New Music in New Places
 James Tenney |
The School of Music at Memorial University, in partnership with Neighborhood Dance Works, has received funding through the Canadian Music Centre’s New Music in New Places to mount a large scale presentation of composer James Tenney’s work In a Large Open Space.
The work will be produced during the Newfound Music Festival in January 26-28 2012, where it will occupy a portion of the “munnels” the Memorial University underground tunnel system. The sound tunnel will feature performers and a multi-speaker electroacoustic realization of the work by faculty member Andrew Staniland.
Dancers from Neighbourhood Dance works will perform a choreography created especially for this event. The journey will culminate in the large open atrium featuring a massed ensemble of MUN music students and community performing a 60-minute acoustic version of the work.
James Tenney (1934-2006) was an internationally renowned American-Canadian composer who spent many decades teaching at York University. He is known for his atmospheric minimalist sound textures – not surprising for a composer who developed his craft in the circle of artists surrounding John Cage in 1960s New York.
