Monday, November 18, 2013

Morton Subotnick

Morton Subotnick 1

Morton Subotnick, a pioneer of electronic music, spoke about and performed his work Saturday night at the Kranzberg Certer. O M G. It's been many a year since I've heard such a transcendent performance.

Subotnick, 80, played a synthesizer, what I took to be a MacBook Pro, a microphone and assorted touch pads. He spoke of using two of his best-known works, Silver Apples of the Moon and A Sky of Cloudless Sulphur as a base while adding new "pallets." The performance's theme was Lucy, perhaps the mother of us all.

Although this is, to a point, the boop squeak kind of electronic music, it has structure with complex rhythms and harmonies. The sections passed like chapters of a novel or scenes of a play. So many thoughts and associations went through my head while listening: The Rite of Spring extruded in silicon. God's own glass harmonica. All the tribes of all the planets of all the stars in a jam session.

His sound exploited the entire room. The music moved around you; or, if you prefer, since motion is relative, you moved through it.  Many of his works are available on CD and for download. However, a stereo recording is a limited substitute for hearing the music in three - or four - dimensional space.


When I spoke to Subotnick briefly after the show, he told me he came here in 1964 for a St. Louis Symphony performance of one of his works. He was booed. Good things come to those who wait.           

Morton Subotnick 2

Subotnick performance 1
crummy iPhone photo
Subotnick performance 2

Subotnick performance 4

6 comments:

cieldequimper said...

I am trying to imagine what it would have been like to listen...

Olivier said...

comme me disait un ami jazzman , quand on est hue, c'est que c'est bon, on est en avance sur son temps.
Beau bordel dans tous les cables

Dave-CostaRicaDailyPhoto.com said...

Maybe the Symphony audience had not been prepared to know what to expect. I cannot imagine boing at a symphony

William Kendall said...

Terrific portraits, Bob!

Stefan Jansson said...

This must have been a fun evening. I have always enjoyed electronic music. Listening to him play as I'm typing this.

PerthDailyPhoto said...

Yeh I had a listen too Bob, must have been a fantastic experience live.. who on earth boos at a concert!