The Composer's Black Box

Making Music in Cybernetic America

Theodore Gordon

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English

University of California Press
02 December 2025

Music; Theory of music & musicology; Electronic music; History: specific events & topics; Acoustic & sound engineering

Series: California Studies in Music, Sound, and Media

Stories about new musical instruments are often told as quests for new kinds of sounds. The Composer's Black Box asks, What happens when new musical instruments produce not only new sounds but also new dynamics of musical agency and control? And what consequences do those new dynamics have for musicality beyond sound? With a focus on five key figures—Morton Subotnick, Pauline Oliveros, Donald Buchla, Alvin Lucier, and Sun Ra—this book explores how scientific and technological developments in mid-twentieth-century America galvanized musicians to reconfigure their conceptions of sociality, freedom, and the creative self. Theodore Gordon shows how cybernetic thinking in a range of disciplines, from experimental music to jazz and electrical engineering, shaped musical techniques and technologies and changed what it means to be a composer—or, more broadly, a music-making human—in an increasingly informational world.

By: Theodore Gordon
Imprint: University of California Press
Country of Publication: United States
Volume: 7
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9780520410206
ISBN 10: 0520410203
Series: California Studies in Music, Sound, and Media
Pages: 286
Publication Date: 02 December 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Theodore Gordon is Assistant Professor of Music at Baruch College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York.

Reviews for The Composer's Black Box: Making Music in Cybernetic America

""A valuable corrective to the utopian ideals of Subotnik and other cybernetic acolytes, who viewed electronic music within a framework of smooth technological progress and human advancement."" * The Wire *