Event Detail

Maryanne Amacher is known primarily as an electronic composer, but early on she wrote a handful of pieces for classical instruments using experimental forms of notation. AUDJOINS, a Suite For Audjoined Rooms was a collection of such works, from the early to mid-’60s, for various spatially staged ensembles. Adjacencies, a graphic score for two percussionists and electronics, was written in 1965 and is the only known extant score of that series. The work directs performers by sending their microphone signals to a changing array of speakers surrounding the audience, combining otherwise distinct worlds of sound. Not performed since 1966, Blank Forms has collaborated with Amy Cimini and Bill Dietz to unpack and analyze the score for its posthumous realization. Ian Antonio and Russell Greenberg, of the experimental piano-percussion quartet Yarn/Wire, will be performing Adjacencies, with sound distribution by Daniel Neumann and Woody Sullender.

Maryanne Amacher (1938-2009) was a composer of large-scale fixed-duration sound installations and a highly original thinker in the areas of perception, sound spatialization, creative intelligence, and aural architecture. She is frequently cited as a pioneer of what has come to be called sound art, although her thought and creative practice consistently challenges key assumptions about the capacities and limitations of this nascent genre. Often considered to be part of a post-Cagean lineage, her work anticipates some of the most important developments in network culture, media arts, acoustic ecology, and sound studies.

This performance would not be possible without the ongoing commitment of Blank Forms and the Maryanne Amacher Archive to preserving Amacher’s legacy. Adjacencies’ first performance since 1965 was presented by Blank Forms in September 2017 at The Kitchen in New York City. Many thanks to Lawrence Kumpf, Bill Dietz, Blank Forms and the Maryanne Amacher Archive for making the New York and San Diego performances possible.

Read more: Amy Cimini on Maryanne Amacher's Adjacencies