Stefan Helmreich, Sophia Roosth, and Michele Friedner
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691164809
- eISBN:
- 9781400873869
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691164809.003.0011
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter examines water and seawater as media for modernist and experimental music, representing the ocean as a site of life sublime and endangered. More specifically, it considers the ways that ...
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This chapter examines water and seawater as media for modernist and experimental music, representing the ocean as a site of life sublime and endangered. More specifically, it considers the ways that the underwater realm manifests a scientifically, technologically, and epistemologically apprehensible zone. It does so by auditing underwater music, a genre of twentieth- and twenty-first-century composition performed or recorded under water in settings ranging from swimming pools to the ocean, with playback unfolding above water or beneath. Composers of underwater music are especially curious about scientific accounts of how sound behaves in water and eager to acquire technologies of subaqueous sound production. The chapter shows that listening to underwater music reveals water transforming from the static and sonared seas of Cold War modernism to the dynamic and confusing seas of global warming, from seas sound and sounded to seas unsound.Less
This chapter examines water and seawater as media for modernist and experimental music, representing the ocean as a site of life sublime and endangered. More specifically, it considers the ways that the underwater realm manifests a scientifically, technologically, and epistemologically apprehensible zone. It does so by auditing underwater music, a genre of twentieth- and twenty-first-century composition performed or recorded under water in settings ranging from swimming pools to the ocean, with playback unfolding above water or beneath. Composers of underwater music are especially curious about scientific accounts of how sound behaves in water and eager to acquire technologies of subaqueous sound production. The chapter shows that listening to underwater music reveals water transforming from the static and sonared seas of Cold War modernism to the dynamic and confusing seas of global warming, from seas sound and sounded to seas unsound.
Amy C. Beal
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195336641
- eISBN:
- 9780199868551
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195336641.003.0006
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, Popular
The Ivy‐League pedigrees of many of the Musica Elettronica Viva (MEV) composers seems to contradict their anarchic‐Marxist musical activities in Rome during the late 1960s. Influenced by the ...
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The Ivy‐League pedigrees of many of the Musica Elettronica Viva (MEV) composers seems to contradict their anarchic‐Marxist musical activities in Rome during the late 1960s. Influenced by the live‐electronic improvisations of John Cage and David Tudor, the Italian network of avant‐garde composers, and the intense collective work of The Living Theater, these self‐exiled Americans (including Alvin Curran, Frederic Rzewski, Richard Teitelbaum, and Jon Phetteplace) developed a radical approach to free improvisation during a time of political and social turmoil in Europe. Joining forces in Rome in 1966, they performed throughout Europe during the late 1960s and gained influence as an intensely politicized underground model for musical action. MEV soon made the journey from performing compositions to provoking free sonic rituals where artists and audiences made music with any means available.Less
The Ivy‐League pedigrees of many of the Musica Elettronica Viva (MEV) composers seems to contradict their anarchic‐Marxist musical activities in Rome during the late 1960s. Influenced by the live‐electronic improvisations of John Cage and David Tudor, the Italian network of avant‐garde composers, and the intense collective work of The Living Theater, these self‐exiled Americans (including Alvin Curran, Frederic Rzewski, Richard Teitelbaum, and Jon Phetteplace) developed a radical approach to free improvisation during a time of political and social turmoil in Europe. Joining forces in Rome in 1966, they performed throughout Europe during the late 1960s and gained influence as an intensely politicized underground model for musical action. MEV soon made the journey from performing compositions to provoking free sonic rituals where artists and audiences made music with any means available.
Born Georgina
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520202160
- eISBN:
- 9780520916845
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520202160.003.0003
- Subject:
- Anthropology, European Cultural Anthropology
This chapter examines musical modernism in relation to the Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM). It shows that the major characteristics of IRCAM culture are prefigured ...
