Composer Paul Lansky has a sly sense of humor that he somehow manages to pass off, time and again, as unassumingly as a plate of dry toast. I love this description of his creative process:
“Generally I write for a group, and I think of what’s good for the group,” he says. “When you start a piece, it’s just flowing wildly, and at a certain point your ‘wild flowing’ tends to become a little more organized. Finally you know what you’re doing. Then you keep working, and it starts to get a little worse. Then you know you’ve finished the piece.”
It starts to get a little worse, and that’s when you know you’re done. I love that. So true!
It’s one of countless pearls Lansky’s strung over the past 80 years, 45 of which (from 1969 to 2014) he served on the faculty of Princeton University. For nine for those years (from 1991 to 2000), he chaired the university’s music department.
A French hornist who became a pioneering composer of computer music, Lansky caught the ear of the experimental rock band Radiohead (his 1973 computer piece “mild und leise” was sampled in the song “Idioteque,” released on the group’s 2000 album “Kid A”). More enduringly, he formed a fruitful association with guitarist David Starobin, whose Bridge Records, Inc. has documented and released just about Lansky’s entire output, with at least 17 CDs devoted exclusively to his music.
Of course, Lansky has long since evolved from his days as a trailblazer in the field of electronic music. Heading into the 1990s, he began to sense he had said all he had to say using computers and began to shift his focus back to the acoustic realm. Among his works for orchestra, his concerto for two pianos, “Shapeshifters,” was performed at Carnegie Hall in 2012.
I interviewed Lansky several times over the years, both on the radio and for the newspaper. Here’s an article I wrote for his impending 75th birthday concert at Richardson Auditorium in 2019. I’m pretty sure it’s the only time I ever used “armpit fart” in print.
Happy birthday, Paul Lansky!
One of Lansky’s favorite works, “Threads” (2005), written for Sō Percussion
And one of mine: “Partly Pavane” from the “Semi-Suite” (2001) for solo guitar
A classic with a sense of humor: “Table’s Clear” (1990) for utensils, kids and computer:
Radiohead favorite “mild und leise” (1973)
Wish I could add his Concerto for Two Pianos, “Shapeshifters” (2007-08), but I can’t find the audio posted online. From the same album, here’s “Imaginary Islands” (2010).
