
Pauline Oliveros
American composer born 30 May 1932 in Houston; died 24 November 2016 in Kingston, New York.
Pauline Oliveros was born in Houston on 30 May 1932. Her mother was a pianist and her father a dancer. At a very early age, she became acutely aware of the sounds which surrounded her: the crackles of her father’s short-wave radio, bird songs, the croaking of frogs, the voices of her parents mixing with the sound of the car engine on road trips, etc. At the age of 9, her mother brought home an accordion; she developed a passion for the instrument, going on to study it with Willard A. Palmer at the Moores School of Music (University of Houston), alongside studies of horn and tuba.
The realisation that she was homosexual led her to leave her deeply conservative home state of Texas. Resolved to become a composer, she moved to San Francisco in 1952, where she taught accordion and horn to make a living and pay for her studies with Robert Erickson at the San Francisco State College. While there, she met Terry Riley and Loren Rush, with whom she formed a short-lived improvisation trio in 1957, the year in which she graduated with a degree in composition. In 1964, she attended the premiere of In C by Terry Riley, a seminal work of musical minimalism.
In 1958, she experienced a kind of epiphany when she found that her tape recorder was able to pick up sounds that she herself could not perceive. This led her to focus her energy on listening, as attentively as possible, to the sounds that surrounded her. The following year, she worked alongside Ramon Sender and Morton Subotnick (with additional input from Robert Erickson) on the creation of an electroacoustic music studio at the University of San Francisco. In 1960, compositions by the three composers combining improvisations and pre-recorded sounds were presented in a concert titled “Sonics.” During her time at the studio, Oliveros composed her first work for fixed media, Time Perspectives (1961). Sender and Subotnick left the university in 1961 in order to establish the San Francisco Tape Music Center. Oliveros subsequently wrote the vocal work Sound Patterns, heavily inspired by her experiences with electronic music; the piece was awarded the Gaudeamus Prize in 1962.
In 1966, she composed a series of electroacoustic works at the University of Toronto. In the same year, the San Francisco Tape Music Center received financial support from the Rockefeller Foundation, and the following year, a $15,000 grant in order to merge with the Mills Center for Contemporary Music, with Oliveros being named as Director. In this setting, she composed the Bogs series. In 1968, she accepted a teaching position at the University of San Diego, where she met physicist and karate master Lester Ingber. The two collaborated on research on music perception, giving rise to the composition of Sonic Meditations in 1971.
Oliveros left San Diego in 1981, briefly interrupting her teaching activities in order to live and work in Kingston (upstate New York). In 1985, she created the Pauline Oliveros Foundation (which would become the “Deep Listening Institute” in 2005), an organisation whose objectives included promoting of the work of female composers (specifically Anna Rubin, Shelley Hirsch, Lois V. Vierck, etc.). In 1988, she developed the notion of “deep listening,” a term applied to her work on combining music with meditation.
Following an invitation from Joe Catlano, in 1991, Oliveros participated in a “tele-musical” production in which musicians in six different cities (Kingston [NY], New York [NY], Houston [TX], San Diego [CA], Los Angeles [CA], and Oakland [CA]) performed together remotely. In 1996, she became the Darius Milhaud Composer-in-Residence at Mills College. From 2001 until her death, she taught at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy (NY). Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, her works, many of which had rarely been performed, were recorded and released (in some cases, re-released) by a number of experimental music labels (Lovely Music, Important Records, Table of the Elements, Sub Rosa, Pogus, Hat Hut, etc.).
In 1999, Oliveros was the recipient of the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States Prize for her life’s work. In 2009, she was awarded the William Schuman Prize from Columbia University, and a retrospective concert of her works (from 1960 to 2010) took place at Miller Theater (also at Columbia University) on 27 March 2010.
Pauline Oliveros died in her sleep on 24 November 2016, at the age of 84.
© Ircam-Centre Pompidou, 2018
By Pierre-Yves Macé
This text is being translated. We thank you for your patience.
Marges
Sounding the Margins: faire sonner les marges. Le titre donné par Pauline Oliveros à son recueil de textes paru en 2010 définit un positionnement créateur qui s’inscrit nettement dans la tradition américaine du compositeur solitaire, indépendant et quelque peu excentrique – le « maverick ».Outsider, Pauline Oliveros l’est à plus d’un titre : femme compositrice dans un milieu largement masculin ; interprète d’un instrument de musique, l’accordéon, longtemps ostracisé pour ses origines populaires ; créatrice collaborant avec des artistes d’horizons divers – les compositeurs Terry Riley et Morton Subotnick, les improvisateurs Joëlle Léandre et Joe McPhee, l’artiste sonore Stephen Vitiello, DJ Spooky ou le groupe de rock Sonic Youth… Son catalogue déroute tant par son foisonnement que par son éclectisme : des pièces académiques écrites pour instruments classiques y côtoient des performances ouvertes, sans instrumentarium ni durées définies, des improvisations fixées sur bande, des happenings participatifs ou encore des pièces relevant de l’exercice de méditation ou de l’art-thérapie. Une telle œuvre met à mal le paradigme occidental du compositeur-démiurge. Pauline Oliveros ne crée pas tant des formes au sens objectif du terme qu’elle ne favorise des « formations », un mot qui doit être entendu dans toutes ses résonances : formation comme processus d’une forme en devenir et dans le même temps éducation, apprentissage des individus – créateurs, interprètes professionnels et amateurs comme auditeurs, tous engagés dans la même activité fondamentale : l’écoute.
La première décennie créatrice de Pauline Oliveros, de 1956 à la fin des années 1960, dessine un mouvement de décentrement, de déprise progressive par rapport aux canons de la tradition musicale. Les premières partitions, écrites dans le cadre de ses études auprès de Robert Erickson, portent la marque de l’esthétique post-webernienne alors en vogue. Si la Serenade for Viola and Bassoon (1956) constitue la seule et unique incursion d’Oliveros dans la technique dodécaphonique, ses deux cycles de chant – Three Songs for Soprano and Piano (1957) et Three Songs for Soprano and Horn (1957) – adoptent une libre atonalité proche de l’improvisation écrite. L’athématisme prononcé de ces premières partitions favorise bientôt une suspension de certains paramètres d’écriture : une pièce comme Outline for Flute, Percussion, and String Bass (1963) demande aux musiciens de passer très vite de l’interprétation d’une musique partiellement écrite à l’improvisation totalement libre. Les Variations for Sextet (1960) introduisent quant à elles des sons tenus de longue durée, brèves échappées méditatives qui créent un fort contraste avec la densité de l’écriture.
Peu à peu, les signes conventionnels de la notation musicale disparaissent pour céder la place à des instructions verbales. To Valerie Solanas and Marylin Monroe in Recognition of their Desperation (1970) repose sur l’organisation de cinq hauteurs de notes librement choisies par chaque interprète au préalable. Dans Willowbrook (1976), pour ensemble d’instruments à vent, un jeu d’échanges de hauteurs se produit entre un premier groupe d’interprètes (generating group) et un second groupe (reflecting group) jouant le rôle de caisse de résonance. La partition fixe les règles de ce jeu dont les formes sont indéfiniment reconductibles. À mesure que l’écriture musicale se réduit, les présences corporelles sont soumises à une écriture de plus en plus soutenue : un duo en apparence conventionnel pour piano et flûte s’enrichit d’un tourneur de pages dont les nombreuses actions font l’objet d’une partition séparée (Trio for Flute, Piano and Page Turner, 1961). Plus ouvertement théâtrale encore, l’œuvre Pieces of Eight (1964) mobilise des objets triviaux (horloge, caisses en bois) ou totémiques (buste de Beethoven), transformant l’exécution musicale en une forme de rituel ou de « cérémonie ». Par delà cette esthétique de théâtre musical très sixties, jusque dans son folklore et son surréalisme, se fait jour une préoccupation plus durable et plus personnelle de l’œuvre d’Oliveros : déterritorisaliser la pratique musicale hors de la salle de concert. Cette ambition trouve son terrain d’élection dans Link (1970), performance-fleuve qui doit se dérouler dans un campus universitaire pendant une journée complète. Préalablement cartographié au prisme de ses rumeurs, ses événements sonores continus, accidentels ou intermittents, l’espace quotidien devient une scène sur laquelle tout le monde se retrouve tout à la fois performer et public, auditeur et producteur de son.
