Terry Rusling


Terry Rusling was a Canadian electronic music composer, who used graphic notation. Some of his works were used to accompany radio and television broadcasts.

Introduction to electronic composition

Terry Rusling worked as an engineer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He was on-air engineer for the Gilmour's Albums hosted by CBC broadcaster Clyde Gilmour. In the early 1960s, Morris Surdin, a composer working at the CBC, suggested to Rusling that he try out the electronic studio at University of Toronto, Faculty of Music. Through Surdin, Rusling was introduced to Dr. Myron Schaeffer, to whom he submitted his first electronic compositions. Schaeffer invited Rusling to attend the graduate seminar with Dr. Schaeffer at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Music, using the renowned electronic music studio which included instruments designed by Hugh LeCaine such as the Special Purpose Tape Recorder. Rusling was awarded the title of Research Associate at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music. Among the notable composers who studied at University of Toronto's Electronic Music Studio University of Toronto, Faculty of Music were John Mills-Cockell, Pauline Oliveros, Ann Southam, Gustav Ciamaga, John Beckwith, among others. During this period he was also known to be the recipient of a Canada Council Grant in support of his travel, education and production of electronic music. After receiving the grant he travelled to studios in the USA and Europe. He continued his studies and composed music in studios at the Psycho Acoustic Institute at Ghent University, Belgium; the University of Utrecht; and the University of Illinois. He also did work at the University of Rochester with Wayne B. Barlow as well as in Paris where he studied with Pierre Schaeffer. He spent two months at the Phillips lab in Holland learning about their new electronic equipment. All of Terry's music was precisely notated using mathematics and other symbols. His music was often inspired by his interest in visual art. During this period Terry also reported on an interview on CBC Radio that he worked at the BBC Radiophonic. He specifically mentions Barry Burmage.

Broadcasts, exhibitions and performances

Several of his works, including The Trains, a piece of musique concrète, were broadcast on the CBC and he composed an electronic theme for the nightly news. One of his public performances at computer tape music was at the Bohemian Embassy in Yorkville, Toronto. October 1964. He also collaborated with visual artist Zbigniew Blazeje in a large multimedia exhibition in 1967 called Audio Kinetic Environment which began at the Art Gallery of Ontario and travelled to other galleries in Canada. The exhibit initially opened with music prepared by Blazeje. In an interview with Terry Rusling on CBC Radio, Rusling said that Blazeje approached him as he found the music he made was not good enough. Rusling stated he spent some time watching the kinetic installation and then proceeded to create a new score for the exhibition in Toronto and this music was used throughout the exhibits tour of Canada. The installation toured to other galleries including the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The music was set to trigger lights in the installation. There was also a radio program combining Rusling's music with Earle Birney's sound poetry on CBC Radio. After the piece was performed they discussed their personal approaches to their art forms. Birney discussed various approaches he took including sound poetry and using chance techniques, such as cutting phrases from newspapers including comics into bits of paper and finding combinations by chance. A related collaboration with poet Gwendolyn MacEwen, combining poetry with electronic music was also broadcast on CBC Radio. Rusling also worked with performance artist and sound poet Bob Cobbing and dancer Rima Brodie.

Audio-Kinetic Environment

Audio-Kinetic Environment, in collaboration with Zbigniew Blazeje with Terry Rusling providing electronic music. The exhibition toured 10 cities:

The installation was described in ArtsCanada February 1967 as follows: "Toronto artist Zbigniew Blazeje's Audio-Kinetic Environment, seen at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, last year consisted of about twenty-two panels and several moving pieces constructed of wood and plastic. All were coated with fluorescent and phosphorescent paints. Their colours were activated by the continuous play of a lighting system synchronized to taped electronic music
patterns." A notice of the exhibit travelling throughout Canada was printed in Maclean's magazine.

Other work

His compositions are listed in International Electronic Music Catalog compiled by Hugh Davies. His compositions are also listed in an article in Dimensions magazine about University of Toronto Electronic Music Studios. His scores were submitted to John Cage's Notations project and two items are included in the book and demonstrate his use of graphic notation. He composed incidental music for CBC radio shows such as Trains a documentary program on the railroads of Canada produced by Allan Anderson and Val Clery. He also composed incidental music for the TV show Telescope, in particular, an episode on Marshall McLuhan. Another project Terry produced for CBC Radio was "On The Beatles." The show is described in the CBC's magazine RPM Weekly: "The show is a montage of dialogue, musical sound effects and electronic music. Rusling has chosen his own favorite Beatle songs over which he often superimposes electronic effects." In addition to this he composed pure experimental music.

Compositions

Compositions

1964

1. Conclusion: piano.

2. Title: timpani, vibes, piano, garbage can, tone signal

3. If I Could Find the Thing to Hate: guitar, human voice, tone signal

4. The Predator?: human voice, garbage can

5. They Marry – They Meet: tone signal, garbage can, square wave, sine tone

6. Three Blind Etc. - tone signal, garbage can, square wave, pulse, vibes, piano

7. In Which Non-Being is Absolution: piano, violin

8. Prelude – tone signals.
  1. Earle Birney reads poetry with electronic accompaniment by Terry Rusling which was broadcast on CBC Radio.
  2. Gwendolyn MacEwen reads her poem Subliminal over electronic music by Terry Rusling which was broadcast on CBC Radio.
  3. Bob Cobbing

    Posthumous notices

In 2018 Terry Rusling was awarded Associate Composer status posthumously by the Canadian Music Centre. His nomination and profile can be seen .
Also in 2018 Brenda Longfellow made a Documentary about Gwendolyn MacEwen called Shadowmaker, Gwendolyn MacEwen, poet. It features some of Rusling's music from his collaboration with the poet. Musicworks magazine published an online review of the Rusling CD by Nick Storring. In October 2019 Tina Kiik reviewed all 3 of the CDs in the Spurn series in The Whole Note Magazine, pp. 71–72 remarking that "Rusling's early electronic music holds current sound appeal while also, at its very best, foreshadowing future sounds.

Recordings

Terry Rusling, The Machine is Broken,, Spool Produced by David Porter and Daniel Kernohan.

Footnotes