San Jose State University SJSU ScholarWorks Master's Theses Master's Theses and Graduate Research Fall 2010 Morton Subotnick's Ghost Scores: Interaction and Performance with Music Technology Jeffrey Hanson San Jose State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.edu/etd_theses Recommended Citation Hanson, Jeffrey, "Morton Subotnick's Ghost Scores: Interaction and Performance with Music Technology" (2010). DOI: https://doi.h6cw-5qkx https://scholarworks.edu/etd_theses/3864 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Master's Theses and Graduate Research at SJSU ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of SJSU ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact scholarworks@sjsu.
MORTON SUBOTNICK’S GHOST SCORES: INTERACTION AND PERFORMANCE WITH MUSIC TECHNOLOGY A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the School of Music and Dance San José State University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts by Jeffrey S. Hanson December 2010 © 2010 Jeffrey S. Hanson ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The Designated Thesis Committee Approves the Thesis Titled MORTON SUBOTNICK’S GHOST SCORES: INTERACTION AND PERFORMANCE WITH MUSIC TECHNOLOGY by Jeffrey S. Hanson APPROVED FOR THE SCHOOL OF MUSIC AND DANCE SAN JOSÉ STATE UNIVERSITY December 2010 Dr.
Brian Belet School of Music and Dance Dr. Furman School of Music and Dance Dr. Wyman School of Music and Dance ABSTRACT MORTON SUBOTNICK’S GHOST SCORES: INTERACTION AND PERFORMANCE WITH MUSIC TECHNOLOGY by Jeffrey S. Hanson This thesis investigates the ghost works of Morton Subotnick and their contribution to the world of sound art and electronic music technologies.
Subotnick’s work in this area is an integral part of his outstanding achievements, on which there is little collected research. The discussion focuses on the development of Subotnick’s designs and techniques that he applied to the construction of the ghost works. Through an exploration of earlier background details, it is shown that tape recording, voltage- controlled technologies, and the analog sequencer provided Subotnick with the means to follow his vision and begin creating “music as studio art.” An examination of these technologies and the creative manner in which he applied them reveal how Subotnick established a vehicle for his life’s work in the early sixties, from which he created notable electronic works. An assessment of Subotnick’s work from the early seventies shows that the composer’s methods progressed using a variety of compositional elements, including electronics and traditional acoustic orchestral instruments, the culmination of which resulted in the creation of the ghost compositions in the mid-seventies.
The evaluation of these works reveals Subotnick’s aptitude with real-time analog signal processing and his standing as a significant American composer. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks are due to the following people for their assistance, encouragement, and patience in the completion of this masters thesis document: Dr. Daniel Wyman for his mentoring, encouragement, and generosity in sharing his knowledge, time, and insights into the world of analog and digital electronic music technologies, as well as his general wisdom, sense of humor, and perspectives on the nature of academia; Dr. Pablo Furman for his guidance, fortitude, and persistence in maintaining high standards of academic excellence, as well as his willingness to share his vast knowledge of music; Dr.
Brian Belet for his support, attention to details, and willingness to share his knowledge of music systems; Elizabeth Sava, for her knowledge of word processing issues and steadfast assistance with editing details, as well as her encouragement and inspiration; Bob and Carol Daniels, and Dorothy Hanson, for their optimism and support through this process; Drs. Robert Jones and Becky Roberts, and Professors Ronald Dunn and Erik Turkman, for their discerning input and advice on academic writing. v TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures. viii List of Tables .1 Chapter One: Morton Subotnick .6 Chapter Two: Ghost Development .11 The San Francisco Tape Music Center (1962 – 1966).13 New York City (1966 – 1969) .20 Pre-Ghost Techniques (1969 – 1976) .24 Chapter Three: The Sound of a Ghost (1976 – 1983) .32 Sound Source: Acoustic Instruments .34 Sound Processing: Ghost Box .38 Control Source: Ghost Score.44 Sound Management: Audio System .48 Chapter Four: Ghost Works (1976 – 1983) .53 Two Life Histories .56 The Wild Beasts .59 Passages of the Beast .62 vi The Last Dream of the Beast .64 After the Butterfly .66 The First Dream of Light .69 A Fluttering of Wings .71 An Arsenal of Defense .76 Appendix A: List and Details of Ghost Works .82 Appendix B: Available Ghost Works and Recordings .84 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.
The Buchla 200 Series Electronic Music Box. Buchla Touch Plate Interface. Ghost System Performance. Music Score Elements.
Music Notation with Ghost Score Performance Notes. Electronic Ghost Score Part. Original Ghost Box Signal Routing. Electronic Ghost Score Notation of Signal Modulation.
Electronic Ghost Score: Preparation .45 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Evolution of Techniques .12 ix INTRODUCTION My urge is to create an expressive art with the technology of our time. Subotnick1 American composer Morton Subotnick (b. 1933) has cultivated unique musical ideas and innovative instrument designs by assimilating diverse genres of music, theatre, and dance into his music compositions.
Although Subotnick has written and performed contemporary compositions for acoustic chamber groups and large ensembles, the majority of his compositions involve the use of electronics and computers. Subotnick’s musical journey with electronics began in the late 1950s when he found work scoring for theatre and television in San Francisco. Rather than score for traditional orchestral instruments, a more common practice at the time, he worked with tape music, and created recordings of acoustic sounds produced from traditional and homemade instruments. In the early 1960s, Subotnick became associated with avant-garde performance art: a live, performance-oriented art form involving multiple disciplines and new postwar technologies, where it was common for the performers to “break the fourth wall” and interact directly with members of the audience.
