Dennis Johnson (composer)

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Dennis Lee Johnson (November 19, 1938 – December 20, 2018)[1] was a mathematician and a composer. He is the namesake of the Johnson homomorphism in the study of mapping class groups of surfaces.[citation needed] He is credited as having composed the first truly "minimal" composition November,[2] which was written for solo piano in 1959 (later revised).

November is famous for being the inspiration for Johnson's UCLA college friend La Monte Young's 1964 composition, The Well-Tuned Piano.[3]

The work has been painstakingly reconstructed from a 1962 112-minute cassette tape recording, and six pages of the original score, by the composer and musicologist Kyle Gann,[4] who first performed a four-and-a-half-hour version in 2009 with Sarah Cahill. Gann has produced a new performance score based on the original material that R. Andrew Lee recorded in a five hour version released in 2013 by Irritable Hedgehog Music, receiving good reviews[5][6] and a renewed interest in this seminal work of minimalism. In 2017 the Dutch pianist and composer Jeroen van Veen released November as part of his eight-disc Minimal Piano Collection, Vol XXI–XXVIII.

Johnson gave up music around 1962 and moved into mathematics (working for a time at California Institute of Technology, the private research university in Pasadena)[3] leaving this one fascinating and influential work that features many of the elements that would later become the basic staples of 1960s and early 1970s Minimalism.

Death[]

Johnson died December 20, 2018, in Morgan Hill, California, from complications of dementia.[1] He was 80.

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Kozinn, Allan (January 9, 2019). "Dennis Johnson, 80, Creator of a Rediscovered Minimalist Score, Dies". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 10, 2019. Retrieved January 10, 2019.
  2. ^ Walls, Seth Colter (29 July 2015). "R. Andrew Lee ... as if to each other ." Pitchfork. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b Bell, Clive (March 2013). "Dennis Johnson: Maths, Mars landings and minimalism". The Wire. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
  4. ^ Gann, Kyle. "Reconstructing November". Irritable Hedgehog. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
  5. ^ Smith, Steve (10 March 2013). "R. Andrew Lee rewrites the history books with November". Time Out New York. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
  6. ^ "Music Review: November, by Dennis Johnson". kirkville.com. Retrieved 25 February 2017.

External links[]

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