Eight Lectures on Experimental Music

by Alvin Lucier (Editor)

In this brilliant collection, path-breaking figures of American experimental music discuss the meaning of their work at the turn of the twenty-first century. Presented between 1989 and 2002 at Wesleyan University, these captivating lectures provide rare insights by composers whose work has shaped our understanding of what it means to be experimental: Maryanne Amacher, Robert Ashley, Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Steve Reich, James Tenney, Christian Wolff, and La Monte Young. Collected here for the first time, together these lectures tell the story of twentieth-century American experimental music, covering such topics as repetition, phase, drone, duration, collaboration, and technological innovation. Containing introductory comments by Lucier and the original question and answer sessions between the students and the composers, this book makes the theory and practice of experimental music available and accessible to a new generation of students, artists, and scholars.

Genres: Music

160 pages, Paperback

Published August 19, 2025

Reviews

[Noah Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting lectures, but presented with very little commentary or background on the lecturers

[Farouk Adil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing Interviews,Amazing Book .