Summary:
With a long and intense career that spawned a number of mas- terpieces, Pauline Oliveros has achieved the reputation of being one of the most prominent and influential composers of our time. She now resides in Kingston, New York, where her Foundation is also based.
An accordionist by training, Pauline Oliveros (USA, 1932) was
the most significant purveyor of "deep listening" music. She explored the
psychological effects of sound in works such as
Horse Sings From Cloud (1975),
Rattlesnake Mountain (1982),
Wanderer (composed in 1982 and premiered in 1983),
The Roots Of The Moment (1988) and the live improvisations
for accordion, voice, trombone, didjeridu, conch shell and found sounds of
Deep Listening (1988), recorded in an underground cistern.
If English is your first language and you could translate my old italian text, please contact me.
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Pauline Oliveros (1932) e' originaria di Houston, nel Texas, dove da
giovane suonava violino, fisarmonica e corno francese. Nel 1954 studio'
composizione a San Francisco, con Terry Riley, alla corte di Robert Erickson.
Nel 1960 mise a frutto la sua conoscenza di procedimenti tonali "alternativi"
(per esempio, la serie dei sovratoni) nel sestetto
Variations For Sextet (per flauto, clarinetto, tromba, corno, violoncello,
pianoforte) che le valse un immediato riconoscimento dalla critica.
Il breve
Sound Patterns (1961) ripete' l'esploit consegnando alla storia uno
dei primi lavori corali senza parole in cui venivano impiegati sistematicamente
tutti i suoni "non musicali" della lingua e delle labbra.
La prima svolta significativa della sua carriera venne nel 1961, allorche'
aiuto' Subotnick ed altri a fondare il Tape Music Center, presso il quale
sarebbe rimasta fino al 1967. Di questo periodo sono composizioni
orchestrate per ensemble bizzarri.
I due trii,
Trio for Flute, Piano, and Page Turner (1961) e soprattutto
Trio for Accordion, Trumpet and String Bass (1961),
e il duo per fisarmonica e bandoneon (1964)
misero in luce il gusto per i timbri piu' insoliti, mentre
Seven Passages (1963) e
Five (1964), delle cui partiture fa parte integrante un ballerino,
aprirono la stagione multimediale, culminata con
l'Applebox Orchestra del 1964 (per scatole di mele amplificate) e
con i Pieces del 1965 per ottetto di fiati e registratore di cassa,
e proseguita con lavori sempre piu' arditi:
le Mnemonics (1965),
George Washington Slept Here (1965),
Winter Light (1965),
Participle Dangling (1966),
il Theatre Piece For Trombone Player (1966).
Nello stile barbaro di Subotnick diede
Bye Bye Butterfly (1965), a wild electronic piece that reaches a kind of symphonic intensity mixing distorted drones and operatic vocals (a record of Puccini's Madame Butterfly played on a turntable), one of the peaks of early electronic music;
the 20-minute I of IV (1966), a calmer but ghostly piece of whistling electronic sounds,
the 14-minute V Of VI (1966) , more cacophonous and chaotic,
the 33-minute Alien Bog (1967), another magical invention whose soft shrill drones give rise to a surrealistic kinetic parade of distant gongs, chirping birds and fog horns (all simulated electronically),
and
Beautiful Soop (1968).
Electronic Works (Paradigm, 1997) compiles
Bye Bye Butterfly,
I of IV,
and
Big Mother Is Watching You (1966), an even more massive work in the
genre.
No Mo/ Something Else/ Bog Road (Pogus, 2001) and
Alien Bog/ Beautiful Soop (Pogus, 1997)
collect other electronic compositions from that era.
Nel 1968 compose anche un'opera influenzata da John Cage, Valentine, nella quale
quattro persone giocano a carte: il battito dei loro cuori e il rumore delle
carte che cadono sul tavolo sono amplificati in modo da stare sullo stesso
piano degli altri suoni della piece.
