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  • Source: Music of the Avant-Garde, 1966-1973 ed. by Larry Austin and Douglas Kahn, and: Source: Music of the Avant-Garde Records 1-6, 1968-1971 by Robert Ashley et al.
  • Michael Boyd
Larry Austin and Douglas Kahn (Eds.): Source: Music of the Avant-Garde, 1966-1973. Hardcover, 2011, ISBN 978-0-520-25748-1, softcover ISBN 978-0-520-26745-9, US$ 34.95, 381 pages, preface by Douglas Kahn, introduction by Larry Austin; University of California Press, 2120 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94704-1012, USA; telephone: 410-642-4247; fax: 510-643-7127; electronic mail orders@cpfsinc.com; http://www.ucpress.edu/.
Robert Ashley, Larry Austin, David Behrman, Allan Bryant, Lowell Cross, Alvin Curran, Annea Lockwood, Arrigo Lora-Totino, Alvin Lucier, Stanley Lunetta, Mark Riener, and Arthur Woodbury: Source: Music of the Avant-Garde Records 1-6, 1968-1971 Compact disc, 2008, Pogus Productions P21050-2; available from Pogus Productions, 50 Ayr Road, Chester, New York 10918, USA; http://www.pogus.com/.

Source: Music of the Avant-Garde, surely familiar to most readers of the Computer Music Journal, was a journal published between 1967 and 1973 that featured "new music scores, essays by composers and artists, statements, interviews, artworks, sound and concrete poems, photo essays, circuit diagrams, instrument designs, event reports, documents, and LP recordings" (p. ix). It was an outgrowth of the improvisational New Music Ensemble at the University of California, Davis. Its editorial board, led by UCD faculty member Larry Austin, included Stanley Lunetta, Dary John Mizelle, Wayne Johnson, Art Woodbury, and Paul Robert. Contributors to this publication included many established and emerging figures such as Harry Partch, Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Cage, Morton Feldman, Robert Ashley, George Brecht, Cornelius Cardew, Annea Lockwood, Alvin Lucier, Pauline Oliveros, Roger Reynolds, and Frederic Rzewski (to name just a few). Commenting on the editorial process, Austin stated that "we wanted to publish new original work, and primacy of idea." In total, eleven issues of this large, oblong format (10.75" × 13.5") periodical were published, four of which featured one or two 10-in. LPs (a total of six LPs were released).

It is difficult to overstate the importance of Source, which captured and documented a vibrant period of musical experimentation and exploration. Many important scores appeared in this publication, including Cage's first version of 4'33", Ashley's The Wolfman, Cardew's The Great Learning, Oliveros's Sonic Meditations, and Steve Reich's Pendulum Music. Also important was the array of diverse, creative pieces by lesser-known composers (the New Percussion Quartet's Be Prepared, a work in which a piano is prepared while a Mozart sonata is played on it, is a personal favorite). The essays, editorial pieces, event reviews, interviews, and conversations and other prose pieces provide a nice depiction of what concepts and issues were significant during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Significantly, many of these same issues hold importance today, and some of these essays, such as Oliveros's "Some Sound Observations," are still widely read. The inclusion of circuit diagrams might be of particular interest to readers of this journal who want to study the technical aspects of electroacoustic works from that period, or recreate such pieces usingmodern technology. These diagrams are also notable in that they might emphasize to current electroacoustic composers the need to document one's work in detailed terms that are not platform-specific.

Only 2,000 copies of each issue of Source were printed, and now, roughly 40 years later, it is difficult to acquire issues of this journal (a quick search of eBay.com located a few issues for sale at approximately $500-1,000 each). Many university research libraries hold sets of Source, but a more convenient, affordable option has been needed for some time, for scholars and artists who do not readily have access to one of these collections. Fortunately, over the past few years these materials have become available again. In 2011, portions of the journal were reprinted in a single volume by the University of California Press, edited by Douglas Kahn and Larry Austin, and Pogus Productions reissued the six LPs as a three-CD set in 2008.

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