Source: Music of the Avant Garde
Encyclopedia
Source: Music of the Avant-Garde – also known and hereafter referred to as Source Magazine – is an independent, not-for-profit musical and artistic magazine published between 1967 and 1973 by teachers and students of University of California, Davis
, CA. It emerged from the flourishing Californian musical experimentalism of the late 1950s-early 1960s, either at UC-Davis, UC Berkeley's Department of Music or Mills College
. The 11 issues document new music practices of the period like indeterminacy
, performance
, graphic scores
, electronic music
and intermedia
arts.
and comprising two of his students: Stanley Lunetta on drums and Dary John Mizelle
on trombone, in addition to Wayne Johnson
, bass clarinet ; Art Woodbury, saxophone ; and Richard Swift, keyboards, sometimes augmented by occasional visitors like flutist Jon Gibson
or soprano Billie Alexander.
Spring 1966, the group officially launched the Composer/Performer Edition imprint with the idea of publishing a catalog of graphic scores and avantgarde music related material by composers they felt close to, like Frederic Rzewski
, Cornelius Cardew
, Allan Bryant, or Jon Phetteplace of Musica Elettronica Viva
. In 1966, they sent a mailing of 5,000 invitations nationwide, calling for pieces in the form of original scores. Composer/Performer Edition published some of these music scores separately, but the team felt the need to collect the material they received in the form of a magazine titled Source. Austin, Lunetta, Mizelle, Johnson, Woodburry and administrative manager Paul Roberts formed the magazine's board, with Austin becoming chief editor.
and sound poetry
in its coverage of avantgarde graphic scores, therefore expanding the very definition of music. It welcomed veterans like Harry Partch, Lukas Foss, John Cage or Morton Feldman, as well as young Turks of the avantgarde like Hugh Davies (b1943), Daniel Lentz (b1942) or Jerry Hunt (b1943).
Along the years Source covered West Coast experimentalism of the 1960s (Gordon Mumma, Robert Ashley) ; American Minimalism (Steve Reich, Christian Wolff, Earle Brown) ; the birth of Sound Art
as we know it (Alvin Lucier, Max Neuhaus, Annea Lockwood) ; improvised and indeterminate music (the ONCE Group, Musica Elettronica Viva, Toshi Ichiyanagi) ; Fluxus
and performance art with Dick Higgins or Allan Kaprow ; European sound poetry with the Fylkingen
affiliated artists or Bernard Heidsieck ; the British Systems music
of Cornelius Cardew, Howard Skempton, Michael Parsons and Gavin Bryars.
Source also welcomed the use of advanced technology (electronic, video, communications) to expand music's scope. The magazine published information on Don Buchla
's newly build synthesizer, Nam June Paik
's first video experiments or Lowell Cross's video/laser light shows featured in issue #9, 1971. The trend was perfectly in synch with the Art & Technology show at Los Angeles County Museum of Art
, 1971, where contemporary artists were offered to partner with engineers and technicians of their choice.
University of California, Davis
The University of California, Davis is a public teaching and research university established in 1905 and located in Davis, California, USA. Spanning over , the campus is the largest within the University of California system and third largest by enrollment...
, CA. It emerged from the flourishing Californian musical experimentalism of the late 1950s-early 1960s, either at UC-Davis, UC Berkeley's Department of Music or Mills College
Mills College
Mills College is an independent liberal arts women's college founded in 1852 that offers bachelor's degrees to women and graduate degrees and certificates to women and men. Located in Oakland, California, Mills was the first women's college west of the Rockies. The institution was initially founded...
. The 11 issues document new music practices of the period like indeterminacy
Aleatoric music
Aleatoric music is music in which some element of the composition is left to chance, and/or some primary element of a composed work's realization is left to the determination of its performer...
, performance
Performance
A performance, in performing arts, generally comprises an event in which a performer or group of performers behave in a particular way for another group of people, the audience. Choral music and ballet are examples. Usually the performers participate in rehearsals beforehand. Afterwards audience...
, graphic scores
Graphic notation
Graphic notation is the representation of music through the use of visual symbols outside the realm of traditional music notation. Graphic notation evolved in the 1950s, and it is often used in combination with traditional music notation...
, electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
and intermedia
Intermedia
Intermedia was a concept employed in the mid-sixties by Fluxus artist Dick Higgins to describe the ineffable, often confusing, inter-disciplinary activities that occur between genres that became prevalent in the 1960s. Thus, the areas such as those between drawing and poetry, or between painting...
arts.
Origin
Source Magazines board of editors first met in the New Music Ensemble, created 1963, an improvised music group led by UC-Davis music teacher Larry AustinLarry Austin
Larry Austin is a United States composer noted for his electronic and computer music works. He was a co-founder and editor of the avant-garde music periodical Source: Music of the Avant Garde...
and comprising two of his students: Stanley Lunetta on drums and Dary John Mizelle
Dary John Mizelle
Dary John Mizelle is an American composer.Mizelle studied trombone as well as composition and participated in the New Music Ensemble at the University of California, Davis, where he participated in a course led by Karlheinz Stockhausen...
on trombone, in addition to Wayne Johnson
Wayne Johnson
Wayne Johnson is an American jazz and acoustic guitarist based in Southern California. Johnson won a joint Grammy Award in 2004 for his contribution to the album Pink Guitar, which featured the songs of composer Henry Mancini....
, bass clarinet ; Art Woodbury, saxophone ; and Richard Swift, keyboards, sometimes augmented by occasional visitors like flutist Jon Gibson
Jon Gibson (minimalist musician)
Jon Gibson is a flautist, saxophonist, and composer.-Education:Gibson studied at Sacramento State University and with Henry Onderdonk and Wayne Peterson at San Francisco State University, where he earned a BA in 1964...
or soprano Billie Alexander.
Spring 1966, the group officially launched the Composer/Performer Edition imprint with the idea of publishing a catalog of graphic scores and avantgarde music related material by composers they felt close to, like Frederic Rzewski
Frederic Rzewski
Frederic Anthony Rzewski is an American composer and virtuoso pianist.- Biography :Rzewski began playing piano at age 5. He attended Phillips Academy, Harvard and Princeton, where his teachers included Randall Thompson, Roger Sessions, Walter Piston and Milton Babbitt...
, Cornelius Cardew
Cornelius Cardew
Cornelius Cardew was an English experimental music composer, and founder of the Scratch Orchestra, an experimental performing ensemble. He later rejected the avant-garde in favour of a politically motivated "people's liberation music".-Biography:Cardew was born in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire...
, Allan Bryant, or Jon Phetteplace of Musica Elettronica Viva
Musica Elettronica Viva
Musica Elettronica Viva is a live acoustic/electronic improvisational group formed in Rome, Italy, in 1966. Over the years, its members have included Alvin Curran, Richard Teitelbaum, Frederic Rzewski, Allan Bryant, Carol Plantamura, Ivan Vandor, Steve Lacy, and Jon Phetteplace.They were early...
. In 1966, they sent a mailing of 5,000 invitations nationwide, calling for pieces in the form of original scores. Composer/Performer Edition published some of these music scores separately, but the team felt the need to collect the material they received in the form of a magazine titled Source. Austin, Lunetta, Mizelle, Johnson, Woodburry and administrative manager Paul Roberts formed the magazine's board, with Austin becoming chief editor.
Circulation
The first 2 issues had a print run of 1,000 copies each, while starting with issue #3, the magazine had a circulation of 2,000 copies. According to chief editor Larry Austin, the spiral-bound, 10 ¾ x 13 ½ inches landscape format was inspired by some of John Cage's graphic scores. Subscribers were composers, teachers, performers or libraries located in North America and Europe. The magazine was never subsided or funded by any institution.Music content
Despite or thanks to its short existence, the scope of Source magazine appears both focused and wide ranging. While it emerged from a rejection of formal concert performance and traditional music notation, Source also included performance artPerformance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
and sound poetry
Sound poetry
Sound poetry is an artistic form bridging between literary and musical composition, in which the phonetic aspects of human speech are foregrounded instead of more conventional semantic and syntactic values; "verse without words"...
in its coverage of avantgarde graphic scores, therefore expanding the very definition of music. It welcomed veterans like Harry Partch, Lukas Foss, John Cage or Morton Feldman, as well as young Turks of the avantgarde like Hugh Davies (b1943), Daniel Lentz (b1942) or Jerry Hunt (b1943).
Along the years Source covered West Coast experimentalism of the 1960s (Gordon Mumma, Robert Ashley) ; American Minimalism (Steve Reich, Christian Wolff, Earle Brown) ; the birth of Sound Art
Sound art
Sound art is a diverse group of art practices that considers wide notions of sound, listening and hearing as its predominant focus. There are often distinct relationships forged between the visual and aural domains of art and perception by sound artists....
as we know it (Alvin Lucier, Max Neuhaus, Annea Lockwood) ; improvised and indeterminate music (the ONCE Group, Musica Elettronica Viva, Toshi Ichiyanagi) ; Fluxus
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
and performance art with Dick Higgins or Allan Kaprow ; European sound poetry with the Fylkingen
Fylkingen
Fylkingen is a society for experimental music and arts, founded in Stockholm, Sweden in 1933, one of the world's oldest societies of its kind. Composer Ingemar Liljefors served as the organization's first Chairman from 1933-1946....
affiliated artists or Bernard Heidsieck ; the British Systems music
Systems music
Systems music is a term which has been used to describe the work of composers who concern themselves primarily with sound continuums which evolve gradually, often over very long periods of time . Historically, the American minimalists Steve Reich, La Monte Young and Philip Glass are considered the...
of Cornelius Cardew, Howard Skempton, Michael Parsons and Gavin Bryars.