Spettacoli sempre piu' multimediali ebbero luogo un po' dappertutto:
Festival House (1968),
The Dying Alchemist Preview (1969),
Bonn Feier (1971),
Postcard Theatre (1972),
Phantom Fathom (1972),
alternandosi a piu' ascetici (atonali e sconnessi) brani da camera come
Outline (1963) per flauto, percussioni e basso,
Night Jar (1968) per viola d'amore,
Wheel Of Fortune (1969) per clarinetto,
Aeolian Partitions (1969) per quintetto,
1000 Acres (1972) ancora per quartetto.
Attraverso piece piu' subdole come
Meditation per coro e percussioni (1970),
Sonic Images (1972) e Crow Two (1974)
il suo prestigio andava aumentando anche presso i circoli dell'accademia.
Intanto si era trasferita a sud, per insegnare all'Universita' di San Diego (dal 1967).
Per arrotondare i magri guadagni, batteva i caffe' di San Diego con una Big
Jewish Band, e prestava la sua voce per diverse performance
(canta nella seconda parte della musica per onde cerebrali di Lucier).
Her discovery of Buddhism led to a keen interest in meditation, improvisation, and corporeal practices, which found its "musical" manifestation in the "Sonic Meditations" (1970), a series of scores that consisted in written non-musical instructions for individual singers and groups of singers, inspired by the Buddhist idea that "deep" listening is a vehicle for liberation from rebirth. To perform these meditations, she formed a women-only ensemble called the Woman Symbol ensemble. These 24 Sonic Meditations start with �Teach Yourself to Fly - Meditation I" for which the performers must focus on their breathing, which results in involuntary sounds being emitted by their mouths. The score of �Tumbling Song - Meditation XIV" is emblematic: "Make any vocal sound, but always go downward in pitch from the initial attack. The initial attack may begin at any pitch level. Go downward in a glissando or in discrete steps continuously. Go any distance in range, at any speed, dynamic or quality, but the breath determines the maximum time length of any downward gesture." Oliveros wrote about her sonic meditations in the New York Times (�And Don�t Call Them Lady Composers", 1970) and particularly in the essay �On Sonic Meditation� (1976). Her articles would eventually be collected in 1981 in the book "Software for People".
In proprio eseguiva musica orientale ("improvvisazioni meditative")
per fisarmonica e voce, generalmente basata sul controllo del respiro attraverso
toni lunghissimi che si alternano con fratture improvvise:
la cantante sostiene un tono finche' lo ritiene,
poi ne sceglie un altro, senza per questo dover seguire un percorso continuo.
Horse Sings From Cloud (1975), una serie di "om" per voce e fisarmonica,
e' il brano piu' rappresentativo di questo periodo,
registrato su Accordion and Voice (Lovely, 1982).
E` qui che Oliveros impara ad ascoltare la profondita` dei toni, lasciandoli
liberi di evolvere nello spazio e nel tempo, di interagire sia con l'ambiente
sia con il corpo.
The score reads: "sustain a tone or sound until any desire to change it disappears... when there is no longer any desire to change the tone or sound, then change it".
L'originale era un assolo, ma l'album documenta una performance con
Heloise Gold all'harmonium, Julia Haines alla fisarmonica,
e Linda Montano alla concertina.
(Like most of her "Sonic Meditations", it can be performed vocally and/or instrumentally, solo or by an ensemble).
Questo periodo vanta anche
Willow Brook Generations And Reflections (1976),
The Yellow River Map (1977),
King Kong Sings Along (1977),
Rose Moon (1977) per il teatro,
Witness (1978),
El Relicario De Los Animales (1979),
Carol Plantamura (1979),
Gone With The Wind (1980),
tutti per voce e piccolo ensemble da camera.
Del suo tentativo di fondere
elettronica ed acustica fa fede
il quintetto per elettronica Wheel Of Times (1982), mentre il suo
avvicinamento alle civilta' orientali e' testimoniato da
Lion's Eye (1985) for gamelan ensemble,
collected on Lion's Eye/ Lion's Tale (Deep Listening, 2006),
che esibisce la stessa brillante
vitalita` della Rainbow In Curved Air di Terry Riley pur nei limiti
di una musica per percussioni.
Un lavoro fondamentale della sua discografia e' Rattlesnake Mountain
del 1982,
registrato su Accordion and Voice,
in cui la fisarmonica (usata a mo' di sitar) svaria sull'ossessiva
radiazione mantrica di sottofondo: e' un po' la sua Rainbow In Curved Air.
