Otto Lueing

Listening Guide. Electronic Flute. Otto Lueing (1900-1996, US), Moonflight (1968)

German-American composer Lueing was co-founder of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center with Vladimir Ussachevsky and teacher of Chou Wen-Chung, John Corigliano, and Charles Wuorinen. His Moonlight is an electronic piece comprising distorted flute sounds. Staccato flute tones modified with reverb form a bedrock on which brightened and elongated high notes are heard. In the middle of the piece, the distorted sounds fade into the background while an acoustic flute recording is featured. Lueing’s father sang in performances of Beethoven Ninth conducted by Wagner, and one of his maternal ancestors is said to be a descendent of Martin Luther’s sister. This is the transcript of a 1985 interview with the composer.