student at Columbia in 1955 and 1956. Mauzey was my electronics lab instructor. Occasionally he talked to us of Us- sachevsky's work and told us about some of the wondrous musical developments taking place in thz music department. Vladimir had been active in the Aiidio Engineering Society since the early 50s. He described his developments at the 9th AES Convention on October 9, 1957. and published the manuscript "The Pro- cesses of Experimental Music" in the Joul-rzul (vol. 6. July 1958). After he and his colleagues established the Columbia Princeton Electronic Music Center in 1959. awareness of the importance of electronic music technology grew rapid- ly. When I joined the AES in 1964, its conventions often featured entire ses- Vladirnir Ussachevsky sions on electronic music technology, at which the CPEMC was always well rep- Vladimir Ussachersky, musician, in- caused a lack of engineering jobs. He resented. Throughout the growth of the novator. and visionary, died on January 4, earned a B.A. degree. and an M.A. and voltage-controlled synthesizer technolo- 1990 in New York City. He had been a Ph.D. in composition at the Eastman gy of the 60s and 70s; one could count semina! figure on the electronic music School of Music in Rochester, New York. on Ussachevsky's enthubiastic participa- scene since 1951. when he began conduct- After sewing in the U.S. Anny during tion at industry forums and concert ing tone manipulation experiments with World War 11, Ursache~~skyjoined the demonstrations. Colun~biaUniversity's firct tape recorder. Columbia University music faculty. The In addition to his involvement with With fellow composers Otto Luening, department had acquircd its first tape CPEMC and his teaching at Columbia. Milton Babbitt, and Roger Sessions, Us- recorder, an Ampex 400, and Vladimir Ussachevsky's professional activities in- sachevsky set up the Columbia Princeton was assigned to care for it. Alter using it cluded research work at Bell Labs and the Electronic Music Center in New York, ,an extensively to record live performances. University of Utah, and a roster of com- institution which developed into both 3. he bcgan looking for new ways to use the missioned compositions. many of them niodel technical ?xilit). and a conxnunity tape machine. He created new musical for orchestra and electronic sound. He re- of innovative composers, teachers. and sounds by speed changing, playing seg- mained active as a composer and teacher students. The CPEMC became the most ments of tape backwards, splicing. loop- until a shost time before his death. ilnportant center for electronic music in ing. and electronic processing, and then To the hundreds of students. fellow the United States. assembled the new sounds into experi- composers, and technicians like myself, Ussachevsky's students went on to mental compositions. The tape composi- who were privileged to be able to collab- establish electrorlic music programs in tions were first heard in concert in 1952. orate with him, Vladimir will be remem- colleges througl~outLhe world. They pro- Reporting on one event, The N~M.I71t.k bered for his musical talent. his insight, vided instruction in the techniques of elec- Times stated that Ussachevsky's music and his boundless energy. Wendy Carlos, tronic music composition to the genera- "seerned a little remote from the purposes one of Vladimir's students well-known to tion of musicians who would embrace the of composing, but amused his listeners AES members, remembers hiin as a tape recorder. synthesizer. and later. the greatly." Those early compositions are "gentle giant" who "loved to work at a computer, as their musical resources of now widely regarded as landm;.irk works Scherzo, tempo Presto Possible and then choice. in contemporary music. accelerando poco a poco."' But, we will When Vladimir first began working Gssachevsky continued his work also remember Vladimir for his willing- with tape recorders, he was already an ex- throughout the 50s. His collaborators in- ness to help anyone who was trying to perienced and respected musician. Bom in chided fellow cornposer Otto Luening and contribute to the idiom of electronic mu- 1911 to Russian parents, his father was a engineer Peter Mauzey. who designed and sic. for his patience and tact in offering career almy officer; his mother. a piano built many of the special micropllone advice, and for his easy charm that wel- teacher. He studied piano and choral preamps, mixers. and patching equipment comed everyone. music with his mother. and played in that Ussachevsky needed. Both Us- ROBERTMOOG vaudeville houses before coming to the sachevsky and Mauzey were perfection- Big Briar, Inc. U.S. in 1930. Originally intending to study ists. which meant that the equipment electrical engineering. Ussachevsky de- Mauzey built and the technical practices Obituary of Vladirnir Ussachevsky by cided instead to continue his musical stud- they developed were of the highest possi- Wendy Carlos to be published in an upcoming ies upon learning that the depression had ble quality. When I was an engineering issue of Keyboar-dMa,ya:ine. I 196 J. Audio Eng. Soc., Vol. 38,No. 3. 1990 March