Class 5

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Class 5

• Contemporary Music

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Class announcements

• Remember, quiz in next class
• Be sure to send me your ideas for your final
  projects (charliewilmoth_at_yahoo.com) or talk to me
  after class today or on Wednesday
• Next Monday William Fried discusses a piano
  piece of Stockhausen
• Next Wednesday (7/23) Meet in HSS 2136

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Some notes on final papers

• Dont pick a subject thats too general. Pick a
  subject that can be dealt with adequately in 5-7
  pages
• Pick something that clearly applies to things
  weve discussed in class
• Make an argument--dont just write a biography or
  a canned history. If you need help or dont know
  what I mean, please let me know
• The Ross book may be an interesting source of
  ideas

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EXAMPLES of good topics

• How did Aaron Coplands music and thinking change
  during the Great Depression?
• What impact did Yoko Onos background in FLUXUS
  have on the music of the Beatles?
• What impact did spirituality have on changes in
  John Coltranes music in the mid-1960s?

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To write these

• Youll probably need to use the library
• The music library has an enormous collection of
  music to listen to
• Please avoid Wikipedia, and make sure your
  internet sources are credible

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Today

• John Cage and FLUXUS
• Composer Ian Power performs for the class
• Extended techniques
• And, relatedly, texture in modern classical music
• The last three are all related the first really
  is not

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John Cage

• 1912 (Los Angeles) - 1992
• Studied with Arnold Schoenberg, who also lived in
  Los Angeles (late in his life)
• After I had been studying with him for two
  years, Schoenberg said, In order to write music,
  you must have a feeling for harmony. I explained
  to him that I had no feeling for harmony. He then
  said that I would always encounter an obstacle,
  that it would be as though I came to a wall
  through which I could not pass. I said, In that
  case I will devote my life to beating my head
  against that wall.

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Prepared Piano

• Early in career (1940s), Cage develops idea of
  prepared piano, in which objects such as screws
  and bolts are placed on or between piano strings

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Listening log 18 Sonatas and Interludes (1946-8)

• What does this sound like?
• Do you hear tension in this music? Why or why not?

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In late 1940s

• Cage becomes interested in Zen Buddhism
• The historical Buddha is no greater or less than
  the lowest sentient being--all share in the
  Buddha nature.
• According to Zen, the attempted control of
  nature by man is at once absurd and useless.
• Cages conception of music differs from that of
  the formalists like Schoenberg in that he does
  not feel the need for any musical idea as such.
  The sounds themselves are to be listened to
  aesthetically. - Frederic Lieberman

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Listening log 19 John Cage, 433

• What do you hear?Does this piece offend you? Why
  or why not?

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433

• In 1951, Cage visits anechoic chamber at Harvard
  University
• But can still hear a sound - which turns out to
  be his own circulation
• Cage realizes that silence doesnt really exist
• So 433 doesnt present any musical sound, but
  other sounds are still present

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Questions

• Is this a good piece? Why or why not?
• What would distinguish a good performance from a
  bad one?

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433

• Represents a sort of end of history, or at least
  the end of historical path
• That is, if this is where Western music had led,
  where else can it go?
• Renders just about anything possible--no limits

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Cage and the I Ching

• In early 1950s, Cage reads the I Ching, which is
  an ancient Chinese decision-making guide
• Decisions traditionally made by tossing coins or
  yellow stalks
• Cage begins using chance processes to create his
  pieces

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Listening log 20 Cage, Song Books (1970)

• What is going on here?

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Song Books

• Huge collection of songs and theatrical pieces
• Any number of solos may be performed in any
  order and any superimposition may be used.
• Many of the songs are very whimsical and
  humorous

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FLUXUS

• Art movement inspired, in part, by John Cage
• Incorporated various artistic disciplines (music,
  visual art, theatre, etc.) but did so in such a
  way that distinctions among them were mostly
  irrelevant

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Some background

• The 1960s were a time of intense social upheaval
  in the U.S.
• Hippies (drug culture)
• Birth control pills made available
• Civil Rights Movement
• Black Power Movement
• Chicano Movement
• Asian American movement begins

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What (some of) these things have in common

• Empowering disenfranchised groups, but also
• Questioning dominant values

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In my reading

• FLUXUS is a clearing away of space
• As with hippies and drug culture, it reacts to
  stuffy 50s culture

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Listening log 21 Nam June Paik, Solo for Violin

• In what sense is this a solo for violin?
• If this piece means something, what does it
  mean?
• Is this music? If no, what is it?
• What would constitute a good performance of this
  piece? What would constitute a bad performance?

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Solo for Violin

• The violin is a venerated instrument in classical
  music
• The piece also questions values underpinning
  Western music by including no musical sound
• or even really any musical gestures

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Most Fluxus pieces

• Dont question Western music or Western art so
  directly
• But they still pose challenges by flaunting
  conventions regarding
• Performance practice
• Necessity of virtuosity
• Division between performer and audience
• Etc.

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Examples

• Jed Curtis Commit suicide.
• Do not perform this piece. (I wont give you a
  passing grade.)
• Ken Friedman, Restaurant Event Dress as badly as
  possible. Wear surplus clothes, tattered shoes,
  and an old hat. Go to an elegant restaurant.
  Behave with dignity and exquisite manners.
  Request a fine table. Tip the maitre d well and
  take a seat. Order a glass of water. Drink the
  water. Tip the waiters, busboy, and staff
  lavishly, then leave.

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Examples (continued)

• Alison Knowles, Proposition Make a salad.
• William de Ridder, TV Construct a mirror in
  front of your TV set so that the mirror covers
  the entire screen. Now switch on your favorite
  channel and watch the show.

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Historical path

• The preservation of an historical path depends on
  rules.
• Once all these rules have been ignored, anyone
  can do anything!
• Since 1960 or so, there has been no real
  historical path in classical music.

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Extended techniques

• Technique way of playing an instrument
• Extended techniques unusual way of playing
  the instrument
• What might some extended techniques be for piano?

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Listening log 22 Krzysztof Penderecki, Threnody

• What does this sound like?
• What might the extended techniques be, and how do
  they further the emotional goals of the piece?

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Full title

• Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima
• 1960
• Sound masses individual parts usually dont
  matter so much
• Lots of shifting parts create changing textures

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Helmut Lachenmann

• 1935- (Germany)
• Has spent his career exploring extended
  techniques
• Describes his music as musique concrete
  instrumentale why might this make sense for a
  composer who uses extended techniques?

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Listening log 23 Lachenmann, Gran Torso

• (This is a piece for string quartet no extra
  sounds are used)
• What does this sound like?
• How might these sounds be produced?
• For musicians how might you notate this?

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Lachenmann

• In exploring extended techniques, Lachenmann
  emphasizes timbre rather than pitch
• In using extended techniques almost exclusively,
  Lachenmann must depart from other traditional
  organizers
• Melody, harmony, etc.--if youre only going to
  use noises and not pitches, you cant have a
  melody

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Also

• Lachenmanns music is musique concrete
  instrumentale
• Musique concrete uses the sounds of everyday life
• Lachenmann attempts to take these sounds and
  transfer them to instrumental music
• Lachenmanns acoustic music thus probably could
  not have existed without tape machines and other
  technology that made musique concrete possible

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Glenn Branca

• 1948- (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania)
• Studied theatre in college and played guitar
  mostly for his own amusement
• Moved to New York City in 1976
• Played in rock bands associated with the No Wave
  genre, which combined punk rock with art music

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In the 1980s

• He begins to compose pieces for large groups
  electric guitars, often accompanied by bass and
  drums
• Then begins writing large symphonies for
  similar ensembles
• Uses alternate tunings for guitars pitch choices
  based around the overtone series (its microtonal)

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Extended techniques

• Brancas symphonies involve a number of extended
  techniques for guitar
• Strings guitar with steel wire from hardware
  store
• Plays guitar with drumsticks

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Also

• Often builds his own guitar-like instruments
• Pieces tend to be extremely loud and very
  repetitive

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Listening log 24 Glenn Branca, Symphony No. 5,
3rd movement

• How is this like rock music? How is it unlike
  rock music?
• What might be the best way to listen to this
  music? What might be the best place or frame of
  mind for it?

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Gyorgi Ligeti

• Not generally known for exploring extended
  techniques, but shares strong interest in texture
  with Penderecki and Branca
• So I include him here

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Gyorgi Ligeti

• 1923 (Romania) - 2006
• Hungarian
• Jewish, and strongly affected by WWII
• Lived in Communist Hungary
• Flees to Vienna in 1956

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In Cologne

• Works in electronic music studio with Stockhausen
• Does not produce much of his own electronic
  music, but is strongly influenced by its
  possibilities

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Ligetis music from 1960-1970

• Avoids melody and harmony almost completely
• Emphasizes textures, often realized through
  micropolyphony
• Micropolyphony Micro, poly, phony.
• All musicians making independent, small gestures
  that create a collective gesture.
• Think of a colony of ants.
• Microtonal clusters, often with all voices
  grouped very close together in pitch

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Listening log 25 Ligeti, Lux Aeterna, 1966

• Have you heard this before? If so, where?
• How do individual voices function in this piece?
• Can you hear the microtones? What is the effect
  of all these voices grouped so close together?

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Ligeti and electronics

• Sectional changes are often like the cutting of
  recording tape