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This chapter examines musical modernism in relation to the Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM). It shows that the major characteristics of IRCAM culture are prefigured not only by musical modernism, but by significant features of modernist art in general, and suggests that the evolution of musical modernism must be understood within the context of broader cultural-historical forces. The chapter characterizes modernism and postmodernism in music, and considers experimental musical as musical postmodernism.Less
This chapter examines musical modernism in relation to the Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM). It shows that the major characteristics of IRCAM culture are prefigured not only by musical modernism, but by significant features of modernist art in general, and suggests that the evolution of musical modernism must be understood within the context of broader cultural-historical forces. The chapter characterizes modernism and postmodernism in music, and considers experimental musical as musical postmodernism.
Eric Drott
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195336641
- eISBN:
- 9780199868551
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195336641.003.0008
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, Popular
Luc Ferrari's 1970 tape composition Presque rien no. 1—an apparently unretouched recording of daybreak on the Black Sea—has long been characterized as a transgressive work, breaking with established ...
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Luc Ferrari's 1970 tape composition Presque rien no. 1—an apparently unretouched recording of daybreak on the Black Sea—has long been characterized as a transgressive work, breaking with established notions of compositional craft. However, statements made by the composer in the late 1960s point to a different way of reading Presque rien, one that situates it within contemporaneous debates concerning cultural democratization in France. The use of familiar, recognizable sounds to make experimental music accessible to a mass audience, along with the composer's stated desire that Presque rien might serve as a model for a new kind of amateur musique concrète, are read as responses to contemporaneous calls to reconcile avant‐garde music and popular culture.Less
Luc Ferrari's 1970 tape composition Presque rien no. 1—an apparently unretouched recording of daybreak on the Black Sea—has long been characterized as a transgressive work, breaking with established notions of compositional craft. However, statements made by the composer in the late 1960s point to a different way of reading Presque rien, one that situates it within contemporaneous debates concerning cultural democratization in France. The use of familiar, recognizable sounds to make experimental music accessible to a mass audience, along with the composer's stated desire that Presque rien might serve as a model for a new kind of amateur musique concrète, are read as responses to contemporaneous calls to reconcile avant‐garde music and popular culture.
Amy C. Beal
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520247550
- eISBN:
- 9780520932814
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520247550.003.0006
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter focuses on the time of reactionary conservatism when alternative venues were developed for the production and performance of experimental music in West Germany. It covers the era from ...
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This chapter focuses on the time of reactionary conservatism when alternative venues were developed for the production and performance of experimental music in West Germany. It covers the era from the building of the Berlin Wall to the time of student and worker revolts throughout Western Europe in 1968 and after. It suggests that during this period, the contrast between American contemporary classical music and its radical cousins became more defined. It also mentions observations that the freedom inherent in the European system became a breeding ground for reckless programming and that the avant-garde music sector had spun out of control.Less
This chapter focuses on the time of reactionary conservatism when alternative venues were developed for the production and performance of experimental music in West Germany. It covers the era from the building of the Berlin Wall to the time of student and worker revolts throughout Western Europe in 1968 and after. It suggests that during this period, the contrast between American contemporary classical music and its radical cousins became more defined. It also mentions observations that the freedom inherent in the European system became a breeding ground for reckless programming and that the avant-garde music sector had spun out of control.
Born Georgina
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520202160
- eISBN:
- 9780520916845
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520202160.003.0011
- Subject:
- Anthropology, European Cultural Anthropology
This chapter provides a closer look at the differentiation of the Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) intellectuals in 1984 in relation to the Institute's two major ...
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This chapter provides a closer look at the differentiation of the Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) intellectuals in 1984 in relation to the Institute's two major areas of work, the musical-aesthetic and the technological. It presents a chart that represents an analysis of IRCAM intellectual subjects as interpreted through the lens of the earlier characterizations of modernism and postmodernism. The chapter suggests that the IRCAM subjects' positions can be seen as informed by, and yet as particular expression of, discourses on modernism and postmodernism. It discusses the mechanisms in the construction of aesthetics and technology at IRCAM, and considers experimental music as constituting a marginal subculture and the exclusion of popular music.Less
This chapter provides a closer look at the differentiation of the Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) intellectuals in 1984 in relation to the Institute's two major areas of work, the musical-aesthetic and the technological. It presents a chart that represents an analysis of IRCAM intellectual subjects as interpreted through the lens of the earlier characterizations of modernism and postmodernism. The chapter suggests that the IRCAM subjects' positions can be seen as informed by, and yet as particular expression of, discourses on modernism and postmodernism. It discusses the mechanisms in the construction of aesthetics and technology at IRCAM, and considers experimental music as constituting a marginal subculture and the exclusion of popular music.
