David Tudor in Darmstadt1

Abstract

Historians have long recognized David Tudor's importance to the development of the New York School's early piano music, but close attention has yet to be paid to his almost single-handed dissemination of that music, and other new American music, abroad. Correspondence between Tudor and German patrons and composers, as well as reviews of Tudor's performances in West Germany, show that he transcended his role as John Cage's right- (and left-)hand man, both as a performer and as a composer in his own right. Moreover, far from being shadowed by Cage's controversial reception in West Germany, Tudor stood at the center of new music activities in that country during a key period of change. Tudor was an ambassador of American music abroad, and as such, his presence at key music venues like the Darmstädter Ferienkurse between 1956 and 1961 helped establish a support network for American experimentalism and contributed significantly to Europeans' acceptance of unconventional music from the United States.