Corps-instruments
En rompant avec les conventions musicales, Pauline Oliveros renoue avec un tropisme majeur de la musique américaine : la figure du compositeur interprète de sa propre musique. Friande dès son jeune âge d’expérimentations ludiques avec son magnétophone à fil ou son transistor radio, Oliveros s’adonne très tôt à une improvisation en prise immédiate avec la matière du son. La pratique de l’accordéon, qui s’intensifie en 1981 lorsque la compositrice quitte son poste de professeur à San Diego, devient un lieud’expérimentationcentral où s’inscrivent les différentes évolutions de son esthétique : l’héritage cagien du Duo for Accordion & Bandoneon (1965) interprété avec David Tudor, le minimalisme méditatif de Horse Sings from Cloud (1977), l’improvisation modale de Rattlesnake Mountain (1982), les intonations justes de The Roots of the Moment (1987)… Le rapport intime à l’instrument de musique définit une poétique fondamentalement empirique, qui engage le corps entier : « À la fin des années 1960, certains de mes collègues essayaient […] de s’aligner sur la méthode scientifique. La musique qui en résultait était complexe et intellectuelle, et provoquait une séparation d’avec le corps. […] Je suis allée dans la direction opposée1 ».
En 1971, Oliveros devient accordéoniste du Big Jewish Band of San Diego, notamment pour enregistrer la musique d’un projet multimédia du poète Jerome Rothenberg. Cette brève expérience dans le registre populaire de l’accordéon portera ses fruits dans The Wanderer (1982), pièce pour ensemble d’accordéons et percussions, animée par les rythmes des musiques de danse d’Europe centrale, des cultures klezmer, bulgare et cajun. Si l’on excepte ce cas particulier, l’utilisation de l’accordéon chez Oliveros est abstraite de toute référence à ses traditions folkloriques. Elle prend sa source dans le mécanisme instrumental même, qui vient prolonger le rythme de la respiration humaine, et parfois se mélanger à la voix de l’interprète. La première version discographique de Horse Sings From Cloud (publiée en 1983 sur le label Lovely Music), pour accordéon et voix, illustre parfaitement cette collusion intime entre corps et instrument, composition et interprétation, écriture et improvisation.
La collection de pièces électroniques composées au cours des années 1960 doit se lire comme le prolongement de ce travail instrumental : « Mon jeu à l’accordéon a informé ma musique électronique et ma musique électronique a informé mon jeu à l’accordéon2 », écrit-elle. Comme l’instrument de musique, la machine n’est appréhendée qu’à l’aune de son couplage avec le corps. Contrairement à la musique concrète française, la tape music d’Oliveros renonce aux possibilités organisatrices du montage et lui préfère la focalisation propre à la performance en temps réel. Et contrairement à l’elektronische Musik allemande, elle n’est organisée par aucun calcul préalable. Portée vers le phénomène continu plutôt que l’objet sonore, cette musique explore un continuum sonore allant du balayage sinusoïdal au bruit blanc le plus incisif (A Little Noise in the System, 1967). Puisant son inspiration dans le phénomène naturel (les croassements des grenouilles) comme dans les soundscapes de l’ère industrielle (les bourdons d’une centrale électrique), elle se déploie dans des cadres temporels étendus, privilégiant les formes longues, parfois statiques (la série des « Bogs », proches de l’installation sonore). Toujours, le geste générateur de son reste perceptible.
Car ce qui se joue à travers ces pièces électroniques, c’est la constitution embryonnaire d’un dispositif d’électronique live voué à se développer et à entrer en relation avec le jeu instrumental. Ce dispositif qu’elle baptise a posteriori EIS (pour Expanded Instrument System) l’accompagnera dans bon nombre de ses performances solo et se perfectionnera au rythme des évolutions technologiques. La première pièce électronique, Time Perspectives (1961), réalisée à la maison, mobilise un matériel rudimentaire : objets du quotidien manipulés devant un microphone, tubes de cartons ou baignoire utilisés comme des résonateurs, magnétophone à vitesse variable… À partir de la série des Mnemonics (1964-1966), réalisée au studio du San Francisco Tape Music Center, la compositrice recourt aux oscillateurs Hewlett-Packard, instruments de test détournés à des fins musicales. Grâce à ces appareils, elle peut générer des sons résultants – ces sons créés par la superposition de deux fréquences voisines, qu’elle découvrit d’abord à l’accordéon grâce à son professeur Willard A. Palmer – en allant chercher des fréquences situées bien au-delà de la limite de perception humaine. Bye Bye Butterfly (1965) s’ouvre sur de telles sonorités, à la lisière de l’audible, avant que n’apparaisse, nimbée de réverbération, la citation de Puccini qui donne son titre à l’œuvre.
Plus tard, elle utilisera les synthétiseurs Buchla ou Moog, mais son intérêt ne portera pas tant sur les appareils générateurs de son, que sur ceux qui retraitent le signal et le projettent dans l’espace. Elle s’intéresse particulièrement à l’écho, qu’elle découvre accidentellement par le décalage des têtes de lecture et d’enregistrement de son magnétophone. Employé de façon quasi-systématique dans les pièces électroniques des années 1960, ce procédé permet de faire émerger, depuis le continuum des balayages de fréquences, des canons stricts de motifs mélodiques (V of IV, 1966) ; ailleurs il modifie par effet de masse la texture des sources sonores d’origine. Lorsque Oliveros associe son jeu d’accordéon à l’EIS, un système de pédalier lui permet de régler en temps réel les différentes qualités d’écho et de réverbération. Un disque comme Crone Music (1990, Lovely Music) montre comment ces changements d’espaces virtuels participent à la structuration de la musique. Le progrès des technologies permettra à la compositrice de travailler en particulier la question des trajectoires : avec une pièce comme Moving Spaces (2006), elle parvient à attribuer un espace distinct et mobile aux quatre sources sonores qui la composent (wood-blocks, conque, tube tonnerre et coque en bois dentelée).
Attentive aux évolutions de la technologie durant toute sa vie, Pauline Oliveros n’eut de cesse d’interroger la manière dont celle-ci augmente ou prolonge les capacités du corps humain. Dans un article de 1999, elle s’appuie sur les prophéties transhumanistes de Ray Kurzweil pour envisager la technologie des implants neuronaux du point de vue des effets concrets qu’elle aurait sur la pratique de l’improvisation : permettre à l’oreille de « reconnaître et identifier instantanément n’importe quelle fréquence ou combinaison de fréquences », ou bien « percevoir et embrasser la spatialité interdimensionnelle3 ». Là encore, il s’agit de repousser les limites. Sounding the margins.
« Just listen »
Dans ses écrits et entretiens, la compositrice se plaît à raconter le même souvenir : en 1958, elle reçoit en cadeau d’anniversaire un magnétophone à bande qu’elle place un jour à sa fenêtre pour enregistrer les sons des rues de San Francisco. À l’écoute de l’enregistrement, elle se rend compte que le microphone avait fixé des sons qu’elle n’avait pas entendus elle-même, par défaut d’attention. À partir de ce jour, la compositrice se fixe une auto-discipline d’écoute rigoureuse, clef de voûte d’une véritable vita musica : « Écoute tout, tout le temps, et rappelle-toi à l’ordre lorsque tu n’écoutes pas ». Elle tient alors un journal et rédige des relevés d’écoute qui ont la précision et la puissance de pénétration de compositions musicales à part entière (voir par exemple « Some Sound Observations », paru dans Source Magazine4). Pour elle, écouter se distingue de l’entendre, selon les modalités d’une topique du corps : l’acte d’entendre transmet au cerveau les informations sonores du canal auditif, tandis que l’écoute se localise au plus profond de soi (deep inside).
