Life

Gaburo was born in Somerville, New Jersey

Somerville, New Jersey

Somerville is a borough in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 12,098. It is the county seat of Somerset County....

. He served as a professor of music at the University of Illinois, the University of California, San Diego

University of California, San Diego

The University of California, San Diego, commonly known as UCSD or UC San Diego, is a public research university located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States...

, and the University of Iowa

University of Iowa

The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...

. His notable students include James Tenney

James Tenney

James Tenney was an American composer and influential music theorist.-Biography:Tenney was born in Silver City, New Mexico, and grew up in Arizona and Colorado. He attended the University of Denver, the Juilliard School of Music, Bennington College and the University of Illinois...

 and Allen Strange

Allen Strange

Allen Strange was an American composer. He authored two books, Electronic Music: Systems, Techniques, and Controls and Programming and Meta-Programming the Electro-Organism...

. He is renowned as a teacher, pioneer of electronics in music, jazz pianist, writer, ecologist, publisher, and proponent of compositional linguistics

Linguistics

Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....

.

In 1968, he joined the faculty at the new San Diego campus of the University of California where in 1972 a Rockefeller Foundation

Rockefeller Foundation

The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...

 grant enabled him to start NMCE IV, this time with an actor, a virtuoso speaker, a mime, a gymnast, and a sound-movement artist (Moore and Rosen 2001). Until his resignation from UCSD in 1975 he produced a large number of integrated theatrical works, such as the collection Lingua and Privacy.

In 1975, Gaburo founded Lingua Press, which produces scores, books, records, audio tapes, videotapes, and films (Moore and Rosen 2001). This firm is dedicated to putting forth unique artist-produced works in all media having to do with language and music. Many of the publications have been exhibited in book art shows throughout the world. Gaburo lived in the Anzo-Borrego desert writing and teaching from 1980 until 1983. In 1980, he was artistic director for the first "authentic" production of Harry Partch

Harry Partch

Harry Partch was an American composer and instrument creator. He was one of the first twentieth-century composers to work extensively and systematically with microtonal scales, writing much of his music for custom-made instruments that he built himself, tuned in 11-limit just intonation.-Early...

's The Bewitched for the Berlin Festival (recorded on Enclosure Five: Harry Partch, innova 405). His understanding of Partch's concept of corporeality has deep connections with his own concern for physicality and how it informs compositions. His 1982 tape work, RE-RUN, for instance, was generated after a 20-hour sensory deprivation

Sensory deprivation

Sensory deprivation or perceptual isolation is the deliberate reduction or removal of stimuli from one or more of the senses. Simple devices such as blindfolds or hoods and earmuffs can cut off sight and hearing respectively, while more complex devices can also cut off the sense of smell, touch,...

 exercise.

He became Director of the Experimental Music Studio at the University of Iowa in 1983. The studio put intensive focus on composition, technology, psycho-acoustic perception, performance, and the affirmation of the uniqueness of the individual to create his/her own language reality. At the studio, he founded the Seminar for Cognitive Studies, a forum for discussion of the creative process. His concern for the investigation of music as legitimate research, and composition as the creation of intrinsic appropriate language, led to a series of readings in compositional linguistics for solo performer.

He most often made innovative use of electronics and explored tonality

Tonality

Tonality is a system of music in which specific hierarchical pitch relationships are based on a key "center", or tonic. The term tonalité originated with Alexandre-Étienne Choron and was borrowed by François-Joseph Fétis in 1840...

, serialism

Serialism

In music, serialism is a method or technique of composition that uses a series of values to manipulate different musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though his contemporaries were also working to establish serialism as one example of...

, and what he called "compositional linguistics" such as in his LINGUA series (Listening). He also wrote minimal

Minimalism

Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts...

 pieces such as The Flow of (u)

The Flow of (u)

The Flow of is a piece of music for three voices by Kenneth Gaburo, composed in 1974.The piece consists of "one note sung by three singers for twenty-three minutes" on u whose goal is "to sing in tune to such an extant that … this would consist of phase-coherent waves of sound." This, however,...

for three voices singing unison

Unison

In music, the word unison can be applied in more than one way. In general terms, it may refer to two notes sounding the same pitch, often but not always at the same time; or to the same musical voice being sounded by several voices or instruments together, either at the same pitch or at a distance...

.

Gaburo died in 1993 in Iowa City, Iowa

Iowa City, Iowa

Iowa City is a city in Johnson County, State of Iowa. As of the 2010 Census, the city had a total population of about 67,862, making it the sixth-largest city in the state. Iowa City is the county seat of Johnson County and home to the University of Iowa...

.

The archive of his life's work is held at the University of Illinois Music Library.

Discography

• Kenneth Gaburo: Five Works For Voices, Instruments, and Electronics (2002). New World Records 80585-2. Featuring:

1. Antiphony IV (Poised) (1967)
2. String Quartet in One Movement (1956)
3. Mouth-Piece: Sextet for Solo Trumpet (1970)
4. Antiphony III (Pearl-white moments) (1962)
5. The Flow of (u) (1974)

Further reading

• Brooks, William, Harley Gaber, Susan Motycka, Herbert Brün, et al. 1979–1980. "Gaburo". Perspectives of New Music 18, nos. 1 & 2 (Fall-Winter & Spring-Summer):7–257.
• Dunn, David (ed.). 1995. "A Kenneth Gaburo Memorial". Perspectives of New Music 33, nos. 1 & 2:6–207.

Listening

• UbuWeb: Kenneth Gaburo featuring LINGUA II: MALEDETTO (Composition for 7 Virtuoso Speakers) 1967-8, see: Unified Thread Standard
  Unified Thread Standard
  The Unified Thread Standard defines a standard thread form and series—along with allowances, tolerances, and designations—for screw threads commonly used in the United States and Canada...