View source for Ben Johnston (composer)

{{Short description|American composer (1926–2019)}}
{{distinguish|Ben Jonson|Ben Johnson (disambiguation){{!}}Ben Johnson|Ban Johnson}}
{{Use shortened footnotes|date=March 2021}}
'''Benjamin Burwell Johnston Jr.''' (March 15, 1926 – July 21, 2019) was an American [[Contemporary classical music|contemporary music]] composer, known for his use of [[just intonation]]. He was called "one of the foremost composers of [[microtonal music]]" by Philip Bush{{sfn|Bush|1997}} and "one of the best non-famous composers this country has to offer" by [[John Rockwell]].{{r|Rockwell1990}}

== Biography ==
Johnston was born in [[Macon, Georgia]], and taught composition and theory at the [[University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign]] from 1951 to 1986, before retiring to North Carolina. During his time teaching, he was in contact with [[Avant-garde music|avant-garde]] figures such as [[John Cage]], [[La Monte Young]], and [[Iannis Xenakis]].{{sfn|Gann|1995}} Johnston's students included [[Stuart Saunders Smith]], [[Neely Bruce]], [[Thomas Albert (composer)|Thomas Albert]], [[Michael Pisaro]], [[Manfred Stahnke]], and [[Kyle Gann]]. He also considered his practice of just intonation to have influenced other composers, including [[Larry Polansky]].{{r|Bermel995}} In 1946 he married dance band singer Dorothy Haines, but they soon divorced. In 1950 he married artist Betty Hall, who died in 2007.

Johnston began as a traditional composer of [[art music]] before working with [[Harry Partch]]. He helped the senior musician to build instruments and use them in the performance and recording of new compositions. Partch then arranged for Johnston to study with [[Darius Milhaud]] at [[Mills College]].{{r|Duckworth1995_122}} In 1952, Johnston met Cage, who invited him to come to New York to study with him in the summer. Though Johnston decided he did not have sufficient time to prepare for such studies, he did go to New York for several weeks and assisted, along with [[Earle Brown]], in the production of Cage's eight-track tape composition, ''[[Williams Mix]]''.{{sfn|Von Gunden|1986|p=22}}

Later, in 1957 and 1959, he studied with Cage,{{sfn|Von Gunden|1986|p=22}} who encouraged him to follow his desires and use traditional instruments rather than electronics or newly built instruments.{{sfn|Bush|1997}} Unskilled in carpentry and finding electronics unreliable, Johnston struggled with how to integrate microtonality and conventional instruments for ten years. He also struggled with how to integrate microtones into his compositional language through a slow process of many stages.{{sfn|Gann|1995}} However, since 1960 Johnston had almost exclusively used a system of microtonal [[Musical notation|notation]] based on the rational intervals of just intonation, what Gann describes as a "lifelong allegiance" to microtonality.{{sfn|Gann|1995|p=1}} Johnston also studied with [[Burrill Phillips]] and [[Robert Moffat Palmer|Robert Palmer]].{{sfnm|Tyranny|2011|Von Gunden|1986|p=23}}

Johnston composed music for multiple productions by the E.T.C. Company of La MaMa, [[Wilford Leach]] and John Braswell's [[In residence|company-in-residence]] at [[La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club]] in the [[East Village, Manhattan|East Village of Manhattan]]. His most significant work was ''[[Carmilla]]'', which the company performed as part of their [[Repertory theatre|repertory]] throughout the 1970s.{{r|Camilla1970}} He also composed music for the company's production of ''Gertrude'', a [[Musical theatre|musical]] about the life of [[Gertrude Stein]].{{r|Gertrude1970}}

His other works included the orchestral work ''Quintet for Groups'' (commissioned by the [[St. Louis Symphony Orchestra]]), ''Sonnets of Desolation'' (commissioned by the [[Swingle Singers]]), the ''[[Sonata for Microtonal Piano]]'' (1964), and the ''[[Suite for Microtonal Piano]]'' (1977). Johnston completed ten string quartets. The Kepler Quartet recorded all ten of his string quartets for [[New World Records]], finishing in April 2016 just after the composer's 90th birthday.{{r|NWRecs}}

Johnston said:{{blockquote|Tempered tuning is not the acoustically simplest kind. In just tuning, any interval is tuned so as to eliminate 'beating' (the result of vibrations interfering with each other). Just intonation is the easiest to achieve by ear. In this kind of tuning, all intervals have vibration rates related by small whole-number ratios. The larger the integers of the ratio, the greater the dissonance.{{r|Johnston2006a}}}}
He received many honors, including a [[Guggenheim Fellowship]] in 1959, a grant from the National Council on the Arts and the Humanities in 1966, two commissions from the [[Smithsonian Institution]], and the [[Deems Taylor Award]]. In 2007, the [[American Academy of Arts and Letters]] honored Johnston for his lifetime of work. His ''Quintet for Groups'' won the SWR Sinfonieorchester prize at the 2008 [[Donaueschinger Musiktage]].{{r|Lamparter2008}}

[[Heidi Von Gunden]] wrote a monograph on the composer, and [[Bob Gilmore]] edited the composer's complete writings, which were published as ''"Maximum Clarity" and Other Writings on Music'' by the University of Illinois Press. A three-part [[oral history]] covering all stages of his career is housed at the [[Oral History of American Music]] through [[Yale University]].

Johnston died from complications of [[Parkinson's disease]] in [[Deerfield, Wisconsin]], on July 21, 2019.{{r|Kozinn2019}}

== Music ==
He is best known for extending [[Harry Partch]]'s experiments in [[just intonation]] tuning to traditional instruments through his system of notation.{{Citation needed|date=August 2018}}

Johnston's compositional style was eclectic. He used serial processes, folk song idioms ([[string quartet]]s 4, 5, and 10), repetitive processes, traditional forms like [[fugue]] and variations, and intuitive processes.{{sfn|Fonville|1991|pp=120–121}} His main goal was "to reestablish just intonation as a viable part of our musical tradition."{{sfn|Bush|1997}} According to [[Mark Swed]], "ultimately, what Johnston has done, more than any other composer with roots in the great American musical experiments of the '50s and '60s, is to translate those radical approaches to the nature of music into a music that is immediately apprehensible".<ref>{{harvnb|Swed|1995}}{{Page needed|date=August 2018}}, quoted in {{harvnb|Bush|1997}}.</ref>

Most of Johnston's later works use a large number of pitches, generated through just-intonation procedures. In these works he formed melodies based on an "[[Otonality and Utonality|otonal]]" eight-note just-intonation scale made from the 8th through 15th partials of the [[Harmonic series (music)|harmonic series]], or its "utonal" inversion. He then gained new pitches by using common-tone transpositions or inversions. Many of his works also feature an expansive use of just intonation, using high prime [[Limit (music)|limits]]. His String Quartet No. 9 uses intervals of the harmonic series as high as the 31st partial. He used "potentially hundreds of pitches per octave," in a way that was "radical without being avant-garde"; in contrast with much twentieth-century music, he used microtones not for the creation of dissonance but in order to "return […] to a kind of musical beauty," which he perceived as diminished in Western music since the adoption of [[Equal temperament|equal-temperament]].{{sfn|Gann|1995}} "By the beginning of the 1980s he could say of his elaborately microtonal ''String Quartet no. 5''... 'I have no idea as to how many different pitches it used per octave'".{{r|Gilmore2006_XVIII}}

Johnston's early efforts in just composition drew heavily on the accomplishments of post-[[Anton Webern|Webern]] [[serialism]]. His [[7-limit tuning|7-limit]] String Quartet no. 4 "Amazing Grace", was commissioned by the Fine Arts Music Foundation of Chicago, and was first recorded by the [[Fine Arts Quartet]] on [[Nonesuch Records]] in 1980 (then reissued on Gasparo as GS205). His String Quartet no. 4, perhaps Johnston's best-known composition, has also been recorded by the [[Kronos Quartet]]. The Kepler Quartet (Sharan Leventhal, Eric Segnitz, Brek Renzelman, and Karl Lavine) also recorded the piece for [[New World Records]], as part of a complete 10-quartet series documenting Johnston's entire cycle of string quartets. The Third Quartet was premiered as part of this series by the [[Concord String Quartet]] at [[Alice Tully Hall]] at [[Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts]], on March 15, 1976, the composer's fiftieth birthday.{{r|Rockwell1976}}

