This Life of Sounds

by Renee Levine Packer

This Life of Sounds portrays an important and previously unexplored corner of the history of new music in the Center of the Creative and Performing Arts int eh State University of New York at Buffalo. Composers Lukas Foss (the Center's founder), Lejaren Hiller, and Morton Feldman were the music directors over the life of "the Buffalo group," during the years 1964-1980. Based on Foss's plan, the Rockefeller Foundation provided annual fellowships for young composers and virtuoso instrumentalists to live in Buffalo for up to two years, thus creating a cadre of like-minded musicians who would spend their time studying, creating, and performing difficult - often controversial - new work. The new legendary group of musicians (some would say "musical outlows") who participated in the Buffalo group included Pulitzer Prize winner George Crumb, Terry Riley, Cornelius Cardew, Maryanne Amacher, Frederic Rzewski, David Tudor, Julius Eastman, and many more. Composers John Cage, Jim
Tenney, Iannis Xenakis and others all figure int he story as well. The book provides valuable accounts of the Center's influential concer series, Evenings for New Music, performed in Buffalo, New York and throughout Europe; its famous recording of Terry Riley's In C; the political activism of the time; and the intersection of academic, private, and institutional funding for the arts. Life magazine declared in an article about the 1965 Fest of the Arts Today titled, "Can This Be Buffalo?", "Buffalo exploded last month in a two-week avant garde festival that was bigger and hipper than anything ever held in Paris or New York..." The concerts, the festivals, and the adventurous musical climate attracted filmmakers and young visual arts resulting in what one person called "one of those kinds of places the way people talk about Vienna in 1900-1910."

Genres: Music

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Noah Steele · Rating 5 out of 5]

"This Life in Sound" combines the already well known history of Buffalo as a unique Avant-garde hub with Renee Packers first hand account working within the halls of UB's Center for the Creative and Performing Arts. Packer presents valuable insight into the the rise and fall of the "Center" outlining a detailed chronology. She not only speaks the history of the Creative Associates and their music but the state of the institution, describing its unique journey navigating Rockefeller grants and Cold War era government funding. I believe this is one of the most insightful aspects of this book as it displays shifting arts values within America admits the Cold War, Packer does this through very engaging narrative writing.
My favorite part of reading this book was visualizing this "Woodstock" of experimental music in my home town of Buffalo, NY. Reading about particular city landmarks and peoples enthusiasm for the arts in Buffalo (in the 60's and 70's) just made me really excited throughout.
This book is an important Musicological text but is written in a very accessible way for anyone who loves experimental music, the Avant-garde, of just the city of Buffalo.

[John A · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a hugely important study of a hugely important moment in US institutionally supported music history.
I'm inspired by what was achieved through the Centre, but also enlivened by the way that it has been documented. Yes, it is an academic book, but Levine Packer was part of the Centre and some of that personal story inflects and personalises the narrative in a way that (I feel) does not get in the way of necessary rigour. She offers us a window into the world that gave rise to the Centre and into the world that the Centre opened up.
And the bibliography has identified another stack of books I want to read now!

[Allan Cronin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the only book length treatment of the Buffalo music festival at it's peak. It was written by someone who was deeply involved and knowledgeable about these times. It is a great read but it is not the last word and I hope for more books on this fascinating piece of mid to late twentieth century music history.

[Mills College Library]

780.78747 L6657 2010