Cette profondeur, Oliveros en fait l’expérience littérale à deux reprises : en 1983, elle interprète une pièce pour le disque collectif Vor der Flüt dans une citerne désaffectée de Cologne, puis en 1988, elle enregistre avec Stuart Dempster et Peter Ward le disque Deep Listening (paru sur le label New Albion), dans la citerne souterraine de Fort Worden à Port Townsend, Washington, espace de soixante-quinze millions de litres dont le temps de réverbération atteint quarante-cinq secondes. Pour un musicien immergé dans un tel lieu, il est quasiment impossible de discerner entre le son direct et le son réverbéré. La multiplication des réflexions agit sur le timbre de l’instrument en renforçant ou en atténuant certains partiels. Cette situation demande de la part de chaque instrumentiste une attention soutenue à la manière dont le son affecte l’espace, et est affecté par lui. Jouer dans cet endroit, c’était, nous dit Oliveros, comme se trouver plongé « dans un hall tapissé de miroirs sonores ».
Ces deux expériences donneront naissance au concept de Deep Listening (écoute profonde), qui croise les catégories esthétique, éthique et thérapeutique. L’adjectif deep renvoie tout à la fois à l’intensité de l’acte d’écoute et à la complexité de ce qui doit être écouté – la profusion des mondes extérieur et intérieur. En tant que discipline, l’écoute profonde désigne la tentative d’englober le continuum sonore complet d’en appréhender autant qu’il est possible l’étendue et la richesse, tout en gardant la conscience des sons individuels et de leurs trajectoires. Par extension, le terme renverra à un ensemble musical (le Deep Listening Band, avec Dempster et Ward) et à une communauté d’adeptes (le Deep Listening Institute).
Le concept d’écoute profonde vient entériner un tournant important dans l’œuvre d’Oliveros, qui remonte en réalité à 1971. Cette année-là, la compositrice conçoit les Sonic Meditations, un recueil de vingt-cinq partitions textuelles destinées à un travail de groupe. Cette œuvre ne s’adresse pas spécifiquement à des musiciens mais à « toute personne qui manifeste le désir de s’y engager5 ». Il ne s’agit pas d’improvisations, mais d’exercices dont les directives sont précises – comme le T’ai Chi ou la méditation – et demandent un travail de groupe soutenu. Ces partitions invitent les performeurs non seulement à produire des sons, mais également à imaginer des sons, à écouter les sons présents et se souvenir des sons passés.
L’auteur explique ce tournant dans son œuvre par les événements violents qui ont marqué la fin des années 1960 ; elle cite l’immolation par le feu d’un étudiant de l’UCSD protestant contre la guerre du Vietnam, l’assassinat de John-Fitzgerald Kennedy ou encore le massacre de Mỹ Lai. « Je me suis alors concentré sur mon travail sur la méditation sonore, car je sentais que les gens avaient besoin de connexions, d’interconnexions plutôt que de séparations, non seulement afin de bien jouer en tant que musiciens, mais aussi en tant qu’êtres humains, afin de bien vivre ensemble sur cette planète que nous partageons tous6 ».
Les Sonic Meditations posent frontalement la question du pouvoir. La musique, nous dit la compositrice dans son introduction à la partition, possède un pouvoir évident sur le corps, dont se sont emparés les institutions (l’Église), les riches mécènes, puis l’industrie (la firme Muzak), afin de contrôler les populations. La Muzak, dite communément « musique d’ascenseur », représente le degré achevé d’une telle volonté de contrôle : il s’agit d’une musique explicitement produite pour atteindre les corps à un niveau subconscient ou réflexe, afin d’en augmenter la vitalité et les capacités de travail. Pratiquer l’écoute profonde, c’est une manière de refuser cette domination insidieuse. Développer la conscience des sons, c’est également travailler sa capacité à se rendre maître de leur puissance.
Il est difficile de ne pas lire dans cette idée une résonance de la pensée féministe d’Oliveros. Non par hasard, les Sonic Meditations ont été écrites au moment où elle fonde un ensemble exclusivement féminin, l’ensemble ♀. À travers les exemples de sa mère et de sa grand-mère, toutes deux pianistes contrariées par leur rôle social de femmes au foyer, Oliveros a été très tôt confrontée aux effets oppresseurs du patriarcat sur la liberté des femmes. Dans un article écrit en 1998, elle en appelle à la participation massive des femmes dans la vie musicale, afin d’opérer un véritable changement de paradigme : il faut en finir avec les carrières de femmes musiciennes et compositrices étouffées ou brisées par l’ombre des hommes – elle cite le cas d’Alma Mahler. Avec des accents presque benjaminiens, elle enjoint alors les « héroïnes musicales » de notre temps à « répondre à l’appel de toutes les musiques de femmes perdues à travers les âges7 ».
- Pauline Oliveros, « My “American Music”: Soundscape, Politics, Technology, Community », Sounding the Margins, Kingston, Deep Listening Publications, 2010, p. 231-232.
- Pauline Oliveros, « The accordion (& the Outsider) », ibid., p. 160.
- Pauline Oliveros, « Quantum Improvisation: The Cybernetic Presence », ibid., p. 53.
- Pauline Oliveros, « Some Sound Observations », Source: Music of the Avant-Garde, 1966-1973, Larry Austin and Douglas Kahn (eds), p. 134-137.
- Pauline Oliveros, partition de Sonic Meditations I-XII, Sharon, Smith Publisher.
- Pauline Oliveros, « My “American Music”: Soundscape, Politics, Technology, Community », op. cit. , p. 232.
- Pauline Oliveros, « Breaking the Silence », Sounding the Margins, op. cit., p. 17.
© Ircam-Centre Pompidou, 2018
- Solo (excluding voice)
- Ode to a Morbid Marble for piano (1951)
- Song for piano (1952)
- Fugue for piano (1953)
- Essay for piano (1954)
- Concert Piece for accordion (1956)
- stage Cock a Doodle Dandy for accordion (1958)
- 18 Children's Pieces for accordion (1959)
- Horn Etudes for horn (1959)
- elec Apple Box for amplified boxe and small items (1964)
- Five for trumpet and dancer (1964)
- elec George Washington Slept Here for amplified violin, film projection and 2-track tape (1965)
- I've Got You under My Skin for percussion (1965)
- elec Light Piece for David Tudor for piano, electroacoustic device, lighting, film projection and 4-track tape (1965)
- elec stage Theater Piece for Trombone Player trombone, pipes and tape 2 tracks (1966)
- elec Circuitry for percussion and light projections (1967)
- elec Night Jar for viola d'amore, mime, film and 2-track tape (1968)
- The Wheel of Fortune for clarinet, slides and costumes (1969)
- Elephant Call for trumpet (1975)
- Rattlesnake Mountain for accordion (1982)
- elec The Seventh Mansion: From the Interior Castle amplified accordion (1983)
- Gathering Together for eight-hand piano (1984)
- Thirteen Changes for violin (1986), Deep Listening Publications.
- Tara's Room for accordion (1987)
- elec The Roots of the Moment for accordion and electronics (1987), 58 mn
- elec stage Crone Music / Music for Lear for accordion and Expanded Instrument System (1989), 57 mn 41 s
- All Fours for the Drum Bun for percussion (1990)
- Portrait of Malcolm for violin (1991) [program note]
- Saint George and the Dragon for accordion (1991)
- What If for accordion (1991)
- Pauline's Solo for accordion (1992), Deep Listening Publications.
- A Fluting Moment for flute (1996)
- elec The Heart of Tones for trombone, oscillator and free accompaniment (1999), Deep Listening Publications.
- elec Continuing Variations for accordion and electronics (2000), Deep Listening Publications.
- elec Red Shifts for trombone, oscillators and noise generators (2000), Deep Listening Publications.
