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.
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.
crummy iPhone photo
