Editing Tom Johnson (composer)

{{Short description|American composer (1939–2024)}}
{{other people||Thomas Johnson (disambiguation)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{infobox person
| name          = Tom Johnson
| image         = Tom Johnson - composer (1b).jpg
| alt           = Colour three-quarter profile publicity shot, of clean-shaven, bespectacled half-smiling man, with receding short white hair, brushed back
| image_upright = 0.8
| caption       = Johnson, {{circa|2000}}
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1939|11|18}}
| birth_place   = [[Greeley, Colorado]], US
| death_date    = {{death date and age|2024|12|31|1939|11|18}}
| death_place   = Paris, France
| education     = [[Yale University]]
| occupation    = {{ubl| Composer | Music critic }}
| employer      = {{ubl| [[The Village Voice]] (1971–1983)}}
| spouse        = {{ubl|Kathy Duncan (divorced)|{{marriage|[[Esther Ferrer]]|1986}}}}
}}
'''Thomas Floyd Johnson''' (November 18, 1939 – December 31, 2024) was an American composer and music critic associated with [[Minimal music|minimalism]]. After a religious upbringing in Colorado, he studied at Yale with [[Allen Forte]] and in New York City with [[Morton Feldman]]. There he covered the work of several noted composers, bringing them to wider attention in ''[[The Village Voice]]''.

He found inspiration in the ideas of ancient and early modern mathematicians and philosophers, and collaborated with contemporary mathematicians, while incorporating theatrical and visual elements in his work. Johnson often sought to engage audiences by explaining or narrating the processes of his music in or as part of the musical experience. He relocated to Paris in 1983, where he remarried in 1986 and lived until his death. His works include ''[[An Hour for Piano]]'', ''The Four-Note Opera'', ''Riemannoper'', and the ''Bonhoeffer Oratorio''.

== Background and education ==
'''Tom Johnson''' was born in [[Greeley, Colorado]], on November 18, 1939, where he received a religious education at a [[Methodism|Methodist]] church, which influenced his work.<ref name="Schott" /><ref name="BK" /><ref name = Robin>{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/04/arts/music/tom-johnson-dead.html|title = Tom Johnson, Minimalist Composer and Village Voice Critic, Dies at 85|last = Robin|first = William|date = January 4, 2025|accessdate = January 4, 2025|newspaper = [[The New York Times]]|url-access = limited}}</ref> He earned two degrees from [[Yale]], a B.A. (1961) and the M.Mus. (1967),<ref name="BK" /> His [[music theory|theory]] professor was [[Allen Forte]] who introduced him to American contemporary music.<ref name="Warburton" /> He also studied privately with [[Morton Feldman]] in New York City.<ref name="BK" /><ref name="IRCAM" /> He was influenced also by [[John Cage]], whom he met there through Feldman.<ref name="IRCAM" />

==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" />

==Personal life and death==
After a marriage to Kathy Duncan ended in divorce, Johnson married [[Esther Ferrer]] in 1986.<ref name = Robin/> They collaborated on artistic projects.<ref name="Bilbao" />

Johnson died from complications of a stroke and emphysema at his home in Paris on December 31, 2024, aged 85.<ref name = Robin/><ref name="VC" /><ref name="NYT" />

== Publications ==
* ''The Voice of New Music. New York City 1972–1982'', a collection of articles originally publishes in the ''Village Voice'', Het Apollohuis, Eindhoven 1989, {{ISBN|978-90-71638-09-1}}.<!-- (http://editions75.com/Books/TheVoiceOfNewMusic.PDF Download]-->
* ''Self-Similar Melodies''. Editions 75, Paris 1996, {{ISBN|978-2-907200-01-1}}
* ''Looking at Numbers'', with Franck Jedrzejewski, Birkhäuser, Basel, 2013  {{ISBN|978-3-0348-0553-7}}
* ''Finding Music. Writings/Schriften 1961–2018'' (EN/DE), Cologne: Edition MusikTexte, 2019, {{ISBN|978-3-9813319-5-0}}
* ''Other Harmony beyond tonal and atonal.'' Editions 75, Paris 2014, {{ISBN|978-2-907200-02-8}}

==References==
{{reflist
| refs =

<ref name="Barrière">{{cite web
| last = Barrière
| first = Lali
| title = Combinatorial Artists. Counting, Permutations and Other Discrete Structures in Art
| website = University of [[Catalunya]]
| url = https://upcommons.upc.edu/bitstream/handle/2117/351160/barriere.pdf
| access-date = January 6, 2025
}}</ref>

<ref name="Gembris">{{cite magazine
| last = Gembris
| first = Heiner
| title = Das Bonhoeffer Oratorium von Tom Johnson
| magazine = Magazin für Theologie und Ästhetik
| url = https://www.theomag.de/40/hg1.htm
| issue = 40
| language = de
| access-date = January 4, 2025
}}</ref>

<ref name="Layne">{{cite web
| last = Layne
| first = Joslyn
| url = http://www.allmusic.com/artist/tom-johnson-p5943/biography
| title = Tom Johnson
| website = [[AllMusic]]
| date = 
| access-date = January 3, 2025
}}</ref>

<ref name="Lucia">{{cite magazine
| last1 = Lucia
| first1 = Christine
| last2 = Blake
| first2 = Michael
| title = Tom Johnson at 80
| magazine = Contemporary Music Review
| date = July 2020
| volume = 39
| issue = 4
| pages = 387–388
| doi = 10.1080/07494467.2020.1833524
}}</ref>

