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Software for People: Collected Writings 1963-80
Collection of 26 articles by well-known composer Pauline Oliveros. Articles range in variety from analytical to philosophical to mystical. A unique collection. Originally published in 1984, finally back in print.
- GenresMusic
288 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1984
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 8, 2026
Full review to come, but here are my general thoughts for now:
To anyone who feels like what they’re creating is too far out there, that you can’t make what you want because no one will ever want it: there will always be someone who loves your creations. If you’re already creating something and people aren’t loving it, you just haven’t found the right audience yet.
If Pauline Oliveros—a woman who lived in the mid-late 1900s, spoke out about feminism when it wasn’t cool yet, was openly lesbian despite the rampant homophobia here in the US, and wrote some of the weirdest music I’ve ever heard in my life—could not only find an audience for her music, but also lifelong friends who supported her and gave her opportunities to keep making music, so can you. And if anyone tries to tell you that what you’re creating isn’t worthy because it’s different, it’s not trendy, or they don’t like it, that’s their problem for not seeing you as the amazing person you are.
As long as what you’re doing is making you happy, that’s all that matters. You don’t need to be a professional. You don’t need to be good. All you need is passion for something you love. That’s all that should ever matter. Period.
Real review here:
Software for People Review
5/5 stars
I debated whether or not it was worth reviewing this book, because it’s not what I typically read, but I decided to go ahead anyways. Who knows what people might be interested in?
This is a collection of essays written by the electronic music composer Pauline Oliveros. I took a class about classical music written from 1900 onward this past semester and for that class we had to pick something or someone to talk about for our final paper. I was really fascinated by Pauline Oliveros’s music, so I decided to check out this book she wrote from a nearby university library and read it. (There is a new print version on Amazon as well, but I didn’t want to buy a book for class when the library had it for free.)
I knew going into this that it wasn’t going to be some literary masterpiece, nor was it going to have an entertaining story. It was going to be this random lady talking about music and her life. And then I ended up loving it.
The essays are organized in chronological order that she wrote them. The first couple are from the 60s and by the end they’re from the 80s. So overall it highlights about 20 years of her life and work as a musician.
I was expecting more about her own music than we actually got, but that didn’t make it any less interesting. Some of the articles were about concerts she went to and music she heard. There were a couple about feminism squeezed in. At least two were just her writing down random sounds she heard throughout the day. One of the articles was about how to make some sort of strange machine do something weird, idk I didn’t understand that one. And she included a tarot reading she did of another composer, Iannis Xenakis. (Great composer btw)
I’d say my favorite parts were when she was talking about music she heard. There was one piece that never actually got performed called 8¢ Postage Due by Alan Merian where it works kind of like a chain letter. The first person writes some music, then mails it to a friend. That person adds more music and mails it again. Once you get enough music to make a whole piece it gets performed. I’m really sad about this one never getting performed, hence why I’m going to be mailing all my music friends the start of a piece in hopes we can write something cool together.
There was this one concert she went to where a cellist got up on stage and romanced her cello. It took me like two paragraphs of description before my ace brain clicked that romance the cello meant have spicy times with the cello (inside a sleeping bag for privacy) and not pretend to go on a date with the cello. The second piece on the concert was her inviting the audience to come up on stage and cut off pieces of her dress. AND THE AUDIENCE WAS A CONVENT OF NUNS. Even after being told what they were about to witness they still wanted to come and “listen” to the music.
I have described the crazy music these people were writing to everyone I know personally and pretty much everyone is like, it was the 60s. What did you expect? I don’t know what I expected. But it surely wasn’t THAT.
Yeah, so the articles were fascinating—sometimes hilarious—and honestly I loved this book. I’m not sure if non-musicians would really understand much of this, so can I recommend it? Probably not. But hey, I read it, and I had fun. That’s all that matters, right?
What I do recommend is listening to some of her music.
Her most famous piece of music is called Deep Listening, which is inspired by meditation and is meant to just sort of zone out to. It’s really good if you feel stressed and just want to hear something totally calm.
https://youtu.be/U__lpPDTUS4?si=m_7el...
She also wrote a piece for sax ensemble called Saxual Orientation. She was an out lesbian long before people started being accepting of the community, but never really talked about it much. I’m not sure what this piece meant to her, but it’s so cool she wrote this. I feel like every time I find lgbtq composers and musicians I’m like, these people are my new best friends! I wanna know them! I wanna make music with them! Sadly, she’s not around anymore to potentially befriend, but I wish she was. (Fair warning, the first chunk of the piece is really high pitched and loud, so if you have a headache maybe skip that part.)
https://youtu.be/xfbI115s8ys?si=OJ3-w...
Have a nice day/night everyone!
