on stuart marshall composer, video artist and filmmaker, 1949ˇăv1993 (by alvin lucier)

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Page 1: On Stuart Marshall Composer, Video Artist and Filmmaker, 1949ˇăV1993  (by Alvin Lucier)

LEONARDO MUSIC JOURNAL, Vol. 11, pp. 51–52, 2001 51© 2001 ISAST

I first met Stuart Marshall in 1969 in London. Atthat time, the Sonic Arts Union, of which I was a memberalong with Robert Ashley, David Behrman and GordonMumma, was touring Europe. We were in London for a con-cert at the American Embassy. Stuart was a student at theNewport College of Art at the time and had come to Londonto check us out. Two years later he enrolled in the MastersProgram at Wesleyan University where I had just begun teach-ing. He stayed at Wesleyan for 1 year, during which he madeseveral beautiful works collected in his Masters Thesis en-titled “Zones 1971–72” [1]. Among them were four room-tonepieces in which square wave oscillators sound at one or moreresonant frequencies of the room. Loudspeakers were posi-tioned in carefully chosen locations, and in some cases oscil-loscope displays were included. Stuart (Fig. 1) was fond oftranslating sounds from one medium to another, as well asdisplacing sound environments to various locations. In RoomTone 2 (Fig. 2), a closed loop antenna runs around the roomat shoulder height, its electromagnetic waves made audible tolisteners by means of personal radio receivers. In Room Tone 4,vibration pickups detect floor sounds in a corridor and playthem through loudspeakers in an adjacent room. Thesesounds are then broadcast to portable FM receivers withheadphones in the original corridor space. The transmittersare adjusted so that the threshold of hearing coincides withthe locations where the walls of the rooms meet the walls ofthe corridor. In 4D Projection through a 3D Structure, micro-phones pick up sounds in one room, then play them on theother side of the wall into an adjacent room following certainlines of projection. Stuart suggested a version for tap dancerwhose sounds would be projected at acute angles throughout

the building. He once confidedin me that he would love to find away to place caps on the bottomof the performer’s shoes so thatevery time he took a step a smallexplosion would occur. For prac-tical reasons he never realizedthis idea.

From 1969 to 1972 Stuartmade a series of outdoor soundworks that were mostly con-cerned with the threshold ofhearing. Sumptuously repro-duced topological maps of theWelsh countryside were dotted with symbols of sound send-ing and receiving devices positioned in certain geographicallocations [2]. In one work, entitled Golden Hill, stationarysound sources are placed in trees. Per formers walkingthroughout the landscape try to avoid them. If they do en-counter one, they make one pulsed sound by some means,then retreat. In another work, entitled Usk (Fig. 3), several icecream vans with bells on them converge to a central point. Asa van crosses a performer’s threshold of hearing, he or she re-leases a flare. In many cases, atmospheric conditions such aswind and temperature changes may cause differences in thethreshold of hearing.

Stuart loved spoonerisms. I never failed to start him howl-ing with laughter at a collection of anecdotes, particularlythose that had hilarious but plausible reversals, for example,“O, weary benches.” These slips of the tongue delightedStuart and led him to a deep reading of Freud and, later,Lacan. Like conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth, whom Stuartparticularly admired, words and their multiple meaningsplayed an important part in his thinking.

For example, the title of a performance piece, A Saggingand Reading Room, plays on the ambiguity of the participles“sagging” and “reading.” (A room may sag but it cannotread.) In this work, four players listen to recorded statementsas to where they will be in relation to the other performersand two microphones. As they follow seemingly contradictorystatements, they move in front of and behind each other, cre-ating unexpected groupings. In one performance all fourplayers ended up clumped around one microphone.

After Stuart left Middletown, Connecticut, in 1972 I sawhim only a few times. We toured England together in 1973. In

Alvin Lucier (composer), 42 Pinewood Terrace, Middleton, CN 06457, U.S.A. E-mail:<[email protected]>.

A B S T R A C T

Alvin Lucier reminiscesabout his former student and col-league Stuart Marshall. Marshall’ssound works investigated suchphenomena as the threshold ofhearing and the displacement ofsound environments, throughscores that combined participantsand equipment in incongruousways, with instructions based onseemingly contradictory state-ments, creating unexpectedgroupings and responses.

On Stuart Marshall: Composer, VideoArtist and Filmmaker, 1949–1993

Alvin Lucier

Fig. 1. Stuart Marshall, mid-1970s. (Photo courtesy of RoystonEdwards)

Page 2: On Stuart Marshall Composer, Video Artist and Filmmaker, 1949ˇăV1993  (by Alvin Lucier)

52 Lucier, On Stuart Marshall

Cardiff Stuart suggested we performfour works in four separate spaces, start-ing on the ground floor with a sound in-stallation and ending in the attic withVespers, a piece of mind inspired by thesonic skills of bats. (See 4D Projectionthrough a 3D Structure [3].) In 1979 wetraveled to four cities in Europe. By thattime Stuart had become politically activeand had started making films and videoworks that challenged prevailing atti-tudes toward gay persons. He realizedthat the equation “silence is death” wasjust not true for gay persons in Nazi Ger-many. For them, silence was survival. He

also protested the use of the drug AZT,arguing for a more holistic approach to-ward health and the quality of life. I liketo think these reversals of conventionalwisdom came from a deep connectionto spoonerisms, in which transpositionsof the initial sounds of two or morewords generate new meanings. I alsolike to think that the clarity of his earlyartworks were harbingers of his later po-litical solutions.

References

1. Stuart Marshall, “Zones 1971–72,” Master’s The-sis, Wesleyan University, 1972.

Fig. 2. Stuart Marshall, score for Room Tone 2, from Zones 1971–72 [1].

Room Tone 2

Two square wave generators tuned to theresonance frequencies determined by thelength and width of a room.

The frequencies broadcast as electromag-netic waves using an amplifier and closedloop antenna which runs around the roomat shoulder height.

Electromagnetic waves made available asan audio signal by means of personal moni-tors.

The transmitter is made by matching theclosed loop to the resistance of the ampli-fier speaker output with a resistor of theappropriate wattage.

2. Scores for Golden Hill and Usk are included inStuart Marshall, “Zones 1969–1970,” Source: Music ofthe Avant Garde, No. 10 (1972) (edited by AlvinLucier).

3. See Marshall [1].

Received 16 April 2001.

Born in Nashua, New Hampshire, AlvinLucier studied at Yale and Brandeis Univer-sities. In 1966, Lucier founded the Sonic ArtsUnion with Robert Ashley, David Behrmanand Gordon Mumma. From 1972 to 1979,he was musical director of the Viola FarberDance Company. Since 1969 he has taughtat Wesleyan University.

Usk

(Usk, Monmouthshire, South Wales)

Proposed nighttime performance.

Six ice cream vans with jingles constantlyplaying make a synchronised start from thespecified points to converge on the towncentre.

Size separate stationary groups of per-formers on the surrounding hills releaseflash-and-bang flares on encountering thethreshold of hearing of their respective icecream vans.

Fig. 3. Stuart Marshall, Usk, from Zones 1969–1970 [2].