HPSCHD
Encyclopedia
HPSCHD is a composition for harpsichord
and computer-generated sounds by American avant-garde composers John Cage
(1912–1992) and Lejaren Hiller
(1924–1994). It was written between 1967 and 1969 and was premiered on May 16, 1969 at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.
department at the time, invited Cage (then a Visiting Associate in the Center for Advanced Studies) to submit two works related to the field of computing technology and chance procedures. Together with a piece called Atlas Borealis with Ten Thunderclaps, Cage submitted the idea for HPSCHD, which had been commissioned by the Swiss harpsichord aficionado Antoinette Vischer. The long and complex compositional process also involved the technical assistance of Jack Cuomo, Laetitia Snow and Max Mathews
.
, Gottschalk
, Busoni, Schoenberg
, Cage and Hiller, rewritten using a FORTRAN
computer program designed by Ed Kobrin based on the I Ching hexagrams. Cage had initially turned down the commission (stating that he hated harpsichords because they reminded him of sewing machine
s) but Hiller's proposal reignited his interest in the piece, which provided an interesting challenge for both Cage's chance experiments and Hiller's use of computer algorithms in musical composition.
Following the debut at Urbana, Cage acknowledged the chaotic nature of the piece and the performance, explaining: "When I produce a happening, I try my best to remove intention in order that what is done will not oblige the listener in any one way. I don't think we're really interested in the validity of compositions any more. We're interested in the experiences of things."
, Antoinette Vischer, William Brooks, Ronald Peters, Yūji Takahashi
, Neely Bruce
and Philip Corner
playing harpsichords whose sounds were captured and amplified; 208 tapes with computer-generated sounds played through 52 monaural tape players; and an array of movie and slide projectors used to project 6400 slides and 40 movies onto rectangular screens and a 340 foot circular screen. Many of these images, selected by Ron Nameth and Calvin Sumsion, were borrowed from NASA
(the premiere took place just a month prior to the first manned landing on the Moon). The performance, which lasted for about 5 hours, was not intended as a static, unidirectional event, but rather as a hypnotic environment where the audience was encouraged to "move in and out of the building, around the Hall, and through the performing area." During the premiere an image of Beethoven wearing a University of Illinois jersey with Cage's face on it was silkscreened onto paper tunics distributed to members of the audience (and onto audience members' garments, including t-shirts, once the supply of tunics ran out). Three large silkscreened posters were created for the event, two of which featured images chosen by chance operations similar to those used in the composition of the music. Some copies were sold to support the event, each for a different price established using an I Ching chart.
in 1969 on a split LP that featured a 21 minute long recording of HPSCHD on side A and Ben Johnston's String Quartet on side B. Each of the 10000 copies of the LP included a unique 37 cm x 55 cm printout of a program called KNOBS, written by the composers to enhance the listening experience of the record. These printouts, executed on a CDC 6400
computer at the State University of New York at Buffalo, in April 1969, offered a series of randomly generated settings for volume, treble and bass for each channel at intervals of 5 seconds. The album was reissued on CD by Nonesuch in 1998.
A new rendering of the piece was released on CD in 2003 by the Electronic Music Foundation
. The first edition of the CD included a set of fifteen cards with liner notes which the listener can arrange as a poster. The liner notes feature texts by Johanne Rivest, Bill Brooks, David Eisenman, Joel Chadabe, and Robert Conant. The harpsichord parts were recorded in 2000 at the Foundation For Baroque Music, Inc., Greenfield Center, NY.
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
and computer-generated sounds by American avant-garde composers John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
(1912–1992) and Lejaren Hiller
Lejaren Hiller
Lejaren Arthur Hiller was an American composer. In 1957 he collaborated on the first significant computer music composition, Illiac Suite, with Leonard Issacson. It was his fourth string quartet. In 1958 he founded the Experimental Music Studio at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign...
(1924–1994). It was written between 1967 and 1969 and was premiered on May 16, 1969 at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.
History of composition
As part of the commemoration events of the University of Illinois' one hundredth anniversary in 1967, Hiller, head of the computer musicComputer music
Computer music is a term that was originally used within academia to describe a field of study relating to the applications of computing technology in music composition; particularly that stemming from the Western art music tradition...
department at the time, invited Cage (then a Visiting Associate in the Center for Advanced Studies) to submit two works related to the field of computing technology and chance procedures. Together with a piece called Atlas Borealis with Ten Thunderclaps, Cage submitted the idea for HPSCHD, which had been commissioned by the Swiss harpsichord aficionado Antoinette Vischer. The long and complex compositional process also involved the technical assistance of Jack Cuomo, Laetitia Snow and Max Mathews
Max Mathews
Max Vernon Mathews was a pioneer in the world of computer music.-Biography:...
.
Analysis
HPSCHD is composed of 7 solo pieces for harpsichord and 51 computer-generated tapes. The harpsichord solos were created from randomly-processed pieces by Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, SchumannRobert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
, Gottschalk
Louis Moreau Gottschalk
Louis Moreau Gottschalk was an American composer and pianist, best known as a virtuoso performer of his own romantic piano works...
