Vladimir Ussachevsky

Biography

Vladimir Ussachevsky (1911- 1990)  emigrated to the USA from Russia in 1930, was one of the pioneers of "tape music", creating the first electronic music in 1951 with his teacher Otto Luening. In October 1952, a live concert of electronic music by Luening and Ussachevsky at New York's Museum Of Modern Art was broadcast live, and caused a sensation. It included Ussachevsky's Sonic Contours (1952), which electronically modifies the sound of a piano. Ussachevsky was one of the most significant pioneers in the composition of electronic music, and one of its most potent forces. He produced the first works of “tape music,” a uniquely American synthesis of the French musique-concrète and the German pure electronic schools. He co-founded the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in 1959 and directed its course for the next twenty years as the leading electronic music studio in the United States. Two of his most powerful and innovative scores include Suite from No Exit (1962), from the film of Sartre’s play No Exit directed by Orson Welles, and the soundtrack for the avant-garde film, Line of Apogee (1967).

Other legendary works that Ussachevsky composed in this period were A Poem In Cycles And Bells (1954) for tape and orchestra (one of the earliest electro-acoustic pieces), which was based on Otto Luening's Fantasy In Space (1952) and his own A Poem In Cycles And Bells, and Piece for Tape Recorder (1956) for tape. Creation Prologue (1961), Conflict (1971) and Creation Epilogue (1971), three parts of the multi-movement large-scale Creation, were scored for choirs and electronics.

  • ACE Publications

    23 title(s)
    Composer Title SCORING/INSTRUMENTATION Year
    Vladimir Ussachevsky AUTUMN I and AUTUMN II Mezzo voice and piano
    Vladimir Ussachevsky CELEBRATION str orch,electronic valve instrument
    Vladimir Ussachevsky CELEBRATION 1981
    Vladimir Ussachevsky COLLOQUY Orchestra, speakers from the orchestra, tape playback
    Vladimir Ussachevsky CREATION-PROLOGUE 4 mixed choruses, elec accompaniment
    Vladimir Ussachevsky DANCES & FANFARES FOR A FESTIVE OCCASION 3-2-2-b.cl-2,4-3-2-b.tbn-1,timp,perc,pf,cel,str.
    Vladimir Ussachevsky DIALOGUES and CONTRASTS brass quintet, tape
    Vladimir Ussachevsky DIVERTIMENTO solo EVI ,orch:1-1-1-0,1-1-1-0, timp,perc,str,tape
    Vladimir Ussachevsky ENTRATA( DANCES AND FANFARES FOR A FESTIVE OCCASION
    Vladimir Ussachevsky EPISODES: Fragments of Nostalgia Piano Four-Hands
    Vladimir Ussachevsky INTERMEZZO pf & cham orch:2/pic,1-2-1,hn,str
    Vladimir Ussachevsky LINEAR CONTRASTS tape
    Vladimir Ussachevsky METAMORPHOSES tape
    Vladimir Ussachevsky MIMICRY saxophone, fixed media audio
    Vladimir Ussachevsky MINIATURES FOR A CURIOUS CHILD pf
    Vladimir Ussachevsky MISSA BREVIS sop solo,satb,br:3-3-3-1
    Vladimir Ussachevsky OUR FATHER(from the Jubilee Cantata) satb
    Vladimir Ussachevsky PENTAGRAM ob, tape
    Vladimir Ussachevsky PIECE FOR TAPE RECORDER tape
    Vladimir Ussachevsky PRAISE YE THE LORD satb,org
    Vladimir Ussachevsky PSALM 24 ssaattbb,org
    Vladimir Ussachevsky STUDIES Clarinet and Electronic Valve Instrument (Live or Pre-Recorded)
    Vladimir Ussachevsky WIRELESS FANTASY
    tape piece realized at Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center

    Additional Works