Amy C. Beal
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520247550
- eISBN:
- 9780520932814
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520247550.003.0008
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter discusses key events in the period from the late 1970s to 1990 relevant to American experimental music. It explains that this was a golden era of public support during which a new ...
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This chapter discusses key events in the period from the late 1970s to 1990 relevant to American experimental music. It explains that this was a golden era of public support during which a new generation of patrons decisively continued to feature American experimentalism. It contends that musical, economic and political circumstances of this period provided a rich context for the extensive work of American experimental composers abroad.Less
This chapter discusses key events in the period from the late 1970s to 1990 relevant to American experimental music. It explains that this was a golden era of public support during which a new generation of patrons decisively continued to feature American experimentalism. It contends that musical, economic and political circumstances of this period provided a rich context for the extensive work of American experimental composers abroad.
Jeremy Grimshaw
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199740208
- eISBN:
- 9780199918713
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199740208.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, American, Theory, Analysis, Composition
La Monte Young, generally regarded as the father of musical minimalism, is one of America’s most important contemporary composers--and one of the most elusive. Early on Young eschewed the ...
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La Monte Young, generally regarded as the father of musical minimalism, is one of America’s most important contemporary composers--and one of the most elusive. Early on Young eschewed the conventional musical institutions of publishers, record labels, and venues, in order to create compositions completely unfettered by commercial concerns. At the same time, however, he exercised profound influence on such varied figures as Terry Riley, Cornelius Cardew, Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, Velvet Underground, Brian Eno and entire branches of pop music. For half a century he and his partner and collaborator, Marian Zazeela, have worked in near-seclusion in their Tribeca loft, creating works that explore the furthest extremes of conceptual audacity, technical sophistication, acoustical complexity, and overt spirituality. Because of this seclusion, his importance as a composer has heretofore not been matched by a commensurate amount of scholarly scrutiny. Draw A Straight Line and Follow It: The Music and Mysticism of La Monte Young stands as the first monograph to examine Young’s life and work in detail. The book is a culmination of a decade of research, during which the author gained rare access to the composer and his archives. The book takes a multi-disciplinary approach that combines biography, musicology, ethnomusicology, and music analysis, and illuminates such seemingly disparate aspects of Young’s work as integral serialism and indeterminacy, Mormon esoterica and Vedic mysticism, and psychedelia and psychoacoustics. The book is a long-awaited, in-depth look at one of experimental music’s most fascinating figures.Less
La Monte Young, generally regarded as the father of musical minimalism, is one of America’s most important contemporary composers--and one of the most elusive. Early on Young eschewed the conventional musical institutions of publishers, record labels, and venues, in order to create compositions completely unfettered by commercial concerns. At the same time, however, he exercised profound influence on such varied figures as Terry Riley, Cornelius Cardew, Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, Velvet Underground, Brian Eno and entire branches of pop music. For half a century he and his partner and collaborator, Marian Zazeela, have worked in near-seclusion in their Tribeca loft, creating works that explore the furthest extremes of conceptual audacity, technical sophistication, acoustical complexity, and overt spirituality. Because of this seclusion, his importance as a composer has heretofore not been matched by a commensurate amount of scholarly scrutiny. Draw A Straight Line and Follow It: The Music and Mysticism of La Monte Young stands as the first monograph to examine Young’s life and work in detail. The book is a culmination of a decade of research, during which the author gained rare access to the composer and his archives. The book takes a multi-disciplinary approach that combines biography, musicology, ethnomusicology, and music analysis, and illuminates such seemingly disparate aspects of Young’s work as integral serialism and indeterminacy, Mormon esoterica and Vedic mysticism, and psychedelia and psychoacoustics. The book is a long-awaited, in-depth look at one of experimental music’s most fascinating figures.
