Alvin Lucier, Jr. ’50

IN MEMORIAM

ALVIN LUCIER, JR. ’50

Alvin Lucier, Jr., an influential experimental composer whose works focused less on traditional musical elements like melody and harmony than on the scientific underpinnings of sound and of listeners’ perceptions, died on Wednesday at his home in Middletown, CT, where he had taught for decades at Wesleyan University. He was 90.

Lucier was born in Nashua, NH, on May 14, 1931. His father, Alvin Sr., was a lawyer who was elected mayor of Nashua when Alvin was three years old. He was also an amateur violinist who met his future wife, Kathryn E. Lemery, when he filled in with a dance band in which she was the pianist. The Luciers encouraged their son’s interest in music, but although he picked up the rudiments of piano playing from his mother, he refused to take lessons, preferring to play the drums. His principal interest at the time was jazz, but he became interested in contemporary classical music when he found a recording of Arnold Schoenberg’s “Serenade.” “I bought it and it was shocking,” Mr. Lucier said in a 2005 interview with NewMusicBox. “It didn’t make any sense, but there was something about it that kept my interest. At that point I decided I was interested in challenging things.” Lucier attended Portsmouth Priory as a post-graduate in 1950. He went on to study composition and music theory at Yale University, where his teachers included Howard Boatwright and Quincy Porter. He received his bachelor’s degree there in 1954 and his master’s in 1960 at Brandeis University, where he studied with Arthur Berger and Harold Shapero. During those years he composed in a neo-Classical style, a preference reinforced by his studies at the Tanglewood Music Festival in Massachusetts with Aaron Copland and Lukas Foss during the summers of 1958 and 1959. In 1960 Lucier began a two-year stint in Rome as a Fulbright scholar, where he witnessed the work of composers John Cage and David Tudor and choreographer Merce Cunningham at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice – a transformative experience where he came to accept the necessity of rejecting conventional musical formats. “Something about it was so wonderful and exhilarating, I decided that I wanted to involve myself in that,” he told The New York Times in 1997. “I was literally exhausted by the neo-Classic style, and I had a couple of teachers that were at an impasse. They were getting bitter, and they were sort of losing their enthusiasm. And I was just at that age where I was ready for something new. But I didn’t know what to do.” By 1965, Lucier had moved on to the Brandeis University faculty and was introduced to Edmond Dewan, a physicist who had invented a brain wave amplifier. Dr. Dewan offered the use of his invention to Mr. Lucier, who explored its possibilities in what became the breakthrough work in his new style, “Music for Solo Performer.” The brain wave amplifier gave way to other high-tech gadgetry. Mr. Lucier created “Vespers” (1968) using echolocation devices — pulse oscillators used by the blind and others to determine distances. He had the gear operated by blindfolded performers moving through a space, the devices clicking at different speeds and intensities as they approach walls and other objects. In 1966, Lucier formed the Sonic Arts Union with a group of likeminded avant-gardists. The group toured in the United States and Europe until 1976, with each composer performing his own music. He joined the Wesleyan faculty in 1968 and taught composition there until his retirement in 2011. Starting in the mid-1980s, he devoted himself increasingly to instrumental and ensemble works. The Bang on a Can All-Stars, Alter Ego, Ensemble Pamplemousse and ICE are among the groups that commissioned works from him. Lucier is best known for his seminal masterpiece of 1970, “I Am Sitting in a Room,” first recorded over 50 years ago by Lucier himself in his living room. “I don’t really enjoy listening to my own music,” Mr. Lucier told NewMusicBox. “But maybe it’s good because it keeps me thinking and it keeps me from getting complacent.” The Portsmouth Abbey community extends its prayers and sincere condolences to the Lucier family. Excerpted from an obituary written by Allan Kozinn of the New York Times, December 1, 2021.

Alvin Lucier, Jr.’50 (far left) in front of St. Benet’s House with the Portsmouth Priory post-graduates of 1950.