June 20 - NMA birthdays: Gary Lucas and Peter Gordon - NMA Minnesota 1980 substack index
Gary Lucas 1952, Syracuse NY
Not much yet on his performance at New Music America 1989 NYC but on the other hand, the film he created music for in live performance is on y2b and allows me to have this neat poster to open this substack.
And the movie (Der Golem 1920)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golem:_How_He_Came_into_the_World
Michael Ark photo of Gary Lucas and wikipedia entry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Lucas
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Peter Gordon 1951 new york city
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Gordon_(composer)
New Music New York 1979
June 15: Michael Nyman with Barbara Benary, Jon Gibson, Ned Sublette, Peter Gordon, Peter Zummo, Richard Cohen, Susan Krongold, Virgil Blackwell Five Orchestral Pieces Opus Tree
I presume this is the actual performance from the Kitchen cd:
*
Some things were amusing or intriguing … Michael Nyman’s Five Orchestral Pieces Opus Tree took isolated ideas from Webern’s Five Orchestral Piece (sic) Op. 10, and turned them into a cynical, sardonic comment on commercial and popular ideas.
- Charles Ward, Houston Chronicle July 24, 1979
*
And in the middle, there was Michael Nyman. He composed a big sound for a ‘small’ band consisting of piano, reeds, trombone, guitar, violins, and piccolo. Not since Petr Kotik and Karl Berger had the Kitchen hosted such forces. Mr. Nyman credited Mr. Webern with providing research material and made a startling beginning. In fact, his starts and stops resembled overdoses and withdrawals – or having a mountain smash into you versus being pushed off a cliff. His harmonies had that movie-land quality, but there is nothing inherently wrong politically or aesthetically with 7th and 9th chords. The 2nd part was a triple trip – ‘a closet waltz’. The 4th part had an intense sweetness, during which composer David Feldman said, “Incredibly well rehearsed.” And they were. The 5th section was a kind of space-rock with the continuation of the driving beat we had heard throughout. Hot and heavy.
- Beth Anderson “Report from the Front”
Also from the same report, review from “Bonnie Jean with occasional comments from Bill (the audience) Duncan”
Michael Nyman, I first thought, threw Webern right back to the 19th century. However as this was the first piece I ever heard that gave me hope for music, great prejudice exists. The 4th movement was so beautiful, I was won over.
June 16: Panel discussion at Experimental Intermedia on “young composers” with Rhys Chatham, Michael Byron and Frankie Mann
and
As part of Laurie Anderson’s ensemble for the presentation of Americans on the Move, later to become United States Parts 1-4 (June 16)
and on the same night, playing physically solo live but accompanied by the Love of Life orchestra on tape with tracks from Extended Niceties (June 16)
1980 Minnesota
Three dates with the Love of Life Orchestra, playing from the recording Geneva (June 12 - 14) and there is a stream excerpt:
Peter Gordon and the Love of Life Orchestra Geneva
https://archive.org/details/NMA_1980_06_XX_02/NMA_1980_06_XX_02_B_ed.wav
Sparce intro and extro by Nigel Redden for Minnesota Public Radio
1:31:56
Nigel Redden: While Leif Brush is trying to capture the sounds of nature, the sounds of Peter Gordon’s Love of Life Orchestra are extremely urban. Gordon and other orchestra members have been associated with a number of new wave rock bands, as well as with new music groups. They’ve performed in rock havens such as the Mudd Club and new music strongholds such as the Kitchen.
Here now are David Van Tieghem on percussion, Randy Gun and Larry Saltzman on guitar, Al Scotti on bass with composer Peter Gordon playing saxophone and keyboards.
♪ 1:32:22 Peter Gordon and Love of Life Orchestra Extended Niceties (17:57)
1:50:21 (no applause heard)
Nigel Redden: That was Peter Gordon’s Love of Life Orchestra, recorded at Walker Art Center. This has been New Music America 1980, a selection from concerts and musical events that took place in Minneapolis and St. Paul. New Music America was the second in a series of annual new music festivals, the first of which was held at the Kitchen in New York and the third, New Music America 1981, in the San Francisco Bay area.
This is Nigel Redden, director of performing arts at Walker Art Center.
