“Changing the metaphor: Ratio models of musical pitch in the work of Harry Partch, Ben Johnston, and James Tenney,” Perspectives of New Music 33, nos. 1 & 2 (Winter–Summer 1995): 458–503.
Specific works include Tony Scott's Music for Zen Meditation (1964), Karlheinz Stockhausen's Mantra (1970), Hymnen (1966–67), Stimmung (1968), and Aus den sieben Tagen (1968), Olivier Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time (1941), and Ben Johnston, whose Visions and Spells (a realization of Vigil (1976)), requires a meditation period prior to performance.
The 1989-90 season was built around two compositions commissioned by the Quartet, String Quartet no. 9 by Ben Johnston, and the Tenth String Quartet by Stanford alumni William Bolcom, a faculty member at the University of Michigan.
David Ben-Gurion | Ben Affleck | Ben Jonson | Ben Harper | Big Ben | Ben Kingsley | Ben Stiller | Ben Folds | Ben Hecht | Ben-Gurion University of the Negev | Ben Casey | Ben Bernanke | Ben-Hur | Ben E. King | Ben Webster | Joseph E. Johnston | Ben Hogan | Ben Elton | Daniel Johnston | Ben Weasel | Ben Folds Five | Ben Stein | Ben Shneiderman | Ben Mendelsohn | Ben Lee | Ben Johnston | Ben Crenshaw | Ben 10 | Ben | Ben T. Epps |
After studying composition with Jamary Oliveira and Ernst Widmer in Brazil, and Ben Johnston and Herbert Brün at the University of Illinois, USA, he became a professor at the Universidade Federal da Bahia, and held several positions such as Director of the Music School (1988–1992) and Assistant Vice-President for Community Affairs (1996–2002).
He is best known for his books on American music - Harry Partch: a biography (Yale University Press, 1998) and Ben Johnston: Maximum Clarity and other writings on music (University of Illinois Press, 2006), both of which were recipients of the Deems Taylor Award from ASCAP.