Introduction

David Tudor was born in Philadelphia in 1926 and died in New York in 1996. He studied piano and organ from childhood and studied composition with Stefan Wolpe. From his early teens he held traditional posts as an organist, finally at Swarthmore College until 1948, and he then taught piano at the Contemporary Music School, New York, and at Black Mountain College, North Carolina. Immediately after he gave the American premiere of Boulez's Sonata No. 2 in 1950, he was much in demand as the preeminent virtuoso pianist of the avant-garde, which included Stockhausen and many others as well as Cage, with whom he had a long partnership. Tudor was involved with the first happening at Black Mountain College in 1952; he lived at Stony Point with Cage and other artists and spent over forty years with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, founded in 1953. He taught at various institutions, including the Darmstädter Ferienkurse. From the late 1960s onward he developed as a composer in the medium of live electronics, designing his own equipment. Some of his works were presented as collaborations with other composers, including Cage.

For his own solo performances Tudor frequently made fastidious realizations of indeterminate scores, which led to interpretations of unique authority and distinction. Cage's debt to Tudor was incalculable. In 1965 he discussed the different tempos in Music of Changes: “David Tudor learnt a form of mathematics which he didn't know before in order to translate those tempo indications into actual time. It was a very difficult process and very time-consuming for him.” In 1973 Cage admitted: “Most of the music I’ve written has been for individuals who have developed a virtuosity, who’ve devoted themselves to this work in a way that involved them in discovery and such things as stamina. The perfect example, of course, is David Tudor.” And finally, in 1992 Cage said, “He's a very important musician and a very striking one” and referred to Tudor's remarkable ear and his independent career as a composer.

Interview

By permission of the David Tudor Trust

PD What's your first recollection of anything to do with Cage?

DT I recall that one of my teachers remarked that she had gone to a concert of his music for prepared piano—I think it was the Sonatas and Interludes—and she simply remarked that she found it very unusual and interesting.