Amy C. Beal
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520247550
- eISBN:
- 9780520932814
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520247550.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This study describes the history of foreign support afforded to American experimental music from 1945 to 1990, particularly West Germany. It explains that during the second half of the twentieth ...
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This study describes the history of foreign support afforded to American experimental music from 1945 to 1990, particularly West Germany. It explains that during the second half of the twentieth century, American composer-performers and West German cultural institutions contributed to an unprecedented international exchange of musical, aesthetic, and ideological viewpoints. It discusses changing attitudes about American music and contemporary composition during post-war and Cold War eras in West Germany.Less
This study describes the history of foreign support afforded to American experimental music from 1945 to 1990, particularly West Germany. It explains that during the second half of the twentieth century, American composer-performers and West German cultural institutions contributed to an unprecedented international exchange of musical, aesthetic, and ideological viewpoints. It discusses changing attitudes about American music and contemporary composition during post-war and Cold War eras in West Germany.
Amy C. Beal
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520247550
- eISBN:
- 9780520932814
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520247550.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter examines a period during the mid-fifties when a series of performances by John Tudor and John Cage in Darmstadt in 1958 established American experimental music as a central part of ...
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This chapter examines a period during the mid-fifties when a series of performances by John Tudor and John Cage in Darmstadt in 1958 established American experimental music as a central part of German new music discourse. It suggests that the performances of Tudor and Cage had a deep impact on the position of American music in West Germany. It discusses Henry Cowell's 1956 tour of West Germany and describes how American musicians acquired new allies in the European avant-garde and gained access to an unrivalled network of support for decades to come.Less
This chapter examines a period during the mid-fifties when a series of performances by John Tudor and John Cage in Darmstadt in 1958 established American experimental music as a central part of German new music discourse. It suggests that the performances of Tudor and Cage had a deep impact on the position of American music in West Germany. It discusses Henry Cowell's 1956 tour of West Germany and describes how American musicians acquired new allies in the European avant-garde and gained access to an unrivalled network of support for decades to come.
Eric Salzman and Thomas Desi
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195099362
- eISBN:
- 9780199864737
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195099362.003.0018
- Subject:
- Music, Opera
This chapter outlines the history of the off-Broadway theater in New York going back to the experimental music theater projects of the 1930s and the extended run of the Blitzstein version of the ...
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This chapter outlines the history of the off-Broadway theater in New York going back to the experimental music theater projects of the 1930s and the extended run of the Blitzstein version of the Weill/Brecht 3-Penny Opera in the '60s, along with the inheritance of the various experimental theater companies such as the Living Theater, the Open Theater, the Performance Group, Quog Music Theater, and the Music Theater Group. Non-traditional theaters and other performance venues have developed new theatrical forms that tend strongly towards the condition of music theater. Other downtown developments include the growth of dance theater and the proliferation of what came to be known as performance art (or just “performance”), in lofts, galleries, church basements, and specialized venues, in Manhattan and, afterwards, in Brooklyn and other parts of the country, notably California.Less
This chapter outlines the history of the off-Broadway theater in New York going back to the experimental music theater projects of the 1930s and the extended run of the Blitzstein version of the Weill/Brecht 3-Penny Opera in the '60s, along with the inheritance of the various experimental theater companies such as the Living Theater, the Open Theater, the Performance Group, Quog Music Theater, and the Music Theater Group. Non-traditional theaters and other performance venues have developed new theatrical forms that tend strongly towards the condition of music theater. Other downtown developments include the growth of dance theater and the proliferation of what came to be known as performance art (or just “performance”), in lofts, galleries, church basements, and specialized venues, in Manhattan and, afterwards, in Brooklyn and other parts of the country, notably California.
Douglas Kahn
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780520257801
- eISBN:
- 9780520956834
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520257801.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition
Earth Sound Earth Signal is a study of energies in aesthetics and the arts from the birth of modern communications in the nineteenth century to the global transmissions of the present day. Grounded ...
