James Tenney: 1934-2006
 

http://www.tinymixtapes.com/

On the evening of August 24th, 2006, American composer, theorist, and author James Tenney passed away after a long battle with lung cancer.

Many TMT readers will know Tenney’s music best as performed by Sonic Youth on their release, Goodbye 20th Century. But Tenney ran in many circles: doing Fluxus collaborations with Charlotte Moorman, Carolee Schneemann, and Phillip Corner; helping pioneer computer music at Bell Telephone Labs; and making heavy investigations into microtonal and just tunings later.

Tenney was always ahead of the curve and continually pushed the boundaries of his medium. He was a teacher and mentor to many, working with three generations of artists and musicians including John Cage, Harry Patch, Conlon Nancarrow, and Stan Brackage.

Tenney spent the last years of his life teaching at California Institute of the Arts (whose music program he helped develop in the early 1970s) and will surely be remembered amongst the avant garde community.

Damn. Thats kind of depressing. I was just about to get his selected works album since that's all I could find along with Christian Wolff's Burdocks.

Goodbye, James Tenney.