Alvin Lucier

Alvin Lucier (born May 14, 1931) 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 inuential Sonic Arts
Union, which included Robert Ashley, David Behrman,
and Gordon Mumma. Much of his work is inuenced
by science and explores the physical properties of sound
itself: resonance of spaces, phase interference between
closely tuned pitches, and the transmission of sound
through physical media.

ber Dance Company, a position he held until 1979.

2 Works
Though Lucier had composed chamber and orchestral
works since 1952, the composer and his critics count his
1965 composition Music for Solo Performer as the proper
beginning of his compositional career. In that piece,
EEG electrodes attached to the performers scalp detect bursts of alpha waves generated when the performer
achieves a meditative, non-visual brain state. These alpha
waves are amplied and the resulting electrical signal is
used to vibrate percussion instruments distributed around
the performance space. Other important early pieces
include Vespers (composition)|Vespers (1968), in which
performers use hand-held echolocation devices to locate
the approximate physical center of a room, to deepen
their understanding of acoustical perception, and to reveal the elements of environmental space through nonvisual means.

Early life

Lucier was born in Nashua, New Hampshire. He was educated in Nashua public and parochial schools and the
Portsmouth Abbey School, Yale University and Brandeis
University. In 1958 and 1959, Lucier studied with
Lukas Foss and Aaron Copland at the Tanglewood Center. In 1960, Lucier left for Rome on a Fulbright Fellowship, where he befriended American expatriate composer Frederic Rzewski and witnessed performances by
John Cage, Merce Cunningham, and David Tudor that
provided compelling alternatives to his classical training.
He returned from Rome in 1962 to take up a position at
Brandeis as director of the University Chamber Chorus,
which presented classical vocal works alongside modern
compositions and new commissions.

2.1

I Am Sitting in a Room

One of Luciers most important and best-known works

is I Am Sitting in a Room (1969), in which Lucier records
himself narrating a text, and then plays the recording back
into the room, re-recording it. The new recording is then
played back and re-recorded, and this process is repeated.
Since all rooms have a characteristic resonance (e.g., between a large hall and a small room), the eect is that
certain frequencies are gradually emphasized as they resonate in the room, until eventually the words become unintelligible, replaced by the pure resonant harmonies and
tones of the room itself. The recited text describes this
process in action. It begins, I am sitting in a room, different from the one you are in now. I am recording the
sound of my speaking voice, and concludes with I
regard this activity not so much as a demonstration of a
physical fact, but more as a way to smooth out any irregularities my speech might have, referring to his own
stuttering.[1]

At a 1963 Chamber Chorus concert at New Yorks Town

Hall, Lucier met Gordon Mumma and Robert Ashley,
experimental composers who were also directors of the
ONCE Festival, an annual multi-media event in Ann Arbor, Michigan. A year later, Mumma and Ashley invited
the Chamber Chorus to the ONCE Festival; and, in 1966,
Lucier reciprocated by inviting Mumma, Ashley, and mutual friend David Behrman to Brandeis for a concert of
works by the four composers. Based on the success of
that concert, Lucier, Mumma, Ashley, and Behrman embarked on a tour of the United States and Europe under
the name the Sonic Arts Group (at Ashleys suggestion,
the name was later changed to the Sonic Arts Union).
More a musical collective than a proper quartet, the Sonic
Arts Union presented works by each of its members, sharing equipment and assisting when necessary. Performing 2.2 Other key pieces
and touring together for a decade, the Sonic Arts Union
became inactive in 1976.
Other key pieces include North American Time Capsule
In 1970, Lucier left Brandeis for Wesleyan University. In (1966), which employed a prototype vocoder to isolate
1972, Lucier became a musical director of the Viola Far- and manipulate elements of speech; Music On A Long
1

8 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Thin Wire (1977), in which a piano wire is strung across

a room and activated by an amplied oscillator and magnets on either end, producing changing overtones and
sounds; Crossings (1982),[2] in which tones play across
a steadily rising sine wave producing interference beats;
Still and Moving Lines of Silence in Families of Hyperbolas (197374), in which the interference tones between
sine waves create troughs and valleys of sound and
silence; and Clocker (1978), which uses biofeedback and
reverberation.

Students

For Luciers notable students, see List of music students

by teacher: K to M Alvin Lucier.

Honorary Doctorate

Lucier was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from

Plymouth University in 2007.

