John Cage (1912-1992)
34'46.776, pour 2 pianos
Variations II
Music Walk
Atlas Eclipticalis with Winter Music, version pour électronique
Concerto pour piano et orchestre
Cartitridge Music

Pauline Oliveros (1932-)
Duo for Accordion and Bandoneon with possible Mynah Bird Obbligato

Toshi Ichiyanagi (1933-)
Musique pour piano n° 4
Musique pour piano n° 4, version pour électronique

David Tudor, piano, bandonéon, électronique live
Dwight Peltzer, piano
Pauline Olivieros, accordéon, piano
Michael Callahan, électronique live
John Chowning, percussion
Stuart Dempster, trombone
Warner Jepson, piano
Douglas Leedy, cor
Robert Mackler, alto, alto d'amour
Ann Riley, piano
Loren Rush, contrebasse
Stanley Shaff, trompette
Linn Subotnick, alto
Morton Subotnick, clarinette
Ian Underwood, flûte, piccolo
Jack van der Wyck, timpani
Ramon Sender, direction

In the spring of 1964 Pauline Oliveros organized a festival celebrating the work of pianist David Tudor, which featured compositions by Oliveros, George Brecht, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Alvin Lucier, and John Cage. The Tudorfest was a watershed event in the brief history of the San Francisco Tape Music Center, which not only provided its members with an opportunity to collaborate with Tudor, but also to promote their own work. Cosponsored by KPFA, the Tudorfest demonstrated the artistic diversity of the avant-garde, from the minimalistic explorations of barely audible piano sounds (played by Oliveros and Tudor) in Ichiyanagi’s Music for Piano n° 4 (1960) to the instrumental chaos of Cage’s Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1957–58) and Atlas Eclipticalis (1961), the often thunderous electronic outbursts in Tudor’s interpretations of Cage’s Cartridge Music (1960) and Variations II (1961). Oliveros’s collaboration with Tudor, Duo for Accordion and Bandoneon and Possible Mynah Bird Obbligato (1963–64) combined theatrical elements, improvisation, and a mynah bird named “Ahmed.” The Tudorfest placed the Tape Music Center at the forefront of developments in new music around the country. Its success owed a great deal to David Tudor’s influence (see the above quote). The performances on this 3-CD set have never been previously issued. It is the definitive document of this seminal event and constitutes a major addition to the discography of American experimental music.