LARS-GUNNAR BODIN (1935-2021)

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Kevin Austin

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May 21, 2021, 11:50:19 AM5/21/21
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LARS-GUNNAR BODIN
JULY 15, 1935–MAY 10, 2021
Lars-Gunnar Bodin (l) with Trevor Wishart (r) in Linz, Austria. March 1993, photo by Charles Amirkhanian 
Other Minds was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Lars-Gunnar Bodin, legendary Swedish composer, educator, and curator. 

Lars-Gunnar Bodin, was born on July 15, 1935, in Stockholm, Sweden. As a composer he was active in a variety of artistic disciplines including Music, Sound Art, Electroacoustic Music, Visual Arts, Radio Art, Performance Art, Concrete Poetry, and Text/sound Composition.

Bodin studied composition with Lennart Wenstrôm (1956–60), and attended the Darmstadt summer courses (1961). Bodin joined the music organization Fylkingen in 1962. Through his global travels the genial composer made many friends for Swedish music, bringing myriad composers from other countries to create and perform work in Stockholm. 

In 1972, he was composer-in-residence at Mills College in Oakland, California. That year, Fyllkingen and the Swedish Radio jointly commissioned new work from OM’s Charles Amirkhanian who traveled to Stockholm to compose “Just,” based on four words "rainbow, chug, bandit, bomb.” 

In 1978, Bodin became director of the Stockholm Electronic Music Studio (EMS). Along with the Swedish composers Bengt Emil Johnson and Sten Hanson, he was instrumental in the establishment and growth of the pioneering Fylkingen Festival of Text-Sound Composition. 

His friend and colleague, Texas-born composer William Brunson, until recently a long-serving professor at KMH (the Royal College of Music, Stockholm) reports, "Lars-Gunnar defined an era of Swedish electroacoustic music history. At Fylkingen and EMS he left enduring marks. He was also the first teacher of electroacoustic music at KMH. He had a strong artistic vision up until the end, which he was eager to share. His son, Axel, told me that a CD-box with collected works had just been completed before his death on Monday, May 10, 2021."
 
THIS WEEK'S FEATURED INSTALLMENT OF
"FROM THE OM ARCHIVE"
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN ON ARCHIVE.ORG
Ode to Gravity: A Visit with Lars-Gunnar Bodin (1971) 

On a live broadcast recorded February 25, 1971, Charles Amirkhanian talked with Lars-Gunner Bodin, Music Director of the Swedish Center for Technological Art, Fylkingen, regarding the activities of the institution. Amirkhanian then plays a series of compositions produced at Fylkingen, including "Traces "(1970) by Bodin, "Don't Hesitate" by Sten Hanson, "Cybo II" (1967) by Bodin, and "Mr. Smith in Rhodesia" (1970) by Åke Hodell. 
 
TONIGHT ON MUSIC FROM OTHER MINDS
INTERVIEWS AND MUSIC FROM THE EMERALD ISLE
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE PROMO
On tonight’s broadcast of Music from Other Minds, Liam Herb presents music and interviews with Irish composers conducted at the 2019 New Music Dublin Festival. Featured composers include Jennifer Walshe, Karen Power, and Jane O’Leary.
 
Tune to KALW 91.7fm in San Francisco or KALW.org Friday at 10pm PST to hear it live.
 
LAST WEEK'S TWO-HOUR BROADCAST
POP ART | ART POP
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM

Last week on Music from Other Minds, Mark Abramson played pop work by experimental artists and experimental work by pop artists. The program featured music by Scott Walker, Laurie Anderson, Lucrecia Dalt, David Sylvian, Colin Stetson, György Ligeti, Negativland, Cathy Berberian, and Bing Crosby.
 

Click here to listen to past programs. 
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alcides lanza

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May 21, 2021, 12:29:50 PM5/21/21
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hanks, Kevin. Lars-Gunnar was a friend of many years. Good friend, good composer. So sorry for his passing.
alcides

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Barry Truax

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May 23, 2021, 1:52:38 PM5/23/21
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Yes, I remember Lars-Gunnar fondly because of all the times we shared at the Bourges Festival over the years. He was a lovely man, and so very dedicated to all aspects of EA music and sound art, with a lifetime of experience to share. He will be truly missed.

Speaking of which, I'm wondering why there hasn't been a post about the passing of Joel Chadabe on this list. I just heard indirectly about a Facebook post by his son Ben, but I don't have anything specific to share. Surely someone must - he was another pillar of the community.

Barry

Kevin Austin

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May 23, 2021, 3:28:45 PM5/23/21
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Joel Chadabe, 82, passed away peacefully at home, with his wife Francoise, and son Benjamin, by his side on May 2, 2021.




Judy Klein

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May 23, 2021, 4:00:04 PM5/23/21
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Hi Barry,
 
Yes, my gosh, how missed Lars-Gunnar Bodin will be. 

About the passing of Joel Chadabe, there is a substantial obituary in the Albany Times:
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/timesunion-albany/name/joel-chadabe-obituary?pid=198586243

And the ICMA posted “In Memorium: Joel Chadabe, which I assumed was forwarded to the CEC.  But perhaps I am mistaken.  I have just forwarded this to you and to the CEC-Conference.   Like you, I did expect to see numerous contributions to the memory of Joel sent out to recipients of cec-conference mailings.

