Papers of the avant-garde pianist and electronic music composer, David Tudor, comprehensively document his participation in post-World War II experimental music. Scores by other composers, notably John Cage, Earle Brown, Morton Feldman, Christian Wolff, Sylvano Bussotti, and Karlheinz Stockhausen, Tudor's realizations of their scores, and his own electronic compositional materials form the bulk of the collection. Archive includes correspondence, financial papers, programs and announcements, specifications and documentation for electronic equipment, and audio and video recordings.

Born in Philadelphia, Pa. in 1926, David Tudor studied composition and analysis with Stefan Wolpe, organ and theory with H. William Hawke, and piano with Irma Wolpe Rademacher. He began his professional work at 17 as an organist, and in 1950 established himself as a formidable talent in avant-garde music when he gave the American premiere of the Second Piano Sonata by Pierre Boulez. Until the late 1960s, Tudor gave first or early performances of works by Earle Brown, Sylvano Bussotti, Morton Feldman, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Christian Wolff, Stefan Wolpe, and La Monte Young. His virtuosity and imagination inspired many of these composers to write pieces for him, involving complex graphic notations and performance problems which they felt only Tudor could solve.

ca. 177.5 linear ft.

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