*
The rockiest group on the bill was New York progressive-rock quintet the Love of Life Orchestra, which had a few hot spots that can largely be credited to superb drummer David Van Tieghem, who also performs with Steve Reich.
- Kathleen McKenna, Minneapolis Calendar, July 6, 1980
1981 San Francisco
As part of Laurie Anderson’s ensemble for the presentation of newer sections of Americans on the Move, now being referred to as United States Parts 1-4 as well. Actual live performance recording courtesy of Other Musics streaming archive with no radio announcer talk:
https://archive.org/details/NMA_1981_06_13_1_c1
From a recording made on June 13, 1981 in San Francisco, as part of the New Music America Festival, Laurie Anderson performs selections from her epic work United States. Laurie Anderson was born in 1947 in Chicago and received her MFA in sculpture from Columbia University. As a performance and recording artist, she has worked with film-sound-talking pieces for many years, performing at the La Jolla Museum, the Berlin Festival, and various other places in the U. S. and Europe. In this concert she performs a number of pieces including versions of songs that were later included on her famous “rock” album Big Science. [note - this was uploaded in 2008 and you’re only hearing about it now. - gd] The atmosphere was electric, the appreciative audience was eclectic, and the resulting concert was nothing short of extremely effective entertainment.
♪
1982 Chicago
July 8 - as part of Michael Byron’s ensemble but I don’t have much on this one: Kyle Gann, conductor; Neely Bruce, Anthony DeMare, Peter Gordon, Cordier Quartet and Steve Wilson
Michael Byron: Ensembles for strings, organ, and 2 piano
The evening's concluding performance, by pianist Michael Byron and accompanying strings and synthesizer, could be said to have culminated the following evening (July 9th) in the simpler, hence more elegant, beauty of "Children on the Hill" a work by his teacher Harold Budd.
- M. Staff Brandl + Thomas Emil Homerin, "Big Noise from Lake Michigan", Ear Magazine 1982
July 10: Solo - Birth of the Poet and Roses on Bond Street
recording preserved thanks to Kyle Gann:
Soundcloud version:
Birth of the Poet (excerpt from Act I) An Opera by Peter Gordon and Kathy Acker. This work is being created at the request of director Richard Foreman, who will stage it in its complete form. This first act takes place in a power plant which literally and metaphorically explodes. (This is an adaptation of Georg Kaiser’s play Gas). The music is derived from my idea of what a vernacular use of serialism might be.
Roses on Bond Street – This is a concert/dance piece for the Love of Life Orchestra. It begins with a brass chorale and ends up in some other polyrhthmic/polytonal region. The compositions for LOLO end up changing with every performance.
- Peter Gordon, program notes
***
Perhaps the most accessible music was provided by another New York group and, although it enlisted members of Branca's band, it was a world apart. Saxophonist/composer Peter Gordon led the Love of Life Orchestra, an 11-piece outfit, through excerpts from his opera Roses On Bond Street, and Birth of the Poet, both jazz/pop-inspired pieces with an experimental edge - and for the first time all week a considerable number of people in the audience started to dance.
- Tina Clarke, "Chicago's new music festival filled with sound and fury" Toronto Globe & Mail, July 17, 1982
***
Peter Gordon closed the night's show with fast exhilarating compositions, Birth of a Poet and Roses on Bond Street, incorporating many elements of popular music.
Unfortunately the fine soprano, Rebecca Armstrong, was usually overwhelmed in the mix.
- M. Staff Brandl + Thomas Emil Homerin, "Big Noise from Lake Michigan", Ear Magazine 1982
***
Almost as powerful, but with a more traditional starting point, was Peter Gordon's rock opera Birth of the Poet. Gordon has led the Love of Life Orchestra together with drummer David Van Tieghem since 1977. The opera was only performed in concert in excerpts at the New Music America Festival. Gordon is also the director of programming for the well-known concert venue The Kitchen in New York.
- Wayne Siegel, “Rapporter: New Music America Festivalen 1982” (original dutch, google translation), DMT Seismograf, 1982
***
...within that diversity there must inevitably be a certain paradox. So, while one faction of composers was proclaiming serious music's liberation from the tyranny of Art [in a hieratic sence], another faction, as represented by the new-wave rock performers Peter Gordon and Jeffrey Lohn, was celebrating its renewal via heavily amplified, hard-drivign funk dressed in the tribal garb of counterculture ritual.
