Alvin Lucier had begun working with physicist Edmond Dewan in 1964, performing experiments that used brainwaves to create sound. The next year, he was inspired to compose a piece of music using brainwaves as the sole generative source.
Music for Solo Performer was presented, with encouragement from John Cage, at the Rose Art Museum of Brandeis University in 1965.
Lucier wrote: “I realized the value of the EEG situation as a theater element … I was also touched by the image of the immobile if not paralyzed human being who, by merely changing states of visual attention, can activate … a large battery of percussion instruments including cymbals, gongs, bass drums, timpani, and other …”
