Conversation with Roy Nathanson (II)
The continuation of Nathanson's discussion of his career and work. Click here for Part I.
Experimental Music
Conversation with Roy Nathanson (I)
Saxophonist Roy Nathanson talks about his experiences as a Columbia student during the unrest at the University and the militant aftermath during the late 1960s, his development as an artist in an astonishing variety of forms (including composition, songwriting, poetry, acting and teaching) his work with global stars and with high school students, and his basic need to "tell a story" no matter what artistic language he uses. Click here for Part II.
Conversation with Miya Masaoka and Vijay Iyer (II)
Part II of the discussion of Miya Masaoka's work with Ms. Masaoka and pianist Vijay Iyer. Click here for Part I.
Conversation with Miya Masaoka and Vijay Iyer (I)
Miya Masaoka is a composer, kotoist, and sound artist. She has created works for solo koto, ensembles, mixed choirs, live electronics, and video that have been presented across the world. Discussing her work with her is composer, pianist, and scholar Vijay Iyer. Ms. Masaoka talks about how her and her family's experiences as members of a persecuted minority, Japanese Americans, shaped her works that deal with Japanese artistic traditions and with subaltern social groups--and even with marginalized biological subjects such as plants and insects.
Harmonic Earthquakes
This talk examines the music festival documented in 2004 called Banlieues Bleues, which featured African American musicians from the Association for the Advancement of Creative Music. These musicians used improvisation to empower and give voice to children of color from marginalized Parisian suburban communities.
Seminar on Sound
Columbia University
Anthropology and American Studies
Spring 2007
Course Requirements
1. Regular attendance and participation at the seminar
2. Two or three class presentations based on papers of approximately 5 pages
3. A term paper of approximately 15-20 pages due on April 24
REQUIRED READING
Christoph Cox and Daniel Warner, eds. Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music. NY, 2004
Mark Katz, Capturing Sound: How Technology Has Changed Music. Berkeley, 2004 (with CD)
Michel Chion, Audio Vision
The Complete Arista Recordings of Anthony Braxton (Liner Notes)
In 1974, Anthony Braxton was considered a radical among radicals. This was true not least for his distinctive embrace of post-war European avant-garde composition, then assumed to be particularly uncongenial to the average listener's taste.
Gittin' to Know Y'all: Improvised Music, Interculturalism, and the Racial Imagination
Lewis notes that race has been "e-raced" in studies of free jazz in Europe and America, which he finds surprising given the music's emancipatory thrust. He investigates a recurrent ambivalence about the African-American contribution to free jazz, at once taking experimental cues from it, yet denying that it is capable of evolving or progressing itself. After uncovering coded assumptions about race, ethnicity, and class behind this ambivalence, Lewis explores the possibilities for artists to transcend, transgress, and perhaps even erase boundaries.
“Area by Area the Machine Unfolds”
Since their emergence from the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in the 1960s, the members of the Art Ensemble of Chicago have created a distinctive multidisciplinary performance practice centered on collective improvisation. In this article, Steinbeck conceptualizes Art Ensemble improvisations as networks of group interactions, and he analyzes an excerpt from a 1972 Art Ensemble concert recording using a phenomenological perspective informed by his conversations with the group about the performance and by my own experience as an improvised-music practitioner.
Interview with Keiko Uenishi (aka o.blaat)
Miya Masaoka is a third generation Japanese American artist classically trained as a musician and composer. In her compositions and installations, she involves improvisation, interaction, spatialization, sensors, computers, and various media including video and film.
In this interview with fellow Japanese/American sound artist Keiko Uenishi I work outwards from the personal to consider the radical potential of internet-based sound and video improvisation to build community across ethnic and gender lines.
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