- Quintuplets Play Pen – Homage to Ruth Crawford Seeger for piano (2001)
- Sister Dreams for percussion (2001)
- Vigil for piano (2002)
- elec Big Room for trombone and Expanded Instrument System (2003), Deep Listening Publications.
- Quantum Flirts and Fits for accordion (2003), Deep Listening Publications.
- elec Spirit Light for accordion and Expanded Instrument System (2003), Deep Listening Publications.
- elec Sound Light Migrations for accordion, Expanded Instrument System and light (2009)
- Redwood Shrine for outdoor piano (2014)
- A Trilling Piece for Terry for piano (one or more players) (2015)
- Intensity 21.5 for bass flute (2015)
- Chamber music
- Undertone for violin and piano (1951)
- stage Song for horn, harp and group of dancers (1952)
- Prelude and Fugue for string quartet (1953)
- Trio for clarinet, bassoon and horn (1955)
- Serenade for bassoon and viola (1956)
- 4H Club for flute, clarinet, guitar and double bass (1958)
- Variations for Sextet for flute, clarinet, trumpet, horn, piano and cello (1960), Smith Publications
- 1000 Acres for string quartet (1961)
- Trio for flute, piano and page turner (1961), Smith Publications
- Lulu for flute and prepared piano (1962)
- Outline for flute, percussion and double bass (1963)
- Outline for Septet for accordion, trumpet, trombone, two percussions, bass and pianos (1963)
- Trio for accordion, trumpet and double bass (1964), Smith Publications
- Duo for accordion and bandoneon (1965)
- elec Double Basses at Twenty Paces for two double basses with their assistants, a referee, slides and 2-track tape (1968), Smith Publications
- Aeolian Partitions for flute, clarinet, piano and cello (1969), Bowdoin College Press
- Double X for instrument quartet or octet (1979, 1979)
- stage Traveling Companions for three dancers and three percussionists (1980)
- Mother's Day for two concertinas (1981)
- elec The Wheel of Time for string quartet and 2-track tape (1984), Smith Publications
- Tree/Peace for violin, cello and piano (1984)
- Portrait of Quintet of the Americans for wind quintet (1987)
- Portraits for Brass Quintet for brass quintet (1989)
- Grand Improvisation for accordion, oboe, bass and synthesizer (1990)
- elec The Lightning Box for voice, accordion, keyboard, marimba and Expanded Instrument System (1990), Deep Listening Publications.
- Illegal Harmony for two performers (1992)
- Stay the Same to Change… And Change to Stay the Same for two accordions (1993)
- elec Epigraphs in the Time of AIDS for accordion, trombone, keyboard, string instrument and Expanded Instrument System (1994), Deep Listening Publications.
- elec Ghostdance for accordion, percussion and electronics (1996)
- Saxual Orientation for saxophone quartet (1997), Deep Listening Publications.
- elec Primordial Lift for accordion, harmonium, violin, cello, electric cello, oscillator, mixing (1998), 45 mn
- Six for New Time for five electric guitars and one drums (1999), 8 mn
- 70 Chords for Terry: A Meditation on String Theory for string quartet (2005), Deep Listening Publications.
- String-utopia for violin and cello (2005)
- The Gender of Now: There But Not There for trombone and piano (2005), Deep Listening Publications.
- Blue Heron for piano and double bass (2006), Deep Listening Publications.
- One Hundred Meeting Places: In Memory of Ron George for violin, cello and percussion (2006), Deep Listening Publications.
- Magnetic Trails for violin and piano (2008), Deep Listening Publications.
- elec Heptagonal Dreams for seven Paetzold flutes and electronics (2014)
- elec Motion Memories, Mermaids for accordion, cello, Expanded Instrument System and multichannel system (2014)
- elec The Mystery Beyond Matter for five instruments, Expanded Instrument System and multichannel system (2015)
- Twins Peeking at Koto for two accordions and koto (2015), 23 mn
- Instrumental ensemble music
- View from the Bridge for set (1958)
- elec Apple Box Orchestra for amplified box, percussion and small objects (1964)
- Pieces of Eight for ensemble and conductor (1964), Smith Publications
- elec SY*YdY=1 for players, cellos, bassoons, shakuhachi and amplified heartbeats (1969)
- The Yellow River Map for large group (1977)
- ...Jam for accordion ensemble (1980)
- Gone With the Wind for ensemble (1980)
- Tashi Gomang for orchestra (1981)
- The Wanderer for twenty-two accordions and five percussionists (1982), 19 mn, Deep Listening Publications.
- Wings of Dove for double wind quintet and two pianos (1983), Deep Listening Publications.
- elec Lion's Eye for Javanese Gamelan and sampler (1985)
- elec stage Tasting the Blaze for clarinet, trombone, percussion, cello, four accordions, Gagaku orchestra and electronics (1985)
- Queens of Space for set (1991)
- Pebble Music for rollers and instruments (1992), Deep Listening Publications.
- Ear Rings for indeterminate ensemble (1995), Deep Listening Publications.
- Four Meditations for orchestra (1997), Deep Listening Publications.
- Out of the Dark for string orchestra (1998), Deep Listening Publications.
- elec Sound Geometries for chamber orchestra and Expanded Instrument System (2003)
- One Hundred Meeting Places for flexible orchestra (2006), Deep Listening Publications.
- Inner/Outer Matrix for set (2007), Deep Listening Publications.
- Olas, Sobre las Olas for indeterminate set (2010)
- elec Sound Piece for amplified table, objects and instruments (2014)
- elec Whatchamacallit for the Thingamajigs for glass, shō, hichiriki, flutes, clave, gong, bass drum and electronics (2014)
- Concert music
- Letting Go for accordion and ensemble (1984)
- Waking the Heart for accordion and ensemble (1984)
- Vocal music and instrument(s)
- Three Songs for soprano and piano (1957)
- Three Songs for soprano and horn (1957)
- Fifteen for singers, actors, dancers and instruments (1964)
- George Washington Slept Here Too for four performers, a concert piano, toys and slides (1965)
- elec Hallo for actor, voice, violins, electronics and two echo systems (1966)
- elec The C(s) for ONCE for voice, organ and three tape recorders (1966)
- A-OK for choir, accordion, violins, conductor and audience participation (1969)
- The Dying Alchemist Preview for trumpet, percussion, violin, narrator and slides (1969)
- Meditation on the Points of the Compass for choir, percussion and audience participation (1970)
- Music for T'ai Chi for three voices, accordion and two cellos (1970)
- elec To Valerie Solanas and Marylin Monroe in Recognition of their Desparation for choir, organ, orchestra, electronics and lights (1970), Smith Publications
- Rose Mountain Slow Runner for voice and accordion (1975)
- The Pathways of the Grandmothers for voice and accordion (1976)
- Willowbrook Generations and Reflections for choir and wind ensemble (1976), Smith Publications
- Horse Sings from Cloud for voice and accordion (1977)
- Carol Plantamura for solo voice and twenty instruments (1979)
- El Relicario de los Animales for voice and twenty instruments (1979)
- elec Aga for voice, concertina, whistling conch, trumpet, electronics and echo (1984)
- elec Legend for choir, amplified accordion and percussion (1985)
- The Chicken Who Learned to Fly for voice, narrator and synthesizer (1985-1984)
- Deep Listening Pieces for voices, instruments and audience participation (1970-1990)
- elec Poem of Change for voice, accordion and 2-track tape (1990)
- Im Memoriam Mr Whitney for voice and accordion (1991)
- Reflexions on the Persian Gulf for voice and accordion (1991)
- The Future of Anonymity for voice and accordion (1991)
- elec Inside Outside Space for voice, chamber orchestra and electronics (1992), Deep Listening Publications.
- Metalorgy for bagpipe and voice (1992)
- Phantom for voice and instruments (1992)
- The Ready Made Boomerang for voice and instruments (1992)
- stage Njinga the Queen King: The Return of a Warrior for voice and electronics (1993), Deep Listening Publications.
