She was one of the founders of New Music America, became a guiding force throughout its existence and left us with memories and inspirations, and of course a whole new way to hear the world.
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How about this for a first night concert?
Steve Reich - Drumming (part one)
Pauline Oliveros - The Tuning Meditation
Philip Glass - Dance No. 4
Meredith Monk - Traveling Song, Biography, Do You Be
Robert Ashley - The Wolfman
♪
Pauline’s artist description in the New Music New York festival catalogue, in its entirety:
A recording of the original 1979 performance appears on the Kitchen compilation, released in 2004. There are apparently 4 copies (down from 10 a year ago) here for sale with the full details of 19 tracks:
In the below special substack link, you’ll find several videos of the Tuning Meditation as performed in recent years. I don’t have a copy of the official Kitchen commemorative double album that came out in 2004, but I did somehow find this on y2b which seems to be an excerpt of the performance, probably from the cd:
reviews
Pauline Oliveros, a native of Houston now teaching in California, presented The Tuning Meditation, a piece in which the audience became the performer. Members were instructed to select a note, hold it for a while, then tune to a note held nearby. The haze of sound, which emerged only after a truck roared and rumbled by outside, giving audience members a chance to sneak in a tone, was gorgeous.
- Charles Ward, Houston Chronicle July 24, 1979
*
… Still, religious instincts make themselves felt in all human societies, and they have had much to do with the evolution of experimental music. Composers, perhaps more often than their contemporaries in any of the other arts, have been quite aware of spiritual values.
Pauline Oliveros is a case in point. On the opening night of the festival, she came on stage and simply offered a few brief instructions to the audience. ‘Sing a tone on one breath, sing someone else’s tone on the next breath, and continue in this way.’ Then she just closed her eyes and waited. It was an act of faith, and an uncooperative audience could easily have ruined the whole thing, and yet, as the gorgeous choral texture began to rise very gradually out of the audience, it began to seem almost impossible that anything could go wrong. There was something irresistable about her, about her belief, and about how she was able to somehow plug herself, and us, into an almost cosmic experience. The result was not really a Buddhist statement, and certainly not a Christian one, and yet it was a devotional act. Something mystical, something superhuman seemed to be controlling that performance, and even those who would rather not think about such things were respectful of the atmosphere that took over the space. As the last voices were dropping out, after perhaps 10 minutes of this unrehearsed chanting, the room fell into an extraordinary peacefulness.
- Tom Johnson, Village Voice July 2, 1979
*
Sing only long tones. Contribute one of your own and then tune to someone else’s.” Ms. Oliveros disappeared and waves of pitches appeared. Power tripping by the audience. Everyone wants everyone else to sing their pitch. It sounds like an Orff-sound-alike-at-the-movies, just before the wife goes insane. It really is gorgeous.
She wears red == looks red == has amulet and Indian overlay == looks comfortable without shoes. She is pulling the sound out of us and we get off. It’s like the Episcopal church where everyone sings almost everything == participation == but better, sicne its (sic) not possible to be out of tune. For this one, there is great admiration.
- Beth Anderson “Report from the Front”, Guerrilla criticism of New Music New York (26 pages), June 1979
♪
There were so many versions of the work, I decided to create a playlist on youtube and a separate substack; you’ll find more reviews of the performance here as well.
Part of what made New Music New York special was the concordance of meetings during the day and performances during the evenings at the Kitchen. Pauline Oliveros took part in a panel entitled “The Risks of Improvisation” led by Robert Palmer (the musicologist) with George Lewis, Wendy Perron, Robert Ashley, Petr Kotik, and Robert Rutman.
=======================
♪ 1980 Minneapolis The Witness
This of course contradicts the fact that The Witness has been listed as a work composed in 1991 (though maybe that could mean a modified version?) - in any case this is a more recent one, performed by Claire Chase, Susie Ibarra, Alex Peh and Senem Pirler in 2021:
At the 1980 Minnesota festival, Pauline was also listed as presenting a “commissioning booth”, a theme she would come to often over the years. No details about that at this point…
♪ 1981 San Francisco
At the 1981 NMA festival, Pauline presented a work named Travelling Companions at the Golden Gate Marx Meadow park. I’ve got no further details at this point, but here is a interview that she had with Carl Stone for the official program that might give a hint or two. It’s kind of fuzzy as I copied it from a pdf made from a photocopy, so I’ll probably use up a substack post on a retyping. It’s still history, though!
♪ Chicago 1982
Pauline was never just an accompanist, but she was listed as one for the presentation of Ruth Anderson’s work Centering presented at the 1982 Chicago festival, with Judith Roggio (dance), Annea Lockwood, Julie Winter and Gayle Turner.
There was a program description and a couple of good reviews that give us an idea of how it went, as well of course, of the audio from the live broadcast by Charles Amirkhanian and Joan La Barbara.