Gordon, the mixer/sound producer for Robert Ashley's video opera, Perfect Lives (Private Parts), played the sizzling saxophone solos as part of his own [literally] exploding opera, Birth of the Poet, sung in excerpts by two vocalists who were assisted by Gordon's Love of Life Orchestra.
Quite apart from its theatrical subtext (which could only be guessed at here), the music celebrated the raw energy of rock at its most sensual level of appeal, and its effect was instantaneous and exhilirating.
Piercing volume notwithstanding, I found the Gordon work a lot less pretentious than Ashley's weird country-cabaret act that was playing nightly aboard the SS Clipper at Pierside. ...
Give Lohn and Branca credit for one thing: they have taken experimental music beyond the pain barrier into what may well be a new frontier of human insensibility.
Whether lasting liberation can be achieved through such puerile means is another matter.
- John Van Rhein, Chicago Tribune 'New Music America Leaves Echoes of Success"
From the compilation recording, posted on y2b by “Minima Moralia”
When it finally made it to the stage in Brooklyn in 1985 - at the BAM archives:
https://levyarchive.bam.org/Detail/occurrences/1096
Also on July 6, he was part of Jill Kroesen’s supporting cast for her set of songs at the Navy Pier, along with Rebecca Armstrong, Ernie Brooks, Tim Shellenbaum, Ned Sublette, "Blue" Gene Tyranny, and David Van Tiegham
Lovely Music bio and discography:
http://www.lovely.com/bios/gordon.html
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Index of New Music America Minnesota substacks:
day 1 minneapolis
links
Archive audio of Alvin Curran’s Small Circles Great Plains performed by Curran with a prerecorded accompaniment and three live dancers ● Discog link for Bang of a Can version of Steve Reich’s Octet ● Wikipedia entry on the Reich work, as well as Timothy Judd’s blogpost analyzing the piece ● Michael Galbreth’s essay on NMA which includes full copies in photocopy downloadable pdf form of the first five festivals.
y2b
Bang on a Can version of Steve Reich’s Octet (later renamed Eight Lines) ● Ensemble Moderne’s version of the same ●
screen shots
Program notes
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day 2
links
Zeitgeist Ensemble website ● archive audio of Zeitgeist playing Stacey Bowers Pattern Study No. 5 with radio narration by Nigel Redden ● archive audio of excerpt of Robert Ashley’s Perfect Lives (Private Parts)
y2b
Zeitgeist Ensemble self-profile
screen shots
program notes
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day 3 minneapolis
y2b
audio of Jerry Hunt’s Chimanzzi (Link 1) from Haramond Plane ● video of Pauline Oliveros’s The Witness performed in 2021 by Claire Chase, Susie Ibarra, Alex Peh and Senem Pirler
screen shots
gd ticket stub to the very last NMA performance, Einsturzende Neubauten and La La La Human Steps ● program notes ●
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day 4
links
Serge Arcuri wikipedia, promotional biography ● Maryanne Amacher related discog entry ● Marianne Amacher’s website ● Leif Brush archival audio - feature radio report with clips and interview with Nigel Redden re Terraplane Chorographies ● archive audio of Michael Nyman performing his solo piano A Neat Slice of Masterwork, with radio interview by Charles Amirkhanian ● downloadable pdf of photocopy of official 1980 program at Michael Galbreth’s home page essay on the festival ● link to Ellen Fullman’s website which includes photo and (maybe) video from her 1980 performance
y2b
Maryanne Amacher Music for Sound Joined Rooms, Living Sound ● Ingram Marshall recording The Fragility Circles ● recording of Michael Nyman A Neat Slice of Masterwork ●
screen shots
Serge Arcuri ● Maryanne Amacher home page ● official program notes ● screenshot of Ellen Fullman’s web page with a photo and description of the 1980 work she presented
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day 5
links