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Earth Sound Earth Signal is a study of energies in aesthetics and the arts from the birth of modern communications in the nineteenth century to the global transmissions of the present day. Grounded in the Aeolian sphere music that Henry David Thoreau heard blowing in telegraph lines and in the Aelectrosonic sounds of natural radio that Thomas Watson heard in telephone lines, the book moves through the histories of science, media, music, and the arts to the 1960s, when the composer Alvin Lucier worked with the “natural electromagnetic sounds” present from “brainwaves to outer space,” through the urban electromagnetism in the conceptual art of Robert Barry, to the energy-scavenging drawings and antennas by the artist Joyce Hinterding. From the sounds of auroras at high latitudes and atmospheric electricity in the mountains to the underground music of earthquakes and nuclear explosions and to music bounced off the moon and the sounds of the sun, Earth Sound Earth Signal rethinks energy at a global scale through detailed discussions of artists and scientists such as Gordon Mumma, Pauline Oliveros, John Cage, James Turrell, Karl-Birger Blomdahl, Paul DeMarinis, Semiconductor, Thomas Ashcraft, Katie Paterson, Edmond Dewan, Ludwik Liszka, and many others.Less
Earth Sound Earth Signal is a study of energies in aesthetics and the arts from the birth of modern communications in the nineteenth century to the global transmissions of the present day. Grounded in the Aeolian sphere music that Henry David Thoreau heard blowing in telegraph lines and in the Aelectrosonic sounds of natural radio that Thomas Watson heard in telephone lines, the book moves through the histories of science, media, music, and the arts to the 1960s, when the composer Alvin Lucier worked with the “natural electromagnetic sounds” present from “brainwaves to outer space,” through the urban electromagnetism in the conceptual art of Robert Barry, to the energy-scavenging drawings and antennas by the artist Joyce Hinterding. From the sounds of auroras at high latitudes and atmospheric electricity in the mountains to the underground music of earthquakes and nuclear explosions and to music bounced off the moon and the sounds of the sun, Earth Sound Earth Signal rethinks energy at a global scale through detailed discussions of artists and scientists such as Gordon Mumma, Pauline Oliveros, John Cage, James Turrell, Karl-Birger Blomdahl, Paul DeMarinis, Semiconductor, Thomas Ashcraft, Katie Paterson, Edmond Dewan, Ludwik Liszka, and many others.
Amy C. Beal
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520247550
- eISBN:
- 9780520932814
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520247550.003.0009
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This concluding chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the acceptance of American experimental music in West Germany. It explains that in the forty-five years after the war, American ...
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This concluding chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the acceptance of American experimental music in West Germany. It explains that in the forty-five years after the war, American experimental composers received extensive support in West Germany that nourished their careers as professional composers. It summarizes the complex reasons for American experimental music's prominent position in West German new music circles, intellectual circles that historically have remained skeptical regarding the value of American culture.Less
This concluding chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the acceptance of American experimental music in West Germany. It explains that in the forty-five years after the war, American experimental composers received extensive support in West Germany that nourished their careers as professional composers. It summarizes the complex reasons for American experimental music's prominent position in West German new music circles, intellectual circles that historically have remained skeptical regarding the value of American culture.
Douglas Kahn
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780520257801
- eISBN:
- 9780520956834
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520257801.003.0007
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition
In the mid-1960s, Alvin Lucier composed two works utilizing what he called the natural electromagnetic sounds of brainwaves and natural radio, the former being Music for Solo Performer (1965). ...
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In the mid-1960s, Alvin Lucier composed two works utilizing what he called the natural electromagnetic sounds of brainwaves and natural radio, the former being Music for Solo Performer (1965). Background is given on Lucier’s transition to experimental music composition and to the development of Music for Solo Performer, including his relationship with the physicist Edmond Dewan (who first suggested he use brainwaves, supplied the equipment, and assisted with the process) and his relationship with John Cage. The premier of the work at “A Concert of New Music” at the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University is discussed.Less
In the mid-1960s, Alvin Lucier composed two works utilizing what he called the natural electromagnetic sounds of brainwaves and natural radio, the former being Music for Solo Performer (1965). Background is given on Lucier’s transition to experimental music composition and to the development of Music for Solo Performer, including his relationship with the physicist Edmond Dewan (who first suggested he use brainwaves, supplied the equipment, and assisted with the process) and his relationship with John Cage. The premier of the work at “A Concert of New Music” at the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University is discussed.