E' qui che per la prima volta si concretizzano pienamente le influenze della
musica cerimoniale buddista.
Un altro vertice della sua arte e'
Wanderer (Lovely, 1985),
una sinfonia poliritmica per un'orchestra di 22
fisarmoniche e cinque percussionisti. La prima parte
(Song) explora i toni della fisarmonica lasciandoli vagare a lungo
con minime variazioni.
La seconda parte (Dance) accenna a danze di varie culture: Irlandese,
Braziliana, Slava, klezmer, cajun, etc.
Ancor piu' caotica e' Tasting The Blaze (1985) per un'orchestra di
dieci strumenti giapponesi, cinque fisarmoniche, clarinetto, trombone,
violoncello e percussioni, tutti amplificati e mixati dall'autrice.
L'evento multimediale
The Well (1982), una collaborazione con la coreografa
Deborah Hay,
pubblicato su
The Well And The Gentle (Hat Art, 1986),
assomiglia alle improvvisazioni naif dell'Art Ensemble,
con gli strumenti (percussioni, flauto, piano e violoncello)
e i vocalizzi del Relache liberi di spaziare attorno alla fisarmonica
in un crescendo che raggiunge un'intensita` operatica prima di spegnersi
una malinconica meditazione.
Con questi brani si delinea un'arte elettro-acustica di ascendente orientale
(come confermato dal ritualismo delle sue esibizioni dal vivo) ma che conserva
sempre un razionalismo e un nervosismo di sapore occidentale.
The double-LP
The Well and the Gentle also contains other works performed in 1984
by the Relache ensemble
(accordionist Guy Klucevsek, cellist Charles Forbes, clarinetist Wesley Hall, flutist - Laurel Wyckoff, percussionist Florence Ierardi, pianist John Dulik, saxophonists Marshall Taylor and Stephen Marcucci, vocalist Barbara Noska):
two performances of
The Gentle, a minimalist ballet to which the vocals and the winds add
a Middle-eastern touch.
Besides a shorter combined performance of The Well / The Gentle,
the program also offers the Zen-like meditation of
The Receptive, mostly for droning accordion and electronic arpeggios
and closed by a solemn vocal "om",
and
A Love Song.
The Roots Of The Moment (Hat Art, 1988), in cui Oliveros suona la fisarmonica attraverso
due delay, e' un lavoro vicino al minimalismo di Terry Riley:
il raga di Oliveros si
snoda per un'ora, totalmente improvvisato seguendo gli effetti digitali
del suo assistente (Peter Ward), trasudando un intenso cromatismo e una florida
inventiva. Fasi vivaci e incalzanti alla Rainbow In Curved Air si
alternano a sibili e clangori inquietanti. A differenza di Riley, Oliveros
sa lanciarsi anche in passaggi audacemente dissonanti e in
tetri e lunghi continuum che suscitano angosce cosmiche.
L'impressione e' quella di un inno all'universo in tutta la sua terribile
complessita'.
Con Deep Listening (New Albion, 1989),
registrato in una cisterna sotterranea, e
orchestrato per fisarmonica, dijerdidu, trombone, voce e oggetti metallici,
(Oliveros on accordion and voice, Stuart Dempster on trombone, voice, didjeridu, conch shell and garden hose, and Panaiotis on voice, whistling, pipes and metal pieces)
e totalmente privo di manipolazioni elettroniche, Oliveros torna invece al
caos di Well. Queste due opere segnano in effetti una nuova
interpretazione della musica gestuale: rinuncia dell'elettronica, del
"gesto", dell'orientalismo, a favore di una nuova forma di musica da camera.
Lo stesso trio dell'"ascolto profondo" e' autore di
Troglodyte's Delight (june 1989), registrato in una caverna sfruttando i suoi
echi naturali e il suono dell'acqua.
La carriera musicale di Oliveros e' nettamente divisa in due periodi dal
decennio di silenzio discografico: le opere degli anni Sessanta la vedono
allineata alle tendenze tardo-dadaiste della scuola gestuale; quelle degli anni
Ottanta la pongono invece fra i grandi innovatori che hanno avvicinato la
musica sperimentale alla musica popolare.