Ruth Anderson Centering for dancer and 4 musicians
Each observer wears a galvanic skin resistance sensor connected to a sine tone oscillator. The sensor registers electrical currents passing through the skin, indicating biological changes in the wearer’s state of being. The observers, watching the dancer, experience inner kinetic responses to the movements and energy levels of the dancer. These responses activate the oscillators and create the music for the dance. The dancer responds to the music and in turn creates the reactions of the observers.
Between dancer and observers a continuous cycling experience forms, making this work a clear auditory and visual realization of our inter-relationships with one another, of our essential unity.
- Ruth Anderson program statement
A recording of the actual performance is at this link, the second of three parts of the three hour (!) live broadcast. You’ll find the work at the 30:14 mark:
One of the more conceptually unusual pieces followed after inter- mission, Ruth Anderson's Centering. Written for dancer, 4 observer/ musicians and galvanic skin resistance sensors, Centering is a feedback system-the observer/musicians each control an electronic oscillator with their reactions to a dancer, gauged by the skin resistance sensors. The dancer in turn reacts to the changes in the sounds of the oscillators, which in turn causes changes in the reactions of the observer/musicians. A simple and elegant idea, nicely executed by dancer Judith Ragir, despite the somewhat crude sounds of the simple wave-shape oscillators swooping up and down.
- Carl Stone, "Two Reports" Perspectives of New Music, Autumn 1981
***
The complexity of Austin's work was succeeded by the simplicity of Centering by Ruth Anderson. The galvanic skin responses of four individuals to the movements of a dancer generated the electronic sound of this work.
The wave's repetitive variation between higher and lower frequency became tedious; perhaps it could have been altered through the use of multiple dancers of varying styles.
- M. Staff Brandl + Thomas Emil Homerin, "Big Noise from Lake Michigan", Ear Magazine 1982
She was also a participant in something listed as a “Children's Music Theatre Workshop” event along with Linda Montano and Tom Jaremba.
♪ NMA Washington DC 1983
Though Pauline wasn’t in any concert setting during this festival, she was one of many composers to contribute to a collaborative march, to be performed outdoors, on the second day of the Washington DC festival. I couldn’t find any direct reference in the official program to the event, but thanks to the reviewers, we get a good taste of how it went:
Marching Band Parade with many featuring sections composed by Rhys Chatham + Don Cherry + Carl Grubbs + Craig Harris + Anthony Braxton + Pauline Oliveros
*
The composer Pauline Oliveros stood barefoot at the center of Western Plaza, chanting and holding a conch shell. Around her, two dozen musicians walked in an ever-widening circle, tootling and clanging on such assorted instruments as sopranino saxophone, toy concertina, Indian bells and a hunk of scrap metal. ''Do you know what this is supposed to be?'' one spectator asked another. ''Music,'' was the reply.
Miss Oliveros's piece completed an afternoon of marching-band music, featuring high-school bands.
- Jon Pareles, New York Times, "Music: American Festival", October 9
*
This year's festival included a parade such as even parade-prone Washington has never witnessed: marching along Pennsylvania Avenue, where presidents have walked, came four high-school bands, each tootling away at pieces created for the occasion by such fearsome avant-garde composers as Rhys Chatham and progressive jazzman Don Cherry.
Then came a ragtag and bobtail of Washington's own avant-garde leaders, parading in a spiral around composer Pauline Oliveros, her conch shell at the ready, banging and honking away on instruments of choice in a composition whose only rubric was "do whatever you want." No better kickoff to a new-music festival could be imagined.
- Alan Rich, "Modern Music on Parade", Newsweek, October 24, 1983
*
Don Cherry's "March of the Hobbit" brought Kelly Miller Junior High School Young Lions, 130 strong, onto Western Plaza in half-step to a shuffle beat at 2:30 p.m. The ragtag Buddha Band of two dozen deadpan souls ended the afternoon session of the free concert three hours later. The latter was a theater of the absurd put-on that ambled zombielike in a circle around a barefoot centerpiece blowing a conch shell. Among the array of instruments utilized were sheep horn, plumbing pipe on steel plate, conga drum, violin, gourd shaker, trumpet and soap-bubble ring. Filling the several hours between were foot-tapping scenarios by the marching bands of Cardoza and Roosevelt high schools.
- W. Royal Stokes, “The Jazz Men Came And…” Washington Post, October 8, 1983
♪ 1984 Hartford
Again, though not an official performer, I got to see her on the second night of my first New Music America experience in Hartford at a late night open mic organized by the festival at Mad Murphy’s pub (the location which had been overfilled with Sun Ra and his Arkestra the night before). There, I got to see her perform a duo with Guy Klucevsek which brought me to tears (maybe it was the realization that I had discovered a whole new world not available to me as a clerk in Ottawa) and for which there is at least this momento:
If you’d like your own copy to play and play and play… note that the first track is again The Tuning Meditation.
