These pieces (Kinetics I and II) are examples of what was then called “tape music”: using electronic sounds generated and manipulated by electronic devices, recorded on magnetic tape with different sounds spliced together. Then the magnetic tape segments were further manipulated - played forwards, backwards, upside down, slower and faster - the same techniques that Bach used - to create a finished work. In those days, the electronic music studio (at Yale School of Music) was my ‘instrument’ in the same way that the piano was the instrument of Beethoven, Chopin and Thelonious Monk. To make a parallel comparison to the visual arts, think of the electronic music studio as my palette and the tape as my canvas. The analogy is strengthened by the fact that the composer actually produces the end result, just like a painter. Traditionally composers create a ‘plan’ (score) that is then executed by the performer(s). As I worked on these pieces, I began to realize that I was creating a musical world of motion and direction, a “Kinetic” music that didn’t rely on the traditional means of harmonic progression to do so. Kinetics II was the first purely electronic piece of music to receive the Student Composer Award from Broadcast Music, Inc. in 1969.
