Selected Publications and CDs
polansky
(updated 6/4/08)
solo cds
books and monographs
software
articles
editor (books, journals)
reviews
short writings (liner
notes, editorials, published letters, solicited contributions)
CD, LP anthologies
scores published in
journals, periodicals, etc.
other
small
writings, reviews, out of print, etc.
Solo CDs
Books
and Monographs
- Music
and Computers, co-authored with Phil Burk, Mary Roberts, douglas
repetto, Dan Rockmore. Web-book , including interactive Java applets,
with accompanying teacher’s guidefor undergraduate computer music and
audio DSP curricula. Key Publishing, 2004. (Early rough draft free for use
by anyone).
- The Music of
American Folk Song. Critical edition of a booklength monograph by
Ruth Crawford Seeger. With Judith Tick. University of Rochester Press,
Musicology Monograph Series. 2001.
- HMSL Version 4.2
Programmer's Manual, with Phil Burk. Computer music language
manual. 1991.
- The Early Works
of James Tenney,
Soundings Press, monograph-length theoretical study, Soundings #13, pp.
119 - 297, 1983. Available from Frog Peak.
- Beginning Central Javanese
Gender. Available in hard-copy from the American Gamelan Institute.
Software
- Spectral Mutation Functions in
Soundhack, with Tom Erbe, 1994.
- HMSL (Hierarchical
Music Specification Language), with David Rosenboom and Phil Burk,
1985–92.Various released stand-alone applications written in HMSL.
- Many other theoretical,
compositional, interactive performance, analysis and synthesis programs
written in HMSL, MatLab, C and JAVA, available on the web, and in
various shareware versions.
Articles
- “Improvisation, Heterophony, Politics, Composition: A Panel
Discussion.” By Wolff, C., Polansky, L., Dong, K., Asplund, C., Hicks,
M. Perspectives of New Music
45/2:133-149.
- “Notes on Will You Miss Me,”
in 1/1, The Journal of the Just
Intonation Network, 12/3, 2007.
- "A
Few Words About James Tenney"
2006.
- Extended liner notes to New World Records release of James
Tenney: Postal Pieces. Major revision of chapter of my earlier Soundings monograph on
Tenney).
- Extended liner notes to New World Records release of James
Tenney: Selected Works 1961-69. Major revision of chapter of my
earlier
Soundings monograph on Tenney). (Reissue of original Frog Peak/Artifact
CD I produced).
- “Comparrangetranscraboration: Rewriting Ruth Crawford Seeger,” MusicWorks 81, Fall 2001,
22-27.
- “Singing
Together, Hacking Together, Plundering Together: Sonic Intellectual
Property in Cybertimes,” article in the Open Space Web Journal,
http://www.the-open-space.org/osonline/osonline.html
- “Computer Music,” historical/theoretical article entry in the Encyclopedia of Computer Science,
4th edition, Nature Publishing Group,
pp. 396-404 (rewritten and updated from Charles Ames’ previous entry),
2000.
- “Cocks Crow, Dogs Bark: New
Compositional Intentions,” Leonardo
Music Journal, 7:64-71, 1997.
- “Total Eclipse. The Music of
Johanna Magdalena Beyer,” with John Kennedy, Musical Quarterly,
80(4):719-778, Winter, 1996.
- “Morphological Metrics,”
Journal of New Music Research, 25(1996):289-368.
- No Replacement (85 Verses for
Kenneth Gaburo), Perspectives of New Music, Volume 33, 1996.
- “Spectral
Mutation in Soundhack,” with Tom Erbe, Computer Music Journal,
20(1): 92-101, 1996.
- “Live Interactive Computer
Music in HMSL, 1984-1992,” Computer
Music Journal,
18(2): 59–77, 1994.
- “The Music of the Voyager
Interstellar Record,” with
Stephanie Nelson, Journal of Applied
Communication, 21(4): 358–376,
1993.
