May 23, 1967 premiere
May 26, first public performance
First AUDIUM Theatre 309 4th Ave. & Clement St., San Francisco.
Two performances weekly, Friday evenings 8:30 and 10:45 beginning August 1968 added weekly Saturday 8:30 perf.
44 Speakers
1965-1967
The portable systems employed heretofore, limited increased complexity. Stan Shaff and Doug McEachern desired to create a completely planned environment, with built-in flexibility for change and growth. AUDIUM’s conception had now expanded to include every element of the environment – foyer, performance space, light, seating, from the listener’s entrance to their exit. The two leased an old dance hall (309 4th Ave. @ Clement, San Francisco), and after 1 1/2 years’ preparation (concurrent with full-time teaching), opened the first AUDIUM theater in 1967.
A Sound-Space Continuum
• First composition for the first theater built specifically for this new art form.
• Performance of sound through space in a controlled environment.
• Environment exploring movement through a Doppler mobile above the audience’s heads and speakers placed throughout performance space. A specially-designed console is the instrument through which works are performed by a “tape performer” live at each program, executed sculpturally through space. The entire environment has become a compositional tool.
Program Note Excerpts:
With the advent of electronic means, the spatial positions, which sound defines, can take on a new importance. In the rendering of this expanded sound world, AUDIUM introduces the tape performer and defines a new relationship between composer and audience. In order to more fully explore the potential of this experience-in-sound, an environment with implications of plasticity had to be constructed. Programming equipment was then redesigned to accommodate the needs of the new environment and now allows a more nearly complete control of the sound-space continuum. The current presentation…is a realization and extension of these evolving ideas and expects to bring the listener closer toward a personal participation in auditory experiences.