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James Tenney (August 10, 1934 in Silver City, NM) is an American composer and influential music theorist. He exposed piano by using Eduard Steuermann and composition with Chou Wen-chung, Lionel Nowak, Paul Boepple, Henry Brant, Carl Ruggles, Kenneth Gaburo, Lejaren Hiller, and Edgard Varèse. His students include John Luther Adams. He likewise exposed information theory under Lejaren Hiller, and composed stochastic early computer music before turning just about entirely to writing for instruments by using a occasional tape delay, often utilizing just intonation and alternative tunings. His act deals only & artfully by owning perception (For Ann (rising), see Shepard tone), just intonation (Clang, see gestalt), stochastic elements (Music for Player Piano), information theory (Ergodos, see Ergodic theory), and using what he calls 'great' (Koan: Having Never Written A Note For Percussion (for John Bergamo)), which is basically arch form. His pieces come virtually all typically tributes and subtitled intrinsically. When his friend Philip Corner says, For Ann (rising), "must be optimistic! (Imagine the depressing effectiveness of it -- he could never be so cruel -- downward)..."

Tenney is the creator of the around depth liner notes to Wergo's edition of Conlon Nancarrow's Studies for Player Piano (Nancarrow, as a favor, punched a roll for Tenney's Spectral Canon for Conlon Nancarrow), a germinal Meta (+) Hodos (one of, in case does'nt a, earliest applications of gestalt theory and cognitive science to music), the late Hierarchal temporal gestalt perception inside music : the metric space model by using Larry Polansky, and more works. He presently teaches at a California Institute of Arts.

Sylvia Smith Archives: James Tenney
Picture, biography, archived compositions, and audio files.

York University: James Tenney
Biography.

CDeMusic: James Tenney
Picture, biography, and list of works.

Canadian Music Centre: Tenney, James
Picture, biography, selected works, and CDs.

McGill University: James Tenney
Picture and biography.

Kalvos & Damian: James Tenney
Picture, sound files, biography, and selected works.