Roots, Rattlesnake Mountain e
C>Wanderer in particolare sono tre picchi della creativita' post-gestuale.
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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
The cassette Sounding/Way (1986) is a collaboration with accordionist Guy Klucevsek that contains his Tremolo No. 6 and her The Tuning Medication, both scored for two accordions.
The cassette Tara's Room (1988 - Deep Listening, 2004) contains two lengthy works for accordion in just intonation:
The Beauty of Sorrow is an agonizing melodic piece that truly delivers
the contradiction between sorrow and beauty. On the one hand, it hints at a
romantic melody, while, on the other, it disintegrates it into aching drones.
Tara's Room is instead a rather trivial "healing" piece of shamanic inspiration, probably targeting the "new age" audience.
Lion's Tale (1989),
collected on Lion's Eye/ Lion's Tale (Deep Listening, 2006),
is a gamelan-like suite composed via a sampler,
almost a digital version of Lion's Eye, although vastly inferior in
pathos and brilliance.
Zwei (HatArt, 1989) are duos with percussionist Fritz Hauser.
Crone Music (Lovely, 1990) is scored for accordion and "expanded instrument system" (reportedly a way to process acoustic sounds and "change the apparent acoustics of the performance space").
Pauline Oliveros and American Voices (Mode, 1994) documents a performance of In Memoriam Mr Whitney for accordion drones and voices (not singing, but simply reciting names) and of the colossal solo accordion improvisation St George & The Dragon (47 minutes) both recorded inside a stone chapel, and both unbelievably trivial.
The Deep Listening Band's third (and more romantic) album, The Ready Made Boomerang (New Albion, 1991), returned to the cistern, while their fourth album, Sanctuary (Mode, 1995), was recorded inside a church and replaced
Panaiotis with sound organizer David Gamper.
Non-stop Flight (Music & Arts, 1996) documents a live performance by the Deep Listening Band.
The artistic value of her recordings declined dramatically during the 1990s,
as cheaper manufacturing costs allowed her to release just about any piece
of music.
The three-disc Tosca Salad (Deep Listening, 1995) collects rarities and live performances of the Deep Listening Band.
Suspended Music (Periplum, 1997) includes the requiem Epigraphs in the Time of Aids (and an Ellen Fullman composition).
The 53-minute
Ghostdance (1998) is the soundtrack to a dance piece with Oliveros on accordion, Julie Lyon Rose on voice, David Gamper on the West-african drum djembe.
halfway between free-jazz, psychedelic music and shamanic/tribal music
Carrier (1998) is an improvised collaboration with Andrew Deutsch and Peer Bode, that had a follow up in Automatic Inscription of Speech Melody (2000), containing
Automatic Inscription Of Speech Melody (17:10),
Chaos And Difference (13:31),
Earth Orbit (18:01) and
Flux Ling (17:42).
In the Shadow of the Phoenix (Big Cat, 1998) is a collaboration with Randy Raine-Reusch (on mouth organ).
Six for New Time (SYR, 1999) was composed for Sonic Youth.
Live at the Ijsbreker (JDK, 1999) is a duo with David Gamper.
Live at the Meridian (1999) documents a performance of the Circle Trio.
Between Waves (Sparkling Beatnik, 1999) documents a live performance with Philip Gelb on shakuhachi, Dana Reason on piano and Jon Raskin on saxophone.
Springs (Magic If, 2000) contains duos with Andrew Deutsch and solos.
The Space Between (2001) documents a live performance with Philip Gelb on shakuhachi, Dana Reason on piano and Barre Phillips on bass.
Timeless Pulse (2002) documents a live performance with percussionists George Marsh and Jennifer Wilsey and electronic musician David Wessel.
The Space Between with Mathew Sperry (482music, 2003) and
The Space Between with Joelle Leandre (428music, 2002)
document other performances by Space Between with different guests.
All of these are mediocre at best.
The exception to the rule is
Primordial Lift (Table of the Elements, 2000),
an electric improvisation with Tony Conrad (violin), Alexandra Gelencser (cello) Scott Olson (a frequency oscillator that somehow mimics the shift in the resonant frequency of the Earth from 7.8hz to 13hz), Anne Bourne (cello) and David Grubbs (harmonium) that seems to challenge the principles of the last ten years of Oliveros' career.
The 14-minute Primordial (1998) is a mini-symphony for droning instruments, and her mournful accordion tones emerge for a dark and breathing organic mass in perennial metamorphosis.
A magical chant floats through the dense miasma of Lift, divided into three 15-minute sections.
The drones build up an atmosphere anxious expectation, of imminent revelation.
Pulsing and buzzing, propelled by a trombone-like rumble, the second section releases primal energy, preparing for the dissonant chaos of the third section.
The ensemble's strategy is to open a soundscape to be populated, explored, colonized.
Among her compositions are also: the anguished
To Valerie Solanas and Marilyn Monroe in Recognition of Their Desperation (1970) for any instruments or voices;
Willowbrook Generations and Reflections (1976) for winds, brasses and t0 or more voices;
Lullaby for Daisy Pauline (1980) for any number of voices;
Tashi Gomang (1981) for orchestra;
Spiral Mandela (1978) for 4 clarinets, 8 crystal glasses, percussion;
the theater piece Dream Horse Spiel (1988);
etc.
A Little Noise In The System (Table Of The Elements, 2004) is a 1967
composition for synthesizer, tape delay and feedback.
Lyon's Eye, the highlight of Lyon's Eye/ Lyon's Tale (2006), combines two compositions (one for gamelan ensemble and one for synthesizer) that date from 1985 in one 45-minute piece.
Accordion Koto (Deep Listening, 2007) is a collaboration with koto
player Miya Masaoka
in the style of improvised (and mostly dissonant and fragmented) music.
The Carrier Band (Oliveros on accordion and computer, Peer Bode on vocoder,
Andrew Deutsch on live electronics) performs
Voice Coil (Deep Listening, 2008), a 40-minute
improvised piece that integrates analog and digital "instruments".
The flow is dense and tense, replete with cabaret-like skits and thundering
orchestral maelstroms. The whole, though, is more akin to free jazz than
to "deep listening".
The album also contains a haunting 20-minute electronic composition by
Deutsch (Frozen Speaker), as well as a remix of sorts of Oliveros'
V of IV and Mewsak.
Music In The Air (september 2008 - Deep Listening, 2010) is a collaboration between Chris Brown (on piano and live computer signal processing) and Pauline Oliveros (on accordion, conch, percussion and Expanded Instrument System), recorded live in the studio with no overdubbing.
Tower Ring premiered in june 2011. The audience was seated along double-helix stairways to listen to sounds emanating from a rising and descending gong mixed with didjeridu, choir, bells (played by the audience) and an eight-story long wire instrument.
Quartet for the End of Space (Pogus, 2011) contains
Pauline Oliveros's Mercury Retrograde (12:29),
Pauline Oliveros's Cyber Talk (8:05),
Francisco Lopez's Untitled #270 (11:28),
Francisco Lopez's Untitled #273 (9:17),
Doug Van Nort's Outer (8:11),
Doug Van Nort's Inner (8:30),
Jonas Braasch's Snow Drifts (7:15),
Jonas Braasch's Web Doppelg�nger (8:01).
All the pieces are performed by the trio of Oliveros, Van Nort and soprano saxophonist Braasch,
then manipulated by Lopez.
The "astronomical" theme of
Mercury Retrograde is represented sonically by cryptic and ghostly metallic drones that appear and disappear. The end is a terrifying wall of noise.
Cyber Talk sounds like a brief exercise in musique concrete and free jazz.
The Deep Listening Band released
Octagonal Polyphony (Important, 2012), recorded in january 2011, with the trio of Stuart Dempster (trombone and didjeridu), Pauline Oliveros (tibetan bell and Roland V accordion) and David Gamper (tibetan and other bells, conch, piano, flutes and percussion) plus vocalist Laos Cowbell,
and Great Howl At Town Haul (Important, 2012), also recorded in january 2011, with
Stuart Dempster (breath
conch, didjeridu, contrabass trombone, trombone, toys, little
sounds, duck call, voice, Sing-a-Ma-Jigs), David Gamper (breath
conch, piano, flutes, toys, little sounds, Sing-a-Ma-Jigs) and
Pauline Oliveros (Roland V accordion, Sing-a-Ma-Jigs, voice,
little instruments). The former is divided into two long improvisations,
the latter includes the 19-minute Great Horned Howl.
