From Xenakis’s UPIC to Graphic Notation Today (2020)

“In the late 1970s, an interdisciplinary team led by the composer Iannis Xenakis developed the UPIC (Unité Polyagogique Informatique CEMAMu) out of an effort to transform drawings into synthesized sound. The composers can draw waveforms and envelopes straight onto an electronic tablet interface and translate them into sound through the computer. The revolution in graphic composition triggered by Iannis Xenakis and carried forward by other established computer musicians such as Jean-Claude Risset or Curtis Roads continues forty years later in modern computer programs.”

“Together with the Centre Iannis Xenakis, the ZKM is now addressing the genesis of this unique computational instrument and traces its technical, social, institutional, and educational significance up to the current practice of contemporary composers.”

Contributors: Richard Barrett, Rodolphe Bourotte, Pierre Couprie, Cyrille Delhaye, Alain Després, Julio Estrada, Kiyoshi Furukawa, Rudolf Frisius, Hughes Genevois, Kosmas Giannoutakis, Dimitris Kamarotos, Henning Lohner, François-Bernard Mâche, Guy Médigue, Chikashi Miyama, Lukas Nowok, Gerard Pape, Marcin Pietruszewski, Brigitte Robindoré, Julia Rommel, Julian Scordato, Takehito Shimazu, Victoria Simon, Andrey Smirnov, Ronald Squibbs, Katerina Tsioukra, Peter Weibel.

Edited by Peter Weibel, Ludger Brümmer and Sharon Kanach
Publisher Hatje Cantz, Berlin, and ZKM, Karlsruhe, 2020
Open access
ISBN 9783775747417, 3775747419
672 pages

Publisher
Publisher
WorldCat

PDF, PDF (12 MB)
Audio samples and additional archive material

Stefan Szczelkun: Improvisation Rites: from John Cage’s Song Books to The Scratch Orchestra’s Nature Study Notes (2018)

“Documentation of an inter-generational exploration of two seminal improvisation scores of the mid-20th century leading to four large ensemble performances.”

Includes photo and/or text contributions (not including quoted ‘rites’ or ‘songs’) from Ali Warner, Portia Winters, John Tilbury, Jane Alden, Ben Harper, Carolyn, Phil England, Michael Parsons, Bron Jones, Hugh Shrapnel, George Chambers, Penny Homer, Geraldine McEwan, Emmanuelle Waeckerle, Matt Scott, Robert Barry, Carol Finer, Martin Dixon, Deirdre McGale, Stathis Mamalakis, John Hails, Charles Hutchins, Petri Hurinainen, Richard Duckworth, Robbie Lockwood, Howard Slater, Alexandra Dami, and Achilleas Karagiannidis.

Publisher Routine Art Co, London, 2018
ISBN 9781870736961, 1870736966
167 pages

Reviews: Julian Cowley (The Wire, 2018), Michael Kemp (2018).

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PDF (9 MB)
Internet Archive

The Guests Go in to Supper (1986)

Featuring the works of seven composers, John Cage, Robert Ashley, Yoko Ono, Laurie Anderson, Charles Amirkhanian, Michael Peppe, and K. Atchley, who employ text as an integral part of their compositions, The Guests Go in to Supper is a collection of scores, texts, and interviews with the composers on their ideas on music, daily life, and the future’s possibilities.

Edited and designed by Melody Sumner, Kathleen Burch, and Michael Sumner
Foreword by Frances Butler
Introductions by Charles Shere
Publisher Burning Books, Oakland & San Francisco, 1986
ISBN 0936050055, 9780936050058
384 pages

Reviews: Mitchel Gass (Leonardo, 1988).

Publisher
WorldCat

PDF (66 MB)