For accompanying audio, listen to item 6

Performer's Notes for "Fontana Mix-Feed"
as recorded Nov. 9, 1967 by Aspen.

I used "Fontana Mix" to make a score, which I called "Feed," for adjustable resistors which are affecting acoustic feedback. In this performance, the adjustable resistors were controlling the frequency response of two channels of feedback which were set up by putting two microphones in the vicinity of their respective loudspeakers.

The score for this performance was made by assigning a ten-second time period to each of the differentiated lines on the opaque sheets. When the transparent sheets with dots were superimposed over these, each dot coinciding with a line dictated a change in one of the resistors during the time period assigned to that line. The specific resistor to be changed was then decided by throwing dice. Throughout the piece, these changes in the adjustable resistors are extremely slow and gradual.

The score removes my taste and musical judgment and allows the electronic and acoustic phenomena of that particular situation to produce the piece. Each time it is played, it is different. In fact, the three times that I performed the piece for this recording, three totally different versions resulted.

Max Neuhaus

Editor's Note: Reproduced here is one each of the ten different drawings, transparent sheets and graphs which make up the complete score.

Original format: Single sheet, 16 by 8 inches, enclosing three 6-1/8 by 8 inch sheets, two of which are translucent.

Adapted for the web by Andrew Stafford.
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