===Staff notation===
[[File:Just perfect fifth on D.png|thumb|right|Just perfect fifth on D.<br />[[File:Just perfect fifth on D.mid]] The perfect fifth above D (A{{music|plus}}, 27/16) is a [[syntonic comma]] (81/80 or 21.5 cents) higher than the [[just major sixth]] above C (A{{music|natural}}, 5/3),{{sfn|Fonville|1991|p=109}} 27/16 ÷ 9/8 = 3/2.]]

Beginning in the 1960s, Johnston proposed an approach to notating music in just intonation (JI), redefining the understanding of conventional symbols (the seven "white" notes, along with the sharps and flats) and adding further [[Accidental (music)|accidentals]], each designed to extend the notation into higher [[prime limit]]s. Johnston's method is based on a diatonic C major scale tuned in JI, in which the interval between D (9/8 above C) and A (5/3 above C) is one Syntonic comma less than a [[Pythagorean tuning|Pythagorean]] perfect fifth 3:2. To write a perfect fifth, Johnston introduces a pair of symbols representing this comma, + and −. Thus, a series of perfect fifths beginning with F would proceed C G D A+ E+ B+. The three conventional white notes A E B are tuned as [[Ptolemy|Ptolemaic]] major thirds (5:4, [[Ptolemy's intense diatonic scale]]) above F C G respectively. Johnston introduces new symbols for the septimal ({{music|7}} & {{music|L}}), undecimal ({{music|up}} & {{music|down}}), tridecimal ({{music|13}} & {{music|13 upside down}}), and further prime extensions to create an accidental-based exact JI notation for what he has named "extended just intonation".{{sfn|Johnston|2006b|pp=77–88}}

Though "this notation is not tied to any particular [[Concert pitch#19th- and 20th-century standards|diapason]]" and the ratios between pitches remain constant, most of Johnston’s works used [[A440 (pitch standard)|A = 440]] as the tuning note, making C 264 hertz.{{sfn|Johnston|2006b|p=77}}{{sfn|Fonville|1991|p=136n3}} In Johnston’s notation a string quartet is tuned C−, G−, D−, A, E.