- Beyond the Mysterious Silence: Approaches and Departures for voice and ensemble (1995), Deep Listening Publications.
- The Space of Spirit for voice, organ and carillon (1999), Deep Listening Publications.
- Elemental Gallop for voice, flute, piano and cello (2000), Deep Listening Publications.
- stage Lunar Opera: Deep Listening for Tunes for voice, accordion, conch, percussion and dance (2000), Deep Listening Publications.
- Encensored Sound for voice, trombone, keyboard and accordion (2001)
- Sound Patterns and Tropes for mixed choir and percussion (2001), 13 mn, Deep Listening Publications.
- stage The Library of Maps: An Opera in Many Parts (2002), Deep Listening Publications.
- For the Memory of Christine for voice and percussion (2006)
- A New Indigo Peace for choir and piano (2008), Deep Listening Publications.
- elec The Heart of Tones, mixed realities version for voice, trombone and virtual orchestra (2008)
- elec Oracle Bones for spoken voice, accordion, koto and electronics (2009), Deep Listening Publications.
- Tower Ring for gong, choir and instruments (2011)
- A cappella vocal music
- Sound Patterns for mixed choir (1961), Tonos
- elec Candelaio for voices (1965)
- elec O Ha Ah for mixed choir (1968)
- King Kong Sing Along for choir (1977)
- Oh Sister Whose Name is Goddess for voice and echo (1984)
- elec Talking Bottles and Bones for voice, sound effects and echo (1984)
- elec Dream Horse Spiel for voice(s) and sound effects (1989)
- In Memory of the Future for solo voice (1992)
- Midnight Operas for choir (1992)
- Seven-up for solo voice (1992)
- elec Time Piece for electronic voice (1992)
- Ear Piece for vocal ensemble (1998)
- elec stage Antigone's Dream for voice, dance and electronics (1999)
- Electronic music / fixed media / mechanical musical instruments
- elec Time Perspective for 2-track tape (1961), 19 mn 30 s
- elec stage Seven Passages for dancer, mobile and band 2 tracks (1963)
- elec Seven Passages for Elizabeth Harris for 2-track tape (1964)
- elec Before the Music Ends for 2-track tape (1965)
- elec Bye Bye Butterfly for 2-track tape (1965), 8 mn
- elec Cat O'Nine Tails for 2-track tape (1965)
- elec Covenant for 2-track tape (1965)
- elec Rock Symphony for live electronics and echo system (1965)
- elec The Chronicle of Hell for 2-track tape (1965)
- elec The Exception and the Rule for 2-track tape (1965)
- elec Winter Light for 2-track tape and mobile (1965)
- elec 5000 Miles for 2-track tape (1966), 32 mn
- elec Angel Fix for 2-track tape (1966), 32 mn
- elec Another Big Mother for 2-track tape (1966), 31 mn
- elec Big Mother is Watching You for 2-track tape (1966), 33 mn, Smith Publications
- elec Bottom Ups 1 for 2-track tape (1966), 12 mn
- elec stage Engineers Delight for performers and four turntables (1966)
- elec Feed Back 1 for 2-track tape (1966), 28 mn
- elec Feed Back 2 for 2-track tape (1966), 4 mn
- elec I of IV for 2-track tape (1966), 20 mn
- elec II of IV for 2-track tape (1966), 16 mn
- elec III for 2-track tape (1966), 14 mn
- elec III of IV for 2-track tape (1966), 9 mn
- elec IV of IV for 2-track tape (1966), 16 mn
- elec Jar Piece for 2-track tape (1966), 15 mn, Smith Publications
- elec Mnemonics I-V for 2-track tape (1964-1966), 1 h 14 mn 30 s
- elec Nite for 2-track tape (1966), 16 mn
- elec NO MO for 2-track tape (1966), 17 mn
- elec Once Again / Buchla Piece for 2-track tape (1966), 19 mn
- elec Participle Dangling in Honor of Gertrude Stein for mobile, film and tape 2 tracks (1966)
- elec Ringing the Mods 1 Heads for 2-track tape (1966), 9 mn
- elec Ringing the Mods 2 Tails for 2-track tape (1966), 9 mn
- elec Something else for 2-track tape (1966), 13 mn
- elec Team and Desecration Improvisation for 2-track tape (1966), 22 mn
- elec stage The Bath for dancers and echo system (1966)
- elec The Day I Disconnected the Erase Head and Forgot to Reconnect it for 2-track tape (1966), 32 mn
- elec Three Pieces I, II, III for 2-track tape (1966), 12 mn
- elec V of IV for 2-track tape (1966), 14 mn
- elec Alien Bog for 2-track tape (1967), 33 mn
- elec Beautiful Soop for 2-track tape (1967), 27 mn
- elec Big Road With Bird Call Patch for 2-track tape (1967), 33 mn
- elec Big Slow Bog for 2-track tape (1967), 32 mn
- elec Bog Bog for 2-track tape (1967), 33 mn
- elec Boone Bog for 2-track tape (1967), 32 mn
- elec stage Lysistrata for 2-track tape (1967)
- elec Mewsack for 2-track tape (1967), 32 mn
- elec Mills Bog for 2-track tape (1967)
- elec Mind Big for 2-track tape (1967), 33 mn
- elec Some Sound Observations for 2-track tape (1968)
- elec Events for soundtrack, audience participation (1969)
- elec In Memoriam Nikola Tesla, Cosmic Engineer for live electronics (1969)
- elec Live Electronic Piece for Merce Cunningham's Dance for live electronics (1969)
- elec Please Don't Shoot the Piano Player, He's Doing the Best He Can multimedia room (1969)
- elec The Indefinite Integral of Psi Star Psi d Tau = One multimedia room (1969)
- elec 50-50 1 Heads for 2-track tape (1967-1970), 19 mn
- elec 50-50 2 Tails for 2-track tape (1967-1970), 19 mn
- elec A Little Noise in the System for 2-track tape (1967-1970), 30 mn
- elec Music for Expo for multitrack tape (1970)
- elec Red Horse Headache for 2-track tape (1967-1970), 21 mn
- elec The Flaming Indian for tape recorder and microphone (1971)
- elec Postcard Theatre multimedia piece for an interpreter (1972), 12 mn
- elec What to do multimedia piece for two or more performers (1972), Smith Publications
- elec Dear John: A Canon on the Name of Cage for electronics (1986)
- elec Portraits for interprets with computer generated scores (1988)
- elec Lion's Tale for sampler (1989)
- elec Contendors for 2-track tape (1990)
- elec Listening for Life for 2-track tape (1991)
- elec Cyber Talk for electronics (2001)
- elec Listen Edgemar sound installation (2004)
- Moving Spaces for 5.1 surround sound system (2006)
- elec Murphy Mixup for laptop orchestra (2006), Deep Listening Publications.
