The San Francisco Tape Music Center: 1960s Counterculture and the Avant-Garde

by David W. Bernstein (Editor), John Rockwell (Foreword by)

This book tells the story of the influential group of creative artists—Pauline Oliveros, Morton Subotnick, Ramon Sender, William Maginnis, and Tony Martin—who connected music to technology during a legendary era in California's cultural history. An integral part of the robust San Francisco “scene,” the San Francisco Tape Music Center developed new art forms through collaborations with Terry Riley, Steve Reich, David Tudor, Ken Dewey, Lee Breuer, the San Francisco Actor's Workshop, the San Francisco Mime Troupe, the Ann Halprin Dancers' Workshop, Canyon Cinema, and others. Told through vivid personal accounts, interviews, and retrospective essays by leading scholars and artists, this work, capturing the heady experimental milieu of the sixties, is the first comprehensive history of the San Francisco Tape Music Center.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Art

344 pages, Hardcover

First published June 8, 2008

About the author

David W. Bernstein is professor of music at Mills College.

Reviews

[Maureen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an interesting collection of interviews and essays from musicians and artists who were active in the San Francisco Tape Music Center in the 1960s. They had a profound influence on the rock music that emanated from SF at that time, which is probably why some people will read this book. I think that is why my daughter gave it to me.

These musicians are much more interesting than the musical genres they later influenced. By incorporating found pieces as instruments, experimenting with the limited technology of the time, and by bringing an open-hearted, innovative approach to music, they were able to create some surprisingly successful pieces. The only woman in the group, Pauline Oliveros, gets short shrift in the publicity for the book, but in the book itself, she is well represented.

Accompanying the book is a DVD with performances by many of the artists from within its pages. Although the performances are from a conference in 2004, they are highly entertaining and represent the broad range of types of musical presentations that were going on at the time. All in all, I found this book to be a most comprehensive, illuminating effort, and very well done.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scholarly collection of essays and interviews pertaining to the San Francisco Tape Center, an an early avant-garde electronic music collective around that existed around in the Haight in 1965-66, featuring Morton Subotnick and Pauline Oliveros, among others. Lots of cool anecdotes about early looping technology, voltages, conceptual theater, etc.. An interview with former Merry Prankster & Trips Festival organizer Stewart Brand puts it in important context with the rest of what was going on in San Francisco in the mid-'60s. Definitely of limited interest, but generally well done, though I kinda wish all the interviews were arranged into one big oral history, which would be more dramatic & there'd be less repeated information.

[Ian O'Brien · Rating 4 out of 5]

You could hardly find a better modern example of Brian Eno's "Scenius" than that around the San Francisco Tape Music Center in the mid-60's. Fed by a circle of colleges and universities - SF State, Berkeley, Mills, SF Conservatory of Music even distant Stanford seeded this fertile environment with classically trained heavy-hitters who later established solid musical careers - Morton Subotnick, Pauline Oliveros, David Tudor, John Cage, Steve Reich, Terry Riley among others. Amidst this ferment Don Buchla engineered his famous modular synthesizer system (sadly the Buchla interview is probably the least satisfying in the book.) Yeah, there's some kooky stuff going on - a performance including a moving washing machine on rollers with an extension cord and full of rocks probably ended the groups' residency in the attic of the SF conservatory, and somehow the second location, um, burned down.
But certainly by the time the tape center set up at 321 Divisidaro St, the art scene was buzzing all around, as the counter-culture & accompanying psychedelics helped foster a rare environment of experimentation and collaboration among multiple disciplines - dance, music, theater, lighting design etc. One such project "Tropical Fish Opera" featured an aquarium with music staff's painted on each side - each musician following his/her fish as they swam around it, indicating notes to be played. Another theatrical production, Oliveros' "Pieces of Eight" featured a 4 ft bust of Beethoven being carted around, with flashing ray-gun eyes tranversing a chaotic landscape of instrumentalists, alarm clocks and church collection plates, the underlying messages : "where are the Goddesses (i.e. the female icons)?" and "Are we stuck with Beethoven forever?" a lament decrying the long & oppressive shadow of Beethoven's eternal acclamation.
You wouldn't think that a $150,000 support grant from the Rockerfeller Foundation would bring these festivities to an end, but the requirement that the center find an institutional home, eventually Mills College, did just that. Pauline Oliveros stayed on for just another year, while others left for other opportunities - another brilliant ephemeral scene vanishing into history.
This book provides an fascinating view of a period of unleashed creativity in America, something that should inspire artists, and lovers of culture everywhere.

[Isaac · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really took my time with this book. I savored each paragraph and passage, learning so much about my "people". When I first heard

[Evan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The 60s were wild.

[Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed this. I moved to S.F. in the mid 70's and learned much about electronic music from listener sponsored KPFA radio. As the other reviews state, if you are interested in the roots of the S.F. rock music scene of the 60's this provides the pre-history. The "light show" originated as an integral part of the experimental music scene. The dvd of performances of music by the featured composers is well worth watching/hearing.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absorbing record of an absolutely brilliant moment in American experimental music (and visual) practice. Loved it!