From (one of) Google’s (many) Definition(s) of Chance:
verb /CHans/
Do something by accident or without design
From Google’s Definition of Indeterminate:
adjective /ˌindiˈtərmənit/
Not certain, known, or established
While reading John Cage’s Silence, one of his essays on Indeterminacy (so aptly titled) struck me as clarifying the difference between chance composition and indeterminate compositions. What interests me, is that for Cage, chance composition is by nature determinate. In speaking of his composition Music of Changes, he says:
That the Music of Changes was composed by means of chance operations identifies the composer with no matter what eventuality. But that its notation is in all respects determinate does not permit the performer any such identification: his work is specifically laid out before him. He is therefore not able to perform from his own center but must identify himself insofar as possible with the center of the work as written. The Music of Changes is an object more inhuman than human, since chance operation brought it into being. The fact that these things that constitute it, though only sounds, have come together to control a human being, the performer, gives the work the alarming aspect of a Frankenstein monster. This situation is of course characteristic of Western music, the masterpieces of which are its most frightening examples, which when concerned with humane communication only move over from Frankenstein monster to Dictator. (36, Cage)
What I think Cage means here is that even though the process that the composer used to create the work (in this case Music of Changes) is up to the chance of a die roll, the end result of the piece is still ultimately determined, and nothing at the heart of the piece changes from performance to performance. Indeterminacy on the other hand allows for the same piece to vary wildly from performance to performance:
The 4 Systems by Earle Brown is an example. This piece may be performed by one or several players. There is no core, either for the solo circumstance or for that of ensemble. The quality of indeterminacy is for this reason not removed from the performance even where a number of players are involved, since no fixed relation of the parts exists. The notation is a drawing of rectangles of various lengths and widths in ink on a single cardboard having four equal divisions (which are the systems). The vertical position of the rectangles refers to relative time. The width of the rectangles may be interpreted either as an interval where the drawing is read as two-dimensional, or as amplitude where the drawing is read as giving the illusion of a third dimension. Any of the interpretations of this material may be superimposed in any number and order and, with the addition or not of silences between them, may be used to produce a continuity of any time-length. In order to multiply the possible interpretations the composer gives a further permission-to read the cardboard in any of four positions: right side up, upside down, sideways, up and down. (37, Cage)
These are very different definitions of two compositional ideas that are often closely related and much of the time thought of as one in the same. I have a question though, is 4 Systems really indeterminate and not just a version of Cage’s “Masterpiece Dictator” with a little bit more leeway? Since the performance is mandated to be based off of Brown’s graphical score, whether it is up down, left or right, isn’t there some sort of limitation on the indeterminacy of the performance? Is it not, as Cage acknowledges about Music of Changes,
No two performances…will be identical, (each act is virgin, even the repeated one to refer to René Char’s thought), two performances will resemble one another closely? (36 Cage)
Is the difference between indeterminacy and all other styles of composition just a subjective consideration of how closely two different performances of the same piece sound alike?
“Craigslistlieder,” as he called it, became a kind of classical-yet-poppy, ironic-yet-musical model. A generation of artists suddenly found the boundaries between genres much more permeable than they used to be — even if classical audiences seem more impressed by Kahane’s indie “cred” than the pop world has been by his classical achievements.
With little instrumental interludes inserted among the confessional songs, Kahane’s self-titled first album, released in 2008, sometimes tried too hard to blend all his interests: it’s classical, and pop, and theatrical, all in one, and it’s beautiful but exhausting.
These days, if he wants to make a comment about crossing genres, he tends to makes that the explicit subject of the piece, as in “Crane Palimpsest.” “Where Are the Arms,” his second album, is more purely pop than his first, with a shimmering production that recalls the work of Kahane’s friend and collaborator Sufjan Stevens.
Although I would like to avoid putting these composers in a box (because that’s exactly what they wouldn’t like!), surely there’s enough of a ‘thing’ going on here to consider it a discreet movement, different from the post-minimalists they are descended from? The reference to ‘Third Stream’ comes from this post.
The present methods of writing music, principally those which employ harmony and its reference to particular steps in the field of sound, will be inadequate for the composer, who will be faced with the entire field of sound.
Cage, J. (1961). Silence: Lectures and writings, p. 4. Middletown, Conn: Wesleyan University Press.
Before this happens, centers of experimental music must be established. In these centers, the new materials, oscillators, turntables, generators, means for amplifying small sounds, film phonographs, etc., available for use. Composers at work using twentieth-century means for making music. Performances of results. Organization of sound for extra-musical purposes (theatre, dance, radio, film).
Cage, J. (1961). Silence: Lectures and writings, p. 6. Middletown, Conn: Wesleyan University Press.
IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique) is a European institute for science about music and sound and avant garde electro-acoustical art music. It is situated next to, and is organizationally linked with, the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The extension of the building was designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers.