Subotnick embraced aspects of performance art, including narrative, set design, choreography, lighting, and the use of cutting-edge audio and visual electronic technologies and incorporated them into his own works. These early associations with performance art and electronic technologies formed the basis of Subotnick’s artistic sensibilities for much of his career and are evident in his life’s work. 1 Curtis Roads, “Interview with Morton Subotnick,” Computer Music Journal 12, no. 1 Subotnick saw that with the aid of electronics, he could combine his composition and performance skills in the creation of “sound art.” While in pursuit of this vision in the early sixties, Subotnick collaborated with Don Buchla in the design of one of the first voltage-controlled synthesizers, a technology that greatly facilitated Subotnick’s production of sound art.
The voltage-controlled synthesizer is an assembly of electronic audio components into a single unit, which employs voltages to control the various electronic components. These systems revolutionized electronic music in the late sixties and led the way to contemporary electronic music production accessible to a larger community of composers and performers. Subotnick developed a unique set of technical skills and aesthetics using the voltage-controlled synthesizer, and with it, produced notable electronic works, including his ghost compositions beginning in 1977, the subject of this paper. Subotnick’s ghost compositions provided the electronic music genre with new models for performance interaction with electronics, making them a significant contribution to the history of American art music in the latter part of the twentieth- century.
These works combined voltage-controlled analog electronics together with acoustic instruments, in which musicians interact with the electronics during live performance. Subotnick used the voltage-controlled electronic sound-producing modules of the synthesizer to both generate sound and to manipulate external sounds together with acoustic instruments. The application of real-time control to acoustic signals in performance was innovative, and foreshadowed the development of later MIDI-based electronics (musical instrument digital interface). When musicians interacted with 2 Subotnick’s ghost electronics during performance, the resulting effects on the sound of the acoustic instruments were clearly evident, yet the electronics alone made no sound of their own.
This led Subotnick to apply the term “ghost” to the process. This thesis will focus on Morton Subotnick’s noteworthy interactive designs and techniques as applied to the construction and creation of the ghost works, an integral part of the composer’s outstanding achievements, on which there is little collected research. Chapter One will briefly describe the details of Morton Subotnick’s primary musical foundations, followed by a discussion of his early career development where he began integrating electronic audio technologies with live stage productions in San Francisco between 1958 and 1961. Chapter Two will discuss important influences in the development of Subotnick’s ghost compositions, beginning with his experiences at the San Francisco Tape Music Center (Tape Center), including avant-garde performance art and the inception of the voltage-controlled synthesizer.
The chapter focus shifts to Subotnick’s artistic explorations in New York City where he improved his skills with voltage-controlled synthesis, produced notable electronic compositions, and further developed his multimedia performance art. Finally, there will be a brief discussion of several “pre- ghost” works in which Subotnick began to employ various designs and techniques ultimately applied to the production of his ghost pieces. Chapter Three looks at specific details of the ghost electronics, which are Subotnick’s programmable systems that combine magnetic tape and analog electronic sound processing components. The ghost electronics will be divided into four 3 fundamental subject areas: sound source, sound processing, control source, and sound reinforcement.
Sound source pertains to acoustic instrumental performance, and will look at Subotnick’s traditional music scores, intricate performance notes, and special ghost notation. Sound processing involves the ghost box audio processing components and will examine their contents and function. Control source entails several programmable electronic systems and will discuss the programming process and follow the evolution of the (ghost) technology over time. Sound reinforcement refers to a common sound amplification system and will be addressed as it pertains to the performance of the ghost works.
Chapter Four chronicles the twelve original ghost compositions as Morton Subotnick composed and produced them from 1976 to 1983. A detailed account of each work is given, citing relevant information about each piece. Each account covers pertinent details of instrumental scores, including the completion date, orchestration, and any text or concept that may have been associated with that particular work. Next, details regarding the particular electronics that Subotnick used in the preparation of each work are presented along with the performance (running) time of each piece.
This information is followed by details of the premiere performance and covers dates, locations, venues, events, commissions, featured artists, conductors, recordings, and listener reviews. 4 CHAPTER ONE MORTON SUBOTNICK Early Development (1940 – 1958) Morton Subotnick’s musical endeavors began in Los Angeles with clarinet lessons at age seven, which were then augmented with studies in harmony and composition at age twelve. By the time Subotnick finished high school in 1950, he had become an accomplished performer on the clarinet and had cultivated a high level of proficiency with harmony and composition skills. Immediately after high school, Subotnick attended the University of Southern California.
He passed the USC music placement exams, allowing him to enter the music department at an accelerated level. Before finishing his first year of school, he was recruited to perform in the Denver symphony at age seventeen. Subotnick moved to Denver in the summer of 1951 where he attended the University of Denver, majoring in English literature, while working as a professional musician. In Denver, Subotnick became acquainted with composer James Tenney and experimental filmmakers Stan Brakhage and Larry Jordan.
He began to develop his compositional sensibilities through his interactions with these influential creators. Subotnick recalls that they “were all getting out of school around the same time. We hung out together and learned what was going on in the various arts. That was sort of the beginning of my avant-garde side.”2 Upon completing a BA in English at Denver, Subotnick was drafted into the military and subsequently stationed in San Francisco.
2 Cole Gagne, Soundpieces 2: Interviews With American Composers (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1993), 340.