The Roots of the Moment [Paperback]

Pauline Oliveros (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1998

collected writings 1985-95 by new music pioneer

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Born 1932, Houston, Texas
1960 Founding member of San Francisco Tape Music Center
1967-81 Taught composition at University of California, San Diego
1988 Founded Deep Listening Band
1990-present Teaching at Mills College, Oberlin Conservatory

Product Details

• Paperback: 141 pages
• Publisher: Drogue Pr (August 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0962845647
• ISBN-13: 978-0962845642
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 6.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,959,737 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Pauline Oliveros (1932) has influenced American music extensively in her career spanning more than 60 years as a composer, performer, author and philosopher. She pioneered the concept of Deep Listening, her practice based upon principles of improvisation, electronic music, ritual, teaching and meditation, designed to inspire both trained and untrained musicians to practice the art of listening and responding to environmental conditions in solo and ensemble situations. During the mid-'60s she served as the first director of the Tape Music Center at Mills College, aka Center for Contemporary Music followed by 14-years as Professor of Music and 3 years as Director of the Center for Music Experiment at the University of California at San Diego. Since 2001 she has served as Distinguished Research Professor of Music in the Arts department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) where she is engaged in research on a National Science Foundation CreativeIT project. Her research interests include improvisation, special needs interfaces and telepresence teaching and performing. She also serves as Darius Milhaud Composer in Residence at Mills College doing telepresence teaching and she is executive director of Deep Listening Institute, Ltd. where she leads projects in Deep Listening, Adaptive Use Interface. She is the recipient of the 2009 William Schuman Award from Columbia University for lifetime achievement. A retrospective from 1960 to 2010 was performed at Miller Theater, Columbia University in New York March 27, 2010 in conjunction with the Schuman award. She received a third honorary degree from DeMontort University, Leicester, UK July 23, 2010. Recent recordings include Pauline Oliveros & Miya Masoka and Pauine Oliveros & Chris Brown on Deep Listening,
http://paulineoliveros.us, and http://www.deeplistening.org/, Then & Now & Now & Then: Celebrating Twenty Years, Deep Listening Band, double vinyl album, Taiga Records, 2008; Drifting Depths, vinyl release Important Records 2008, Timeless Pulse Trio, vinyl release Taiga Records 2010.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars listening for your voice, December 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Roots of the Moment (Paperback)

The title "Roots of the Moment" aptly characterizes the content of this book. Improvisation requires performing in the moment. Finding the root of each moment is part of a spiritual/philosophical quest of which sound is essential. Readers familiar with "emotional intelligence" will quickly realize the value of Oliveros' "Deep Listening" program as a powerful vehicle for tapping into the creative potential of emotional memory. "Roots" consists of: music "scores" or directions for improvisation by anyone (including non-musicians and children), graphic scores, poems, letters, and lectures on Deep Listening (e.g., sound and sounding, listening and hearing, power and healing), technology, women's rights, anatomy and physiology of listening, social commentary, among others. Not only is the content informative, but the format in which it is presented further illustrates Oliveros' idea of improvisation. Multiple writings are presented simultaneously on each page, with some continuing for 10 pages and others weaving into each other with different typefaces serving as keys for each writing---or is the linear presentation of ideas essential to the direct experience of reading descriptions of experience? The visual layout encourages improvisation by the reader, merging and moving among the different texts. "Roots of the Moment" illustrates Oliveros' unique sensitivity to listening and her commitment to facilitating the healing power of sound in others. Performing, creating, and teaching around the world, Pauline Oliveros is one musician, healer, educator, philosopher, and social commentator who walks her talk. Roots of the Moment is one book that will continually aid you, as an individual and in community, in listening and sounding creativity and healing. The only suggestion I have for the reprint is to provide the beginning and ending page for each writing, thereby helping readers unfamiliar with the mosaic format of the text.