Susan Alexjander

Education

Alexjander received a B.A. in English Literature, with teaching credentials, in 1966. She received a master's degree in Theory and Composition from San Jose State University, California in 1982. Although her initial musical training was classical, she became interested in the gamelan and explored Indian classical music, studying and performing with Lou Harrison.

Teaching

Alexjander has taught at San Jose State and Goddard College and has been an adjunct faculty member of Union Institute in Sacramento, California. She also presents workshops on the physics and metaphysics of sound. She is the Director of Science & The Arts, founded in Aptos, California to investigate the frequencies of the universe and their musical properties.

Compositions and collaborations

In one of her earliest collaborations, with biologist David W. Deamer from the University of California, Alexjander created music based on movements of the atoms and molecules that make up human DNA. An infrared spectrophotometer was used to measure the wavelength of infrared light absorbed by sections of DNA and to identify frequencies for each DNA molecule. The ratios of the light frequencies were then converted into perceptible ratios of sound frequencies, often involving microtonal changes, to create "strange, beautiful music". The resulting album Sequencia, a pioneering experiment in sound creation, was recorded on Earth Day, 1990. Its tuning system, a type of Just intonation, is based on the molecular frequencies of the four bases of DNA: adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine. It includes 60 tones over a range of two-and-a-half octaves, around a spontaneous "tonal center". Alexjander's compositions in this tonal system are influenced by the microtonal nature of Indian classical music.

"The magic of 'mapping' frequencies from one medium to another allows us to hear inner, unheard sounds... Everything is talking to everything else!"

Other collaborations include:

Awards