She also took part in an All-Star gathering to celebrate Terry Riley’s In C in the presence of and participation with the composer. Joining them on stage taking the risk to play without a click track were the following (I actually chopped Pauline and “members of the SEM Ensemble” from the bottom of this scan):
And there were a lot of reviews of this 20th anniversary performance of the work, but I’ll let you go here if you want to add this to the celebration de Pauline:
Pauline Oliveros was one of the prime organizers of the festival along with Michael Galbreth and Jerry McCathern, and she was asked, “could you write us a short piece?” for the opening day concert by the Cambiata Soloists. The result:
Michael Galbreth from his Facebook posts of 2016:
I was lucky, honored and blessed to have worked with Pauline Oliveros on New Music America 1986. I have been fortunate to have met and known some extraordinary and unique people. Pauline is one. I have never known anyone like her.
On the opening day of New Music America 1986 after the performance of John Cage's "Ryoanji" in the sculpture garden of the MFAH, the next performance was across the street in the Brown Auditorium in the Museum of Fine Arts. Included in this program were compositions by David Noon, Guy Klucevsek, Jon Deak, Newton Strandberg and the one and only Ornette Coleman. What was not listed on the program was a composition by Pauline Oliveros who served as the Artistic Advisor for New Music America 1986. I do not have a copy of this program.
Jerry McCathern, the General Manager of the Houston Festival, who sponsored New Music America 1986, insisted that Pauline present one of her works for the festival. Pauline resisted for months but finally acquiesced and offered to present only one work - "This is a short piece!!" This composition was not listed on the program.
Pauline in her “composer for hire” outfit worn during the Art Car Parade, here with NMA 1988 Miami’s Mary Luft:
The performance went like this: Pauline walked out to the center the stage and announced loudly, "This is a short piece!" and stamped her foot. She then exited.
Of all the works of this program, this is the only one I remember. To my knowledge, there is no record of this performance. I share it with you now. ----------------------- "This is a short piece!" Pauline Oliveros, 1966, as described by the composer
"One of my fellow composers wanted to program some of my music. I had met her in the summer of 1966 when I made I of IV and other pieces of electronic music. These pieces were usually about 30 minutes—as long as the reel of tape. She would call me on the phone after that and say that she wanted to program my music—”Haven’t you got a short piece?” Finally somewhat annoyed I responded with This is a Short Piece.
The performer or group comes out onto the stage and takes a performance position.
The performer(s) announces: “This is a short piece,” then, as the lights go out and back on makes the shortest sound possible (e.g. stamp foot or shout).
I performed this piece at UCSD around 1970 one afternoon. I stamped my foot. Later, I was visiting a friend. I reached for a corn chip and took a bite. I discovered that a lower molar was not happy and I couldn’t bite or chew. I went to the dentist the next day and was told that I had a football player’s injury. The reaction force from the foot stamp had mobilized the tooth (a wave equal and opposite to the foot hitting the floor reflected back to my clenched jaw.
Two years later the molar had to be removed. After another two years the upper molar was removed. Problems have continued so This is a Short Piece is the longest piece that I ever wrote.
My friend, Annea Lockwood, tried the piece and bit her tongue.
So, the piece is available for performance but it is dangerous!
♪ 1987 Philadelphia
And finally we get to the Philadelphia festival, where Pauline had set up a New Music Information center and the closing work on the last day, The Well (which was recently reissued). The Relâche Chronicles dedicated a complete episode about the work and her collaboration with the Relâche Ensemble (and a bit of the version performed in New York City). I got to spend enough time with her that I came home with a cherished “raw tape” and Augusta LaPaix was able to talk with her for the Canadian national broadcaster’s broadcast of the festival highlights in 1987.
You’ll find all of that is at this link which doesn’t have a paywall:
Pauline attended but only presented a radio audio work as part of the New Radio Series named Miami Sound Collector. I don’t have a copy but I’d be willing to do some searches in person, preferably in January or February after hurricane season…
Finally, a posthumous tribute by Guy Klucevsek and the Bellows Brigade at Roulette from 2017. The titles are fitting as a short-cut to what Pauline was all about:
1. Buddha from Another Planet.
1a. Quietly So As Not to Wake the Butterfly (after Murikami), a moving interlude.
2. Shō-zilla!
3. Dronespeak.
4. Piper's Lament.
5. The Queen of Kingston.
6. Pauline Oliveros.
Bellows Brigade, live at Roulette, Brooklyn, May 11, 2017. Guy Klucevsek, accordion & bass accordion, Will Holshouser, accordion, Nathan Koci & Kamala Sankaram, accordions and voices. Duration: ca. 17 minutes.
Four minutes of my walking around the streets of Philadelphia in compamy with Pauline Oliveros, Loren Rush (who helped her with the New Music Information Center), Stewart Boesalager and Margaret Leng Tan. The elation all of us tiredly express is because we’ve all just seen Guy Klucevsek’s Polka From The Fringe (use the search thingy and you’ll find a single substack about that one as well).
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