He achieved modest recognition and radio play alongside the likes of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Edgard Varèse, and John Cage.
In 1961, he applied to use the facilities at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center and was denied access in separate rejection letters penned by Vladimir Ussachevsky and Milton Babbitt.
Ussachevsky’s official reason was the “overstrained” scheduling of the studios, although it was suspected that Dockstader's lack of academic training was a factor in the decision.
Reinvigorated, Dockstader returned to music at the start of the 21st century, adopting computer composition in favor of tapes.
[1][5] In 2016, Starkland released From the Archives,[6] a CD that premiered 15 works selected from the unexpected discovery of 4,200 sound files found on Dockstader's private computer after his death.