Bowerbird is pleased to present Composers Inside Electronics—Phil Edelstein, Ron Kuivila, and Michael Johnsen, with Daniel Fishkin—performing works by David Tudor.

Composers Inside Electronics (CIE), formed in 1973 with David Tudor, pioneered a collaborative approach to live electronic music that treated circuits and components as instruments in themselves rather than as tools. This closing concert of A View from Inside: David Tudor at 100 features an evening of Tudor’s electronic compositions spanning 1970 to 1984.

The program opens with Pepscillator, one of Tudor’s sound environments created for the Pepsi Pavilion at Expo ’70 in Osaka, Japan. Using chains of audio processors creating multiple self-oscillating feedback loops, Pepscillator exemplifies Tudor’s approach to designing systems of electronic components whose interconnections define both the work’s structure and its real-time performance. Pulsers (1976) explores rhythms created electronically by analog circuitry, with time-bases that can be varied and destabilized by the performer. Dialects (1984) transforms vowel-like and fricative sound sources—the beating of insects’ wings and modulated alpha waves—through vocoder circuits and percussion generators triggered by Jackie Matisse’s vibrating wire flower sculptures.

The concert offers a rare opportunity to experience Tudor’s electronic works performed by artists who worked directly with him and who continue to realize and evolve his vision through their own research and performance practice.

PROGRAM

David Tudor: Pepscillator (1970)
     Phil Edelstein and Daniel Fishkin, electronics

David Tudor: Pulsers (1976)
     Michael Johnsen, electronics

David Tudor: Dialects (1984)
     Ron Kuivila, electronics and sculpture by Jackie Matisse

ARTIST BIOS

coming soon…

Major support for DAVID TUDOR: A VIEW FROM INSIDE has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, with additional support from the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia.