Kyle Gann's Home Page

Expanded web site with MP3s and PDF scores

PostClassic Radio, the award-winning internet station (playlist here)
Kyle Gann's blog: Postclassic at Arts Journal

TWO NEW CDs!
Nude Rolling Down an Escalator: Studies for Disklavier, on New World
Look it up at New World
Long Night (1980-81) for three pianos, played by Sarah Cahill.
Look it up at Cold Blue

Kyle Gann

photo by Nicole Reisnour

Contradicting the conventional wisdom since 1982

Composer of microtonal music with complex tempo structures

Leading musicologist for late-20th-century American music

Author of The Music of Conlon Nancarrow (Cambridge University Press, 1995)

Author of American Music in the 20th Century (Schirmer Books, 1997)

Author of "La Monte Young's The Well-Tuned Piano" In Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 31 No. 1

Music critic for The Village Voice since 1986, winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor and Stagebill awards for criticism

Program annotator for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Author of PostClassic, a web log on Post-Classical music at Arts Journal

Author of the Peabody Award-winning radio show The American Mavericks for Minnesota Public Radio - ("It tells complicated stories with a breezy, youthful irreverence underpinned by airtight research and writing, courtesy of Village Voice music critic Kyle Gann. You can count on one hand the number of times the word 'classical' is spoken." - Minneapolis Star Tribune)

A leading authority on just intonation and the history of tuning

Associate Professor of Music, Bard College; formerly visiting or adjunct professor at Columbia University, Brooklyn College, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Bucknell University (see teaching history)

"...especially well known as a provocative and insightful reviewer of contemporary music."
Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians

The purpose of this page is to acquaint the reader with the music and writings of Kyle Gann, composer, musicologist, and music critic. Gann's music uses complex but hard-driving and drum-driven tempo structures developed from his study of Hopi, Zuni, and Pueblo Indian music, as well as from his analysis of the complete works of Conlon Nancarrow. Through his work as a critic, author, and teacher, he has worked to redefine the premises of an American classical music quite distinct from, and unindebted to, European tradition. He is the leading authority on the musics of Nancarrow, La Monte Young, and many younger American composers.

Information about Kyle Gann:

NEW!! (10.7.03) Now you can hear complete MP3s of Kyle Gann's music, including works back to 1975, and some pieces that haven't been heard publicly in 20 years!
(Burn 'em to CD! Collect 'em! Trade 'em with your friends! See if I give a rat's ass!)

List of Kyle Gann's compositions, chronologically, or by genre (updated 11.12.05)

Musical scores as PDF files

Short Biography

Long Biography

Official resume, for God's sake

Upcoming concerts, discography, and stuff to check out (updated 5.29.05)

Kyle Gann's Writings:

A Conlon Nancarrow Web Page

A La Monte Young Web Page (in preparation)

Read Kyle Gann on Henry Cowell (6.1.98)

American Music in the 20th Century (12.1.97)

Footnotes, anyone? A bibliographical listing of Kyle Gann's complete articles for the Village Voice

A Selective Bibliography of Gann's other writings

Information on Alternate Tunings:

A beginner's crash course in Just Intonation - Now with helpful mp3s, so you can hear the intervals discussed! (6.21.05)

An introduction to Historical Tunings (3.7.98)

Anatomy of an Octave: a reference chart of over 700 intervals within an octave, defined by ratios and cents (1.23.99)

For tuning aficionados, here are My Idiosyncratic Reasons for Using Just Intonation (6.14.04)

Essays by Kyle Gann printed in full:

Downtown Music: An Encyclopedia Article (6.25.05)

"We are living in the new Soviet Union": a credo about censorship and the internet

A Forest from the Seeds of Minimalism: An Essay on Postminimal and Totalist Music (1.4.99)

Breaking the Chain Letter: An Essay on Downtown Music (4.18.98)

What Women's Music Does, or Doesn't, Mean: An Essay on Women Composers (5.2.99)

Banging on Pianos: The Permanent Nature of America's Classical Tradition (7.10.00)

The Case Against Over-notation: A Defense and a Diatribe (6.28.00)

Naive Pictorialism: Towards a Gannian Aesthetic (12.27.01)

Links to Kyle Gann's Articles on Other Web Sites:

Read Daniel Varela's interview with Kyle Gann on Perfect Sound Forever web magazine (May 2004)

Kyle Gann now writes a web log called PostClassic, as in Post-Classical music, at Arts Journal

Making Marx in the Music - a history of political music on New Music Box

The Minnesota Public Radio show American Mavericks, written by Kyle Gann and hosted by Suzanne Vega and Michael Tilson Thomas

Read Kyle Gann's recent columns from the Village Voice, back to September 1998, at villagevoice.com

Read Kyle Gann's articles, and articles about him, in the New York Times at nytimes.com (for a small charge via Qpass)

Minimal Music, Maximal Impact - a history of minimalist, postminimalist, and totalist music on New Music Box - winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award (12.01.01)

Between U S - a survey of alternate and historical tunings on New Music Box (9.1.00)

Back to Nature - Tracing the History of an American Classical tradition on New Music Box (4.1.02)

Responses to Kyle Gann's Work:

Read Everywhere at Once: John Luther Adams on Kyle Gann on the March 2003 New Music Box. (5.8.03)

Read Paul Griffiths' review of Kyle Gann's February 19, 1998, concert in the New York Times

Read Bernard Holland's response in the New York Times to Kyle Gann's American Music in the Twentieth Century (6.1.98)

Read Allan Kozinn's' review of the New York premiere of Kyle Gann's Custer and Sitting Bull in the New York Times (12.12.00)

Other Features:

See Kyle Gann's teaching history, including a list of courses he's taught

Kyle Gann's favorite women composers (updated 8.25.00)

Other press photos of Kyle Gann, and photos in Russia and Australia

A discography of postminimal, totalist, and rare minimalist music (11.02.01)

A Chronology of the Symphony, 1730-2005 (8.19.98)

Kyleisms: Classroom Sayings of Kyle Gann, as collected by his students

Cripple yourself with Kyle Gann's uncle's chili recipe

Three inaccuracies in Kyle Gann's entry in Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians