1976
Round 1976

Image: Photo from Max Neuhaus Archive

Round, sponsored by Creative Time, Inc., was installed in a large, oval area in the ornate rotunda of the U.S. Custom House. An oval ring of 16 face-up loudspeakers was placed on the carpeted floor, with a smaller ring of 16 more loudspeakers inside it. When I arrived on Sunday afternoon, listeners were sitting and lying casually around the area; and I decided to sit down between a couple of loudspeakers in the outer ring. It was immediately apparent that sustained electronic sounds were moving around the space; and I soon realized that whatever faded in on the loudspeaker at my right would pass on to the loudspeaker on my left a beat later, and from there to the other 14 speakers of the outer circle. Every eight beats a new sonority would pass by me, and the music just kept rotating.

John Rockwel

Max Neuhaus Estate texts Archive

The New York Time New Music for Old Custom House
By John Rockwell
Nov. 19, 1976