Deep Listening: The Story Of Pauline Oliveros
by Daniel Weintraub
Pioneer of electronic music, feminist campaigner and discoverer of »Deep Listening«
Daniel Weintraub | USA | 2022 | 117′ | OV
The film tells the story of Pauline Oliveros (1932-2016), the only woman among the important American postwar composers. She was a master accordion player, a teacher and mentor – even to non-musicians! – a communicator of music and sound, and a technical innovator who helped develop instruments that musicians could play together, even if they were in different countries. She supported the development of software that enabled people with severe disabilities to make music.
For six decades, Oliveros was at the forefront of contemporary American music, along with, but certainly NOT in the shadow of, better-known colleagues such as Steve Reich, Terry Riley, and Alvin Lucier. Oliveros’ story explains how we got to where we are today, and it points the way to the future: of music, of a way of thinking about sounds, and to the future of an art of listening, possibly, that is, to a better world. Her programmatic motto about her own activity: “I am not interested in a career, I am interested in creating a community.”