==Recordings==
* 2016: ''Ben Johnston: String Quartets Nos. 7, 8 & 6, Quietness'' – Kepler Quartet ([[New World Records]] CD-80730)
** String Quartet No. 7
** String Quartet No. 8
** String Quartet No. 6
**"Quietness" (string quartet and voice)
* 2014: ''Ben Johnston: Ruminations'' – Eclipse String Quartet, [[John Schneider (guitarist)|John Schneider]] (voice, microtonal guitar), Karen Clark (voice), Jim Sullivan (clarinet), Sarah Thornblade (violin) (MicroFest Records CD-5)
**"The Tavern"
**"Revised Standards"
**"Parable"
* 2011: ''Ben Johnston: String Quartets Nos. 1, 5 & 10'' – Kepler Quartet ([[New World Records]] CD-80693)
** String Quartet No. 5
** String Quartet No. 10
** String Quartet No. 1, "Nine Variations"
* 2008: ''On Track: Commissions Vol. 2''. – New Century Saxophone Quartet (Alanna Records ACD-6006, Pittsburgh)
** Includes Johnston's "O Waly Waly Variations"
* 2006: ''Ben Johnston: String Quartets Nos. 2, 3, 4 & 9'' – Kepler Quartet ([[New World Records]] CD-80637)
** String Quartet No. 9
**''Crossings'': String Quartet No. 3
**''Crossings: The Silence''
**''Crossings'': String Quartet No. 4, "Amazing Grace"
** String Quartet No. 2
* 2005: ''Susan Fancher: Ponder Nothing'' ([[Innova Recordings|Innova Records]])
** Includes Johnston's "Ponder Nothing"
* 2002: ''Cleveland Chamber Symphony. Vol. 1, 2 & 3'' (Troppe Note Records)
** Includes Johnston's "Songs of Loss"
* 1997: ''[[Phillip Bush]]: Microtonal Piano'' ([[Koch International Classics]] 3-7369-2-H1)
** Includes Johnston's Suite for Microtonal Piano
** Includes Johnston's Sonata for Microtonal Piano
** Includes Johnston's "Saint Joan"
* 1996: ''Michael Cameron: Progression'' (Ziva Records)
** Includes Johnston's "Progression"
* 1993: ''Ponder Nothing: Chamber Music of Ben Johnston'' ([[New World Records]] 80432-2)
** Septet for woodwinds, horn, and strings
**"Three Chinese Lyrics"
**"Gambit:"
**"Five Fragments"
** Trio
**"Ponder Nothing"
* 1995: ''The Stanford Quartet'' (Laurel Records)
** Includes Johnston's String Quartet No. 9
* 1976: ''Sound Forms for Piano'' ([[LP record]], [[New World Records]] NW-203)
** Includes Johnston's Sonata for Microtonal Piano
* 1995: ''[[Kronos Quartet|The Kronos Quartet]]: Released'' ([[Compilation album|compilation]], [[Nonesuch Records]])
** Includes Johnston's String Quartet No. 4, "Amazing Grace"
* 1993: ''Urban Diva'' – Dora Ohrenstein (soprano), [[Mary Rowell]] (violin), [[Phillip Bush]] (keyboards), Bill Ruyle and Jason Cirker (percussion), John Thompson (electric bass) (Emergency Music, [[Composers Recordings, Incorporated|Composers Recordings Incorporated]] CD-654)
** Includes Johnston's "Calamity Jane to Her Daughter"
* 1987: ''White Man Sleeps'' – [[Kronos Quartet]] ([[Elektra Records|Elektra]]/[[Nonesuch Records|Nonesuch]] 79163-2)
** Includes Johnston's String Quartet No. 4, "Amazing Grace"
* 1984: ''[[The New Swingle Singers|New Swingle Singers]] and New Vocal Workshop'' ([[Composers Recordings, Inc.]])
**Includes Johnston's "Sonnets of Desolation"
**Includes Johnston's "Visions and Spels"
* 1983: ''The New World Quartet'' ([[Composers Recordings, Inc.]])
** Includes Johnston's String Quartet No. 6
* 1980: ''The Fine Arts Quartet'' ([[Nonesuch Records]])
** Includes Johnston's String Quartet No. 4, "Amazing Grace"
* 1979: ''Music from the University of Illinois'' ([[Composers Recordings, Inc.]])
** Includes Johnston's Duo for flute and contrabass
* 1970: ''Carmilla: A Vampire Tale'' ([[Vanguard Records]])
* 1969: ''John Cage & [[Lejaren Hiller]] – [[HPSCHD]]/ Ben Johnston – String Quartet No. 2.'' ([[LP record]], [[Nonesuch Records]] H-71224)
* 1969: ''The Contemporary Contrabass -'' [[Bertram Turetzky]], contrabass ([[LP record]], [[Nonesuch Records]] H-71237)
** Includes Johnston's "Casta*"
* 1968: ''New Music Choral Ensemble'' – [[Kenneth Gaburo]], conductor ([[LP record]], Ars Nova/Ars Antiqua Records AN1005)
** Includes Johnston's "Ci-Git Satie"

==Footnotes==
{{reflist|refs=
<ref name=Rockwell1990>[[John Rockwell|Rockwell, John]]. 1990. "Calamity Jane and Other Voices". ''The New York Times'' (October 14): 56.</ref>
<ref name=Rockwell1976>Rockwell, John. 1976. "Music: Concord Strings; Quartet Performs Pieces by Johnston, Foss and Rochberg at Tully Hall". ''The New York Times'' (March 17): 33.</ref>
<ref name=Bermel995>Bermel, Derek. 1995. [http://www.paristransatlantic.com/magazine/interviews/johnston.html "Ben Johnston: Interview with Derek Bermel, 1995"], ''Paris Transatlantic'' (online edition, accessed 28 June 2009).</ref>
<ref name=Duckworth1995_122>[[William Duckworth (composer)|Duckworth, William]]. 1995. ''Talking Music: Conversations with John Cage, Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, and Five Generations of American Experimental Composers''. New York: Schirmer Books; London: Prentice-Hall International. {{ISBN|0-02-870823-7}} p. 122. Reprinted 1999, New York: Da Capo Press. {{ISBN|0-306-80893-5}}.</ref>
<ref name=Camilla1970>{{cite web |date=1970 |title=Production Photographs and Contact Sheet: "Carmilla" |website=La MaMa Archives Digital Collections |url=https://catalog.lamama.org/index.php/Detail/objects/4974 |access-date=18 March 2021}}</ref>
<ref name=Gertrude1970>{{cite web |date=1970 |title=Production Photograph: "Gertrude" |website=La MaMa Archives Digital Collections |access-date=18 March 2021 |url=https://catalog.lamama.org/index.php/Detail/objects/913}}</ref>
<ref name=NWRecs>New World Records. n.d. {{Full citation needed|date=May 2016}}.</ref>
<ref name=Johnston2006a>{{cite book |last=Johnston |first=Ben |editor=Bob Gilmore|editor-link=Bob Gilmore|date=2006a |title="Maximum Clarity" and Other Writings on Music |location=[[Urbana, Illinois|Urbana]] IL |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=9780252030987 |page=42 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nh6cA3Uz1usC&pg=PP}}</ref>
<ref name=Lamparter2008>Lamparter, Wolfram. 2008. [untitled article]. ''Newsletter'' (19 November): 1. Baden-Baden and Freiburg: SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg.</ref>
<ref name=Kozinn2019>[[Allan Kozinn|Kozinn, Allan]]. 2019. [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/25/arts/music/ben-johnston-dead.html "Ben Johnston, Who Made Microtonal Music Melodic, Dies at 93]", ''The New York Times''.</ref>
<ref name=Gilmore2006_XVIII>[[Bob Gilmore|Gilmore, Bob]]. 2006. "Introduction". In Ben Johnston, ''"Maximum Clarity" and Other Writings on Music'', edited by Bob Gilmore, xi–xxiii. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. {{ISBN|0-252-03098-2}} p. xviii.</ref>
}}

===References===
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Bush|1997}}|reference=Bush, Phillip. 1997. Liner notes (unpaginated) to ''Microtonal Piano by Ben Johnston''. Phillip Bush, piano. Koch International Classics 3-7369-2. Port Washington, NY: Koch International. [Quotes ''The New Grove Dictionary of American Music'' and critic Mark Swed.]}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Fonville|1991}}|reference=[[John Fonville|Fonville, John]]. 1991. "Ben Johnston's Extended Just Intonation: A Guide for Interpreters". ''[[Perspectives of New Music]]'' 29, no. 2 (Summer): 106–137.}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Gann|1995}}|reference=[[Kyle Gann|Gann, Kyle]]. 1995. ''Music Amici: Ben Johnston: Ponder Nothing''. New World Records. Cat. No.: 80432. Liner notes.}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Johnston|2006b}}|reference=Johnston, Ben. 2006b. "A Notation System for Extended Just Intonation" (2003). In Ben Johnston, ''"Maximum Clarity" and Other Writings on Music'', edited by Bob Gilmore, 77–88. {{ISBN|978-0-252-03098-7}}.}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Swed|1995}}|reference=Swed, Mark. 1995. "Ben Johnston". ''Chamber Music Magazine'' (March):{{Full citation needed|date=January 2012}}<!--volume number and inclusive pages needed.-->}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Tyranny|2011}}|reference=Tyranny, "Blue" Gene. 2011. "[http://www.allmusic.com/artist/ben-johnston-q7517/biography Ben Johnston: Biography]", ''AllMusic.com''.}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Von Gunden|1986}}|reference=[[Heidi Von Gunden|Von Gunden, Heidi]]. 1986. ''The Music of Ben Johnston''. Metuchen, New Jersey, and London: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. {{ISBN|0-8108-1907-4}}.}}

== Further reading ==
*Elster, Steven. 1991. "A Harmonic and Serial Analysis of Ben Johnston's String Quartet No. 6". ''[[Perspectives of New Music]]'' 29, no. 2 (Summer): 138–165.
*[[Bob Gilmore|Gilmore, Bob]]. 1995. "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): 458–503.
*Johnson, Timothy Ernest. 2008. "13-limit Extended Just Intonation in Ben Johnston's String Quartet Number 7 and Toby Twining's ''Chrysalid Requiem, Gradual/Tract''". [[Doctor of Musical Arts]] thesis. Urbana: [[University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign|University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign]].
*Johnston, Ben, and Sylvia Smith. 2006. ''Who Am I? Why Am I Here?: Ben Johnston Reflects on his Life in Music''. [[Baltimore]]: Smith Publications.
*Johnston, Sibyl. 2007. "Very Precise Relationships: Two Interviews with Ben Johnston". ''[[American Music (journal)|American Music]]'' 25, no. 2 (Summer): 169–192.
*Kassel, Richard. 2001. "Johnston, Ben(jamin Burwell)". ''[[The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'', second edition, edited by [[Stanley Sadie]] and [[John Tyrrell (musicologist)|John Tyrrell]]. London: [[Macmillan Publishers]].
*Maltz, Richard Steven. 1991. "Microtonal Techniques in [[Charles Ives]]' ''Three Quarter-Tone Pieces for Two Pianos'', [[Harry Partch|Harry Patch]]'s ''And [on] the Seventh Day Petals Fell in Petaluma'', and Ben Johnston's Fourth String Quartet". [[PhD thesis]]. [[University of South Carolina]].
*Ratliff, Phillip. 2002. "How Sweet the Sound". ''Living Music'' 18, no. 1 (Fall): 8–9.
*[[John Schneider (guitarist)|Schneider, John]] (ed.) 2007. "Ben Johnston at Eighty". ''1/1: The Journal of the Just Intonation Network'' 12, no. 3 (Johnston birthday volume).
*Shinn, Randall. 1977. "Ben Johnston's Fourth String Quartet". ''[[Perspectives of New Music]]'' 15, no. 2 (Spring-Summer): 145–173.
*[[Manfred Stahnke|Stahnke, Manfred]]. 2015. "Ben Johnston: Microtonal Piano Sonata. Klavierstimmung als Fessel und Freiheit – Anmerkungen zu Ben Johnstons Sonata for Microtonal Piano". ''[[MusikTexte]]'' 144, (February): 87-.
*[[Manfred Stahnke|Stahnke, Manfred]]. 2022. "Ben Johnston, sein Just-Intonation-Denken und seine Notation an einem Extrempunkt: Beispiele aus seinem String Quartet No. 7 (1984), 3. Satz". ''[[Musik & Ästhetik]]'' 104: 22-38.
* Taylor, Mark R. 2002. "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/946602 Ben Johnston: Suite; Sonata; ''Saint Joan''. Phillip Bush (piano); Koch International Classics 3-7369-2-H1; Ben Johnston: ''Chamber Music''. Music Amici. New World Records 80432-2]". ''[[Tempo (journal)|Tempo]]'', new series, no. 220 (April): 54–55. ({{Subscription required}}, accessed 1 April 2009.)
* Zimmermann, Walter. 2020. ''Desert Plants – Conversations with 23 American Musicians'', Berlin: Beginner Press in cooperation with Mode Records (originally published in 1976 by A.R.C., Vancouver). The 2020 edition includes a cd featuring the original interview recordings with [[Larry Austin]], [[Robert Ashley]], Jim Burton, [[John Cage]], [[Philip Corner]], [[Morton Feldman]], [[Philip Glass]], [[Joan La Barbara]], [[Garrett List]], [[Alvin Lucier]], John McGuire, Charles Morrow, J.B. Floyd (on [[Conlon Nancarrow]]), [[Pauline Oliveros]], [[Charlemagne Palestine]], Ben Johnston (on [[Harry Partch]]), [[Steve Reich]], [[David Rosenboom]], [[Frederic Rzewski]], [[Richard Teitelbaum]], [[James Tenney]], [[Christian Wolff (composer)|Christian Wolff]], and [[La Monte Young]].

