Otto Luening

Otto Luening was born in Milwaukee Wisconsin on June 15, 1900. He was one of seven children born into a musically talented family, where both his parents tried to discourage him from music because the life was too hard. However, insistent, Mr. Luening started to play piano at the age of four completely self taught. In a few years his dad recognized his son’s talent and began to teach young Luening piano, which his father was an accomplished pianist. By the age of six he had composed his first song called “Little Mountain Pieces”. In 1912 his family moved to Munich where he started to study flute with Alois Schellhorn (Principal Flutist for Munic Court Orchestra from 1900-1933). He studied in a conservatory and at a university in Zurich. At the age of 15 he was the youngest student at the Staatliche Hochschule fur Musik and there he studied piano under Josif Becht. He debuted as a flutist for Alois Schellhorn at the Munic Court Orchestra on March 27, 1916.

In the next few years Otto Luening moved to Switzerland with his sister to study compositions with Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) who is well known as a child prodigy for his early compositions for the piano. In the early 1900’s Ferruccio became interested in electronic music and it is here that Otto Luening was first introduced to electronic music.

In 1924, Otto returned to the United States and continued to conduct and teach at various universities and colleges. In this era he perfected his knowledge and techniques that are evident in all of Luening’s diverse music collection. Luening’s use of a harmonic practice derived from the overtones of the harmonic series is evident in all of his music from piano and flute works to the electroacoustic music he constructed.

In 1925 Mr. Luening served as the executive director of the opera department at Eastman (1925-1928). By 1930 Otto Luening created his own opera called Evangeline which was based on the narrative poem of Longfellow. He taught at many universities and colleges which included the University of Arizona, Bennington College, The Julliard School and Columbia University.

Otto Luening started at Columbia University in 1944 and stayed there till he retired in 1977. During this era, Otto co founded the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center (CPEMC) with fellow friend, student and composer Vladimir Ussacheusky (1911-1990). It was here in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s where Otto Luening started to experiment with acoustic instruments and electronic sounds.

It was during this time that Otto Luening created the works he is best know for today, which include:

1. Fantasy in Space (1952) – four overdubbed flutes

2. Invention in Twelve Tones (1952)

3. Low Speed (1952)

4. Moonflight (1953)

5. Incantation (1954)

Low Speed was first performed at a concert at the Museum of Modern Art in New York on October 28, 1952 and is considered to be the first all electronic music concert in the US. This concert was broadcasted live and caused a sensation into electronic music. For the piece Low Speed, was created by overlapping several tracks of improvised flute samples. Luening improvised his flute playing based on sketches he had made. He then transposed the first recording an octave lower, and successive versions each a fifth higher than the initial recording. The feedback produced by this technique sounded “unearthly, a ghostly counterpart of the live flute”.

Luening continued his work in electronic music during the 1960’s using the synthesizer “Mark II”. In the early 1960’s Luening’s “Concerted Piece” (1960) and “Synthesis” (1962) for orchestra and tape opened new horizons for electroacoustic music.

By the time Otto Luening was finished teaching at Columbia University, he began to compose many traditional chamber pieces. Through his work in his later life he composed a vast collection of contemporary music which included, flute concertino, symphonic fantasias, short symphony’s, string quartets, sonatas for violin and piano, solo violin sonata’s and chamber music for the flute.

In the 1990’s, Mr. Luening created lots of works with the piano. He would write music for enjoyment and put them aside never to be discovered. He passed away on September 2, 1996 at the age of 96. His composition of music spanned a century. He is considered to be a pioneer of “tape music”; however, most of Otto’s works were actually traditional in structure and instrumentation.

In 2000, a pianist by the name of Marc Peloquin went to Otto Luening’s house in New York to visit his wife. He wanted to uncover the music that Otto transpired during his later years. Here Marc found hundreds of works that Otto had created and he stayed at there place to play Mrs. Luening all the pieces which took over an entire week. From this collection he recorded “Chords at Night”, which include twenty two fantastic works for the piano by Otto Luening.

References:

1) Hartsock, Ralph. Otto Luening: A Bio-bibliography. Greenwood Press, 1991.

2) Avantgarde Music. 2000. January 21, 2006

http://www.scaruffi.com/acant/luening.html

3) New Music Box. November 1999. January 21, 2006

http://www.newmusicbox.org/first-person/nov99/ottoluening.html