A collection of six compositions made in electronic music studios from 1959 to 1984. All were composed for concert hall or theater performance with choreography, as well as for distribution on recordings. Music from the Venezia Space Theatre, The Dresden Interleaf, and Echo-D were composed for quadraphonic theater systems, and were later spatially remodeled for release on stereophonic recordings. A collection of six compositions made in electronic music studios from 1959 to 1984. All were composed for concert hall or theater performance with choreography, as well as for distribution on recordings. "Long-awaited CD collection of early electronic works from this Sonic Arts Union member (along with Alvin Lucier, Robert Ashley, and David Behrman) and co-founder (with Ashley) of the Cooperative Studio for Electronic Music in Ann Arbor, MI (rumoured the first EMS in the US) as well as the ONCE festival(s, 66-74), not to mention his involvement with John Cage and David Tudor as one of the principal composers for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Oh yeah, and Mumma 'was among the first composers to employ circuitry of his own design in compositions and performance.' Features the pieces 'Retrospect' (1959, whose 'Densities' interlude beat B.Gunter et.al to the punch [line] by about 30 years), 'Music from the Venezia Space Theatre' (1964, as brilliant a headfuck as implied), 'The Dresden Interleaf 13 February 1945' (1965, after six minutes of near-silent ghost echoes, one thousand bees invade for exactly 25 seconds, then...), 'Echo-D' (1978, harpsichord and Buchla box sources are given 15 minutes in which to roam freely), 'Pontpoint' (1966-80), and 'Epifont' (1984). Mumma's been one of the more obscured blokes in possession of a misfiring neuro-transmitter set (his 'portable recording apparatus' and related getup puts the MD sham-antics of the Lucky Kitchen set to shame) and what with the 'electron-archaica' movement being graced with it's own Ellipsis Arts boxset (like they were all fucking Babenzele Pygmies) you'll surely find a local pen-pal with which to co-tirade on themes of his inherent era genius and contemporary shadow-likeness (as far as output is concerned, although 1987's video-performance of his 1974 piece 'Some voltage drop' wherein 'various parts of musical piece are played on musical saw in an empty amusement park; other part is electronic squeals emitted from accelerometers' would make Gord seem at bat w/old demons) over firelight and fine tawny port. Music, alive, perhaps crawling towards the sun."
Subtitled: Stereo And Binaural Electroacoustic Music
Studio Retrospect is a collection of six compositions made in electronic music studios from 1959 to 1984. All were composed for concert hall or theater performance with choreography, as well as for distribution on recordings. Music From The Venezia Space Theatre, The Dresden Interleaf 13 February 1945, and Echo-D were composed for quadraphonic theater systems, and were later spatially remodeled for release on stereophonic recordings.
Retrospect (1959-1982) was assembled from four shorter electroacoustic pieces: Densities (1959), Phenomenon Unarticulated (1972), Wooden Pajamas (1973), and Special Portrait (1982). Densities was originally a part of Mumma's Sinfonia For 12 Instruments And Magnetic Tape. Phenomenon Unarticulated was composed for Merce Cunningham's choreography "Landrover". Wooden Pajamas is a memorial to Salvador Allende.
Music From The Venezia Space Theatre (1964) is a three movement excerpt from the music composed at the invitation of Luigi Nono for the 27th Venezia Biennale performances of Teatro Dello Spazio in September 1964 at La Fenice opera house.
The Dresden Interleaf 13 February 1945 (1965) was composed during the last months of 1964 at the Cooperative Studio for Electronic Music in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Its concert premiere took place on 13 February 1965, the twentieth anniversary of the Dresden firestorm, at a ONCE Festival concert in Ann Arbor.
Echo-D (1978) is one of four parts of Echo, an evening-long work for modern dance, commissioned by the Portland Dance Theatre under the auspices of the Oregon Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. The production of Echo was a collaboration between artistic director Jan McCauley, the Dutch scenic artist Henk Pander, lighting designer Peter West, and composer Gordon Mumma, and was premiered at the Portland Civic Auditorium in October 1978.
Pontpoint (1966-1980) is named for a rural bridge on the Oise River, north of Paris, whose name signifies "place of the bridge". The Work began in August 1966 and is dedicated to Bénédicte Pesle. It is a companion piece to Mumma's earlier Mesa (1966) and Beam (1969), all three of which were inspired by bridge and beam systems. The compositional work for Pontpoint was continued with interruptions until 1980, when it was commissioned for premiere by Jan Dryer McCauley's modern dance company Cirque in Portland, Oregon.
Epifont (1984) was composed in memoriam for the extraordinary composer George Cacioppo (1927-1984). The work comes from an ongoing series of short electroacoustical and computer pieces, mostly private works, called Spectral Portraits. It was premiered in April 1985 at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in a festival honoring Cacioppo's life and work.
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The Dresden Interleaf 13 February 1945 and Music From The Venezia Space Theatre were originally released on LP as Lovely Music, Ltd VR 1091 in 1979.
Pontpoint was originally released on LP as Lovely Music, Ltd VR 1092 in 1986.
