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    Concept Indeterminacy 0

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    Julian Sterne

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    Concept Indeterminacy 0

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    42 views44 pages

    Concept Indeterminacy 0

    Uploaded by

    Julian Sterne

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Conceptual Music

    John Cage
    (1912-1992)
    Influences & Interests
    John Cage
    (1912-1992) ! Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862): American
    transcendentalist writer
    ! Eric Satie (1866-1925): French composer
    ! James Joyce (1882-1941): Irish writer and poet
    ! Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968): French-American
    dada artist
    ! R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983): American
    architect and inventor
    ! Marshall McCluhan (1911-1980): Canadian
    communications theorist
    ! Percussion music
    ! Dance
    ! Eastern Philosophy
    ! Chess
    ! Mycology
    Dadaism
    Marcel Duchamp “readymades”

    !The Bicycle Wheel (1915)


    #In Advance of a Broken Arm (1915)

    "Fountain (1917)
    Dadaism

    $ Marcel Duchamp: LHOOQ (1919)

    French Transliteration:
    “LHOOQ” = Elle a chaud au cul.
    (“She has a hot ass.”)
    John Cage: Background and Concepts

    ! Composition studies with Henry Cowell and Arnold Schönberg


    ! Early works for percussion ensemble explore boundaries between “noise” and
    so-called “musical” sounds: Construction series (1939-41) and Imaginary
    Landscape series (1939-52), among others.
    ! The Future of Music: Credo (1937): use of electronics anticipated
    ! Form treated as an open, pre-formed “container”: sounds related only in time,
    materials carefully chosen, relationships arbitrary.
    ! Introduces “prepared piano” with Bacchanale (1940)
    Prepared Piano

    " John Cage preparing a piano.


    $ Detail of pianos prepared by Cage.
    Prepared Piano

    Prepared Piano Diagrams: from Richard


    Bunger, The Well-Prepared Piano (1981)
    John Cage: Preface to Sonatas and
    Interludes for Prepared Piano (1948)
    John Cage: Sonatas and Interludes (1948)—Interlude No. 4
    John Cage: Sonatas and Interludes (1948)—Interlude No. 4
    Indeterminacy and Aleatory
    John Cage: Background and Concepts

    ! Composition studies with Henry Cowell and Arnold Schönberg


    ! Early works for percussion ensemble explore boundaries between “noise” and
    so-called “musical” sounds: Construction series (1939-41) and Imaginary
    Landscape series (1939-52), among others.
    ! The Future of Music: Credo (1937): use of electronics anticipated
    ! Form treated as an open, pre-formed “container”: sounds related only in time,
    materials carefully chosen, relationships arbitrary.
    ! Introduces “prepared piano” with Bacchanale (1940)

    ! Study of Zen Buddhism leads to introduction of indeterminacy and chance


    operations: I Ching, dice, coins, Chinese sticks,and imperfections in paper
    used to determine musical parameters.
    ! Explores boundaries between sound and silence, culminating in 4!33” (1952).
    ! After 1952, explores various applications of indeterminacy.
    I Ching Hexagrams, ordered as they
    ˘
    appear in the Yi, arranged by King Wan.

    Yin - Yang
    Moon Sun
    Dark Light
    Female Male
    John Cage: Music of Changes (1951)
    Prefatory Note
    John Cage: Music of Changes (1951)—IV
    John Cage: Music of Changes (1951)—IV
    John Cage: Music of Changes (1951)—IV
    John Cage: 4!33” (1952)
    John Cage: Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1957-58)
    John Cage: Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1957-58)
    John Cage: Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1957-58)
    The New York School

    L-R: Christian Wolff, Earle Brown, John Cage, Morton Feldman.


    Photographed in New York, 1962 (archives of Earle Brown).
    Jackson Pollock: Lavender Mist (1950)
    Earle Brown: December 1952 (1952)
    Earle Brown:
    Available Forms I (1961)

    open form: pre-composed


    elements (of varying degrees of
    specificity) are freely arranged
    by the performer(s); also known
    as variable or mobile form.
    Alexander Calder: Lobster and Fish (1930)
    Mark Rothko: Red, Brown, Black (1958)
    Morton Feldman (1926-1987)
    Franz Kline: Nijinsky (Petruchka) (1949) Franz Kline: Nijinsky (Petruchka) (1950)
    Morton Feldman: For Franz Kline (1962)
    Morton Feldman: For Franz Kline (1962)
    Morton Feldman: King of Denmark (1964)
    Christian Wolff: For 1, 2, or 3 People (1964)
    Applications of Indeterminacy

    Earle Brown:
    John Cage: Available Forms (1961)
    Music of Changes (1951) Karlheinz Stockhausen:
    Mauricio Kagel: 1898 (1973) Klavierstücke XI (1956); Zyklus (1959)
    Larry Austin: Canadian Morton Feldman:
    Coastlines (1981) For Franz Kline
    (1962)

    Christian Wolff:
    c y
    C For 1, 2, or 3 People (1964) a
    om in
    po John Cage:
    e rm
    se Variations I (1958); Fontana Mix (1958); e t
    rI Concert for Piano & Orchestra nd
    nd I
    et (1957-58) er
    er Earle Brown: o rm
    m f
    in Folio (1952) er P
    ac
    y
    Influences of John Cage on the European Avant-Garde:

    ! John Cage lecture at Darmstadt (1958).


    ! Chance operations seen as an alternative to serialism, breaking up the
    homogeneity and statistical uniformity inherent to this approach.
    ! Like serial procedures, indeterminacy is considered a way to remove the
    composer!s ego from the work.
    ! European avant-garde composers adapted chance to fit into serial structures:
    e.g., Boulez Pli Selon Pli, Stockhausen Klavierstücke XI, Lutoslawski Jeux
    venétiens.
    ! Europeans adopted the term “aleatory” (from alea=“dice”) to distinguish their
    use of indeterminacy from that of Cage.
    ! Karlheinz Stockhausen: “moment” form
    ! Witold Lutoslawski: “controlled aleatory”
    Henri
    Pousseur
    Bruno
    Henk Maderna Pierre
    Badings Schaeffer

    Mauricio Luciano
    Kagel Berio
    Earle
    Brown

    Karlheinz
    Stockhausen

    John
    Cage

    Composers at Brussels World Fair (1958)


    John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen (1958)
    Karlheinz Stockhausen:
    Zyklus (1959)
    Performance Notes
    Karlheinz Stockhausen: Zyklus (1959)
    Karlheinz Stockhausen: Zyklus (1959)
    Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994)
    Witold Lutoslawski: Jeux vénetiens (1961)
    Witold Lutoslawski: Jeux vénetiens (1961)

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