Gordon Mumma is an American composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

. He cofounded Ann Arbor's Cooperative Studio for Electronic Music with Robert Ashley

Robert Ashley

Robert Ashley , is a contemporary American composer, best known for his operas and other theatrical works, many of which incorporate electronics and extended techniques. Along with Gordon Mumma, Ashley was also a major pioneer of audio synthesis.Ashley was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan...

, was a musician with the Merce Cunningham

Merce Cunningham

Mercier "Merce" Philip Cunningham was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of the American avant-garde for more than 50 years. Throughout much of his life, Cunningham was considered one of the greatest creative forces in American dance...

 Dance Company (with John Cage

John Cage

John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...

 and David Tudor

David Tudor

David Eugene Tudor was an American pianist and composer of experimental music.- Biography :Tudor was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He studied piano with Irma Wolpe and composition with Stefan Wolpe and became known as one of the leading performers of avant garde piano music. He gave the...

) and was a member of the Sonic Arts Union

Sonic Arts Union

The Sonic Arts Union was a collective of experimental musicians that was active between 1966 and 1976. The founding members of the group were Robert Ashley, David Behrman, Alvin Lucier and Gordon Mumma, all of whom had worked together in the instrumental performances of the ONCE festivals...

 with Ashley, Alvin Lucier

Alvin Lucier

Alvin Lucier is an American composer of experimental music and sound installations that explore acoustic phenomena and auditory perception. A long-time music professor at Wesleyan University, Lucier was a member of the influential Sonic Arts Union, which included Robert Ashley, David Behrman, and...

, and David Behrman

David Behrman

David Behrman is a US composer and the producer of Columbia Records' Music of Our Time series. He was also a founding member of the Sonic Arts Union. He toured with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and has worked with Ben Neill. He was a part of Robert Ashley's Music with Roots in the Aether...

. He is known most for his work with electronics, many devices of which he builds himself.

Mumma was professor of music at the University of California-Santa Cruz where his composition students included Chris Brown, Joe Hannan, Daniel James Wolf

Daniel James Wolf

Daniel James Wolf is an American composer.- Studies :Wolf studied composition with Gordon Mumma, Alvin Lucier, and La Monte Young, as well as musical tunings with Erv Wilson and Douglas Leedy and ethnomusicology . Important contacts with Lou Harrison, John Cage, Walter Zimmermann...

, and Jonathan Segel

Jonathan Segel

Jonathan Segel is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist. He has played with Camper Van Beethoven, Sparklehorse, Eugene Chadbourne, and Dieselhed.-Biography:...

. Additional students include Mamoru Fujieda

Mamoru Fujieda

is a Japanese composer associated with the postminimalist movement of contemporary classical music.He received a Ph.D. in music from the University of California, San Diego in 1988...

.

Films

• 1976 - Music With Roots in the Aether: Opera for Television. Tape 4: Gordon Mumma. Produced and directed by Robert Ashley
  Robert Ashley
  Robert Ashley , is a contemporary American composer, best known for his operas and other theatrical works, many of which incorporate electronics and extended techniques. Along with Gordon Mumma, Ashley was also a major pioneer of audio synthesis.Ashley was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan...
  
  . New York, New York: Lovely Music. http://www.ubu.com/film/aether.html

External links

• Brainwashed.com/mumma Gordon Mumma Web site
• Art of the States: Gordon Mumma three works by the composer
• UbuWeb: Gordon Mumma featuring Horn, a coulisse from antiquity in the guise of an objet trouvé