Broyles Michael
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300100457
- eISBN:
- 9780300127898
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300100457.003.0008
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition
Many people in America or even the world probably know who John Cage is, but only a few may have actually heard his music. Cage understood how technology altered Western musical culture, yet rejected ...
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Many people in America or even the world probably know who John Cage is, but only a few may have actually heard his music. Cage understood how technology altered Western musical culture, yet rejected the basic premises of most Western music early. His interest in composition led him first to Henry Cowell, and then to Arnold Schoenberg, with whom he studied for at least two years. Cage spent the rest of his life in New York, receiving awards from the National Academy of Arts and Letters and the Guggenheim Foundation that allowed him to spend part of 1949 in Paris, where he became friends with Pierre Boulez and met Pierre Schaeffer. Cage began to experiment with electronic music in the early 1950s. Of all the Cage experiments between 1950 and 1952, 4' 33, the “silent piece,” has remained the most well known. He also turned to theater, the importance of which he articulated clearly and frequently. This chapter focuses on Cage's life and musical career as well as his experimental music.Less
Many people in America or even the world probably know who John Cage is, but only a few may have actually heard his music. Cage understood how technology altered Western musical culture, yet rejected the basic premises of most Western music early. His interest in composition led him first to Henry Cowell, and then to Arnold Schoenberg, with whom he studied for at least two years. Cage spent the rest of his life in New York, receiving awards from the National Academy of Arts and Letters and the Guggenheim Foundation that allowed him to spend part of 1949 in Paris, where he became friends with Pierre Boulez and met Pierre Schaeffer. Cage began to experiment with electronic music in the early 1950s. Of all the Cage experiments between 1950 and 1952, 4' 33, the “silent piece,” has remained the most well known. He also turned to theater, the importance of which he articulated clearly and frequently. This chapter focuses on Cage's life and musical career as well as his experimental music.
James Wierzbicki
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252040078
- eISBN:
- 9780252098277
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040078.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
Derided for its conformity and consumerism, 1950s America paid a price in anxiety. Prosperity existed under the shadow of a mushroom cloud. Optimism wore a Bucky Beaver smile that masked worry over ...
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Derided for its conformity and consumerism, 1950s America paid a price in anxiety. Prosperity existed under the shadow of a mushroom cloud. Optimism wore a Bucky Beaver smile that masked worry over threats at home and abroad. But even dread could not quell the revolutionary changes taking place in virtually every form of mainstream music. This book sheds light on how the Fifties' pervasive moods affected its sounds. Moving across genres established (pop, country, opera, experimental, rock, jazz) the book delves into the social dynamics that caused forms to emerge or recede, thrive or fade away. Red scares and white flight, sexual politics and racial tensions, technological progress and demographic upheaval—the influence of each rooted the music of this volatile period to its specific place and time. Yet this book also reveals the host of underlying connections linking that most apprehensive of times to our own uneasy present.Less
Derided for its conformity and consumerism, 1950s America paid a price in anxiety. Prosperity existed under the shadow of a mushroom cloud. Optimism wore a Bucky Beaver smile that masked worry over threats at home and abroad. But even dread could not quell the revolutionary changes taking place in virtually every form of mainstream music. This book sheds light on how the Fifties' pervasive moods affected its sounds. Moving across genres established (pop, country, opera, experimental, rock, jazz) the book delves into the social dynamics that caused forms to emerge or recede, thrive or fade away. Red scares and white flight, sexual politics and racial tensions, technological progress and demographic upheaval—the influence of each rooted the music of this volatile period to its specific place and time. Yet this book also reveals the host of underlying connections linking that most apprehensive of times to our own uneasy present.
Douglas Kahn
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780520257801
- eISBN:
- 9780520956834
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520257801.003.0011
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition
Concurrent with the developing plenitude of sounds from the early avant-garde through the experimental arts in the 1960s, exemplified in John Cage’s “For More New Sounds” (1941), was an expansion of ...
