Morton Subotnick

(b Los Angeles, 14 April 1933). American composer. A pupil of Milhaud and Kirchner at Denver University and Mills College, he has taught at various institutions, since 1969 at the California Institute of the Arts. He has composed mostly electronic music realized on Buchla synthesizers and in computer studios. His works include Silver Apples of the Moon (1967); with Two Life Histories (1977) he started a series of ‘ghost’ works for orchestra, ensemble, voices and tape.

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• Born: April 14, 1933, Los Angeles, CA
• Active: '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s
• Genres: Electronica
• Instrument: Composer
• Representative Albums: "Silver Apples of the Moon for Electronic Music Synthesizer," "Touch," "Key to Songs (1985)/The Return (1985-86)"

Biography

Long at the vanguard of American electronic music, composer Morton Subnotnick also pioneered the rise of multi-media performance through his extensive work in connection with interactive computer systems. Born in Los Angeles on April 14, 1933, he attended the University of Denver before earning his master's at Mills College in Oakland, California, where he studied composition under Darius Milhaud and Leon Kirchner. (From 1959 to 1966, Subnotnick himself taught at Mills as well.) His earliest major work was 1959's Sound Blocks, the first of his compositions to focus on the relationship between musical, visual and verbal components; much of Subnotnick's subsequent oeuvre pursued the same ideas, with later pieces like the multi-part Play! and 1965's Lamination I including films, lighting effects, pre-taped material and other media elements.

In 1967, Subnotnick released the landmark Silver Apples of the Moon, the first electronic work commissioned by a recording company (Nonesuch); realized via the Buchla modular synthesizer which he in turn helped design and develop, the album sold remarkably well, its success widely perceived as recognition of the home stereo system as a legitimate medium for present-day chamber music. Now composing specifically for the vinyl format, with works consisting of two halves to fit their respective sides of each LP, Subnotnick returned with The Wild Bull a year later, shortly followed by the two-part Reality. Touch, completed in 1969, was his first piece recorded on four-track technology; it was followed in 1970 by Sidewinder. All shared sophisticated timbres, contrapuntal textures and pulsing undercurrents -- in fact, many were so rhythmic they were adapted for modern dance performances.

Subnotnick's next major plunge into multi-media was 1973's Four Butterflies, a piece for four-track tape and three films; a pair of orchestral compositions, Before the Butterfly and Two Butterflies, followed in 1975. Concurrent was his work on the "ghost box," a modification device designed to control real-time sound processing by means of a pitch and envelope follower in addition to taped voltage controlled components including an amplifier, a frequency shifter, and a ring modulator. As neither the tape with the control voltages nor the ghost box itself contained any actual sounds, Subnotnick dubbed the end result a "ghost score," introducing the concept in 1977's Two Life Histories; much of the work which immediately followed expanded upon the idea by bringing together live performers and ghost scores, resulting in pieces including Liquid Strata, The Wild Beasts and The Fluttering of Wings.

With 1981's Ascent into Air, written for live performers and a 4C computer, Subnotnick's innovations in real-time sound processing reached their peak; not only did he spatially locate and modulate the timbres of live instruments in a qudraphonic field, but he employed his players to serve as "control voltages," determining where the computer-generated sounds were placed, how they were modulated and so forth. Computer technology assumed greater and greater importance in Subnotnick's later work, with pieces like The Key to Songs, Return and all my hummingbirds have alibis taking full advantage of MIDI technology. Latter-day compositions -- among them Jacob's Room, a multimedia opera premiered in 1993 -- also regularly made full use of computerized sound generation, specially designed software and "intelligent" interactive computer controls. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide

Electronic Works, Vol. 2 Buy this CD	Electronic Works, Vol. 1: Touch - A Sky of Cloudless Sulphur/Gestures Buy this CD	Southwest Chamber Music Buy this CD	Touch/Jacob's Room Buy this CD	Key to Songs (1985)/The Return (1985-86) Buy this CD
Four Butterflies Buy this CD	Silver Apples of the Moon for Electronic Music Synthesizer Buy this CD	Touch Buy this CD	Wild Bull Buy this CD

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