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Reviews
and Press
Alex
Ross, The Rest is Noise: Notable Music Books of 2015
A fascinating new collection of essays exploring the life and work
of the enigmatic composer Julius Eastman . . . who worked fluently
in jazz, improvisation and acoustical experiments. An indication
of his impact is the very fact that so many people have come together
[in this book] to remember him and are actively championing his
music. Most of his compositions were once thought to be lost, but
[co-editor] Leach has been collecting and disseminating the pieces
for almost 20 years. ALBANY [NY] TIMES-UNION
The publication of this rigorously researched, lovingly produced,
multidimensional study of a singular artist will surely be met with
joy by those of us who remember Julius Eastman--the inspired creator,
the sly provocateur and martyred saint of the avant-garde. For those
who are interested in iconoclasts of whatever stripe, this volume
will be a revelation and an invitation to rethink what composition,
performance, and life at the precipice of madness can be.
--Bill T. Jones,
choreographer and dancer
Gay Guerrilla: Julius Eastman and His Music has arrived
just in time for Black Lives Matter and gets my deepest praise.
This important volume of essays, brought forth by two brilliant
women who have long championed Eastman's music, belongs in every
music conservatory library and beyond.
--Pauline Oliveros, composer |
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Composer-performer
Julius Eastman (1940-90) was an enigma, both comfortable and uncomfortable
in the many worlds he inhabited: black, white, gay, straight, classical
music, disco, academia, and downtown New York. His music, insistent
and straightforward, resists labels and seethes with a tension that
resonates with musicians, scholars, and audiences today. Eastman's
provocative titles, including Gay Guerrilla, Evil Nigger,
Crazy Nigger, and others, assault us with his obsessions.
Eastman tested limits with his political aggressiveness, as reflected
in legendary scandals like his June 1975 performance of John Cage's
Song Books, which featured homoerotic interjections, and
the uproar over his titles at Northwestern University. These episodes
are examples of Eastman's persistence in pushing the limits of the
acceptable in the highly charged arenas of sexual and civil rights.
In addition to analyses of Eastman's music, the essays in Gay
Guerrilla provide background on his remarkable life history
and the era's social landscape. The book presents an authentic portrait
of a notable American artist that is compelling reading for the
general reader as well as scholars interested in twentieth-century
American music, American studies, gay rights, and civil rights. |
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| Contents: |
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| Foreword
by George
E. Lewis |
Acknowledgments
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| Introduction:
Julius Eastman and His Music by Renée
Levine Packer |
| Julius
Eastman, A Biography by Renée
Levine Packer |
| Unjust
Malaise by David
Borden |
| The
Julius Eastman Parables by R.
Nemo Hill |
| Julius
Eastman and the Conception of "Organic Music" by
Kyle Gann |
| Julius
Eastman Singing by John
Patrick Thomas |
| An
Accidental Musicologist Passes the Torch by Mary
Jane Leach |
| A
Flexible Musical Identity: Julius Eastman in New York City, 1976-90
by
Ryan Dohoney |
| "Evil
Nigger": A Piece for Multiple Instruments of the Same Type
by Julius Eastman (1979), with Performance Instructions by Joseph
Kubera, by
David Borden |
| A
Postminimalist Analysis of Julius Eastman's "Crazy Nigger"
by Andrew
Hanson-Dvoracek |
| "The
Piece Does Not Exist without Julius": Still Staying on "Stay
On It" by Matthew
Mendez |
| Connecting
the Dots by Mary Jane Leach |
| "Gay
Guerrilla": A Minimalist Choralphantasie by
Luciano Chessa |
| Appendix:
Julius Eastman Compositions compiled by Mary
Jane Leach |
| Chronology |
| Selected
Bibliography |
| List
of Contributors |
| Index |
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| Renée
Levine Packer's book This Life of Sounds: Evenings for New Music
in Buffalo received an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for excellence.
Mary Jane Leach is a composer and freelance writer, currently writing
music and theatre criticism for the Albany Times-Union. |
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