==External links==
*[https://www.plainsound.org/BJwork.html Ben Johnston at Plainsound Music Edition]
*[http://composers21.com/compdocs/johnstob.htm "Ben Johnston" on the Living Composers Project]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20190502145232/http://newdissonance.com/ "A New Dissonance"] : video interviews with Johnston, blog entries, documentary footage of rehearsals of String Quartet No. 10 by the Kepler Quartet
*[http://radiom.org/detail.php?et=lecture&omid=V.2006.04.15 Ben Johnston at UNC (Greensboro) symposium] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304083611/http://radiom.org/detail.php?et=lecture&omid=V.2006.04.15 |date=2016-03-04 }}: autobiographical lecture describing his early music influences and his interest in microtonal music and just intonation
*[http://www.bruceduffie.com/johnston.html Interview with Ben Johnston (April 7, 1987)]
*[https://catalog.lamama.org/Detail/entities/2401 Johnston's page on La MaMa Archives Digital Collections]

===Listening===
*''Casta Bertram'', [[Bertram Turetzky]] (NonesuchRecords, 1969) [https://web.archive.org/web/20110812021149/http://avantgardeproject.conus.info/mirror/agp58/index.htm FLAC and liner notes] [https://web.archive.org/web/20110812021050/http://avantgardeproject.conus.info/AGP58/ MP3]
*String Quartet No. 2, [[Composers Quartet]] (Nonesuch, 1969) [https://web.archive.org/web/20110812021131/http://avantgardeproject.conus.info/mirror/agp118/index.htm FLAC and liner notes] [https://web.archive.org/web/20110812021039/http://avantgardeproject.conus.info/AGP118/ MP3]
*String Quartet no. 6, New World Quartet ([[Composers Recordings, Inc.|Composers Recordings Inc.]], 1983) [https://web.archive.org/web/20110721195405/http://avantgardeproject.conus.info/mirror/AGP9/index.htm liner notes] [https://web.archive.org/web/20110812021058/http://avantgardeproject.conus.info/AGP9/ MP3: click on "Johnston 01.mp3"]
*''Sonnets of Desolation'', [[The New Swingle Singers|New Swingle Singers]] and New Vocal Workshop ([[Composers Recordings, Inc.|Composers Recordings Inc.]], 1984) [https://web.archive.org/web/20110721195405/http://avantgardeproject.conus.info/mirror/AGP9/index.htm liner notes] [https://web.archive.org/web/20110812021058/http://avantgardeproject.conus.info/AGP9/ MP3: click on "Johnston 02.mp3"]
*''Visions and Spels'', [[The New Swingle Singers|New Swingle Singers]] and New Vocal Workshop ([[Composers Recordings, Inc.|Composers Recordings Inc.]], 1984) [https://web.archive.org/web/20110721195405/http://avantgardeproject.conus.info/mirror/AGP9/index.htm liner notes] [https://web.archive.org/web/20110812021058/http://avantgardeproject.conus.info/AGP9/ MP3: click on "Johnston 03.mp3" for part 1; click on "Johnston 04.mp3" for part 2]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnston, Ben}}
[[Category:1926 births]]
[[Category:2019 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American classical composers]]
[[Category:21st-century American classical composers]]
[[Category:American male classical composers]]
[[Category:Microtonal composers]]
[[Category:Modernist composers]]
[[Category:Twelve-tone and serial composers]]
[[Category:Just intonation composers]]
[[Category:Writers from Macon, Georgia]]
[[Category:Musicians from Macon, Georgia]]
[[Category:Mills College alumni]]
[[Category:University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty]]
[[Category:Pupils of Robert Moffat Palmer]]
[[Category:Pupils of Darius Milhaud]]
[[Category:Pupils of Harry Partch]]
[[Category:Experimental Music Studios alumni]]
[[Category:Deaths from Parkinson's disease in the United States]]
[[Category:Neurological disease deaths in Wisconsin]]
[[Category:Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters]]