Source also welcomed the use of advanced technology (electronic, video, communications) to expand music's scope. The magazine published information on Don Buchla
Don Buchla
Don Buchla is a pioneer in the field of sound synthesizers, releasing his first units months after Robert Moog's first synthesizers...
's newly build synthesizer, Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik was a Korean American artist. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the first video artist....
's first video experiments or Lowell Cross's video/laser light shows featured in issue #9, 1971. The trend was perfectly in synch with the Art & Technology show at Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....
, 1971, where contemporary artists were offered to partner with engineers and technicians of their choice.
Specificities
- Themed issues: Some issues of Source have overtly or underlying specific themes, like issue #3, January 1968, stressing the importance of groups in new music and including scores, interviews or essays by ONCE GroupONCE GroupThe ONCE Group was a collection of musicians, visual artists, architects, and film-makers who wished to create an environment in which artists could explore and share techniques and ideas in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The group was responsible for hosting the ONCE Festival of New Music in Ann...
, Musica Elettronica VivaMusica Elettronica VivaMusica Elettronica Viva is a live acoustic/electronic improvisational group formed in Rome, Italy, in 1966. Over the years, its members have included Alvin Curran, Richard Teitelbaum, Frederic Rzewski, Allan Bryant, Carol Plantamura, Ivan Vandor, Steve Lacy, and Jon Phetteplace.They were early...
, Sonic Arts UnionSonic Arts UnionThe Sonic Arts Union was a collective of experimental musicians that was active between 1966 and 1976. The founding members of the group were Robert Ashley, David Behrman, Alvin Lucier and Gordon Mumma, all of whom had worked together in the instrumental performances of the ONCE festivals...
and New Music Ensemble ; issue #8, July 1970, is on concrete and sound poetry, with a report on the Swedish scene from the FylkingenFylkingenFylkingen is a society for experimental music and arts, founded in Stockholm, Sweden in 1933, one of the world's oldest societies of its kind. Composer Ingemar Liljefors served as the organization's first Chairman from 1933-1946....
festival and venue, and other independent sound poets like Bob CobbingBob CobbingBob Cobbing was a British sound, visual, concrete and performance poet who was a central figure in the British Poetry Revival.-Early life:...
and Henri ChopinHenri ChopinHenri Chopin was an avant-garde poet and musician.-Life:Henri Chopin was a French practitioner of concrete and sound poet, well-known throughout the second half of the 20th century...
; issue #6, July 1969, is on Politics ; issue #9 (1971) features circuit diagrams ; issue #11 (1972) introduces Fluxus and intermedia.
- Guest editors: a number of issues had guest editors who were invited to choose among the scores received by the magazine for possible inclusion, make their own suggestions of graphic scores to publish and bring their expertise on a specific field. Alvin LucierAlvin LucierAlvin Lucier is an American composer of experimental music and sound installations that explore acoustic phenomena and auditory perception. A long-time music professor at Wesleyan University, Lucier was a member of the influential Sonic Arts Union, which included Robert Ashley, David Behrman, and...
included electronic experiments, in addition to the British Systems music forming the core of issue 10. Ken FriedmanKen FriedmanKen Friedman, is a seminal figure in Fluxus, an international laboratory for experimental art, architecture, design, literature, and music. He had his first solo exhibition in New York in 1966. He has also been involved with mail art, and he has written extensively about Fluxus and Intermedia...
was asked to focus on Fluxus, performance and intermedia art in issue #11. John Cage took advantage of the skills of Source's resourceful printer, Doug Galbreath, to create a version of Not Wanting To Say Anything About Marcel printed on transparencies inserted in issue #7-8.
- Accompanying LP recordings: several issues came with a pair of 10-inch records, a format chosen to fit with the magazine's format of nearly 11" x 14". These recordings collected sound works by artists included in the magazine with issues 4, 7/8 and 9. The two 10-inch LPs coming with issue #4 were subsided by Columbia records, thanks to David BehrmanDavid BehrmanDavid Behrman is a US composer and the producer of Columbia Records' Music of Our Time series. He was also a founding member of the Sonic Arts Union. He toured with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and has worked with Ben Neill. He was a part of Robert Ashley's Music with Roots in the Aether...
, an A&R representative for Columbia in the 1960s.
Appendix: Source Magazine issues content
| Source #1 – January 1967 |
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| Source #2 – July 1967 |
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| Source #3 – January 1968 |
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| Source #4 – July 1968 |
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| Source #5 – January 1969 |
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| Source #6 – July 1969 |
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| Source #7 – January 1970 |
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| Source #8 – July 1970 |
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| Source #9 – Published 1971 |
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| Source #10 – Published 1971 |
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| Source #11 – Published 1972 |
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