of March 21, 2020, through April 3, 2021.
The 2021 Billboard Music Awards are produced by dick clark productions, which is owned by MRC; MRC and Penske Media are co-parent companies of Billboard. Barry Adelman and Robert Deaton are executive producers of the show.
Get Organised: How Cities Are Building Better Post Pandemic Music Ecosystems
James Primosch, Music | University of Pennsylvania Almanac
Dr. Primosch joined Penn’s faculty in 1988 as an assistant professor of music. In 1993, he was named the Laura Jan Meyerson Term Chair in the Humanities, then, a year later, he became an associate professor of music. In 2002, he became a full professor, and in 2006, the Dr. Robert Weiss Professor of Music, a chair he held until 2013 and then again beginning in 2020. In addition, Dr. Primosch served as the department chair of music from 1996 to 1998 and 1999 to 2000 as well as the undergraduate chair of the department from 2002 to 2005. Dr. Primosch also served as a faculty advisor to freshmen and sat on several departmental and University committees.
Dr. Primosch was a widely accomplished pianist, composer, and performer. His instrumental, vocal, and electronic works have been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the New York New Music Ensemble, and the 21st Century Consort. His piece Icons was played at the ISCM/League of Composers World Music Days in Hong Kong, and soprano Dawn Upshaw included a song by Dr. Primosch in her Carnegie Hall recital debut. He wrote commissions for the Chicago Symphony and the Albany Symphony, as well as projects for the Fromm and Koussevitzky Foundations and the Barlow Endowment. He worked extensively with Philadelphia groups like the Mendelssohn Chorus, PRISM Quartet, and Lyric Fest, and new music groups like Orchestra 2001 and Network for New Music. Dr. Primosch expertly combined experimentation with approachability.
“It’s a massively complex work but not to the listener at all,” said Donald Nally, conductor of the Crossing, a group that has performed Dr. Primosch’s work. “It’s written in a way that you really understand the journey on first hearing—a pretty impressive accomplishment.”
“Within the department of music, Jim could be found practicing piano early in the morning; or engaged in an impromptu discussion with a colleague about a jazz tune; or working with his students in studio lessons or seminars; or planning a concert with one of our ensemble directors; or catching up with a staff member,” said the department of music in an online tribute to Dr. Primosch. “Jim also served the department by taking on official administrative roles, serving as department chair and undergraduate chair on several occasions. In all of these roles—whether as an administrator, colleague, or mentor—Jim’s wry sense of humor, his commitment to excellence, and his humanity shone through brightly. Jim’s impact on his students, colleagues, collaborators, and friends is impossible to overstate and we will miss him dearly.”
Dr. Primosch and his work have received many accolades. In 1994, he was the composer-in-residence at the Marlboro Music Festival. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, a Regional Artists Fellowship of the American Academy in Rome, and the Stoeger Prize of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Most recently, Dr. Primosch received the 2020 Virgil Thomson Award in Vocal Music, administered by the American Academy of Arts and Letters ( Almanac June 23, 2020 ), and was nominated for a Grammy award for Best Choral Performance for his album Carthage , performed by the Crossing ( Almanac January 19, 2021 ).
Dr. Primosch is survived by his wife, Mary Murphy; son, Thomas; daughter, Mary Rose; brother, Edward; and sisters, Rita Timko and Jean Tomcho. A service was held on May 1. Donations in his memory may be made to Face to Face, a social services group in Germantown, https://facetofacegermantown.org/ .
Denver's Underground Music Showcase plans 2021 return — The Know
The Rocky Mountain region’s biggest indie-music festival will return in 2021, according to the owner of Denver’s long-running Underground Music Festival.
Co-created by Denver Post music writers John Moore and Ricardo Baca — and then scaled up to a South by Southwest-style event with hundreds of bands and nearly two dozen venues — the event was sold in 2018 to Denver boutique-events producer Two Parts.
The company staged a scaled-down lineup with scaled-up experiences for the next two years, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which postponed it throughout 2020. Now, organizers say the festival will return Aug. 27-29 along its traditionally walkable, South Broadway route, and about a month later than its traditional late-July staging.
The later date will allow The UMS, as it’s often called, to work with city and state officials on health and safety rules. Those may include reduced capacity, especially at indoor venues, and limited ticket sales to ensure social distancing, officials said in the press statement.
Editor’s note: John Wenzel previously did some promotional and technical work for The UMS back when it was a nonprofit, Denver Post-owned venture.
Blake Shelton Joins Country Music Association's Drive To Feed Jobless Music Industry
On Monday, May 10, the Country Music Association announced its intention — in a partnership with Feeding America — to provide four million meals in cities with large populations of musicians and music industry professionals.
The CMA’s Feeding America partnership will also see the organization's foundation launch a donation challenge to fund an additional one million meals throughout all of Feeding America’s food banks. Plus, its Music Industry COVID Support (MICS) Initiative will help those in Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon. This is also on top of the $3 million that the CMA has already invested in numerous nonprofits that serve the music community.
"Nobody wants to think about their friends or colleagues going without food," said Country Music Association CEO Sarah Trahern. "I feel like by next year we're going to be in good stead," she adds. "But a lot of those people will have gone 18 months to 24 months without salaries in their chosen fields. And then you can't put a roof over your head or put braces on your kids or put food on the table."
Guitar donation helps North Middle expand music education | Journal-news | journal-news.net
North Middle music teacher Tanner Petri sets up new guitars received through a donation by the Friends of Music. North received eight additional guitars from the organization.
MARTINSBURG — Martinsburg North Middle students are getting the chance to expand their music education and enjoy an instrument they all already love thanks to a donation of guitars from the Friends of Music.
The organization accepting grant and donation requests, North music teacher Tanner Petri took a chance and asked for the full amount, meaning eight additional guitars to bring the class to 16.
"It quite literally doubled the amount of guitars I have," Petri said. "I went from having eight to 16 now, so we're still a little shy of having a full class set, but we can have over half the class playing guitars. It's really fantastic."
The teacher said guitar is one of the most requested instruments throughout the year by students, Petri himself a guitar player who is happy to share his love with the students.
"I think it's probably one of the instruments they see the most, out in the real world," Petri said. "Guitars are in rock bands, jazz bands. The country stars they would maybe watch on CMT, they're going to be strumming a guitar. I had a professor in college that said it's the most common instrument. I think you could rival that with the piano, but there's just something about the guitar. It's pretty accessible."
The traditional string instrument supplements several other instruments already in the classroom, specifically allowing for more depth and expansion of knowledge alongside the ukulele set that students are instructed to.
"It offers as a continuation of ukulele, so we're able to talk about playing chords to classic rock songs, pop songs that they would hear on the radio," Petri said. "With the guitar, we can extend that. It's a little bit more of a difficult instrument. It's probably the most practical.
The additional guitars also allow Petri to better meet the music standards set forth by the state for education.
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