- “Possible and
Impossible Melody: Some Formal Aspects of Contour,”
with Richard Bassein, Journal of
Music Theory, 36(2): 259–284, 1992.
- “Morphological
Mutation Functions: Applications to Motivic
Transformation and a New Class of Cross-Synthesis Techniques,” with
Martin McKinney, Proceedings of the
ICMC, Montreal, pp. 234–241, 1991.
- “More on
Morphological Mutations,” Proceedings
of the ICMC, San
Jose, pp. 57-60, 1992.
- “HMSL (Hierarchical Music
Specification Language): A
Theoretical Overview,” with Phil Burk and David Rosenboom, Perspectives
of New Music, 28(2): 136–178, 1990.
- “Collaboration: Tap Scored and Notes on the Three Monk Tunes,”
with Anita Feldman, Leonardo,
23(4): 387-393, 1990.
- “Notes on the Tunings of
Three Central Javanese
Slendro/Pelog Pairs,” Experimental
Musical Instruments, VI(2): 12-13,
16-17, 1990.
- “Morphological Metrics: An Introduction to a Theory of
Formal Distances,” Proceedings of
the ICMC, Urbana, pp. 197-205, 1987.
- “Item:
Lou Harrison as a speculative theorist,” A Lou
Harrison Reader, Soundings Press, 1987.
- “Paratactical Tuning: An
Agenda for the Future Use of Computers
in Experimental Intonation,” Computer
Music Journal, 11(1): 61–68, 1987.
- "James Tenney and Space
Travel." (Editor's Introduction). Perspectives of New Music.
25(1&2): 436-438. Winter, Summer 1987.
- “HMSL
(Hierarchical Music
Specification Language): A
Real-Time Environment for Formal, Perceptual, and Compositional
Experimentation,” with David Rosenboom, Proceedings of the ICMC,
Vancouver, pp. 243-250, 1985.
- “History and the Word: Form and Tonality in
Schoenberg's Phantasy
for Violin with Piano Accompaniment,” ex
tempore, 3(1): 29-40, 1985.
- “Tuning
Systems in American Gamelan, Part I: Interval Sizes in
Javanese Slendro,” Balungan,
1(2): 9-11, 1984.
- “Interview with David
Rosenboom,” Computer Music
Journal, 7(4):
40-45, Winter, 1983. Reprinted in The
Music Machine, MIT Press, 1985.
- “Hierarchical Temporal
Gestalt Perception in Music,” (James
Tenney with Larry Polansky), Journal
of Music Theory, 24(2): 205-241,
1980. (higher quality pdf)
- “A Hierarchical Gestalt Analysis of Ruggles' Portals,” Proceedings of the ICMC,
Evanston, pp. 790-852, 1978.
Editor
(Books, Journal Issues)
- Divisions of the Tetrachord,
by John Chalmers, Frog Peak Music,
1995.
- Meta + Hodos and META Meta + Hodos, by James Tenney,
Frog Peak Music, 1995.
- Leonardo Music Journal,
founding editor. Published by MIT
Press,
1991.
- Perspectives of New Music,
25:1&2,
1987, guest editor.
- Frog Peak Johanna Beyer Project,
and many other CDs and editions
for Frog Peak.
Selected Reviews
- The Music of Ruth Crawford Seeger
(Joseph
Straus), American Music,
14:3: 389-392, 1996.
- Colin
McPhee: Composer in Two Worlds (Carol Oja), Ethnomusicology, 37(3):
437–441, 1994.
- 20th Century Microtonal Notation
(Gardner Read), Leonardo Music
Journal, 1(1): 108-109, 1991.
- Ruth Crawford Seeger
(Madeleine Gaume), Leonardo,
24(3): 293–297,
1991.
- On the Wires of Our Nerves,
(Robin Heifetz, ed.), Leonardo,
23(4): 451-2. The Sackbutt Blues:
Biography of Hugh LeCaine, (Gayle
Young), Leonardo, 24(1): 98, 1990.
