Richard Maxfield

Richard Maxfield

Richard Maxfield (February 2, 1927June 27, 1969) was a composer of instrumental, electro-acoustic, and electronic music.

Born in Seattle, he most likelyweasel-inline taught the first University-level course in electronic music in America at the New School for Social Research. As a student at Berkeley and in Europe in the 1950s, he composed instrumental scores in a Neo-Classical style and then adopting 12-tone techniques, eventually studying at Princeton University with Milton Babbitt. He also studied for a summer with Ernst Krenek. Encounters with contemporary European innovations, the music of John Cage, and techniques for composing with magnetic tape would however prove decisive in the development of his mature compositions. Among his innovations with tape music were the simultaneous performance of improvised instrumental solos with tapes based upon samples of the same soloist, re-editing of tapes before each public performance so that the pieces were not fixed in a single form, and the use of the erase head of the tape machine as a sound source. He was also an active Fluxus participant and a friend of La Monte Young. Young now maintains the archive of Maxfield's works.

In 1960, he, along with Young, co-curated the early Fluxus concerts at Yoko Ono's loft: the first Downtown concerts. Maxfield made a number of mesmerizing, though gritty, electronic minimalist pieces, a few of which have made it to commercial recording.

Maxfield had a long history of psychoactive drug useFact|date=September 2008 and, in a drug-induced state, ended his life by jumping out of a window on June 27, 1969 at the age of 42.

External links

* [http://melafoundation.org/rm01.htm MELA Foundation: Richard Maxfield] by William Dawes
*http://www.artnotart.com/fluxus/gmaciunas-homagetoRM.html
*http://www.nutscape.com/fluxus/homepage/maxfield.html
* [http://www.newmusicbox.org/page.nmbx?id=31tp02 Minimal Music, Maximal Impact]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Maxfield — may refer to: People Surname Max Maxfield Mike Maxfield Richard Maxfield Stuart Maxfield Given name Maxfield Parrish, American painter and illustrator Place names In the United States: Maxfield Township, Bremer County, Iowa Maxfield, Maine …   Wikipedia

  • Richard A. Tapia — (born March 25, 1939) is a renowned American mathematician and champion of under represented minorities in the sciences. Tapia is currently the Maxfield and Oshman Professor of Engineering at Rice University in Houston, Texas. Dr. Tapia is also… …   Wikipedia

  • Thomas Maxfield — (real name Macclesfield) (c.1590 – 1 July 1616) was an English Roman Catholic priest. He is a Catholic martyr, beatified in 1929. Life He was born in Stafford gaol, one of the younger sons of William Macclesfield of Chesterton and Maer and Aston …   Wikipedia

  • Steve Reich — Stephen Michael Reich Nacimiento 3 de octu …   Wikipedia Español

  • 1927 in music — Events* January 8 Alban Berg s Lyric Suite is premiered in Vienna. * July 1 Béla Bartók s Piano Concerto No. 1 is premiered in Frankfurt, with the composer at the piano and Wilhelm Furtwängler conducting. * December 5 Leoš Janáček s Glagolitic… …   Wikipedia

  • Minimal music — This article is about a musical style. For other uses, see Minimalism (disambiguation). Minimal music Stylistic origins Experimental music, twelve tone music, serialism, process music, Indian classical music Cultural origins United States Typical …   Wikipedia

  • Thomas Jefferson — por Rembrandt Peale en 1800 …   Wikipedia Español

  • Minimalist music — is an originally American genre of experimental or Downtown music named in the 1960s based mostly in consonant harmony, steady pulse (if not immobile drones), stasis and slow transformation, and often reiteration of musical phrases or smaller… …   Wikipedia

  • Dick Higgins — Dick Higgins, bürgerlicher Name Richard Carter Higgins (* 15. März 1938 in Cambridge, England; † 25. Oktober 1998, Québec, Québec, Kanada) war ein Komponist, Dramatiker, Fluxus Künstler, Autor und Verleger. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Leben 2 …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Yoko Ono — For the song by Die Ärzte, see Yoko Ono (song). Yoko Ono 小野 洋子 Yoko Ono at the Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo, Brazil Background information …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”