To anyone who feels like what they’re creating is too far out there, that you can’t make what you want because no one will ever want it: there will always be someone who loves your creations. If you’re already creating something and people aren’t loving it, you just haven’t found the right audience yet.
If Pauline Oliveros—a woman who lived in the mid-late 1900s, spoke out about feminism when it wasn’t cool yet, was openly lesbian despite the rampant homophobia here in the US, and wrote some of the weirdest music I’ve ever heard in my life—could not only find an audience for her music, but also lifelong friends who supported her and gave her opportunities to keep making music, so can you. And if anyone tries to tell you that what you’re creating isn’t worthy because it’s different, it’s not trendy, or they don’t like it, that’s their problem for not seeing you as the amazing person you are.
As long as what you’re doing is making you happy, that’s all that matters. You don’t need to be a professional. You don’t need to be good. All you need is passion for something you love. That’s all that should ever matter. Period.
Real review here:
Software for People Review
5/5 stars
I debated whether or not it was worth reviewing this book, because it’s not what I typically read, but I decided to go ahead anyways. Who knows what people might be interested in?
This is a collection of essays written by the electronic music composer Pauline Oliveros. I took a class about classical music written from 1900 onward this past semester and for that class we had to pick something or someone to talk about for our final paper. I was really fascinated by Pauline Oliveros’s music, so I decided to check out this book she wrote from a nearby university library and read it. (There is a new print version on Amazon as well, but I didn’t want to buy a book for class when the library had it for free.)
I knew going into this that it wasn’t going to be some literary masterpiece, nor was it going to have an entertaining story. It was going to be this random lady talking about music and her life. And then I ended up loving it.
The essays are organized in chronological order that she wrote them. The first couple are from the 60s and by the end they’re from the 80s. So overall it highlights about 20 years of her life and work as a musician.
I was expecting more about her own music than we actually got, but that didn’t make it any less interesting. Some of the articles were about concerts she went to and music she heard. There were a couple about feminism squeezed in. At least two were just her writing down random sounds she heard throughout the day. One of the articles was about how to make some sort of strange machine do something weird, idk I didn’t understand that one. And she included a tarot reading she did of another composer, Iannis Xenakis. (Great composer btw)
I’d say my favorite parts were when she was talking about music she heard. There was one piece that never actually got performed called 8¢ Postage Due by Alan Merian where it works kind of like a chain letter. The first person writes some music, then mails it to a friend. That person adds more music and mails it again. Once you get enough music to make a whole piece it gets performed. I’m really sad about this one never getting performed, hence why I’m going to be mailing all my music friends the start of a piece in hopes we can write something cool together.
There was this one concert she went to where a cellist got up on stage and romanced her cello. It took me like two paragraphs of description before my ace brain clicked that romance the cello meant have spicy times with the cello (inside a sleeping bag for privacy) and not pretend to go on a date with the cello. The second piece on the concert was her inviting the audience to come up on stage and cut off pieces of her dress. AND THE AUDIENCE WAS A CONVENT OF NUNS. Even after being told what they were about to witness they still wanted to come and “listen” to the music.
I have described the crazy music these people were writing to everyone I know personally and pretty much everyone is like, it was the 60s. What did you expect? I don’t know what I expected. But it surely wasn’t THAT.
Yeah, so the articles were fascinating—sometimes hilarious—and honestly I loved this book. I’m not sure if non-musicians would really understand much of this, so can I recommend it? Probably not. But hey, I read it, and I had fun. That’s all that matters, right?
What I do recommend is listening to some of her music.
Her most famous piece of music is called Deep Listening, which is inspired by meditation and is meant to just sort of zone out to. It’s really good if you feel stressed and just want to hear something totally calm.
https://youtu.be/U__lpPDTUS4?si=m_7el...
She also wrote a piece for sax ensemble called Saxual Orientation. She was an out lesbian long before people started being accepting of the community, but never really talked about it much. I’m not sure what this piece meant to her, but it’s so cool she wrote this. I feel like every time I find lgbtq composers and musicians I’m like, these people are my new best friends! I wanna know them! I wanna make music with them! Sadly, she’s not around anymore to potentially befriend, but I wish she was. (Fair warning, the first chunk of the piece is really high pitched and loud, so if you have a headache maybe skip that part.)
https://youtu.be/xfbI115s8ys?si=OJ3-w...
Have a nice day/night everyone!
January 6, 2017
Start with "On Sonic Meditation" and "Software for People". The rest is for diehards only, most of it pretty boring. Oliveros is not a great writer, but it's worth knowing more about the thoughts informing her music. There is some nice historical information throughout, in particular in "On the Need for Research Facilities", which recounts her early days in the Bay Area.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews