Guest Edited by Robert Hasegawa

In August 2006, the new music world lost one of its most adventurous and brilliant composers. James Tenney (1934 – 2006) was a pioneer of computer music, the author of witty yet profound verbal scores, and a composer of everything from piano rags to orchestral explorations of subtle microtonal harmonies. A more diverse or accomplished oeuvre is hard to imagine, Tenney was driven by a constant curiosity about the universe, describing himself as ‘a composer and amateur cosmologist’ (Polansky, 2006).

In tribute to Tenney’s remarkable musical accomplishments, Contemporary Music Review brings together articles on Tenney’s music by musicologists and composers, including several of his former students and colleagues. The articles range from aesthetic reconsiderations to detailed analyses of specific works and compositional extensions of Tenney’s ideas. An important article by Tenney, ‘On “Crystal Growth” in Harmonic Space’, is published here for the first time in English. Also, in a 2006 interview with Donnacha Dennehy, Tenney looks back on his compositional career, with emphasis on his various approaches to intonation and the influence of Harry Partch and John Cage.

For more information about the details of this special issue, view the flyer.