Catherine Christer Hennix
Encyclopedia
Catherine Christer Hennix (C.C. Hennix) (born 1948) is a Swedish-American composer
, philosopher, scientist
and visual artist associated with drone
minimal music. Hennix was affiliated with MIT's AI Lab in the late 1970s and was later employed as research professor of mathematics at SUNY New Paltz. She currently lives in Berlin
.
composers Iannis Xenakis
and Karlheinz Stockhausen
. Hennix met La Monte Young
and Hindustani raga
master Pandit Pran Nath
at the Nuits du Fondation Maeght festival in 1970 and pursued studies with both men during the 1970s. Hennix also drew inspiration from the Japanese Gagaku
music and early vocal, thirteenth-century music of Perotinus and Leoninus
. Hennix frequently worked together with the American anti-art
philosopher, composer and violinist Henry Flynt
.
.
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, philosopher, scientist
Scientist
A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...
and visual artist associated with drone
Drone music
Drone music is a minimalist musical style that emphasizes the use of sustained or repeated sounds, notes, or tone-clusters – called drones. It is typically characterized by lengthy audio programs with relatively slight harmonic variations throughout each piece compared to other musics...
minimal music. Hennix was affiliated with MIT's AI Lab in the late 1970s and was later employed as research professor of mathematics at SUNY New Paltz. She currently lives in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
.
Musical background
C.C. Hennix began her musical studies in the 1960s by exploring the music of the art musicArt music
Art music is an umbrella term used to refer to musical traditions implying advanced structural and theoretical considerations and a written musical tradition...
composers Iannis Xenakis
Iannis Xenakis
Iannis Xenakis was a Romanian-born Greek ethnic, naturalized French composer, music theorist, and architect-engineer. He is commonly recognized as one of the most important post-war avant-garde composers...
and Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
. Hennix met La Monte Young
La Monte Young
La Monte Thornton Young is an American avant-garde composer, musician, and artist.Young is generally recognized as the first minimalist composer. His works have been included among the most important and radical post-World War II avant-garde, experimental, and contemporary music. Young is...
and Hindustani raga
Raga
A raga is one of the melodic modes used in Indian classical music.It is a series of five or more musical notes upon which a melody is made...
master Pandit Pran Nath
Pandit Pran Nath
Pandit Pran Nath was a Hindustani classical singer and teacher of the Kirana gharana , with a successful American career.-Early life:...
at the Nuits du Fondation Maeght festival in 1970 and pursued studies with both men during the 1970s. Hennix also drew inspiration from the Japanese Gagaku
Gagaku
Gagaku is a type of Japanese classical music that has been performed at the Imperial Court in Kyoto for several centuries. It consists of three primary repertoires:#Native Shinto religious music and folk songs and dance, called kuniburi no utamai...
music and early vocal, thirteenth-century music of Perotinus and Leoninus
Léonin
Léonin is the first known significant composer of polyphonic organum. He was probably French, probably lived and worked in Paris at the Notre Dame Cathedral and was the earliest member of the Notre Dame school of polyphony and the ars antiqua style who is known by name...
. Hennix frequently worked together with the American anti-art
Anti-art
Anti-art is a loosely-used term applied to an array of concepts and attitudes that reject prior definitions of art and question art in general. Anti-art tends to conduct this questioning and rejection from the vantage point of art...
philosopher, composer and violinist Henry Flynt
Henry Flynt
Henry Flynt is a philosopher, avant-garde musician, anti-art activist and exhibited artist often associated with Conceptual Art, Fluxus and Nihilism.-Background:...
.
Musical Works by Hennix
All major compositions by Catherine Christer Hennix (for example her "The Electric Harpsichord") are regarded as a small part of an ongoing, endless composition cycle (music)Cycle (music)
A music cycle is when a section of a song/music is repeated.In music a cycle is a section which is repeated or repeatable indefinitely, with the end of a preceding repetition leading to the beginning of a succeeding repetition. Cycles may be melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, or based on some other...
.
- "The Hashigakari Chord": a sine waveSine waveThe sine wave or sinusoid is a mathematical function that describes a smooth repetitive oscillation. It occurs often in pure mathematics, as well as physics, signal processing, electrical engineering and many other fields...
trichord composition (1973–present) - "Central Palace - Music – Renaissance" for amplified solo oboeOboeThe oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
& sine waves - "Netori / Hashigakari"
- "Waves of the Blue Sea" for sine waves and two oboes
- "The Electric Harpsichord" (CC Hennix on 3-manual tuned Yamaha keyboard & sine waves)
- "Five Times Repeated Music" (CC Hennix on Renaissance amplified oboe & sine waves + Peter Hennix on RenaissanceRenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
amplifiedAmplifierGenerally, an amplifier or simply amp, is a device for increasing the power of a signal.In popular use, the term usually describes an electronic amplifier, in which the input "signal" is usually a voltage or a current. In audio applications, amplifiers drive the loudspeakers used in PA systems to...
oboe) - "Silicon Soliton Live-Time" (00:49:49: ... from 49:49:49:…) or "Just Driftin 'in the Year of the Blues for La Monte Young" (realized through her collaboration of computer scientist Tejo Bolten)