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Alvin Lucier | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Lucier in 2017 | |
| Born | Alvin Augustus Lucier Jr. (1931-05-14)May 14, 1931 Nashua, New Hampshire, U.S. |
| Died | December 1, 2021(2021-12-01) (aged 90) Middletown, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Education | |
| Known for | Sound art |
| Notable work | I Am Sitting in a Room |
Alvin Augustus Lucier Jr. (May 14, 1931 – December 1, 2021) was an American experimental composer andsound artist. A long-time music professor atWesleyan University inMiddletown, Connecticut, Lucier was a member of the influentialSonic Arts Union, which also includedRobert Ashley,David Behrman, andGordon Mumma. Much of Lucier's work explorespsychoacoustic phenomena and the physical properties of sound.
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Alvin Augustus Lucier Jr. was born on May 14, 1931, inNashua, New Hampshire, to Kathryn E. Lemery, a pianist, and Alvin Augustus Lucier Sr., a lawyer and politician who served asmayor of Nashua from 1934 to 1937.[1] He was educated in Nashua public and parochial schools; thePortsmouth Abbey School inPortsmouth, Rhode Island;Yale University; andBrandeis University.[1] In 1958 and 1959, Lucier studied underLukas Foss andAaron Copland at theTanglewood Center. In 1960, he left forRome on aFulbright grant, where he befriended American expatriate composer and pianistFrederic Rzewski and witnessed performances byJohn Cage,Merce Cunningham, andDavid Tudor, who inspired him to adopt a more experimental style. He returned from Rome in 1962 to take up a position at Brandeis as director of the University Chamber Chorus, which presented classical vocal works alongside modern compositions and new commissions.
At a 1963 Chamber Chorus concert at New York'sTown Hall, Lucier metGordon Mumma andRobert Ashley, experimental composers who were also directors of theONCE Festival. A year later, Mumma and Ashley invited the Chamber Chorus to the ONCE Festival inAnn Arbor, Michigan, and in 1966 Lucier reciprocated by inviting Mumma, Ashley, andDavid Behrman to Brandeis for a concert of their works. The four then embarked on a tour of the United States and Europe as the Sonic Arts Group; at Ashley's suggestion, the name was later changed to theSonic Arts Union. After performing and touring together for a decade, the Sonic Arts Union became inactive in 1976.
In 1970, Lucier left Brandeis forWesleyan University, where he would remain until his retirement. In 1972, Lucier became a musical director of theViola Farber Dance Company, a position he held until 1979.
Lucier was married to his first wife, Mary, until their divorce in 1972. He then married Wendy Stokes; they had one daughter and remained together until his death.[1]
Lucier died at his home inMiddletown, Connecticut, on December 1, 2021, at age 90, from complications of a fall.[1]
Though Lucier had composed chamber and orchestral works since 1952, the composer and his critics count his 1965 compositionMusic for Solo Performer as his first mature work.
One of Lucier's most important and best-known works isI Am Sitting in a Room (1969), in which Lucier records himself narrating a text, and then plays the recording back into the room, re-recording it. The new recording is then played back and re-recorded, and this process is repeated. Since every enclosed area has a characteristicresonance (e.g., between a large hall and a small room), the effect is that certain frequencies are gradually emphasized as they resonate in the room, until eventually the words become unintelligible, replaced by the pure resonant harmonies and tones of the room itself. The recited text describes this process in action. It begins, “I am sitting in a room, different from the one you are in now. I am recording the sound of my speaking voice…”, and concludes with “I regard this activity not so much as a demonstration of a physical fact, but more as a way to smooth out any irregularities my speech might have,” referring to his ownstuttering.[2]
Other key pieces from Lucier's oeuvre includeNorth American Time Capsule (1966), which employed a prototypevocoder to manipulate elements of speech;[3][4]Music On A Long Thin Wire (1977), in which a piano wire is strung across a room and activated by an amplified oscillator andelectromagnets;[5][6]Crossings (1982), in which tones play across a steadily rising sine wave to producebeat frequencies;[7] the seriesStill and Moving Lines of Silence in Families of Hyperbolas (1973–74), in which beat frequencies between sine waves and acoustic instruments create "troughs" and "valleys" of sound and silence;[7] andClocker (1978), which usesbiofeedback and a digitaldelay unit.[8]
In 2025, a new musical exhibit based oncerebral organoids cultured from Lucier'swhite blood cells was opened at theArt Gallery of Western Australia.[9] The cerebral organoids made from Lucier's DNA emitted electrical signals that triggered various mallets connected to brass plates, creating music. Lucier voluntarily arranged for the project so that he could continue to create music after his death.[10]
Lucier was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Arts by theUniversity of Plymouth in 2007.[11]
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