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Concurrent with the developing plenitude of sounds from the early avant-garde through the experimental arts in the 1960s, exemplified in John Cage’s “For More New Sounds” (1941), was an expansion of signals. This is demonstrated in ideas about earth-scale radio by avant-garde composers and writers and in the history of electronic music. Per the latter, the relationship of musicians to engineers, especially at Bell Labs, is discussed, including Alfred Norton Goldsmith, who stated that electronic music belonged to nature, and Max Mathews. Post-Cagean composers Gordon Mumma and James Tenney are noted as having identified characteristics of a signal plenitude in the astro-bio-geo-physical application in live electronic music and a generalized signal and total transducer, respectively.Less
Concurrent with the developing plenitude of sounds from the early avant-garde through the experimental arts in the 1960s, exemplified in John Cage’s “For More New Sounds” (1941), was an expansion of signals. This is demonstrated in ideas about earth-scale radio by avant-garde composers and writers and in the history of electronic music. Per the latter, the relationship of musicians to engineers, especially at Bell Labs, is discussed, including Alfred Norton Goldsmith, who stated that electronic music belonged to nature, and Max Mathews. Post-Cagean composers Gordon Mumma and James Tenney are noted as having identified characteristics of a signal plenitude in the astro-bio-geo-physical application in live electronic music and a generalized signal and total transducer, respectively.
Richard H. Brown
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190628079
- eISBN:
- 9780190628116
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190628079.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
This chapter addresses the question of sound on film, that is, the optical imprint of sound in the recording mechanism within the realm of visual music studies. The conceptual critique of visual ...
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This chapter addresses the question of sound on film, that is, the optical imprint of sound in the recording mechanism within the realm of visual music studies. The conceptual critique of visual music vastly expanded in the 2010s as composers and sound artists have explored the predecessors of digital signal processing and audiovisual software, looking back to the earliest technologies that unveiled the nature of sound through the diachronic representation of soundwave structure on the optical soundtrack. This chapter begins by clarifying the historical and chronological details of one of the most cited interactions in the history of visual music studies between John Cage and German animator Oskar Fischinger in the 1930s and 1940s. Further examination of this connection reveals an important technological foundation to Cage’s call for the expansion of musical resources. New documentation on Cage’s early career in Los Angeles, including research Cage conducted for his father John Cage Sr.’s patents, explains his interest in these technologies. Concurrent with his studies with Arnold Schoenberg, Cage fostered an impressive knowledge of the technological foundations of television and radio entertainment industries centered in Los Angeles. Adopting the term “organized sound” from Edgard Varèse, Cage compared many of his organizational principles for percussion music to film-editing techniques.Less
This chapter addresses the question of sound on film, that is, the optical imprint of sound in the recording mechanism within the realm of visual music studies. The conceptual critique of visual music vastly expanded in the 2010s as composers and sound artists have explored the predecessors of digital signal processing and audiovisual software, looking back to the earliest technologies that unveiled the nature of sound through the diachronic representation of soundwave structure on the optical soundtrack. This chapter begins by clarifying the historical and chronological details of one of the most cited interactions in the history of visual music studies between John Cage and German animator Oskar Fischinger in the 1930s and 1940s. Further examination of this connection reveals an important technological foundation to Cage’s call for the expansion of musical resources. New documentation on Cage’s early career in Los Angeles, including research Cage conducted for his father John Cage Sr.’s patents, explains his interest in these technologies. Concurrent with his studies with Arnold Schoenberg, Cage fostered an impressive knowledge of the technological foundations of television and radio entertainment industries centered in Los Angeles. Adopting the term “organized sound” from Edgard Varèse, Cage compared many of his organizational principles for percussion music to film-editing techniques.
Tim Rutherford-Johnson
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520283145
- eISBN:
- 9780520959040
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520283145.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
By the start of the 21st century many of the foundations of postwar culture had disappeared: Europe had been rebuilt and, as the EU, had become one of the world’s largest economies; the United ...