Cecil Taylor and Pauline Oliveros collaborated on the live Solo Duo Poetry (october 2008) - Independent, 2012).
The Deep Listening Band's Needle Drop Jungle (Taiga, 2012) documents yet another january 2011 recording, but Gamper died in september 2011 at the age of 66.
The 12-cd box-set
Reverberations - Tape & Electronic Music 1961-1970 (Important, 2014)
collects early compositions ordered chronologically by the place where
Oliveros was "working".
After the 19 minute Time Perspectives (recorded at home in 1961) we
get the series of five
Mnemonics, composed at the San Francisco Tape Music Center in 1964-66,
for a grand total of 74 minutes. Five discs document her 1966
stage at the
University Of Toronto Electronic Music Studio:
the 50+ minute IV in five parts;
III;
Team & Desecrations Improvisation (22:58);
The Day I Disconnected The Erase Head And Forgot To Reconnect It (32:36);
Jar Piece (15:52);
Another Big Mother (31:40);
Fed Back (28:10);
5000 Miles (32:50);
Angel Fix (32:37);
the dissonant and even abrasive and hysterical Bottoms Up (12:50);
Nite (16:28);
Ringing The Mods 1 & 2 (19:10);
and Three Pieces.
The Mills Tape Music Center era (1966-67) yielded
Big Slow Bog (32:39);
Boone Bog (32:34);
Bog Bog (33:45);
Mind Bog (33:38);
and Mewsack (32:30).
And finally the 39-minute 50-50,
the 30-minute A Little Noise In The System,
and the 21-minute Red Horse Headache
come from the San Diego Electronic Music Studio (1967-70).
Triple Point (Pauline Oliveros, Doug van Nort on electronics, and Jonas Braasch on soprano sax) is documented on
the triple-disc Phase/Transitions (Pogus, 2014) with improvisations
recorded between september 2008 and august 2012.
The Deep Listening Band recorded the live improvisation
Dunrobin Sonic Gems (Deep Listening, 2014) in an environment
that artificially recreated the acoustics of the legendary
cistern of 25 years earlier.
Pauline Oliveros and Stuart Dempster were joined by
Jonas Braasch on saxophone, Jesse Stewart on percussion, Johannes Welsch
on gongs and Ione on vocals.
Lapis Lazuli offers a balanced mix of ghostly atmosphere and, at the
same time, of triumphant epos.
Amethyst begins chaotic but soon finds its "groove" in a tragic tone
highlighted by a deep rumble and later by massively droning clusters.
Heroic trombone wails amid beastly howls open a new front; alas, the piece
languishes in the last ten minutes (which could perhaps have been edited out).
Water Above Sky Below Now (Morphine, 2015) contains
a 39-minute improvisation with vocalist Ione.
The 76-minute four-part suite Nessuno (Dischi Di Angelica, 2016) documents a may 2011 meeting of Pauline Oliveros (accordion), Roscoe Mitchell ( alto & soprano saxes, flute), John Tilbury (piano) and Wadada Leo Smith (trumpet).
Four Meditations/ Sound Geometries (march 2003 - Sub Rosa, 2016) contains the 20-minute Four Meditations For Orchestra (1991-1997) and the 26-minute Sound Geometries (2003) for "chamber orchestra, expanded instrument system and 5.1 surround sound system".
Molecular Affinity (august 2015) was another collaboration among Pauline Oliveros, Nels Cline (electric guitars, Dobro, effects) and Thollem McDonas (piano).
Live At The Stone (Important, 2016) documents a live performance of august 2014 with the pianist Connie Crothers.
The 46-minute piece of Play As You Go (Trost, 2021) was performed live in July 2014 by the trio of Pauline Oliveros (electric accordion), Joëlle Léandre (contrabass and voice) and George Lewis (laptop and trombone).
Oliveros died in 2016 at the age of 84.
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