Allen Strange

Allen Strange (June 26, 1943 in Calexico, California – February 20, 2008 in Seattle, Washington) was an American composer. He authored two books, Electronic Music: Systems, Techniques, and Controls (first published in the 1970s) and Programming and Meta-Programming the Electro-Organism. He co-wrote The Contemporary Violin: Extended Performance Techniques with his wife, Patricia.

Allen Strange studied composition with Donal Michalsky at the California State University, Fullerton. He received his MA in 1967. He later studied composition with Robert Erickson, Harry Partch, and Ken Gaburo, and electronic media with Pauline Oliveros at the University of California, San Diego from 1967-8 and 1970-71.

In 1970, Strange became a professor of music and the director of the electronic music studios at San Jose State University.

He received grants from the San Jose State University Foundation for research into electronic music. Other grant support came from the American Music Center, Yamaha Corporation and the BIAHC Foundation. He attended John Chowning's music seminar at the Stanford University Artificial Intelligence Center. Strange was one of the leading authorities on analogue electronic music; his book Electronic Music: Systems, Techniques, and Controls is now a classic text. He also wrote Programming and Meta-Programming the Electro-Organism, the operations manual for the Buchla Music Easel and documented the 200 Series synthesizers made by Buchla. He co-founded two performance groups: Biome (1967–72), in order to make use of the EMS Synthi; and, with Don Buchla in 1974, the Electric Weasel Ensemble. He was president of the International Computer Music Association from 1993–1998, and appeared as a guest artist-lecturer throughout the world. With his wife, Patricia, they published The Contemporary Violin: Extended Performance Techniques (Scarecrow Press).

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