Ted Gordon - The Composer’s Blackbox

At this event, Ted Gordon will discuss The Composer’s Blackbox, a probing exploration of compositional practice as a site of speculation, intuition, and embodied decision-making. Drawing from his new book, Gordon examines the often-invisible processes that shape how music comes into being. The speaker will discuss how listening, experimentation, failure, and tacit knowledge operate before and beyond formalized theory.

The Composer’s Blackbox positions itself at the intersection of composition, sound research, and reflective practice. We’re asking how composers think with sound rather than merely organize it. Gordon will reflect on how material engagement, technological mediation, and personal listening histories inform creative choices, challenging linear narratives of authorship and mastery.

Blending analytical insight and performance, this talk invites composers, performers, and listeners to reconsider composition as an evolving, opaque system, one that resists full explanation while remaining deeply responsive to sensation, context, and time.

Event Speaker

Ted Gordon, Assistant Professor of Music at CUNY Graduate Center

Event Information

Free and open to the public; registration required. Please contact Alyssa Regent at alr2240@columbia.edu with any questions.

The Comparing Domains of Improvisation series is sponsored by the Presidential Scholars in Society and Neuroscience program at Columbia University.