History and Literature of Electronic Music

Name:
Instructor:
Course:
Date:
History and Literature of Electronic Music
Question 1
The thing that inspired Lucier to make the piece is his experience with one of his colleagues. In 1968, Lucier bumped into his friend who was coming from a lecture given by an MIT professor. As they were talking, his friend told him how the MIT professor had told his audience about the project he was undertaking to test the new speakers he was designing (Lucier, 1969). The professor tested his designs by recycling sounds into the speakers to determine whether the responses were flat. The conversation made Lucier interested in the idea, and this is what led him to decide to make the piece title "I am sitting in a room."
Question 2
First, Lucier did some of his practices in one of the rooms at Brandeis. He later undertook his experiment in his room at 454 streets, rented out to him by the University (Lucier, 1969). First, Lucier borrowed Nagra recorders from the university's music department. He took them home and waited for the place to be quiet. He had to make sure the nearby club was closed to avoid the noise coming from the place. He then placed the machines outside his room because he did not want the noise from the reeling wheels to interfere with his experiment (Lucier, 1969). He then switched off the room's heat and refrigerator to ensure there was complete silence. When everything was quiet, he turned on the machine and read, "I am sitting in room" into the microphone.
Question 3
Lucier wanted to avoid poe...