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By the start of the 21st century many of the foundations of postwar culture had disappeared: Europe had been rebuilt and, as the EU, had become one of the world’s largest economies; the United States’ claim to global dominance was threatened; and the postwar social democratic consensus was being replaced by market-led neoliberalism. Most importantly of all, the Cold War was over, and the World Wide Web had been born. Music After The Fall considers contemporary musical composition against this changed backdrop, placing it in the context of globalization, digitization, and new media. Drawing on theories from the other arts, in particular art and architecture, it expands the definition of Western art music to include forms of composition, experimental music, sound art, and crossover work from across the spectrum, inside and beyond the concert hall. Each chapter considers a wide range of composers, performers, works, and institutions are considered critically to build up a broad and rich picture of the new music ecosystem, from North American string quartets to Lebanese improvisers, from South American electroacoustic studios to pianos in the Australian outback. A new approach to the study of contemporary music is developed that relies less on taxonomies of style and technique, and more on the comparison of different responses to common themes, among them permission, fluidity, excess, and loss.Less
By the start of the 21st century many of the foundations of postwar culture had disappeared: Europe had been rebuilt and, as the EU, had become one of the world’s largest economies; the United States’ claim to global dominance was threatened; and the postwar social democratic consensus was being replaced by market-led neoliberalism. Most importantly of all, the Cold War was over, and the World Wide Web had been born. Music After The Fall considers contemporary musical composition against this changed backdrop, placing it in the context of globalization, digitization, and new media. Drawing on theories from the other arts, in particular art and architecture, it expands the definition of Western art music to include forms of composition, experimental music, sound art, and crossover work from across the spectrum, inside and beyond the concert hall. Each chapter considers a wide range of composers, performers, works, and institutions are considered critically to build up a broad and rich picture of the new music ecosystem, from North American string quartets to Lebanese improvisers, from South American electroacoustic studios to pianos in the Australian outback. A new approach to the study of contemporary music is developed that relies less on taxonomies of style and technique, and more on the comparison of different responses to common themes, among them permission, fluidity, excess, and loss.
Douglas Kahn
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780520257801
- eISBN:
- 9780520956834
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520257801.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition
The historical scope, topical focuses, theoretical positions, and structure of the book are introduced. Natural radio and its early reception on telephone lines serve as means to discuss the ...
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The historical scope, topical focuses, theoretical positions, and structure of the book are introduced. Natural radio and its early reception on telephone lines serve as means to discuss the relationship between nature and communications. The motivation of the book is described as an attempt to understand specific instances of experimental music and art that incorporate natural radio, require reconceiving several basic historical presumptions, and, in turn, redress larger questions about energy and earth magnitude in the arts and media. The sound and signal in the book’s title are related to the physical classes of mechanical (acoustics/sound) and electromagnetic energy, with emphasis given to the concept of lived electromagnetism played out over locations on the electromagnetic spectrum from telegraphy to nuclear weaponry. Finally, positions are delineated with respect to the term nature, the Aelectrosonic as the electromagnetic equivalent of the Aeolian, ecological analyses of green media, inscriptive versus transmissional media technologies, the concept of variable technology, and the historical media theory of Friedrich Kittler.Less
The historical scope, topical focuses, theoretical positions, and structure of the book are introduced. Natural radio and its early reception on telephone lines serve as means to discuss the relationship between nature and communications. The motivation of the book is described as an attempt to understand specific instances of experimental music and art that incorporate natural radio, require reconceiving several basic historical presumptions, and, in turn, redress larger questions about energy and earth magnitude in the arts and media. The sound and signal in the book’s title are related to the physical classes of mechanical (acoustics/sound) and electromagnetic energy, with emphasis given to the concept of lived electromagnetism played out over locations on the electromagnetic spectrum from telegraphy to nuclear weaponry. Finally, positions are delineated with respect to the term nature, the Aelectrosonic as the electromagnetic equivalent of the Aeolian, ecological analyses of green media, inscriptive versus transmissional media technologies, the concept of variable technology, and the historical media theory of Friedrich Kittler.
