Philip Corner

Philip Corner (b. 1933) is an American composer, musician and visual artist. His teachers include Henry Cowell and Olivier Messiaen. While on military duty in Korea in 1960-1961, he studied calligraphy with Ki-sung Kim and many of his works have calligraphic scores. A founding member of Fluxus, Corner has performed with George Maciunas, Dick Higgins, Yoko Ono and Nam June Paik. From 1967 to 1970 he taught the course in Experimental Composition at the New School for Social Research, which John Cage initiated in 1956. He was a member of Judson Dance Theater as both dancer and composer and has written scores for dance pieces by James Waring, Yvonne Rainer, Lucinda Childs and Elaine Summers, among many others. He lives in Reggio nell'Emilia with his wife and performing partner, the dancer and choreographer Phoebe Neville. His wide-ranging output includes numerous works for gongs, bells, metal percussion and gamelan orchestra. Piano Work'd explores the rich sonic possibilities afforded by the dismantling of a piano. Corner recorded the performance on August 19, 1983 at Archivio F. Conz, Verona, using a Sony Walkman Professional WM-D6 and a Sennheiser Kunstkopf microphone. The finished object that resulted from this action is the property of the Archivio F. Conz, Verona. The audio for this edition was remastered in 2011 by BJNilsen. Cover illustration -- detail from the original score by Philip Corner.