James Tenney

[RyanT]

I recently got accepted to the California Institute of the Arts as a
masters student, and it looks like I might have the chance to study
with James Tenney throughout my program.

I was wondering if anyone knew any resources that might give me an idea
of what to expect from the guy, especially in regard to his recent
works.

Ryan

[Samuel Vriezen]

RyanT wrote:

> I recently got accepted to the California Institute of the Arts as a
> masters student, and it looks like I might have the chance to study
> with James Tenney throughout my program.

Congratulations! Tenney is a master. He's one of the (microtonal) composers 'on
my list' so to speak to do a little festival.

> I was wondering if anyone knew any resources that might give me an idea
> of what to expect from the guy, especially in regard to his recent
> works.

An oeuvre of very wide reach, an experimental mind-set, often quite
'mathematical' in approach, always very clear ideas and pieces.

--
samuel
MP3's of my works and performances:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~sqv/

Nobody out there but us. And I can never figure out who that was or will be,
much less is.

- Charles Bernstein

[RyanT]

Samuel Vriezen wrote:
> RyanT wrote:
>
> > I recently got accepted to the California Institute of the Arts as a
> > masters student, and it looks like I might have the chance to study
> > with James Tenney throughout my program.
>
> Congratulations! Tenney is a master. He's one of the (microtonal) composers 'on
> my list' so to speak to do a little festival.

Hmm, maybe I might run into you some time in the future then, oh no!

> > I was wondering if anyone knew any resources that might give me an idea
> > of what to expect from the guy, especially in regard to his recent
> > works.
>
> An oeuvre of very wide reach, an experimental mind-set, often quite
> 'mathematical' in approach, always very clear ideas and pieces.

Yes, I've heard that he can be very "focused". According to what I've
heard, if the student is working with pencil, he will be very
particular about the type of pencil to use and the type of paper to use
and such.

Well, the whole reason I ask is because I do get the feeling that I
might be banging heads with him since a lot of my approaches are pretty
unparticular since I usually work with arbitrary materials to try to
mold stuff into some kind of structure. Although, if he's good as
people say he is, I guess I might be worrying about nothing.

I'm not taking any classes with him this semester most likely, so I
guess I'll have more time to find out. Interestingly, he has a
daughter who's starting her attendance at school this fall as an art
major as well. Wonder what it's like being the offspring of someone
famous?

Ryan

[Steve Layton]

"RyanT" <yid...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1126456711.9...@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

>
>
> Well, the whole reason I ask is because I do get the feeling that I
> might be banging heads with him since a lot of my approaches are
> pretty
> unparticular since I usually work with arbitrary materials to try to
> mold stuff into some kind of structure. Although, if he's good as
> people say he is, I guess I might be worrying about nothing.

He's very good, as teacher and composer (performer, too). You can
learn a lot. If you want to know a little more beforehand, you can
visit these:

http://musicandnature.publicradio.org/interviews/#tenney

http://kalvos.org/tenneyj.html

http://www.newmusicbox.org/article.nmbx?id=4247

http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/LEA/ARTICLES/TENNEY/kahn.html

www.newworldrecords.org/linernotes/80612.pdf

> I'm not taking any classes with him this semester most likely, so I
> guess I'll have more time to find out. Interestingly, he has a
> daughter who's starting her attendance at school this fall as an art
> major as well. Wonder what it's like being the offspring of someone
> famous?

One thing you're going to learn is that "fame" is a *very* relative
thing; in something like contemporary classical music, it tends to
look *nothing* like the TV/movie/"People" magazine kind of "fame".

--
Steve Layton
http://www.ampcast.com/stevelayton
--
Unusual CDs at "Music Now, Worldwide":
http://cdbaby.com/group/musicnow
Ready to listen? NetNewMusic: http://www.netnewmusic.net/

[he...@eskimau.com]

In article <3vKdnUkQfLX...@speakeasy.net>, Steve Layton
<dal...@speakeasy.net> wrote:

> "RyanT" <yid...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1126456711.9...@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> >
> >
> > Well, the whole reason I ask is because I do get the feeling that I
> > might be banging heads with him since a lot of my approaches are
> > pretty
> > unparticular since I usually work with arbitrary materials to try to
> > mold stuff into some kind of structure. Although, if he's good as
> > people say he is, I guess I might be worrying about nothing.
>
> He's very good, as teacher and composer (performer, too). You can
> learn a lot. If you want to know a little more beforehand, you can
> visit these:
>
> http://musicandnature.publicradio.org/interviews/#tenney
>
> http://kalvos.org/tenneyj.html
>
> http://www.newmusicbox.org/article.nmbx?id=4247
>
> http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/LEA/ARTICLES/TENNEY/kahn.html
>
> www.newworldrecords.org/linernotes/80612.pdf

I agree with most of what Samuel & Steve have written, Tenney's a good
teacher and interested in a fascinating array of real theoretical (as
opposed to (music theory) issues in music and perception.

In addition to the links that Steve provides, here's a good NY Times
article (with a link that won't expire) from when there were a couple
of concerts of Tenney's music last spring:

http://tinyurl.com/9m62v

&, while their new Web site doesn't provide access to much of the
content from previous issues, the Canadian new music mag Musicworks
has published many articles by and about Tenney over the years. It's
likely that Cal Arts has this magazxine in it's library, but you can
order back issues from the Web site:

http://www.musicworks.ca/

[he...@eskimau.com]

In article <3vKdnUkQfLX...@speakeasy.net>, Steve Layton
<dal...@speakeasy.net> wrote:

> "RyanT" <yid...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1126456711.9...@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> >
> >
> > Well, the whole reason I ask is because I do get the feeling that I
> > might be banging heads with him since a lot of my approaches are
> > pretty
> > unparticular since I usually work with arbitrary materials to try to
> > mold stuff into some kind of structure. Although, if he's good as
> > people say he is, I guess I might be worrying about nothing.
>
> He's very good, as teacher and composer (performer, too). You can
> learn a lot. If you want to know a little more beforehand, you can
> visit these:
>
> http://musicandnature.publicradio.org/interviews/#tenney
>
> http://kalvos.org/tenneyj.html
>
> http://www.newmusicbox.org/article.nmbx?id=4247
>
> http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/LEA/ARTICLES/TENNEY/kahn.html
>
> www.newworldrecords.org/linernotes/80612.pdf

I agree with most of what Samuel & Steve have written, Tenney's a good

[RyanT]

Ahh, thanks that helps quite a bit.

It's a good thing that he's interested a lot in harmony. He seems a
bit daunting in person but I think there's at least some common ground.

Ryan