James Dashow: Archimedes—A Planetarium Opera

Abstract

performances. The other works on the album are “Circuit Combine” (2013) and “Level Shift” (2017). “Circuit Combine” recalls Bischoff’s earlier “Audio Combine,” perhaps as a reconfiguration of the earlier work’s processes. “Level Shift,” meanwhile, is the calmest of the works, leaning into similar creative tactics using drones as their musical material. The second half of the concert featured a performance of “League Trio” by Bischoff, Perkis, and current Mills Center for Contemporary Music director James Fei. As the title suggests, it is inspired by the live, networked microcomputer works and improvisatory practices of the League of Automatic Music Composers (whose members included Bischoff and Perkis as well as Rich Gold, James Horton, and David Behrman). The sonic terrain of “League Trio” was different from Bischoff’s earlier set, even after acknowledging the new personnel and equipment on stage. Interlinked through audio pathways and sharing data via OSC, the three improvisers operated with methodologies utilized by the League: personal setups, no preexisting plans, and an embrace of how each other’s actions and data would influence their own outputs. There is something to it that John Bischoff’s closing act in a concert celebrating his career is not a solo or even some kind of spotlighthogging concerto-like work. Instead, he blurred into the group, as if a part of one of his hero David Tudor’s combines, working collaboratively with Perkis and Fei. In some ways, Bischoff’s precision in the first half made adjusting to the looser structures and more generalized sound of this League-inspired improvisation harder for a moment. In reviewing some recordings of the League after the performance, it was especially clear how much they had captured its rambunctious, live musicality. This concert, especially after being rescheduled from its 2020 date because of the Covid-19 pandemic, had an extra layer of significance with the announcement that Mills College was going to close or change status in some way. In the months that have followed that night in April 2021, Northeastern University and Mills have created a plan to merge. Although much has yet to be clarified about the future of Mills College’s educational missions in the wake of its new relationship with Northeastern, Bischoff’s retirement is part of a generational chapter’s close for the college, following the retirements of longtime Center for Contemporary Music codirectors Maggi Payne and Chris Brown, and other faculty from the music department including Roscoe Mitchell and Fred Frith. Mills has experienced considerable shifts of musical trajectory before but has found new ways after the departures of previous faculty such as Darius Milhaud, Luciano Berio, Alvin Curran, Pauline Oliveros, and Robert Ashley. It has also invested in new possibilities, such as when the San Francisco Tape Music Center became part of the college, later renamed the Center for Contemporary Music. Among the current students and alumnae of the college, there is still a great deal of concern about what will, or will not, survive into the partnership with Northeastern. The unique music opportunities at Mills College are worth supporting, as is finding ways to shine a light on the historically significant events and people throughout the music department’s history. Most importantly, I hope Mills College, in every potential iteration it may be transformed into, is one that continues to support women and women’s educational spaces. Recordings