James K Randall, 2004, B Y Randall and A Margolin

James K. Randall (June 16, 1929 - Cleveland, Ohio ; May 28, 2014 - Princeton, New Jersey) was an American composer, music theorist, and early adopter of electronic music. At the time of his death he was Professor of Music Emeritus at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

.Saxon, Jamie (5 Jun 2014)
"James Randall, Princeton music professor and pioneer in electronic music, dies"
Princeton University.

Life and career

James Kirtland Randall was born in Cleveland, Ohio to Margaret ("Miggie") Wright Randall and Edwin Templeton Randall. Miggie Randall was a violin teacher at the

Cleveland Institute of Music The Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) is a private music conservatory in Cleveland, Ohio. Founded in 1920 by Ernest Bloch, it enrolls 325 students in the conservatory and approximately 1,500 students in the preparatory and continuing educatio ...

and brought young James up as a music prodigy, with the ambition that he would become a famous piano player. When James was 17, a piano sonata that he composed was played at Carnegie Hall by his teacher,

Leonard Shure Leonard Shure (April 10, 1910 in Los Angeles – February 28, 1995 in Nantucket, Massachusetts) was an American concert pianist. He began his career as a performer at the age of 5 and as a teenager studied privately with Artur Schnabel in Germ ...

.'' Town Topics'' (4 June 2014)
"Obituary:James K. Randall"
/ref> James went on to get a BA at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, an MA at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and an MFA at Princeton (studying with

Milton Babbitt Milton Byron Babbitt (May 10, 1916 – January 29, 2011) was an American composer, music theorist, mathematician, and teacher. He is particularly noted for his Serialism, serial and electronic music. Biography Babbitt was born in Philadelphia t ...

.) He also taught for four years at the US Navy School of Music while on active duty. He joined the faculty of

in 1957. At Princeton, he became a pioneer in electronic music, working from the very early days of

punch cards A punched card (also punch card or punched-card) is a piece of stiff paper that holds digital data represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. Punched cards were once common in data processing applications or to di ...

. Music from that time includes ''Lyric Variations for Violin and Computer'', ''Quartets in Pairs'', and ''Quartersines''. Later, he did a great deal of free-wheeling improvisation, then late in life came back to composing for piano (the GAP series) and

MIDI MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and re ...

(''a garland of Midi'', ''My Prayer for Bella''). Though Randall's music was mostly heard within the small world of academic music, it occasionally reached a wider audience, for instance on the radio sho
"Schickele Mix"
: He also wrote about music, published at first in ''

Perspectives of New Music ''Perspectives of New Music'' (PNM) is a peer-reviewed academic journal specializing in music theory and analysis. It was established in 1962 by Arthur Berger and Benjamin Boretz (who were its initial editors-in-chief). ''Perspectives'' was first ...

''. Many of his writings took the form of highly experimental prose poems. A typical footnote from ''Compose Yourself -- A Manual for the Young'' (1972) reads:Rahn, John (2001)
"Aspects of Musical Explanation "
pp. 55–58 in

Benjamin Boretz Benjamin Aaron Boretz (born October 3, 1934) is an American composer and music theorist. Life and work Benjamin Boretz was born in Brooklyn, New York to Abraham Jacob Boretz and Leah (Yullis) Boretz. He graduated with a degree in music from Broo ...

(ed.). ''Music Inside Out: Going Too Far in Musical Essays''. Psychology Press 1.) (pfung! ; !pfung( The publication of ''Compose Yourself'' caused a major financial backer to remove his support from ''Perspectives of New Music''. While J.K. Randall's early works were set in conventional type, in his later writings he often used his own calligraphy.'')something medieval)'', Lingua Press, 1988 Randall's writings are collected in the 2-volume set ''Being About Music'' (with

). Much of J.K. Randall's work is published by Open Space and a large collection of his manuscripts and papers is held in the J. K. Randall Collection of the

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, is located in Manhattan, New York City, at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side, between the Metro ...

.Snyder, Matthew
J. K. Randall Collection 1944-2006

Archives and Manuscripts. J.K. Randall was married to Ruth Hochheimer Randall for 62 years. They had 3 children together; Ellen, Thomas, and Beth.

Compositions

Writings

*''Haydn: String Quartet in D major, op. 76, no. 5'', Music Review, 1960 *''Pitch-Time Correlations'', written 1962 *''Godfrey Winham: Composition for Orchestra'', ''Perspectives of New Music'', 1963–64 *''Convertible Counterpoint in the Strict Style (1906) by Serge Ivanovitch Tanaiev'' JMT, 1964 *''Three Lectures to Scientists'', ''Perspectives of New Music'', 1967 *
Compose Yourself -- A Manual for the Young
', Perspectives of New Music, 1971 - 1974 *''A Soundscroll'', ''Perspectives of New Music'', 1975 *''How Music Goes'', ''Perspectives of New Music'', 1976 *''ADVT. --> repeat after me'', ''Perspectives of New Music'', 1979–80 *''Are You Serious?'', ''Perspectives of New Music'', 1985 *'')something medieval)'', Lingua Press, 1988 *''Ten Thoughts about Lyric Variations'', 1993 *''It's all Yours/ A Note on GAP 6'', Open Space Magazine 3, 2001 *''On Facing Front'', Open Space Magazine 5, 2003 *''What is it About ABOUT?'', Open Space Magazine 5, 2003 *''Being About Music'', 2 vols. Collected writings of J.K. Randall and Ben Boretz, 2003 *
Liner Notes to "Shouldn't we Talk?"
', 2003 *''When the Birds Come Calling (A Public Meditation on Two Recent Compositions by Ben Boretz)'', Open Space Magazine 8/9, Special Supplement, 2006 - 07. *''To Astonish the Roses'', Open Space, 2013.

References

External links

J. K. Randall Discography at DiscogsPrinceton University Memorial BlogJ. K. Randall's YouTube ChannelComposers and Computers: Episode 02: Composers in the Computer Center

J. K. Randall on video

Interview with J. K. Randall (New York Public Library)JKR memorial on vimeoMilton Babbitt: Portrait of a Serial Composer
(contains footage of J. K. Randall) {{DEFAULTSORT:Randall, James 1929 births 2014 deaths American music theorists American male composers Pupils of Milton Babbitt Princeton University faculty 20th-century American composers Harvard University alumni 21st-century American composers Musicians from Cleveland Columbia University alumni Princeton University alumni 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians