David Tudor (1926-1996)
"The basic notion was that the loudspeaker should have a voice that was unique and not just an instrument of reproduction, but an instrument unto itself."
A pioneer of live electronic music, David Tudor began his musical career as a pianist playing music by John Cage, Pierre Boulez, Earle Brown, Morton Feldman, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Towards the end of the 1960s, he stopped performing as a pianist and began working with modular electronic devices that he designed, performing actively with John Cage and with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.
Although much of Tudor's music was commissioned by the Cunningham Company, he also collaborated with visual artist Jackie Matisse Monnier and, in 1966, composed a major work for "9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineering", produced by Experiments for Art and Technology. David Tudor taught at Black Mountain College (North Carolina) and at the summer new music institute at Darmstadt, Germany.
David Tudor passed away on August 13, 1996 at his home in Tomkins Cove, NY.
Available CDs
Photo by Ben Guthrie. Courtesy John Cage Trust.
