Dear Shaded Viewers,
For my last night in Athens, our music master, Costas Argiriou invited Antoine Asseraf and I to his home for dinner with our friends from Athens. In the course of the evening he introduced us to the amazing work of Clara Rockmore (theremin) and Alvin Lucier (brain amplifier)
Clara Rockmore
“In the mid 1930’s, Leon Theremin built two custom instruments: one for his patroness Lucie Bigelow Rosen, and another similar one for Clara Rockmore. These instruments were more elaborate than the RCA theremins and had, among other things, several different timbre settings. Thereminist Howard Mossman, who has been a tireless supporter and promoter of the theremin for longer than most of us have been alive. It’s an amazing instrument and if you are curious, please visit http://www.peterpringle.com/customtheremin.html to learn more. Costas just bought the instrument and is learning how to play it.
Alvin Lucier
“Alvin Lucier has pioneered in many areas of music composition and performance, including the notation of performers’ physical gestures, the use of brain waves in live performance, the generation of visual imagery by sound in vibrating media, and the evocation of room acoustics for musical purposes. His recent works include a series of sound installations and works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, and orchestra in which, by means of close tunings with pure tones, sound waves are caused to spin through space.”
audio vision of my voice
Costas is working on the soundtrack for the making of the festival d’Hyeres 2007, he also created the original soundtrack for the festival d’Hyeres 2006.
Costas Argiriou at home and last look at my room at the Athens Hilton, which I must say is far superior than any other Hilton I’ve ever stayed in.
Later,
Diane