- miscellaneous Leonardo Music
Journal reviews (on News of Music,
Electronic Cottage)
- Arts/Sciences: Alloys
(Iannis Xenakis), Leonardo,
23(4): 385–388,
1990.
- The Music of Ben Johnston
(Heidi Von Gunden), Leonardo,
23(1):
67–69, 1989.
- Over 30 book and recording reviews of
traditional and
contemporary American musics for OP
Magazine, 1984–7.
Short writings (liner
notes, editorials, published letters, solicited contributions)
- “Ruth Crawford Seeger's When, Not If, an unpublished score,” MusicWorks, Number 80,
Summer, 2001 (LP editor and accompanying notes).
Also directed first recording of the piece (with Mary Ann Haagen) for
the accompanying CD.
- Extended liner
notes for The
Piano Music of Ruth Crawford Seeger
and Johanna Beyer, Sarah Cahill, pianist, New Albion CD, 2001.
- Series of theoretical letters about my work II-V-I (by Dave Mohr
and myself) in 1/1, The Journal of
the Just Intonation Network, Fall,
2000, Vol. 10, #3.
- Interview with painter/sound artist Heri Dono (in
English/Indonesian), Sounding Sphere
Festival book, Harima, Japan, 1998.
- Baker's Articles
on James Tenney and Johanna Magdalena
Beyer, 1996.
- “David
Mahler’s Place,” liner notes, David Mahler, The Voice of the Poet,
Artifact CD, 1997.
- “Hack
Forward, Quack Fast: Introduction to Skin,” introduction to book of
scores by Nick Didkovsky, Punos Music, 1995.
- “About
Moving,” Musicworks 59, p. 51, Toronto, Canada. 1994.
- Haiga: A little farfetched and
hard to believe (a complete
surrogate biography of Larry Wendt), visual poetry cover for
furnitures
(#10), 1994.
- “Seventeen
Thoughts on ‘Music Since 1960’ (in the form of a
haiku),” Sounds Australian, Journal
of Australian Music, (41): 5-6.
1994.
- “Four statements,” short piece on artistic censorship. News of
Music, #13, Winter, 1992.
- “On Competitions,” Forum, Computer
Music Journal, 15(3): 13-14,
1991.
- “The Future of Music/The Future of Leonardo,” Editor’s
introduction to Leonardo Music Journal,
1:1, 1991.
- “17 Gloomy Sentences (and commentary)
at the turn of the
millennium (in the form of an editorial).” Leonardo Music Journal,
1(1), 1991.
- “Sounds, Musics and Leonardo,” with Roger Malina, and Elliot
Mazer, Leonardo, 23:1, 1989.
- “Being a Composer in America,”
Perspectives of New Music,
26(1): 213–214, 1988.
- “The Future of Music,”
(editor and contributor), Leonardo,
20(4):
363-365, 1987. Reprinted in Evos
Newsletter #8, Perth, Australia.
- A number of short writings in
1/1, several other places.
CD, LP Anthologies
containing my work
- 2004 A
Pregnant Pause,
voice and piano, on Jacqueline Humbert
and
David Rosenboom, Chantuese, Lovely
Music 4001.
- 2004 Farewell
2 Canon, on
Grain compilation CD, DotDotDot003
(Ireland). Electronic work, collaboration with late English composer
Dirk (,) Rodney.
- 2001 The
Casten Variation and excerpts from Lonesome Road, MusicWorks
81 CD.
- 1998 The
Time
is Now, Burning Books/Frog Peak Music.
(Contains two computer
works: ...slippers of steel (with
Nick Didkovsky), and Cocks Crow,
Dogs
Bark… (with John Bischoff and Melody Sumner).
- 1998 Frog
Peak Collaborations:
115 pieces by 62
composers on a text by Chris Mann. Frog
Peak Music. (Contains a set of 10 short works by me).
