Program 728: Music for Microphones
KALW Broadcast Date: February 12, 2023 | Host: Joseph Bohigian
Microphones are often viewed as neutral, passive tools for solely reproducing acoustic sounds rather than as active devices that are instruments in their own right. The expansion of technology into our everyday lives has made microphones ubiquitous and, according to composer and sound artist Cathy van Eck, these devices are designed to be invisible to the listener, “‘inaudible’ in the final sound result.” Despite this hidden nature of the contemporary, omnipresent microphone, composers and singers use microphones in compositional and structural ways that have had a decisive effect on the writing and performance of music.
On this program, we’ll listen to music that centers the microphone as an instrument, including Steve Reich’s Pendulum Music, Takehisa Kosugi’s Micro I, Pierre Henry’s Le Microphone Bien Tempéré, Diamanda Galás’ The Litanies of Satan, Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Mikrophonie I, and Robert Ashley’s The Wolfman.
Program Audio
30-Second Spot
Track Info & Links
Title: Pendulum Music (I)
Composer: Steve Reich
Performers: Ensemble Avantgarde
Recording Title: Steve Reich – Phase Patterns / Pendulum Music / Piano Phase / Four Organs
Record Label: WERGO
Catalog Number: WER 6630-2
Title: Micro I
Composer: Takehisa Kosugi
Performers: Takehisa Kosugi
Recording Title: Rajikaru! Experimentations in Japanese Art, 1950–1975
Title: L’intrusion de l’électroacoustique en musique
Performers: Pierre Schaeffer
Recording Title: Gravesaner Blätter 1, no. 2/3 (1956): 38-46
Title: Le Microphone Bien Tempéré Side A
Composer: Pierre Henry
Recording Title: Pierre Henry – Le Microphone Bien Tempéré
Record Label: INA-GRM
Catalog Number: AM 006.08
Title: The Litanies of Satan
Composer: Diamanda Galás
Performers: Diamanda Galás
Recording Title: The Litanies of Satan
Record Label: Restless Records
Catalog Number: 7 71419-2
Title: Pendulum Music (II)
Composer: Steve Reich
Performers: Ensemble Avantgarde
Recording Title: Steve Reich – Phase Patterns / Pendulum Music / Piano Phase / Four Organs
Record Label: WERGO
Catalog Number: WER 6630-2
Title: Mikrophonie I
Composer: Karlheinz Stockhausen
Performers: Aloys Kontarsky and Alfred Alings, tam-tams; Johannes Fritsch and Harald Bojé, microphones; Karlheinz Stockhausen, Jaap Spek, and Hugh Davies, filters and controllers
Recording Title: Klavierstücke I-XI / Mikrophonie I & II
Record Label: Sony Classical
Catalog Number: S2K 53346
Title: The Wolfman
Composer: Robert Ashley
Performers: Robert Ashley
Recording Title: Wolfman
Record Label: Alga Marghen
Catalog Number: plana-A 20NMN.048
Title: Pendulum Music (III)
Composer: Steve Reich
Performers: Ensemble Avantgarde
Recording Title: Steve Reich – Phase Patterns / Pendulum Music / Piano Phase / Four Organs
Record Label: WERGO
Catalog Number: WER 6630-2
