Morton Subotnick was born in Los Angeles, California in 1933. He is one of the foremost composers of electronic music. In 1961, while teaching at Oakland's Mills College and studying with avant-garde composers Darius Milhaud and Leon Kirchner, he became co-founder and music director of the famed San Francisco Tape Center.
Following in the footsteps of John Cage and others, Subotnick collected non-traditional sources of sound (whistles, trash can lids and various metal objects) and utilized their timbres in a composition. He also began combining tape, MIDI (musical instrument digital interface), computer and traditional musical instruments. He used these in a variety of combinations to produce many popular art pieces.
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| Movement #1 (excerpt) | Movement #3 (excerpt) |
Subotnick has been honored with commissions for numerous compositions. Two of the most memorable of these commissions are the1984 Olympics Arts Festival in Los Angeles and Return, commissioned to celebrate the return of Halley's comet, which premiered at Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. Perhaps the most significant aspect of Subtonick's compositional innovations is his use of live performers to control computer music.