James Tenney: Chromatic Canon

Jim Tenney, circa 1980
(photo Ann Holloway)

Jim Tenney dedicated the Chromatic Canon to Steve Reich, who observed that this piece had put him in bed with Arnold Schoenberg. Reich was right: the Chromatic Canon is a wizardry that fuses Minimalism and Dodecaphony. A repeated incantation using all twelve notes. The Marriage of Heaven with Hell, as William Blake would have said.

(video by Jenny Lin)

(James Tenney)