Editing Tom Johnson (composer) (section)

==Career==
From 1971 to 1983, Johnson was a [[music critic]] for ''[[The Village Voice]]'', writing about several noted Downtown new music composers, including [[La Monte Young]], [[Steve Reich]], [[Terry Riley]], [[Philip Glass]], [[Alvin Lucier]] and [[Laurie Anderson]]; thus bringing them to wider attention.<ref name="Layne" /> An anthology of these articles was published in 1989 by Het Apollohuis under the title ''The Voice of New Music''. Johnson was the first to apply the term 'minimal' to music in his September 7, 1972 Village Voice article "La Monte Young, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Philip Glass",<ref>[https://editions75.com/tvonm/articles/1972/la-monte-young-steve-reich-terry-riley-philip-glass.html] The Village Voice, September 7, 1972, "La Monte Young, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Philip Glass"</ref> however, the term 'minimal' had been used in [[minimal art]] since the mid-1960s.<ref>Rose, Barbara. "ABC Art", ''Art in America'' 53, no. 5 (October–November 1965): 57–69.</ref> Through his music journalism, he met composers [[Steve Reich]] and [[Philip Glass]], among others<ref name="IRCAM" /> and his writings were instrumental in the emergence of composers including [[Gavin Bryars]], [[Brian Eno]], [[Luc Ferrari]], [[Phill Niblock]], and [[Éliane Radigue]].<ref name="VC" />

During this period he also composed four of his best known works: ''[[An Hour for Piano]]'' (1971), ''The Four-Note Opera'' (1972), ''Failing'' (1975)  and ''Nine Bells'' (1979).<ref name="IRCAM" /> In his humorous opera ''The Four-Note Opera'', he uses only four notes. The singers play themselves, announcing what they and others do.<ref name="IRCAM" /> The chorus proclaims "There are three choruses in this opera. This is the first one. The second one will be almost like this one, but somewhat shorter [...]". The visual also plays a role in ''Nine Bells'' (1979), a piece written for nine bells suspended in a three by three square, with one bell in the center. The player moves around this square, hitting bells along the way, following paths that are quite varied but always systematic.<ref name="IRCAM" />

Johnson considered himself a minimalist composer. His minimalism is of a [[Formalism (music)|formalist]] type, depending mostly on logical sequences, as in the 21 ''Rational Melodies'' (1982), where he explored procedures such as accumulation, counting, and [[isorhythm]].<ref name="IRCAM" />

After 15 years in New York, he moved to Paris in 1983<ref name="BK" /><ref name="IRCAM" /> where he lived with his wife, the artist [[Esther Ferrer]].<ref name="NYT" /> He composed the ''Riemannoper'' (''Riemann Opera''), deriving a humorous [[libretto]] from [[Hugo Riemann]]'s music dictionary. It was premiered in Bremen, and was staged more than 20 times afterwards.<ref name="IRCAM" />

He developed more complex techniques using mathematical notions.<ref name = Robin/> This began with the collection of ''Music for 88'' (1988), where he applied ideas of [[Eratosthenes]], [[Euler]], [[Mersenne]], and [[Blaise Pascal]]. Later he collaborated with living mathematicians, particularly Jean-Paul Allouche, Emmanuel Amiot, [[Jeff Dinitz]], and Franck Jedrzejewski. With them he explored the notions of self-similar melodies (''Loops for orchestra'', 1998), tiling patterns (''Tilework'', 2003), and block designs (''Block Design for Piano'', 2005), along with homometric pairs (''Intervals'', 2013).<ref name="IRCAM lecture" />

Johnson introduced text and visual images to produce a theatrical atmosphere close to [[performance art]]. The [[libretto]]s for his operas, which he almost always wrote himself, describe what takes place in the music in an objective manner, somewhat reminiscent of [[Luigi Pirandello|Pirandello]]. Words intervene in many of his works, sometimes by a narrator who explains how the music is made, as in ''Eggs and Baskets'' (1987) and ''Narayana's Cows'' (1989).<ref name="IRCAM" /> From 1988 to 1992, Johnson worked on the ''Bonhoeffer Oratorio'' for two choruses, soloists and orchestra, using exclusively texts of the German pastor and theologian [[Dietrich Bonhoeffer]],<ref name="BK" /> sermons and texts denouncing [[Nazism]].<ref name="Gembris" /> He commented: "I had a mission, a testimony to convey, a message, which my music doesn't generally have".<ref name="IRCAM" />

The association of text and music led Johnson to write numerous radio pieces,<ref name="e547">{{cite web | title=Works by Tom Johnson | website=Editions 75 | url=https://www.editions75.com/about.html | access-date=January 4, 2025}}</ref> most often for René Farabet ([[France Culture]])<ref name="Warburton" /> and for Klaus Schöning ([[Westdeutscher Rundfunk|WDR]]).<ref name="o078">{{cite journal | last1=Girard | first1=Bernard | last2=Lucia | first2=Christine | title=Conversations with Tom Johnson | journal=Contemporary Music Review | volume=39 | issue=4 | date=July 3, 2020 | issn=0749-4467 | doi=10.1080/07494467.2020.1833526 | pages=389–460}}</ref> In ''Galileo'' (1999–2005), bells swing like [[pendulum]]s in tempos determined by the length of their strings, permitting the composer to make music following the laws of the pendulum, as formulated by [[Galileo Galilei]] in the 17th century.<ref name="Ulm" /> Johnson also ran a series of broadcasts for the British FM Resonance called ''Music by my Friends''. He founded two publishing companies for the publication of his works: ''Les Éditions 75'' in France and ''Two-Eighteen Press'' in the US.<ref name="VC" />

After 2000, the work of Johnson was less concerned with theatricality and turned more toward musical form and mathematics. From about 2004 to 2010 he worked with what he called "rational harmonies" in pieces like ''360 Chords for orchestra''<ref name="Lucia" /> (2005) and ''Twelve'' (2008) for piano.<ref name="Lucia" /> Rhythm plays an important role in pieces such as ''Vermont Rhythms'' (2008),<ref name="Barrière" /> ''Munich Rhythms'' (2010), <!--''Tick-Tock Rhythms'' (2013),--> and ''Dutch Rhythms'' (2018). He also wrote pieces for jugglers (''Three Notes for Three Jugglers'', 2011; ''Dropping Balls'', 2011), and completed several more ambitious projects (''Seven Septets'', 2007–2017; ''Counting to Seven'', 2013; ''Plucking'', 2015).<ref name="Lucia" /> His better known works include ''[[An Hour for Piano]]'', ''The Four-Note Opera'', ''Riemannoper'', and the ''Bonhoeffer Oratorio''.<ref name="VC" />