- 1996 Study:
baa baa birthday have you any star. Computer Music Journal CD.
- 1995 Study:
Anna, the long and the short of it.
The Aerial #6, Non Sequitur Recordings.
- 1994 Hallways:
11 Composers and HMSL CD. Frog Peak
Music. (Contains several of my
The World’s Longest Melody: Piano Studies).
- 1993 Four
Voice Canon #8, on Transforms.
Cuneiform CD.
- 1992 [Hebrew title] (Al Het), on Leonardo Music
Journal CD #2.
- 1992 [Hebrew title] (B'rey'sheet), on Numbers
Racket: Compilation Volume #2, Just Intonation Network.
- 1991 [Hebrew title] (V'Leem'Shol) on CDCM
Computer Music Series, Volume 11: The Virtuoso in the Computer Age II.
Centaur.
- 1986 Four
Voice Canon #3, on Music at Mills.
Mills
College Centennial Album.
- 1985 Hensley
Variations. Opus One Records.
- 1984 Movement for
Andrea Smith, on TELLUS Cassette
Magazine #14.
Scores published (in
periodicals, journals)
[Note: Most of my scores are published by Frog Peak Music (A Composers’
Collective)].
- Four Voice Canon #18 (“Trio
Canon for Christian Wolff”) published in SoundVisions, PFAU Publications,
Saarbrucken, Germany, 2005
- glockentood, published
by Smith
Publications, 2005
- Ensembles of Note and Neighborhoods of
Note (2 Suzuki pianists), in Open
Space Magazine, Issue 2, Spring, 2000
- ii-v-i (for two electric guitars, or solo electric guitar) in 1/1: The Journal of the Just
Intonation Nework, Fall, 10:2, 2000
- Bedhaya Sadra/Bedhaya Guthrie,
computer-composed score for voices, gamelan, and instruments, Perspectives of New Music,
34(1):28–55, 1996
- The World’s Longest Melody,
in Array, Newsletter of the
International Computer Music Association, 12(3): 4-8, 1994.
- Horn, for French horn
and live electronics, score in
Xenharmonikon 14: 80-90, 1993.
- Canon
for Flute, score
and notes in 1/1, The Quarterly Journal of
the Just Intonation Network, 6(2): 5-10, 1990.
- Movement for Lou Harrison,
four basses, revised, Xenharmonikon
XII: 68-90, 1988.
- Four Bass Studies (what to do
when the night comes …), solo bass,
Xenharmonikon X, 1987.
- Distance Musics I-VI, and Four Violin Studies (what to do when the
night comes for Jim Tenney), in Perspectives of New Music, 25(1&2):
537-544, 545-546, 1987.
- Hensley Variations, Gottlieb Variations (“The Year of Jubalo”),
and Sacco, Vanzetti
(arrangement of Ruth Crawford song), New Music for
Plucked Strings, Frog Peak Music, 1987.
- Three Rimbaud Settings,
in Ear Magazine vocal issue 10(3),
January–March 1986.
- Here To Stay, for violin
and pitch sensing microprocessor, in
Active Listener #4, 1984.
- [Hebrew title] (Sh'ma):
Fuging Tune in G, score in Soundings
#11, pp. 89-112, 1980.
- 17 for the 36, in
Generation, Princeton, N.J, 1978.
- Piano Study #5, in
XenHarmonikon #7/8, 1978.
- Movement for Andrea Smith (My
Funny Valentine for Just String
Quartet), and Movement for
Lou Harrison (for two violins), in
Xenharmonikon #6, 1977.
other
- Delicate Computations
(collaborative article/piece with Phil Corner)
- Too Late, CD, with David
Mahler, Frog Peak Music FP0011 (guitarist, mandolinist, etc.), 2005
- Rhythms of the Tarkine,
CD/Book, Ron Nagorcka and Sarah Lloyd, (LP guitarist on Collaruncinla Harmonica), 2005