~Wikipedia
The UC Berkeley Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) was conceived and established by composer and Professor Emeritus Richard Felciano in the late 1980s — the operating budget officially commenced on July 1, 1989. CNMAT houses a dynamic group of educational, performance and research programs focused on the creative interaction between music and technology. CNMAT’s research program is highly interdisciplinary, linking all of UC Berkeley’s disciplines dedicated to the study or creative use of sound (such as music, architecture, mathematics, statistics, mechanical engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, psychology, physics, space sciences, the Center for New Media, and the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies). CNMAT’s educational program integrates a Music and Technology component into the Department of Music’s graduate program in music composition – it also supports the undergraduate curriculum in music/technology for music majors and non-music majors.
~From http://cnmat.berkeley.edu/about
So, John, particular steps in the field of sound have clearly become inadequate these days.
On Sunday I went and heard a percussion recital. On it I heard perhaps my favorite piece for solo thunder-sheet ever. (That’s not saying much, it’s the only one I’ve heard). This piece and another that I recently heard called To The Earth by Frederick Rzewski really opened my eyes as to the possibilities of a performer speaking to add to the drama of the work, as well as all the different timbral/compositional possibilities one has on a single thunder-sheet, or in To The Earth’s case, pitched flower pots. The piece I am speaking of (for thunder-sheet) is A Robe of Orange Flameby Christoper Deane. It hasn’t been recorded professionally yet it seems, so it is a real treat to see it live, and its impact is probably much greater that way as well.
The work essentially tells the history of Thich Quang Duc’s self immolation, first as a remembrance of the imagery from the composer’s personal point of view, then as a relation of the a New York Times reporter’s submission for copy and then finally as a child’s fable. If you have a chance to see either of these pieces I highly recommend you take it up, they are really cool.
Hello, I have been busy practicing practicing practicing for a recital which I just finished. I had very little time to even take care of basic issues with this website, including what seems to be configuration issues and what I assume are attempts to hijack the site. I’ll have to figure out how this is happening. In the mean time, here is an update on an upcoming project some of my compositions are appearing in. The concert is on April 15th at 8:00 PM and the lovely Peiharn Chen and Kate Maroney will be performing my song cycle “Love Songs“. Here is some fantastic poster art for you:
One of the ways Stockhausen put this piece together with the huge crescendos that go to a climax and then suddenly disappear was to record an attack with a synthesizer & reverb running. He would then record the sample of the attack + reverb playing backwards to get the desired effect.
In October, Björk released Biophilia, and the iPad/iPhone applications that allowed her listeners to interact with the album. The creative power in these apps lies in both their simplicity, and just how much they allow the user to do with the music Björk has composed.
Biophilia’s first application, “Cosmogony”, functions as a menu screen and, less importantly, as a traditional music video. The video orbits around a beautiful celestial design that acts as a portal to the rest of the album, but ultimately, it’s a passive experience.
Earlier this fall I had the chance to go and listen to Gunther Schuller speak about his ideas regarding the Third Stream, in a gross simplification it is simply Schuller’s idea of what to call some sort of fusion between jazz and classical music. Schuller explains it more deeply in his book Musings: The Musical Worlds of Gunther Schuller:
THIRD STREAM is a way of composing, improvising, and performing that brings musics together rather than segregating them. It is a way of making music which holds that all musics are created equal, coexisting in a beautiful brotherhood/sisterhood of musics that complement and fructify each other. It is a global concept which allows the world’s musics-written, improvised, handed-down, traditional, experimental-to come together, to learn from one another, to reflect human diversity and pluralism. It is the music of rapprochement of entent–not of competition and confrontation. And it is the logical outcome of the American melting pot: E pluribus unum.
Setting Schuller aside for a moment, I also heard later on in the semester that Mark O’Connor had spoken a bit on his idea of where music in the world was headed. Unfortunately I was not able to attend the lecture where O’Connor made these statements, so they might just be hearsay and should be taken with a grain of salt. But via my friend Joy Adams, O’Connor seemed to feel strongly that American music was going to play a very strong role in influencing the music of the world in the future. (As an aside: it hasn’t already??) Joy insisted O’Connor meant American music in general but I thought that O’Connor probably meant American folk music specifically, because that’s O’Connor’s thing. Much like Schuller writes that Third Stream is a philosophy of inclusiveness and any combination of cultural styles should be considered as such, Third Stream is widely held to represent the fusion of Avant Classical and Jazz.
What interests me about these two musician’s ideas is that they may be on to something but I believe they are a little off in which direction the fusion between contemporary classical and a “popular form” is occurring. To be clear, Third Stream (Jazz + Classical) did happen, you can hear it ranging from Schuller himself to Milhaud, but as far as the future goes, I believe that indie music and bands like Radio Head and the singer Björk are going to have a much greater impact on classical’s”fused” form rather than Jazz or folk music. Just listen to young composers of the likes of Nico Muhly, Missy Mazzoli, Corey Dargel who’s sounds cross over heavily into indie-pop pop territory. Granted much of what they do is an extension along the minimalist-post-minimalist-(whatever the hell we should call this movement) axis, but in our current version of the Third Stream, what’s wrong with a lot of cross-pollination?