- A Gathering of Voices for a crowd of voices and two tape recorders (2014)
- elec Climactic Climate: Environmental Dialogue radio broadcast (2015)
- Unspecified instrumentation
- Tom Sawyer music for the theater (1958)
- Art in Woodcut movie soundtrack (1963)
- stage A Theater Piece for fifteen actors, film, projection, musicians and 2-track tape (1965)
- "I Hear a Boy Singing…" (1968)
- stage Evidence for Competing Bimolecular and Termolecular Mechanisms in the Hydrochlorination of Cyclohexine musical theater for professional and non-professional performers (1968)
- elec Festival House for mimes, films and projection (1968)
- Valentine for four card players (1968)
- California 99 (1969)
- Link for professional and non-professional interpreters (1970), Smith Publications
- Why Don't You Write a Short Piece ? for soloist or ensemble (1970)
- Sonic Meditations I-XII for professional and non-professional interpreters (1971), Smith Publications
- Phantom Fathom (II) from the Theater of the Ancient Trompetteers: A Ceremonial Participation Evening for an unspecified number of interpreters (1972)
- Sonic Images for a narrator with audience participation (1972)
- Sonic Meditations XIII-XXV for professional and non-professional interpreters (1973), Smith Publications
- A Ceremony of Sounds public participation (1974)
- Crow Two – A Ceremonial Opera for professional and non-professional interpreters (1974)
- Theater of Substitution for an interpreter (1975)
- Cheap Commissions for composers and audience (1976)
- To Those in the Grey Northwestern Rainforests for unspecified set (1976)
- Twenty-two Cuts from the Red Horse music for the theater (1976)
- Bonn Feier for an undetermined number of interpreters (1977), Smith Publications
- Rose Moon for choir and marathon runners (1977), Smith Publications
- Theater of Substitutions: Blind/Dumb/Director for solo performer (1977)
- Crow's Nest (The Tuning Meditation) installation with film and dance (1979)
- Music for Stacked Deck for four performers (1979)
- Rock Piece for an unspecified number of interpreters (1979)
- The Klickitat Ride for choir and / or instruments and participants (1979)
- The Witness for virtuoso musicians (1979), Smith Publications
- Anarchy Walz for an unspecified number of performers (1980)
- Angels and Demons for an unspecified number of performers (1980)
- stage Fwyynghn (1980)
- MMM, a Lullaby for Daisy Pauline with public participation (1980)
- stage Stacked Deck (1980)
- Lake CHARGOGGAGOGGMANCHAUGGAGOGGCHAUBUNABUNBAGAUGG for an unspecified number of interpreters (1981)
- Monkey for a group of children (1981)
- Open Circuits (1984)
- Songs of the Ancestors (1984)
- Earth Ears: A Sonic Ritual for an unspecified number of interpreters (1982-1985), Deep Listening Publications.
- Dream Gates for soloist or ensemble (1989)
- The New Sound Meditation for voice and audience participation (1989)
- Sound Fishes for soloist or ensemble (1992)
- stage Walter's Finest Hours (1992)
- Hommage a Serafina (1994)
- Breaking Boundaries for piano or ensemble (1996), Deep Listening Publications.
- elec stage Io and Her and the Trouble with Him opera (2001), Deep Listening Publications.
- stage The Noh Project II (2004)
- Maquilapolis movie soundtrack (2005)
- Dissolving Your Earplugs for classically trained musicians (2006), Deep Listening Publications.
- Drifting Depths (2008), Deep Listening Publications.
- elec DroniPhonia for six iPhones and multi-instrumentalists (2009), Deep Listening Publications.
- elec Mercury Retrograde for instruments and electronics (2011), Deep Listening Publications.
- For Amnon Wolman for one singer-instrumentalist or more (2015)
- 2015
- A Trilling Piece for Terry for piano (one or more players)
- elec Climactic Climate: Environmental Dialogue radio broadcast
- For Amnon Wolman for one singer-instrumentalist or more
- Intensity 21.5 for bass flute
- elec The Mystery Beyond Matter for five instruments, Expanded Instrument System and multichannel system
- Twins Peeking at Koto for two accordions and koto, 23 mn
- 2014
- A Gathering of Voices for a crowd of voices and two tape recorders
- elec Heptagonal Dreams for seven Paetzold flutes and electronics
- elec Motion Memories, Mermaids for accordion, cello, Expanded Instrument System and multichannel system
- Redwood Shrine for outdoor piano
- elec Sound Piece for amplified table, objects and instruments
- elec Whatchamacallit for the Thingamajigs for glass, shō, hichiriki, flutes, clave, gong, bass drum and electronics
- 2011
- elec Mercury Retrograde for instruments and electronics, Deep Listening Publications.
- Tower Ring for gong, choir and instruments
- 2010
- Olas, Sobre las Olas for indeterminate set
- 2009
- elec DroniPhonia for six iPhones and multi-instrumentalists, Deep Listening Publications.
- elec Oracle Bones for spoken voice, accordion, koto and electronics, Deep Listening Publications.
- elec Sound Light Migrations for accordion, Expanded Instrument System and light
- 2008
- A New Indigo Peace for choir and piano, Deep Listening Publications.
- Drifting Depths, Deep Listening Publications.
- Magnetic Trails for violin and piano, Deep Listening Publications.
- elec The Heart of Tones, mixed realities version for voice, trombone and virtual orchestra
- 2007
- Inner/Outer Matrix for set, Deep Listening Publications.
- 2006
- Blue Heron for piano and double bass, Deep Listening Publications.
- Dissolving Your Earplugs for classically trained musicians, Deep Listening Publications.
- For the Memory of Christine for voice and percussion
- Moving Spaces for 5.1 surround sound system
- elec Murphy Mixup for laptop orchestra, Deep Listening Publications.
- One Hundred Meeting Places for flexible orchestra, Deep Listening Publications.
- One Hundred Meeting Places: In Memory of Ron George for violin, cello and percussion, Deep Listening Publications.
- 2005
- 70 Chords for Terry: A Meditation on String Theory for string quartet, Deep Listening Publications.
- Maquilapolis movie soundtrack
- String-utopia for violin and cello
- The Gender of Now: There But Not There for trombone and piano, Deep Listening Publications.
- 2004
- elec Listen Edgemar sound installation
- stage The Noh Project II
- 2003
- elec Big Room for trombone and Expanded Instrument System, Deep Listening Publications.
- Quantum Flirts and Fits for accordion, Deep Listening Publications.
- elec Sound Geometries for chamber orchestra and Expanded Instrument System
- elec Spirit Light for accordion and Expanded Instrument System, Deep Listening Publications.
- 2002
- stage The Library of Maps: An Opera in Many Parts, Deep Listening Publications.
- Vigil for piano
- 2001
- elec Cyber Talk for electronics
- Encensored Sound for voice, trombone, keyboard and accordion
- elec stage Io and Her and the Trouble with Him opera, Deep Listening Publications.
- Quintuplets Play Pen – Homage to Ruth Crawford Seeger for piano
- Sister Dreams for percussion
- Sound Patterns and Tropes for mixed choir and percussion, 13 mn, Deep Listening Publications.
- 2000
- elec Continuing Variations for accordion and electronics, Deep Listening Publications.
- Elemental Gallop for voice, flute, piano and cello, Deep Listening Publications.
- stage Lunar Opera: Deep Listening for Tunes for voice, accordion, conch, percussion and dance, Deep Listening Publications.
- elec Red Shifts for trombone, oscillators and noise generators, Deep Listening Publications.
- 1999
- elec stage Antigone's Dream for voice, dance and electronics
- Six for New Time for five electric guitars and one drums, 8 mn
- elec The Heart of Tones for trombone, oscillator and free accompaniment, Deep Listening Publications.
- The Space of Spirit for voice, organ and carillon, Deep Listening Publications.
- 1998
- Ear Piece for vocal ensemble
- Out of the Dark for string orchestra, Deep Listening Publications.
- elec Primordial Lift for accordion, harmonium, violin, cello, electric cello, oscillator, mixing, 45 mn
- 1997
- Four Meditations for orchestra, Deep Listening Publications.
- Saxual Orientation for saxophone quartet, Deep Listening Publications.
- 1996
- A Fluting Moment for flute
- Breaking Boundaries for piano or ensemble, Deep Listening Publications.
- elec Ghostdance for accordion, percussion and electronics
- 1995
- Beyond the Mysterious Silence: Approaches and Departures for voice and ensemble, Deep Listening Publications.
- Ear Rings for indeterminate ensemble, Deep Listening Publications.
- 1994
- elec Epigraphs in the Time of AIDS for accordion, trombone, keyboard, string instrument and Expanded Instrument System, Deep Listening Publications.
- Hommage a Serafina
- 1993
- stage Njinga the Queen King: The Return of a Warrior for voice and electronics, Deep Listening Publications.
- Stay the Same to Change… And Change to Stay the Same for two accordions
- 1992
- Illegal Harmony for two performers
- In Memory of the Future for solo voice
- elec Inside Outside Space for voice, chamber orchestra and electronics, Deep Listening Publications.