Charlie Morrow archival recording of the happening and short interactions with Nigel Redden re Sunrise Celebration ● Libby Larsen A Verse Record of my Pyrenees audio archive of actual performance including interview ● Tom Johnson with Peter Lightfoot and Gene Richard Five Shaggy Dog Operas: The Dryer audio archive actual performance incl. Nigel Redden radio intro ● Michael Galbreth NMA 1980 downloadable pdf of photocopy of official program
y2b
Charlie Morrow Wave Music IV - Drums and Bugles recording ● Richard Lerman’s Travelon Gamelon Solo for Bicycle Orchestra ● Richard Lerman’s Travelon Gamelon concert version ● Richard Lerman’s Travelon Gamelon Missoula 2008 version ● 1982 concert audio version on recording ● Christopher Janney’s SoundStair (2 versions) ●
screen shots
Richard Lerman’s Travelon Gamelon Solo ● Program notes ●
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day 6
links
William Duckworth interview with Charles Amirkhanian from 1975 (KPFA) ● archive audio of Neely Bruce playing William Duckworth’s Time Curve Preludes ● link to Neely Bruce’s recording of him playing William Duckworth’s Time Curve Preludes ● Archive audio of Peter Gordon and the Love of Life Orchestra with Nigel Redden radio introduction and transcript ● Leroy Jenkins and Oliver Lake Duet for the City actual performance archive audio with radio introduction and interview (clip) with Leroy Jenkins ● Michael Galbreth’s downloadable pdf photocopied version of the full 1980 program
y2b
full version of Neely Bruce playing all of William Duckworth’s Time Curve Preludes ●
screen shots
Mary Luft and Pauline Oliveros from Michael Galbreth’s NMA essay at his website ● NMA 1980 program notes ● The strange case of the band named The Wallets
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day 7
links
Liz Phillips home page and wikipedia entry ● Alain Trudel wikipedia entry ● Radio profile of Alain Trudel for the CBC 1989 ● Julius Eastman radio audio of actual performance ● Julius Eastman tribute from Walker Art Center incl. actual performance video ● Mary Jane Leach’s 2019 article for ARTnews on speaking about Julius Eastman ● link to special Substack on the two Julius Eastman works performed on this date ● Michael Galbreth’s copy of the 1980 program in downloadable pdf from his website essay on NMA
y2b
Liz Phillips Windspun video from 1980 ● Julius Eastman recordings of Gay Guerilla and Evil Nigger from the album Unjust Malaise ●
screen shots
Alain Trudel NMA1990MMA program profile ● 1980 program notes from Michael Galbreth’s website essay on NMA ●
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day 8 minneapolis
links
“Blue” Gene Tyranny discog entry re Country Boy Country Dog
Official program from Michael Galbreth’s essay at his website (2018)
y2b
Nigel Redden 2022 goodbye from Spoleto USA ●
screen shots
Program notes
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day 9 minneapolis closing June 15
Screen shots
Enlargements of KPFA program re Bill Fontana’s Landscape Sculpture with Foghorns ● program notes
y2b
Bill Fontana’s Landscape Sculpture with Fog Horns (two versions of installation from 1981 and 2018, one from concert version 1981, actual performance at NMA)
Links
Link to special program on August 3 when Stewart Dempster broadcast from Bill Fontana’s sound installation on Pier Two to present a three hour live concert on radio KPFA, named Ode to Gravity.
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Post-and pre fest - Installations at NMA Minneapolis
links
Sergey Kuryokhin wikipedia entry ● wikipedia tribute album by otomo Yoshihide and Kenny Millions for Sergey Kuryokhin ● Discogs to Yoshihide and Millions album ● vimeo video by Liz Phillips ● Paul DeMarinis webpage for the Pygmy Gamelan ● Discog for Bang on a Can’s Music for Airports album ● Michael Galbreth’s link to the NMA Minnesota program - photocopied but a downloadable pdf
y2bs
Brian Eno Music for Airports ● Liz Phillips Winspun for Minneapolis video ● audio of full album of Alvin Lucier’s Music on a Long Think Wire
screenshots
Wikipedia photo of Sergei Kuryokhin ● Village voice article with photograph of Liz Phillips and Windspun for Minneapolis ● Photo of Paul DeMarinis’s The Pygmy Gamelan ● Bang on a Can album cover for their version of Music for Airports ●