ABSTRACT The author's work has focused on the use of acoustical phenomena, as opposed to electronic and computer-based sound synthesis, for sound generation. His approach to sound generation and processing utilizes a number of self-built instruments, including resonant sculptural objects, ultrasonic instruments and robotic rotating loudspeakers. The author illustrates the development and implementation of these instruments for the creation of a sonic architecture.

Of the works of David Tudor, none would seem to be better known than Rainforest IV , his large-scale performed installation of the 1970s. Although it has received widespread and well documented public performance, Rainforest 's germination in the mid-1960s in elements of Bandoneon! (1966) and its evolution over a period of 10 years, from versions I (1968), II (1968–1969), III (1972) and IV (1973) through Forest Speech (1976), have not yet been adequately assessed. This paper follows Rainforest 's trajectory chronologically: Matt Rogalsky focuses on the early versions of the work, and John Driscoll describes the collaborative development of Rainforest IV .