DAVID TUDOR's use of amplifiers

"It seems that you are only using amplifiers here!"

-Paraphrased from a statement by Billy Kluver

As David said himself...

"Rather than think of tone generators or recordings of natural sounds etc., I experimented with principles of amplification, trying to make amplifiers oscillate in an absolutely unpredictable manner."

"In the end, it turned out that I didn't even need any amplifiers because most electronic equipment uses the principle of amplification. You need filters, modulators and mixing equipment which have gain stages. By piling these components up, I was able to work without any sound generators and I made several pieces in that manner. One of them was "Toneburst" which was also done for Merce Cunningham. "Toneburst" had a large component count."

Tudor's manipulation of gain stages is legendary. His ability to control multiple stages of amplification without the system "taking off" was simply virtuostic.

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