Terry Rusling

Terry Rusling (April 2, 1931 – November 27, 1974) was a Canadian electronic music composer, who used graphic notation.

In the early 1960s, Morris Surdin, a composer working at the CBC, suggested to Rusling that he try out the electronic studio at University of Toronto, Faculty of Music (UTEMS).

During this period he was also known to be the recipient of a Canada Council Grant in support of his travel, education and production of electronic music.

Several of his works, including The Trains, a piece of musique concrète,[4] were broadcast on the CBC and he composed an electronic theme for the nightly news.

A related collaboration with poet Gwendolyn MacEwen, combining poetry with electronic music was also broadcast on CBC Radio.

Rusling also worked with performance artist and sound poet Bob Cobbing and dancer Rima Brodie.

[7] Audio-Kinetic Environment, in collaboration with Zbigniew Blazeje with Terry Rusling providing electronic music.

[8] The exhibition toured 11 cities with 12 showings:[9][10] The installation was described in ArtsCanada February 1967 as follows: "Toronto artist Zbigniew Blazeje's Audio-Kinetic Environment, seen at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, last year (January 19 – February 2, 1966) consisted of about twenty-two panels and several moving pieces constructed of wood and plastic.

Their colours were activated by the continuous play of a lighting system synchronized to taped electronic music patterns.

In the centre of the room there was a cluster of red and blue lights of varying intensities, which were activated by electronic sounds from a tape prepared by Terry Rusling.

His compositions are also listed in an article in Dimensions magazine about University of Toronto Electronic Music Studios.

He composed incidental music for CBC radio shows such as Trains (1966)[23] a documentary program on the railroads of Canada produced by Allan Anderson and Val Clery.

In 2018 Terry Rusling was awarded Associate Composer status posthumously by the Canadian Music Centre.

[34] In October 2019 Tina Kiik reviewed all 3 of the CDs in the Spurn series in The Whole Note Magazine, pp.

"[35] A review of "The Machine is Broken" by Dave Madden appeared on Squid's Ear (2019-09-10) who said of the CD: "...the pieces would fit evenly in the subversive, forward-thinking library music of the BBC Radiophonic experimental cadre as well as on a playlist with Louis and Bebe Barron..."[36] a) Terry Rusling, The Machine is Broken, (2019), Spool (Spurn 3) Produced by David Porter and Daniel Kernohan.

A list of all items that were originally found in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Electronic Music Studio archives.

Electronic Music Studio, Box 2 - 7.135 Works : selections Rusling, Terry, 1931-1974 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.|University of Toronto.