UCI OFFERS ELECTRONIC MUSIC CLASS
In one of Steve Martin’s old routines, the comedian boasted that “ you can be a millionaire and never pay taxes.” The punch line? “First, get a million dollars. Now. . . .”
A similar answer used to be the only recourse for aspiring electronic music wizards who ached to get their hands on lots of expensive, sophisticated synthesizers: “First, get $100,000. Now. . . .”
But thanks to a bequest from the late composer Remi Gassman, UC Irvine has built an electronic music lab that makes nearly $140,000 worth of first-, second- and third-generation synthesizers available to anyone who signs up for a new university extension course in electronic music synthesis.
When Gassman, best known for his score to Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds,” died in 1982, he left approximately $250,000 to the University of California for the establishment of the lab, said Eric Wright, UCI professor of music. Wright will teach the initial synthesizer classes when they begin next week.
The enrollment fee is $225, but the course provides instruction and hands-on experience with analog, digital and computer-assisted synthesizers, said Wright, a percussion specialist who has been experimenting with electronic music for more than a decade.
“If you go into a music store to buy a synthesizer, a salesman will push a lot of buttons to show you what it can do. But that doesn’t really help you learn how it works and what it does,” Wright said.
Among the pieces already installed in UCI’s still-in-progress Gassman Electronic Music Laboratory is an original Moog synthesizer like the one that first introduced electronic music to millions of Americans via Walter Carlos’ 1969 album “Switched on Bach.”
In addition to that pioneering instrument are 1970’s digital synthesizers produced by Roland and Yamaha, up-do-date computer-assisted synthesizers as well as recording and playback equipment.
Wright said that more equipment will be installed in the lab but that growth will continue at a measured pace. “We are trying to live off the interest from the endowment instead of spending it all at once,” he said.
John West, director of arts and humanities for UCI Extension, said the fall course is the first step in a new two-year certificate program in electronic music. Because the first section reached its 25-student limit very quickly, a second section has been added.
“So far,” Wright said, “the interest has been overwhelming.”
Further, Wright said the long-range goal is to establish bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in electronic music. UCI isn’t the only university offering such courses. Wright cited programs at UCLA, UC San Diego, California Institute of the Arts and UC Davis as examples that electronic music is increasingly finding its way into university studies.
It’s a sign, Wright said, that old resistances to using new technology in traditional music programs are fading.
“There has been a change in attitude in our department, and I think faculties are more receptive to this kind of change,” Wright said. “But I wouldn’t have said that three years ago.”
In UCI’s new program, lower level courses will emphasize technical proficiency and the understanding of how synthesizers work before students proceed to performance and composition in subsequent classes.
Wright said all applications for electronic music will be explored, from classical and avant-garde experimentation to jazz and rock and even interdisciplinary uses that will involve UCI’s music, theater, dance, film, broadcast, visual arts and computer science departments.
“By incorporating all different areas of experience, hopefully we can come up with a department that utilizes the computers on campus as well as fine arts, so were not just locked into fine arts,” Wright said. “This will be a good avenue for this department to express itself in the coming years.”
When classes begin Monday, the Gassman lab will be open during the day to university students, with music majors having priority access. But at night, the lab will be available to students enrolled in the extension class.
“My main interest is in the area of psycho-acoustics,” Wright said, using one of his own projects to illustrate some of the vast and still largely untapped potential of synthesizers and computers.
“I’d like to create and design an artificial intelligence system that could help anyone play his instrument and play better through immediate feedback. It’s a project I’ve been working on since graduate school,” Wright said.
“We are really just on the threshold of all the different uses for this technology that we’ll see in the next century.”
LIVE ACTION: Hunters & Collectors will do two shows in Orange County this month: at Kiss in Newport Beach on Oct. 14 and at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano on Oct. 16. . . . Earl Klugh will be at the Coach House on Oct. 17. . . . Kris Kristofferson returns to the Crazy Horse Steak House in Santa Ana on Oct. 27-28. . . . Blood on the Saddle will play Night Moves in Huntington Beach on Oct. 17.