"Through
Pauline Oliveros and Deep Listening I finally know
what harmony is....It's about the pleasure of making music."
-John Cage 1989
Pauline Oliveros,
composer,
performer,
author and
philosopher has influenced American music extensively through her works with
improvisation,
electronic music,
teaching,
myth,
ritual and
meditation. My favorite work by Pauline is Alien Bog and Beautiful Soop which she composed in real time with the Buchla Box at Mills College in 1967. Beautiful Soop is a set of
Dr. Suess-like
tales superimposed over ambient music. Pauline says of these two works, "There was only one place I was interested in going with what I needed to express and that was inside."
She also talks of what influenced her:
"I was deeply impressed by the sounds from the
frog pond outside the studio window at Mills. I loved the
accompaniment as I worked on my pieces. Though I never recorded the frogs I was of course influenced by their music. Since that time many other composers have also been influenced by the sounds from the pond. Sadly, the pond will soon give way to a new
building to expand the quarters of the CCM (Center for Contemporary Music). It will no doubt be haunted by the ghost frogs!"
In 1985 she founded The Pauline Oliveros Foundation, Inc., to support all aspects of the creative process for
artists worldwide.
-most of this was lifted and adapted from http://www.deeplistening.org/pauline/