Lucier, Alvin

Born in 1931 in Nashua, New Hampshire (USA), he was educated in public and parochial schools in his hometown, the Portsmouth Abbey School, Yale and Brandeis, and spent two years in Rome on a Fulbright Scholarship. In 1962–70 he taught at Brandeis, where he conducted the Brandeis University Chamber Chorus, which specialised in new music. In 1966, along with Robert Ashley, David Behrman and Gordon Mumma, he cofounded the Sonic Arts Union. From 1968 to 2011 he taught at Wesleyan University where he was John Spencer Camp Professor of Music. Alvin Lucier lectures and performs extensively in Asia, Europe, and the United States. He has collaborated with John Ashbury (Theme) and Robert Wilson (Skin, Meat, Bone). His sound installation 6 Resonant Points Along a Curved Wall accompanied Sol DeWitt’s enormous sculpture Curved Wall in Graz and in the Zilkha Gallery, Wesleyan University, in January 2005. His Canon was commissioned by the Bang on a Can All-Stars, while Music with Missing Parts, a reorchestration of Mozart’s Requiem, premiered at the Mozarteum, Salzburg, in December 2007. In October 2012 Two Circles, a chamber work commissioned by the Venice Biennale, was premiered there by the Alter Ego Ensemble. In December 2013 December 12th was performed by the Ensemble Pamplemousse at the Issue Project Room, Brooklyn, while Firewood was performed in March 2014 by the Bang on a Can All Stars at Merkin Hall, New York. 

In 2013 he was the guest composer at the Tectonics Festival in Glasgow and the Ultima Festival in Oslo, and also gave a portrait concert at the Louvre in Paris with cellist Charles Curtis. In 2014 the International Contemporary Ensemble presented three evenings of Lucier’s works in Chicago, and Callithumpian Consort, two concerts in Roulette; there were also several concerts at the Tectonics Festival in Reykjavík. Also in 2014 the composer was honoured by a three-day festival of his works at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. 

Reflections/Reflexionen, a bilingual edition of Lucier’s scores, interviews and writings, was published by MusikTexte, Cologne. In 2012 Wesleyan Press published Lucier’s book Music 109: Notes on Experimental Music. In 2013 New World Records released a recording of three of the composer’s orchestral works. 

Alvin Lucier was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States and received an honorary doctorate of arts from the University of Plymouth. In November 2011 Wesleyan University celebrated Alvin Lucier’s retirement with a three-day festival of his works. 

Selected works (since 2000): Fruits and Vegetables for baritone and piano (2000), Piper for bagpipe (2000), Sestina for contrabass flute, contrabass saxophone and contrabass tuba or other contrabass instruments (2000), Glacier for cello (2001), 947 for flute with pure wave oscillators (2001), Ovals for chamber orchestra with slow sweep pure wave oscillators (2001), Violynn for violin with pure wave oscillators (2001), Charles Curtis for cello with slow sweep pure wave oscillators (2002), Tapper for violin (2002), Ever Present for flute, saxophone and piano with slow sweep pure wave oscillators (2002), Almost New York for five flutes (one player) with slow sweep pure wave oscillators (2002), Bar Lazy J for tenor trombone and clarinet (2003), The Exploration of the House for orchestra with live sound recording and playback (2005), Twonings for cello and piano (2006), Broken Line for flute, vibraphone and piano (2006), Slices for cello and orchestra (2007), Four Kettledrums for four timpani (2010), Just Before Dark for small orchestra with slow sweep pure wave oscillator (2010), ICEcles for alto flute, clarinet, tuba and piano (2010), Just Before Dark for small orchestra (2010), Panorama II for trombone and 13 strings (2011), Coda Variations for 6-valve tuba, tuning in just intonation (2011), Serenade for 13 winds and pure wave oscillators (1985–2012), On the carpet of leaves illuminated by the moon for koto, cello / acoustic guitar and pure wave oscillator (2000–12), Two Circles for flute, clarinet in B at, violin, cello and piano (2012), Braid for alto flute, clarinet, English horn and string quartet (2012), Double Himalaya for glissando flute and prerecorded glissando flute (2012), Firewood for clarinet, vibraphone, piano, electric guitar, cello, and double bass (2013), Shadow Lines for electric guitar, cello, double bass, clarinet in B at and trombone (2013), 13 Degrees of Darkness for two flutes or flute and prerecorded flute (2013), December 12th for flute, violin, cello and piano with slow sweep pure wave oscillators (2013), Codex for soprano, violin, oboe, clarinet in B at, guitar and harp (2013), Criss-Cross for two electric guitars (2013), Step, Slide and Sustain for horn in F, cello, and piano (2014), Orpheus Variations for cello, two flutes, horn in F, two trumpets in B at and two trombones (2014), Gondola for alto flute, clarinet in B at, marimba, piano, violin and cello (2015), Hanover for violin, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, three banjos, piano and bowed vibraphone (2015).