Best,

Judy Klein



susan frykberg

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May 23, 2021, 8:37:55 PM5/23/21
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How very sad. I knew of Lars from his work of course, but Joel I actually knew, as well as his music and the EMF work.

May they both Rest In Peace

Susan 


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alcides lanza

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May 24, 2021, 11:29:28 AM5/24/21
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Kevin et alles: I am so sorry that Joel has passed. He was a truly good friend and a very nice person. What he has done for E/Aa music is remarkable. Our careers instersected many times, from the early 70s on.We will miss him much. alcides

On Sun, May 23, 2021 at 3:28 PM Kevin Austin <kevin....@videotron.ca> wrote:

Joel Chadabe, 82, passed away peacefully at home, with his wife Francoise, and son Benjamin, by his side on May 2, 2021.




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Barry Truax

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May 26, 2021, 2:12:30 PM5/26/21
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I also want to pay tribute to Joel's tireless contributions over many decades, too numerous to summarize here, but we could start with his book Electric Sound which is one of the best, and most accessible, texts for EA music history, based as it is with first-person accounts with many of the key figures in that history, all of whom he knew personally. Then there's his theory and practice of "Interactive Composing", so beautifully articulated in his Computer Music Journal 8(1) article, and illustrated with his theremin controller in live performance. And in more recent decades, the EMF project and all of its activities to further and expand the role of EA music. A remarkable man whose legacy is enormous.
Barry

David Hirst

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May 27, 2021, 1:21:09 AM5/27/21
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Joel Chadabe’s influence extended to the distant shores of Australia, even as far back as 1981 (and possibly before that).
In 1981 there was a conference held in Melbourne called the "International Music and Technology Conference” and it is chronicled in the article by Hubert S. Howe as ... Report on the International Music and Technology Conference Hubert S. Howe, Jr. Computer Music Journal , Summer, 1982, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Summer, 1982), pp. 45- 51.

It makes fascinating reading all these years later.

International attendees at the conference were: Invited speakers: Tristram Cary, Peter Zinovieff, Jean-Claude Risset, John Chowning, and Joel Chadabe. Other internationals presenting papers were: Barry Truax, F. Richard Moore, and Hubert S. Howe Jr. Papers were also presented by Australian participants and a feast of concerts presented music by all of the paper presenters.

Reading Hubert Howe’s article all these years later, it is infused with many anecdotes like the title of Zinovieff’s paper: “Don’t Teach Mozart Fortran” and references to Melbourne’s wet and cold weather in August (Southern Hemisphere’s Winter). Sometimes brutally candid, Howe described Chadabe’s paper entitled “Paths to a Point in a Musical Landscape” as “…vague and philosophical, discussing both compositional and performance aspects of his own and of some other composers. His main point was something he called ‘interactive composition’, which is basically a kind of improvisation on pre-programmed synthesising equipment.” Howe also describes that Chadabe’s equipment drew some of the most enthusiastic responses of the conference. It used portable components of the Synclavier surviving the trip to Australia, by far the longest it had done.

Describing how his work Solo came about in the 1970s, Chadabe writes that he was able to obtain a model of the Synclavier and "I also asked Robert Moog to build two antennae, as modified theremins, to control the Synclavier as a conductor. Moog’s antennae were more than five feet tall and a half-inch in diameter. After using them in initial concerts and demonstrations, I changed to Volkswagen car antennae, which could be collapsed to fit into a suitcase for travel and placed on small tables for performing.”

Well those antennae also made it to Australia and Joel continues the story; "In 1981, I gave a keynote address at the International Music and Technology Conference in Melbourne, Australia, at which time I coined the term interactive composing.” See https://joelchadabe.net/solo/

He also performed with his antennae at La Trobe University where I was an honours student at the time. His performance, plus the above IMTC were the kick start for my lifetime interest and involvement in CM/EA music.

I’ll always remember Joel as a kind, considerate, encouraging and compassionate champion of Electronic Music and a wonderful human being.

Hubert S. Howe’s CMJ article on the IMTC 1981, referred to above, can be found here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3679677?seq=1 I can recommend it for its other commentary on the other speakers above, which reads like a who’s who of computer music at the time.

David H

Associate Professor David Hirst, PhD | Honorary Principal Fellow
Melbourne Conservatorium of Music | Faculty of Fine Arts and Music

Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, The University of Melbourne, Southbank, Victoria, 3006  Australia
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John Young

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May 27, 2021, 5:15:08 PM5/27/21
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Nice memories, David.
That 1981 trip was also Joel's first of (I think) two trips to New Zealand - the latter in about 1987.  He did several performances at least In Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland with his interactive system.  I gather that in Wellington his performance stimulated the gruff annoyance of the then recently retired New Zealand EA pioneer Douglas Lilburn, while at the University of Canterbury he stimulated some interested bewilderment from a music-oriented professor of computer science.  Otherwise Joel was very happy to jump into one of the students' rattly Volkswagen beetle to make a journey over the Port Hills to a cosy restaurant in the port of Lyttleton with John Cousins and his studio class where he was very good company indeed.

Music lasts, but so does personality.

J



John Young
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Head of Research Students - MTI2 Institute for Sonic Creativity
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David Hirst

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May 27, 2021, 7:09:13 PM5/27/21
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Lovely to hear those NZ reminiscences John.

Joel’s traces…

A lasting legacy.

DH

Dr David Hirst

On 28 May 2021, at 7:15 am, John Young <jyo...@dmu.ac.uk> wrote:


David H
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