Discography
Orchestra Works, New World Records CD 80755-2,
2013
Still and Moving Lines of Silence in Families of Hyperbolas, 1-12, Lovely Music, Ltd. CD 1015, 2004
Navigations for Strings/Small Waves, Mode Records,
CD 124, 2003
Still Lives, Lovely Music, Ltd. CD 5012, 2001
Theme, Lovely Music, Ltd. CD 5011, 1999
Panorama, Lovely Music, Ltd. CD 1012, 1997
Fragments for Strings, Arditti String Quartet, Disques Montaigne, 1996
Clocker, Lovely Music, Ltd. CD 1019, 1994
Music On A Long Thin Wire, Lovely Music, Ltd.
LP/CD 1011, 1980/92

Music for Solo Performer, Lovely Music, Ltd. LP

1014, 1982
Bird and Person Dyning/The Duke of York, Cramps,
1975
Still and Moving Lines of Silence in Families of Hyperbolas, Nick Hennies, Quiet Design CD Alas011,
2010
Music for Alpha Waves, Assorted Percussion, and
Automated Coded Relays, on Imaginary Landscapes, Elektra/Nonesuch 79235-2, 1989
Vespers, on Electronic Sound, Mainstream MS5010, 1971
Silver Streetcar for the Orchestra, Nick Hennies,
on Psalms Roeba, CD #8, 2010
"North American Time Capsule", on Music of Our
Time series, CBS Odyssey Records, 1967
"I am sitting in a room", on SOURCE Record #3,
1970
"Music On A Long Thin Wire" [excerpt] on OHM:
The Early Gurus of Electronic Music, 2000. 3CD.
Self Portrait, on Upper Air Observation, Barbara
Held, ute, Lovely Music, Ltd. CD 3031, 1992
Nothing is Real on Hyper Beatles 2, Eastworld,
1991

6 Films
1976 - Music With Roots in the Aether: Opera for
Television. Tape 3: Alvin Lucier. Produced and
directed by Robert Ashley. New York, New York:
Lovely Music.

7 Notes
[1] https://archive.org/details/residuum-i_am_sitting_in_a_
room_mp3
[2] Mailman 2013, pp. 137140.

Crossings, Lovely Music, Ltd. CD 1018, 1990

I am Sitting in a Room, Lovely Music, Ltd. LP/CD
1013, 1981/90
Sferics, Lovely Music, Ltd. LP 1017, 1988
Still and Moving Lines of Silence in Families of Hyperbolas, 5-8, Lovely Music, Ltd. LP 1016, 1985
Still and Moving Lines of Silence in Families of Hyperbolas, 1-4, Lovely Music, Ltd. LP 1015, 1983

8 Bibliography
Cox, Christoph. The Alien Voice: Alvin Luciers
North American Time Capsule. In Mainframe Experimentalism: Early Computing and the Foundations of the Digital Arts. Edited by Hannah Higgins
and Douglas Kahn. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009.

10.2

Movies

Lucier, Alvin. Reections: Interviews, Scores,

Writings 19651994. Kln: Edition MusikTexte,
1995.

Music for Piano with One or More Snare Drums

(1990) by Alvin Lucier, performed by Hildegard
Kleeb

Lucier, Alvin. Origins of a Form: Acoustic Exploration, Science and Incessancy. Leonardo Music
Journal 8 (December 1998) Ghosts and Monsters: Technology and Personality in Contemporary
Music, pp. 511.

Island (1998) performed by The Other Minds Ensemble at the Other Minds Music Festival in 1999
at Cowell Theater in San Francisco.

Mailman, Joshua B. "Agency, Determinism, Focal

Time Frames, and Processive Minimalist Music,
Music and Narrative since 1900. Edited by Michael
L. Klein and Nicholas Reyland. Musical Meaning and Interpretation series. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 2013.
Moore, Thomas. Alvin Lucier in Conversation
with Thomas Moore. 1983.

Further reading

Nothing Is Real (Strawberry Fields Forever) (1990)

performed by Margaret Leng Tan at the Other
Minds Music Festival in 1999 at the Cowell Theater
in San Francisco.
Sferics excerpt at Architectural Association radio
program curated by Charles Stankievech.
I Am Sitting in a Room Recreation, from Internet
Archive
Queen of the South Video performance
at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - Eyestone/McCabe/DeKam
I am sitting in a room A performance using the
acoustics of the Inchindown oil tanks that hold the
world record for the 'longest echo'

eContact! 14.2 Biotechnological Performance

Practice / Pratiques de performance biotechnologique (July 2012).
Montral: Canadian
10.2
Electroacoustic Community.

10

External links

Alvin Luciers website (Wesleyan University)

Alvin Lucier scores published by Material Press
Lovely Music Artist: Alvin Lucier
CDeMUSIC: Alvin Lucier
Volume: Bed of Sound: Alvin Lucier
Alvin Lucier in conversation with Thomas Moore
NewMusicBox: "Sitting in a Room with Alvin
Lucier" (April 1, 2005). Alvin Lucier in conversation with Frank J. Oteri on February 9, 2005.
I am sitting in a room (1969) by Alvin Lucier realtime realization by Christopher Burns (2000)
Alvin Lucier discography at MusicBrainz
Alvin Lucier papers, 1939-2015 Music Division,
The New York Public Library.

10.1

Listening

UBUWeb - includes original 1969 recording of I

Am Sitting In A Room

Movies

Music with Roots in the Aether (1975) from

UbuWeb

11

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11.1

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