I recently attended New World Symphony’s season opening concert. On the program were Smetana, Schumann, Janáček and a new work by James Lee III. This concert was also reviewed in the Miami herald, so if you would like a second opinion you can head over there. This is the first time I have been in New World Symphony’s brand new hall designed by Frank Gehry. I remember the symphony’s old hall and there are a few noticeable differences to the atmosphere and sound. The new hall has a much more open quality to it and seats are positioned around a terrace above the orchestra in addition to the standard orchestra seating in front. The sound seems fairly clear, but I find it lacks the vibrancy of the old hall. For this concert I was seated in one of the terraces behind the orchestra, right behind the basses and cellos.
Before the actual program began, Michael Tilson Thomas led the orchestra in the Star Spangled Banner, which I found to be superfluous. Mr. Thomas seems to enjoy beginning pieces without drawing the audience in through poise and focus. Sometimes this is a very effective way to begin a piece, as with the exciting Smetana, but in the case of the Schumann, maybe a little more silence before the sound of the work begins could be afforded. Mr. Thomas is what I would call a “musician’s conductor” (if there even is such a thing), as his ictus is sharp and clear. Mr. Thomas led the orchestra through the Smetana with great precision, and I must take my hats off to the violins for playing with fantastic clarity through the very exposed opening passages. When the violas, cellos and basses finally enter with the same material it was a little muddy, but I do believe that my seats were not helping me hear the sections directly in front of me, as their f-holes were all pointed away from me. Again, I wish the hall had more of a ‘shimmering vibrancy’ that these players deserve.
In the Schumann Piano concerto, the New World Symphony was joined by Javier Perianes. Mr. Perianes’ pedal control is lovely and his playing is very graceful. I do agree with The Herald’s review that his playing lacks the muscle one would expect to be needed in a Romantic piano concerto. Throughout the work, the orchestra sometimes overpowered the piano (especially when the pianist was nestled in the middle range of the instrument) and sometimes it marginally lagged behind the soloist as well. Throughout the work, the orchestra performed the pianissimo dynamics stunningly, but consistently overpowered the piano in tutti sections. Mr. Perianes also brought the melodies in the piano texture of the recap of the 1st movement out nicely and the massive swells to forte immediately followed by subito pianos in the 3rd movement were performed magnificently.
The third piece on the program was a new work by James Lee III called Sukkot through Orion’s Nebula. The piece is overtly religious in both title and elements of the piece. The work is based off of a mesh of Judeo and Christian mythology about the return of the messiah. In the Old Testament, the messiah was to return by descending through Orion’s nebula and the piece is a description of this process, ultimately ending in a more joyous version of rapture from revelations. One cute little insertion of numerology into the music was that Mr. Lee had divided the piece into seven structural sections. This is references the number of eyes and horns Jesus has in his ‘lamb’ form from Revelations. The work begins with a massive percussion and horn announcement. Immediately apparent is that Mr. Lee is a fantastic orchestrator. A large, heavy brass sound and furious strings are used throughout the opening section which then develops into a slower section with threadlike, atmospherically high violin parts placed over a harmonically whole tone-y bed in the winds and pitched percussion. The work eventually returns to the large brass and string sounds of the beginning but more energetically transformed. The piece sounds very “American” (whatever that means to you) and it seemed to have the large fingerprint of John Adams on it.
Finally we had the Janáček Sinfonietta. New World was joined by members of University of Miami’s Brass department to fill the required needs of the expanded orchestration, and many of the extra players were positioned around the terraces of the hall. The piece begins with heavy, folksy brass calls, much like the opening of L’Orpheo by Monteverdi, but bigger. As the section develops, the harmonies created against the timpani become something much more meaningful than the pesante & simple tune that began the work. In the ‘B’ section of the movement, the strings take over for an extended, playful dance section with some goofy interjections from the trombones.
The 2nd movement starts off with a homophonic string intro that transitions into some beautiful wind solos, all of which were played quite well. This movement also featured one of the harder French horn solos I’ve heard. I can imagine the horn player sweating that one a little. The 3rd movement was also very folksy, and at this point I was starting to wonder what was going on in the piece. I usually associate Janáček with music a little less obtuse. To see what I mean, I recommend taking a listen to the first movement of this piece and comparing the harmonic language of the beginning of that movement to the end of the same brass section that I admired earlier. The later part of this section’s language is what I usually think of when I think ‘Janáček,’ not the very opening.
Overall the performance was very well done. In the beginning, the over sized brass section was having a little bit of trouble staying together because they were so distended throughout the concert hall, but they adjusted and were spot on together by the end of the piece when the more interesting language of the beginning of the work returned.