- Metalorgy for bagpipe and voice
- Midnight Operas for choir
- Pauline's Solo for accordion, Deep Listening Publications.
- Pebble Music for rollers and instruments, Deep Listening Publications.
- Phantom for voice and instruments
- Seven-up for solo voice
- Sound Fishes for soloist or ensemble
- The Ready Made Boomerang for voice and instruments
- elec Time Piece for electronic voice
- stage Walter's Finest Hours
- 1991
- Im Memoriam Mr Whitney for voice and accordion
- elec Listening for Life for 2-track tape
- Portrait of Malcolm for violin [program note]
- Queens of Space for set
- Reflexions on the Persian Gulf for voice and accordion
- Saint George and the Dragon for accordion
- The Future of Anonymity for voice and accordion
- What If for accordion
- 1990
- All Fours for the Drum Bun for percussion
- elec Contendors for 2-track tape
- Deep Listening Pieces for voices, instruments and audience participation
- Grand Improvisation for accordion, oboe, bass and synthesizer
- elec Poem of Change for voice, accordion and 2-track tape
- elec The Lightning Box for voice, accordion, keyboard, marimba and Expanded Instrument System, Deep Listening Publications.
- 1989
- elec stage Crone Music / Music for Lear for accordion and Expanded Instrument System, 57 mn 41 s
- Dream Gates for soloist or ensemble
- elec Dream Horse Spiel for voice(s) and sound effects
- elec Lion's Tale for sampler
- Portraits for Brass Quintet for brass quintet
- The New Sound Meditation for voice and audience participation
- 1988
- elec Portraits for interprets with computer generated scores
- 1987
- Portrait of Quintet of the Americans for wind quintet
- Tara's Room for accordion
- elec The Roots of the Moment for accordion and electronics, 58 mn
- 1986
- elec Dear John: A Canon on the Name of Cage for electronics
- Thirteen Changes for violin, Deep Listening Publications.
- 1985
- Earth Ears: A Sonic Ritual for an unspecified number of interpreters, Deep Listening Publications.
- elec Legend for choir, amplified accordion and percussion
- elec Lion's Eye for Javanese Gamelan and sampler
- elec stage Tasting the Blaze for clarinet, trombone, percussion, cello, four accordions, Gagaku orchestra and electronics
- The Chicken Who Learned to Fly for voice, narrator and synthesizer
- 1984
- elec Aga for voice, concertina, whistling conch, trumpet, electronics and echo
- Gathering Together for eight-hand piano
- Letting Go for accordion and ensemble
- Oh Sister Whose Name is Goddess for voice and echo
- Open Circuits
- Songs of the Ancestors
- elec Talking Bottles and Bones for voice, sound effects and echo
- elec The Wheel of Time for string quartet and 2-track tape, Smith Publications
- Tree/Peace for violin, cello and piano
- Waking the Heart for accordion and ensemble
- 1983
- elec The Seventh Mansion: From the Interior Castle amplified accordion
- Wings of Dove for double wind quintet and two pianos, Deep Listening Publications.
- 1982
- Rattlesnake Mountain for accordion
- The Wanderer for twenty-two accordions and five percussionists, 19 mn, Deep Listening Publications.
- 1981
- Lake CHARGOGGAGOGGMANCHAUGGAGOGGCHAUBUNABUNBAGAUGG for an unspecified number of interpreters
- Monkey for a group of children
- Mother's Day for two concertinas
- Tashi Gomang for orchestra
- 1980
- ...Jam for accordion ensemble
- Anarchy Walz for an unspecified number of performers
- Angels and Demons for an unspecified number of performers
- stage Fwyynghn
- Gone With the Wind for ensemble
- MMM, a Lullaby for Daisy Pauline with public participation
- stage Stacked Deck
- stage Traveling Companions for three dancers and three percussionists
- 1979
- Carol Plantamura for solo voice and twenty instruments
- Crow's Nest (The Tuning Meditation) installation with film and dance
- Double X for instrument quartet or octet
- El Relicario de los Animales for voice and twenty instruments
- Music for Stacked Deck for four performers
- Rock Piece for an unspecified number of interpreters
- The Klickitat Ride for choir and / or instruments and participants
- The Witness for virtuoso musicians, Smith Publications
- 1977
- Bonn Feier for an undetermined number of interpreters, Smith Publications
- Horse Sings from Cloud for voice and accordion
- King Kong Sing Along for choir
- Rose Moon for choir and marathon runners, Smith Publications
- The Yellow River Map for large group
- Theater of Substitutions: Blind/Dumb/Director for solo performer
- 1976
- Cheap Commissions for composers and audience
- The Pathways of the Grandmothers for voice and accordion
- To Those in the Grey Northwestern Rainforests for unspecified set
- Twenty-two Cuts from the Red Horse music for the theater
- Willowbrook Generations and Reflections for choir and wind ensemble, Smith Publications
- 1975
- Elephant Call for trumpet
- Rose Mountain Slow Runner for voice and accordion
- Theater of Substitution for an interpreter
- 1974
- A Ceremony of Sounds public participation
- Crow Two – A Ceremonial Opera for professional and non-professional interpreters
- 1973
- Sonic Meditations XIII-XXV for professional and non-professional interpreters, Smith Publications
- 1972
- Phantom Fathom (II) from the Theater of the Ancient Trompetteers: A Ceremonial Participation Evening for an unspecified number of interpreters
- elec Postcard Theatre multimedia piece for an interpreter, 12 mn
- Sonic Images for a narrator with audience participation
- elec What to do multimedia piece for two or more performers, Smith Publications
- 1971
- Sonic Meditations I-XII for professional and non-professional interpreters, Smith Publications
- elec The Flaming Indian for tape recorder and microphone
- 1970
- elec 50-50 1 Heads for 2-track tape, 19 mn
- elec 50-50 2 Tails for 2-track tape, 19 mn
- elec A Little Noise in the System for 2-track tape, 30 mn
- Link for professional and non-professional interpreters, Smith Publications
- Meditation on the Points of the Compass for choir, percussion and audience participation
- elec Music for Expo for multitrack tape
- Music for T'ai Chi for three voices, accordion and two cellos
- elec Red Horse Headache for 2-track tape, 21 mn
- elec To Valerie Solanas and Marylin Monroe in Recognition of their Desparation for choir, organ, orchestra, electronics and lights, Smith Publications
- Why Don't You Write a Short Piece ? for soloist or ensemble
- 1969
- A-OK for choir, accordion, violins, conductor and audience participation
- Aeolian Partitions for flute, clarinet, piano and cello, Bowdoin College Press
- California 99
- elec Events for soundtrack, audience participation
- elec In Memoriam Nikola Tesla, Cosmic Engineer for live electronics
- elec Live Electronic Piece for Merce Cunningham's Dance for live electronics
- elec Please Don't Shoot the Piano Player, He's Doing the Best He Can multimedia room
- elec SY*YdY=1 for players, cellos, bassoons, shakuhachi and amplified heartbeats
- The Dying Alchemist Preview for trumpet, percussion, violin, narrator and slides
- elec The Indefinite Integral of Psi Star Psi d Tau = One multimedia room
- The Wheel of Fortune for clarinet, slides and costumes
- 1968
- "I Hear a Boy Singing…"
- elec Double Basses at Twenty Paces for two double basses with their assistants, a referee, slides and 2-track tape, Smith Publications
