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Article: Enigma revived
- Article from:
- The Village Voice
- Article date:
- April 2, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright Village Voice Apr 2, 1996. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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The music is eerie, static, electronic, minimalist, process-oriented, noisy but meditative. Date of composition? Oh, 1970s, you'd say, certainly post-Cage, in that fusion of minimalism and conceptualism that followed the early Reich and Glass recordings. Maybe it's by Pauline Oliveros, or Larry Austin. Fooled you, for the piece--aptly named Music of the Spheres--comes from the 1930s, and the composer's name is one you won't find in any music dictionary: Johanna Magdalena Beyer.
That was a name almost lost to history, but in recent weeks it's floated through New York music circles like a dim memory. Double bassist Robert Black premiered a Beyer piece at Roulette in December, and last month ...