, Busoni, Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
, Cage and Hiller, rewritten using a FORTRAN
Fortran
Fortran is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing...
computer program designed by Ed Kobrin based on the I Ching hexagrams. Cage had initially turned down the commission (stating that he hated harpsichords because they reminded him of sewing machine
Sewing machine
A sewing machine is a textile machine used to stitch fabric, cards and other material together with thread. Sewing machines were invented during the first Industrial Revolution to decrease the amount of manual sewing work performed in clothing companies...
s) but Hiller's proposal reignited his interest in the piece, which provided an interesting challenge for both Cage's chance experiments and Hiller's use of computer algorithms in musical composition.
Twenty-minute solos for one to seven amplified harpsichords and tapes for one to fifty-two amplified monaural machines to be used in whole or in part in any combination with or without interruptions, etc., to make an indeterminate concert of any agreed-upon length having two to fifty-nine channels with loud-speakers around the audience. [...] In addition to playing his own solo, each harpsichordist is free to play any of the others.
Following the debut at Urbana, Cage acknowledged the chaotic nature of the piece and the performance, explaining: "When I produce a happening, I try my best to remove intention in order that what is done will not oblige the listener in any one way. I don't think we're really interested in the validity of compositions any more. We're interested in the experiences of things."
Premiere
HPSCHD received its premiere performance before an audience of 6000 on May 16, 1969 at the Assembly Hall of Urbana Campus, University of Illinois. Conceived as a highly immersive multimedia experience, the performance featured David TudorDavid Tudor
David Eugene Tudor was an American pianist and composer of experimental music.- Biography :Tudor was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He studied piano with Irma Wolpe and composition with Stefan Wolpe and became known as one of the leading performers of avant garde piano music. He gave the...
, Antoinette Vischer, William Brooks, Ronald Peters, Yūji Takahashi
Yuji Takahashi
is a Japanese composer, performer, pianist and author.Studied under Roh Ogura and Minao Shibata at the Toho Gakuen School of Music. In 1960, he made his debut as a pianist by performing Bo Nilsson's Quantitaten. He lived in Europe from 1963 to 1966 where he worked with Iannis Xenakis. He gave the...
, Neely Bruce
Neely Bruce
Neely Bruce , Professor of Music and American Studies at Wesleyan University, is a composer, conductor, pianist and scholar of American music....
and Philip Corner
Philip Corner
Philip Corner is an American composer, action musician, trombone/alphornist, sometime vocalist, pianist-improvisor, theorist-educator, graphic score designer, and visual artist, collage&assembleur, calligrapher.-Biography:After The High School of Music & Art in New York City, Philip Corner...
playing harpsichords whose sounds were captured and amplified; 208 tapes with computer-generated sounds played through 52 monaural tape players; and an array of movie and slide projectors used to project 6400 slides and 40 movies onto rectangular screens and a 340 foot circular screen. Many of these images, selected by Ron Nameth and Calvin Sumsion, were borrowed from NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
(the premiere took place just a month prior to the first manned landing on the Moon). The performance, which lasted for about 5 hours, was not intended as a static, unidirectional event, but rather as a hypnotic environment where the audience was encouraged to "move in and out of the building, around the Hall, and through the performing area." During the premiere an image of Beethoven wearing a University of Illinois jersey with Cage's face on it was silkscreened onto paper tunics distributed to members of the audience (and onto audience members' garments, including t-shirts, once the supply of tunics ran out). Three large silkscreened posters were created for the event, two of which featured images chosen by chance operations similar to those used in the composition of the music. Some copies were sold to support the event, each for a different price established using an I Ching chart.
Recordings
HPSCHD was first published by Nonesuch RecordsNonesuch Records
Nonesuch Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Bros. Records.-Company history:Nonesuch was founded in 1964 by Jac Holzman to produce "fine records at the same price as a trade paperback", which would be half the price of a normal LP...
in 1969 on a split LP that featured a 21 minute long recording of HPSCHD on side A and Ben Johnston's String Quartet on side B. Each of the 10000 copies of the LP included a unique 37 cm x 55 cm printout of a program called KNOBS, written by the composers to enhance the listening experience of the record. These printouts, executed on a CDC 6400
CDC 6400
The CDC 6400, a member of the CDC 6000 series, was a mainframe computer made by Control Data Corporation in the 1960s. The central processing unit was architecturally compatible with the CDC 6600...
computer at the State University of New York at Buffalo, in April 1969, offered a series of randomly generated settings for volume, treble and bass for each channel at intervals of 5 seconds. The album was reissued on CD by Nonesuch in 1998.
A new rendering of the piece was released on CD in 2003 by the Electronic Music Foundation
Electronic Music Foundation
Electronic Music Foundation is a not-for-profit 501 organization that produces events, publishes and disseminates media and information, and provides access to materials relevant to the history and creative potential of electronic music....
. The first edition of the CD included a set of fifteen cards with liner notes which the listener can arrange as a poster. The liner notes feature texts by Johanne Rivest, Bill Brooks, David Eisenman, Joel Chadabe, and Robert Conant. The harpsichord parts were recorded in 2000 at the Foundation For Baroque Music, Inc., Greenfield Center, NY.