- stage Evidence for Competing Bimolecular and Termolecular Mechanisms in the Hydrochlorination of Cyclohexine musical theater for professional and non-professional performers
- elec Festival House for mimes, films and projection
- elec Night Jar for viola d'amore, mime, film and 2-track tape
- elec O Ha Ah for mixed choir
- elec Some Sound Observations for 2-track tape
- Valentine for four card players
- 1967
- elec Alien Bog for 2-track tape, 33 mn
- elec Beautiful Soop for 2-track tape, 27 mn
- elec Big Road With Bird Call Patch for 2-track tape, 33 mn
- elec Big Slow Bog for 2-track tape, 32 mn
- elec Bog Bog for 2-track tape, 33 mn
- elec Boone Bog for 2-track tape, 32 mn
- elec Circuitry for percussion and light projections
- elec stage Lysistrata for 2-track tape
- elec Mewsack for 2-track tape, 32 mn
- elec Mills Bog for 2-track tape
- elec Mind Big for 2-track tape, 33 mn
- 1966
- elec 5000 Miles for 2-track tape, 32 mn
- elec Angel Fix for 2-track tape, 32 mn
- elec Another Big Mother for 2-track tape, 31 mn
- elec Big Mother is Watching You for 2-track tape, 33 mn, Smith Publications
- elec Bottom Ups 1 for 2-track tape, 12 mn
- elec stage Engineers Delight for performers and four turntables
- elec Feed Back 1 for 2-track tape, 28 mn
- elec Feed Back 2 for 2-track tape, 4 mn
- elec Hallo for actor, voice, violins, electronics and two echo systems
- elec I of IV for 2-track tape, 20 mn
- elec II of IV for 2-track tape, 16 mn
- elec III for 2-track tape, 14 mn
- elec III of IV for 2-track tape, 9 mn
- elec IV of IV for 2-track tape, 16 mn
- elec Jar Piece for 2-track tape, 15 mn, Smith Publications
- elec Mnemonics I-V for 2-track tape, 1 h 14 mn 30 s
- elec NO MO for 2-track tape, 17 mn
- elec Nite for 2-track tape, 16 mn
- elec Once Again / Buchla Piece for 2-track tape, 19 mn
- elec Participle Dangling in Honor of Gertrude Stein for mobile, film and tape 2 tracks
- elec Ringing the Mods 1 Heads for 2-track tape, 9 mn
- elec Ringing the Mods 2 Tails for 2-track tape, 9 mn
- elec Something else for 2-track tape, 13 mn
- elec Team and Desecration Improvisation for 2-track tape, 22 mn
- elec stage The Bath for dancers and echo system
- elec The C(s) for ONCE for voice, organ and three tape recorders
- elec The Day I Disconnected the Erase Head and Forgot to Reconnect it for 2-track tape, 32 mn
- elec stage Theater Piece for Trombone Player trombone, pipes and tape 2 tracks
- elec Three Pieces I, II, III for 2-track tape, 12 mn
- elec V of IV for 2-track tape, 14 mn
- 1965
- stage A Theater Piece for fifteen actors, film, projection, musicians and 2-track tape
- elec Before the Music Ends for 2-track tape
- elec Bye Bye Butterfly for 2-track tape, 8 mn
- elec Candelaio for voices
- elec Cat O'Nine Tails for 2-track tape
- elec Covenant for 2-track tape
- Duo for accordion and bandoneon
- elec George Washington Slept Here for amplified violin, film projection and 2-track tape
- George Washington Slept Here Too for four performers, a concert piano, toys and slides
- I've Got You under My Skin for percussion
- elec Light Piece for David Tudor for piano, electroacoustic device, lighting, film projection and 4-track tape
- elec Rock Symphony for live electronics and echo system
- elec The Chronicle of Hell for 2-track tape
- elec The Exception and the Rule for 2-track tape
- elec Winter Light for 2-track tape and mobile
- 1964
- elec Apple Box for amplified boxe and small items
- elec Apple Box Orchestra for amplified box, percussion and small objects
- Fifteen for singers, actors, dancers and instruments
- Five for trumpet and dancer
- Pieces of Eight for ensemble and conductor, Smith Publications
- elec Seven Passages for Elizabeth Harris for 2-track tape
- Trio for accordion, trumpet and double bass, Smith Publications
- 1963
- Art in Woodcut movie soundtrack
- Outline for flute, percussion and double bass
- Outline for Septet for accordion, trumpet, trombone, two percussions, bass and pianos
- elec stage Seven Passages for dancer, mobile and band 2 tracks
- 1962
- Lulu for flute and prepared piano
- 1961
- 1000 Acres for string quartet
- Sound Patterns for mixed choir, Tonos
- elec Time Perspective for 2-track tape, 19 mn 30 s
- Trio for flute, piano and page turner, Smith Publications
- 1960
- Variations for Sextet for flute, clarinet, trumpet, horn, piano and cello, Smith Publications
- 1959
- 18 Children's Pieces for accordion
- Horn Etudes for horn
- 1958
- 4H Club for flute, clarinet, guitar and double bass
- stage Cock a Doodle Dandy for accordion
- Tom Sawyer music for the theater
- View from the Bridge for set
- 1957
- Three Songs for soprano and piano
- Three Songs for soprano and horn
- 1956
- Concert Piece for accordion
- Serenade for bassoon and viola
- 1955
- Trio for clarinet, bassoon and horn
- 1954
- Essay for piano
- 1953
- Fugue for piano
- Prelude and Fugue for string quartet
- 1952
- 1951
- Ode to a Morbid Marble for piano
- Undertone for violin and piano
Bibliographie
- Alan BAKER, « An Interview with Pauline Oliveros », American Public Media, janvier 2003, http://musicmavericks.publicradio.org/features/interview_oliveros.html
- David W. BERNSTEIN, « Opening the Sound Field: Pauline Oliveros’ Improvisations with Magnetic Tape », notices dans Reverberations: Tape and Electronic Music, coffret 12 cd, Important Records, 2012.
- Pauline OLIVEROS, Initiation Dream, Los Angeles, Astro Artz, 1982.
- Pauline OLIVEROS, Software for People. Collected Writings 1963-1980, Baltimore, Printed Editions, 1984.
- Pauline OLIVEROS, Roots of the Moment, New York, Drogue Press, 1998.
- Pauline OLIVEROS, Deep Listening, A Composer’s Sound Practice, Lincoln, iuniverse, 2005.
- Pauline OLIVEROS, Sounding the Margins, Kingston, Deep Listening Publications, 2010.
- Pauline OLIVEROS, Anthology of Text Scores by Pauline Oliveros 1971-2013, Kingston, Deep Listening Publications, 2013.
- Heidi von GUNDEN, The Music of Pauline Oliveros, Metuchen, The Scarecrow Press, 1983.
- Benjamin Ethan TINKER, « Reflection & Dwelling, écho & réverbération in Pauline Oliveros’ Work », notices dans Reverberations: Tape and Electronic Music, coffret 12 cd, Important Records, 2012.
Discographie
- Pauline OLIVEROS, The Fool’s Circle ; A Woman Sees how the World Goes with no Eyes ; Reason in Madness Mixed ; This Great Fool’s Stage ; Let it Be So ; Let Me not Be Mad ; *Lear on the Road,*Pauline Oliveros, accordéon et élecronique, Panaiotis, électronique, dans « Crone Music », Lovely Music, 1990, LCD1903 .
- Pauline OLIVEROS, Time Perspectives ; Mnemonics I-V, II of IV, III of IV,IV of IV,V of IV,III;Team and Desecrations Improvisation;The Day I Disconnected the Erase Head and Forgot to Reconnect it;Jar Piece;Another Big Mother;Fed Back 1;Fed Back 2;5000 Miles;Angel Fix;Bottoms Up 1;Nite;Ringing the Mods 1 Heads;Ringing the Mods 2 Tails;Three Pieces I-III;Big Slow Bog;Boone Bog;Bog Bog;Mind Bog;Mewsack;50-50 1 Heads;50-50 2 Tails;A Little Noise in the System;Red Horse Headache, dans « Reverberations: Tape and Electronic Music 1961-1970 », coffret 12 cd, Important Records, 2012.
- Pauline OLIVEROS, Horse Sings from Cloud ; Rattlesnake Mountain, dans « Accordion & Voice », imprec, 2014.
Lien internet
- Site de Pauline Oliveros, http://paulineoliveros.us/
(liens vérifiés en janvier 2018).