<ref name="Warburton">{{cite magazine
| last = Warburton
| first = Dan
| title = Tom Johnson
| magazine = Paris Transatlantic
| date = 2007
| url = https://www.paristransatlantic.com/magazine/interviews/johnson.html
| access-date = January 4, 2025
}}</ref>

<ref name="Bilbao">{{cite web
| url = https://bilbaomuseoa.eus/en/esther-ferrer-threads-of-time/
| title = Esther Ferrer: Threads of Time
| work = Museum of Bilbao
| date = 2020
| language = es
| access-date = January 5, 2025
}}</ref>

<ref name="BK">{{cite web
| url = https://www.berliner-kuenstlerprogramm.de/de/artist/tom-johnson/
| title = Tom Johnson
| website = Berliner Künsterprogramm
| date = 1983
| language = de
| access-date = January 3, 2025
}}</ref>

<ref name="IRCAM">{{cite web
| url = https://brahms.ircam.fr/en/tom-johnson
| title = Tom Johnson
| publisher = [[IRCAM]]
| date = 2013
| access-date = January 3, 2025
}}</ref>

<ref name="IRCAM lecture">{{cite web
| url = http://repmus.ircam.fr/_media/mamux/saisons/saison06-2006-2007/johnson-2006-10-14.pdf
| title = Self-Similar Structures in my Music: an Inventory
| work = [[IRCAM]]
| date = October 14, 2006
| access-date = January 5, 2025}}</ref>

<ref name="NYT">{{cite news
| title = Tom Johnson, Minimalist Composer and Village Voice Critic, Dies at 85
| newspaper = [[The New York Times]]
| date = January 4, 2025
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/04/arts/music/tom-johnson-dead.html
| access-date = January 5, 2025
}}</ref>

<ref name="Schott">{{cite web
| url = https://www.schott-music.com/en/person/tom-johnson
| title = Tom Johnson
| publisher = [[Schott Music|Schott]]
| date = 2024
| access-date = January 3, 2025
}}</ref>

<ref name="Ulm">{{cite web
| work = [[University of Ulm]]
| title = Hören nach Zahlen – Neue Musik von Tom Johnson
| date = October 6, 2007
| url = https://www.uni-ulm.de/einrichtungen/emu/projekte/archiv/2007-hoeren-nach-zahlen-musik-von-tom-johnson/
| language = de
| access-date = January 5, 2025
}}</ref>

<ref name="VC">{{cite web
| work = The Violin Channel
| title = Minimalist Composer Tom Johnson has Died, Aged 85
| date = January 3, 2025
| url = https://theviolinchannel.com/minimalist-composer-tom-johnson-has-died-aged-85/
| access-date = January 4, 2025
}}</ref>

}}

==External links==
* {{discogs artist|Tom Johnson}}
* [https://www.youtube.com/c/TomJohnson/featured Tom Johnson] on YouTube
* [http://kalvos.org/johncat.html Catalogue] kalvos.org
* Girard, Bernhard: [http://www.musicae.fr/livre-Conversations-avec-Tom-Johnson-de-Bernard-Girard-97-87.html Conversations avec Tom Johnson] (book of interviews) musicae.fr
* Johnson, Tom: [https://web.archive.org/web/20240620070620/https://www.editions75.com/Books/TheVoiceOfNewMusic.PDF ''The Voice of New Music: New York City 1972–1982 – A Collection of Articles Originally Published by the ''] ''[[Village Voice]]'' 1989
* [http://Editions75.com Tom Johnson] Editions 75, 2025
* Tom Johnson: [https://web.archive.org/web/20040824074851/http://www.ircam.fr/equipes/repmus/mamux/documents2002-2003/TomTiling.PDF Some Observations on Tiling Problems] [[IRCAM]]
* [http://recordings.irritablehedgehog.com/album/tom-johnson-an-hour-for-piano An Hour for Piano streamed online] produced by [[Irritable Hedgehog Music]]
* [http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/What-role-has-theory-played-in-your-compositions-and-how-important-is-it-for-people-to-know-the-theory-behind-the-music-in-order-to-appreciate-it-Tom-Johnson/ Tom Johnson answers: "What role has theory played in your compositions and how important is it for people to know the theory behind the music in order to appreciate it?"] 
* Greg Sandow: [https://web.archive.org/web/20041105224926/http://newmusicbox.org/page.nmbx?id=48vw01 NewMusicBox.org: View From The East: An Old Friend] newmusicbox.org 2003

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Tom}}
[[Category:1939 births]]
[[Category:2024 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American classical composers]]
[[Category:20th-century American male musicians]]
[[Category:21st-century American classical composers]]
[[Category:21st-century American male musicians]]
[[Category:American emigrants to France]]
[[Category:American male classical composers]]
[[Category:Classical musicians from Colorado]]
[[Category:Deaths from emphysema]]
[[Category:India Navigation artists]]
[[Category:Journalists from Colorado]]
[[Category:Minimalist composers]]
[[Category:People from Greeley, Colorado]]
[[Category:The Village Voice people]]
[[Category:Yale College alumni]]
[[Category:Yale School of Music alumni]]
[[Category:American music critics]]
[[Category:20th-century American journalists]]