The San Francisco Tape Music Center: 1960s Counterculture and the Avant-Garde

by David Bernstein (Editor), John Rockwell (Foreword by), Johannes Goebel (Preface by)

Overview

This book tells the story of the influential group of creative artists—Pauline Oliveros, Morton Subotnick, Ramon Sender, William Maginnis, and Tony Martin—who connected music to technology during a legendary era in California's cultural history. An integral part of the robust San Francisco “scene,” the San Francisco Tape Music Center developed new art forms through collaborations with Terry Riley, Steve Reich, David Tudor, Ken Dewey, Lee Breuer, the San Francisco Actor's Workshop, the San Francisco Mime Troupe, the Ann Halprin Dancers' Workshop, Canyon Cinema, and others. Told through vivid personal accounts, interviews, and retrospective essays by leading scholars and artists, this work, capturing the heady experimental milieu of the sixties, is the first comprehensive history of the San Francisco Tape Music Center.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520256170
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	07/08/2008
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

David W. Bernstein is Professor of Music and Head of the Music Department at Mills College. He is coeditor, with Christopher Hatch, of Writings Through John Cage’s Music, Poetry, and Art and Music Theory and the Exploration of the Past.

Table of Contents

Foreword, by John Rockwell
Then, Now, and Then Again (A Preface), by Johannes Goebel
Introduction, by David W. Bernstein

The SFTMC: Emerging Art Forms and the American Counterculture, by David W. Bernstein
The SFTMC: A Report, by Ramon Sender
Overview of the Tape Music Center's Goals, by Ramon Sender
Ramon Sender and William Maginnis, interviewed by David W. Bernstein and Maggi Payne
Memoir of a Community Enterprise, by Pauline Oliveros
Pauline Oliveros, interviewed by David W. Bernstein and Maggi Payne
Music as Studio Art, by Morton Subotnick
Morton Subotnick, interviewed by David W. Bernstein and Maggi Payne
Composing with Light, by Tony Martin
Tony Martin, interviewed by David W. Bernstein and Maggi Payne
Don Buchla, interviewed by David W.Bernstein and Maggi Payne
Michael Callahan, interviewed by Thomas M. Welsh
The Great Grand Kludge! by William Maginnis
Terry Riley, interviewed by David W. Bernstein and Maggi Payne
Anna Halprin, interviewed by David W. Bernstein
Stewart Brand, interviewed by David W. Bernstein
Stuart Dempster, interviewed by Thomas M. Welsh
Chronology, by Thomas M. Welsh

Archival Recordings
DVD Program Notes
Bibliography
List of Illustrations
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"An outlandish episode on nearly every page of this book. . . . A probing account."—Los Angeles Times

"The excitement of exploration and the delight in fortuitous accident come through in the many firstperson accounts and interviews which make up the bulk of David W. Bernstein's marvellous account of the Center."—Times Literary Supplement (Tls)

"[An] extremely accessible and often inspiring book . . . . Comprehensive [and] fascinating."—Modern Painters

"Provides the first comprehensive history of the Tape Music Center . . . . The collision of historically incompatible characters is hard to believe: It is a Kevin Bacon game . . . of avant-garde and pop culture in the '60s."—Artforum

"A rich and multilayered history. . . . [Sheds] light on a little-discussed corner of 1960s counterculture in the United States."—Journal of the Society For American Music (Jsam)

Editorial Reviews

Lively . . . [It} not only deflates the notion of New York as the center of experimental music innovation in the second half of the 20th century, but testifies to the ingenuity and invention of a ragtag band of composers, musicians, dancers, visual artists, and explorers.

The Score

The excitement of exploration and the delight in fortuitous accident come through in the many firstperson accounts and interviews which make up the bulk of David W. Bernstein's marvellous account of the Center.

Times Literary Supplement (TLS)

A rich and multilayered history. . . . [Sheds] light on a little-discussed corner of 1960s counterculture in the United States.

Journal Of The Society For American Music (Jsam)

Provides the first comprehensive history of the Tape Music Center . . . . The collision of historically incompatible characters is hard to believe: It is a Kevin Bacon game . . . of avant-garde and pop culture in the ‘60s.

Artforum - Cory Arcangel

From its handsome design to its wealth of vibrant photos, [this book] stands apart from the usual academic press fare, which is fitting considering its subject. . . . A document of ballsy innovation and gutsy invention.

Skyscraper

An outlandish episode on nearly every page of this book. . . . A probing account.

|Los Angeles Times

[An] extremely accessible and often inspiring book . . . . Comprehensive [and] fascinating.

Modern Painters - Stephen Vitiello

“An outlandish episode on nearly every page of this book. . . . A probing account.

Los Angeles Times