Changing the System: The Music of Christian WolffChristian Wolff is a composer who has followed a distinctive path often at the centre of avant-garde activity working alongside figures such as John Cage, Merce Cunningham, and Cornelius Cardew. In a career spanning sixty years, he has produced a significant and influential body of work that has aimed to address, in a searching and provocative manner, what it means to be an experimental and socially aware artist. This book provides a wide-ranging introduction to a composer often overlooked despite his influence upon many of the major figures in new music since the 1950s from Cage to John Zorn to the new wave of experimentalists across the globe. As the first detailed analysis of the music of this prolific and highly individual composer, Changing the System: The Music of Christian Wolff contains contributions from leading experts in the field of new and experimental music, as well as from performers and composers who have worked with Wolff. The reception of Wolff's music is discussed in relation to the European avant-garde and also within the context of Wolff's association with Cage and Feldman. Music from his earliest compositions of the 1950s, the highly indeterminate scores, the politically-inspired pieces up to the most recent works are discussed in detail, both in relation to their compositional techniques, general aesthetic development, and matters of performance. The particular challenges and aesthetic issues arising from Wolff's idiosyncratic notations and the implications for performers are a central theme. Likewise, the ways in which Wolff's political persuasions - which arguably account for some of the notational methods he chooses - have been worked out through his music, are examined. With a foreword by his close associate Michael Parsons, this is a valuable addition to experimental music literature. |
From inside the book
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... melodic or rhythmic shapes ; the sounds exist individually , isolated in space or thrown together in apparently random assemblages . The focus of attention has changed : interest now lies not in the understanding of structural ...
... melodic or rhythmic shapes ; the sounds exist individually , isolated in space or thrown together in apparently random assemblages . The focus of attention has changed : interest now lies not in the understanding of structural ...
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... melodies - initially , tunes associated with political protest and activism on the left , later from a wider range of sources . The melodic material is often altered and distorted by transpositions , additive and subtractive procedures ...
... melodies - initially , tunes associated with political protest and activism on the left , later from a wider range of sources . The melodic material is often altered and distorted by transpositions , additive and subtractive procedures ...
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... as an independent composer: through his idiosyncratic treatment of melodic material associated with the continuing struggle for equality and social justice. Preface Stephen Chase and Philip Thomas With this music you.
... as an independent composer: through his idiosyncratic treatment of melodic material associated with the continuing struggle for equality and social justice. Preface Stephen Chase and Philip Thomas With this music you.
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... melodies . After six weeks the weekly lessons ended and Wolff met only sporadically and informally with Cage , showing him a succession of short works he'd composed according to novel new ideas . 50 Christian Wolff , ' Conversation with ...
... melodies . After six weeks the weekly lessons ended and Wolff met only sporadically and informally with Cage , showing him a succession of short works he'd composed according to novel new ideas . 50 Christian Wolff , ' Conversation with ...
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... melody ' . ( Wolff adds that ' The instructor finally liked it - and gave me some sort of B ! '65 ) ... 64 Cage felt ... melody ' . Such ' melody ' is not created by a composer , but is always present in successions of sound events . No ...
... melody ' . ( Wolff adds that ' The instructor finally liked it - and gave me some sort of B ! '65 ) ... 64 Cage felt ... melody ' . Such ' melody ' is not created by a composer , but is always present in successions of sound events . No ...
Contents
For Pianist The Solo Piano Music | |
Mutual Effects Organization and Interaction in the Orchestral Music | |
Exercising the ensemble Some Thoughts on the Later Music of Christian | |
Changing the System Indeterminacy and Politics in the Early 1970s | |
There Is Always a Time Words Music Politics and Voice | |
Prose Collection The Performer and Listener as CoCreator | |
Playing the Game? Five Reflections upon Performing Christian Wolffs | |
List of Works | |
Bibliography | |
Discography | |
Other editions - View all
Changing the System: The Music of Christian Wolff Dr Philip Thomas,Dr Stephen Chase Limited preview - 2013 |
Changing the System: The Music of Christian Wolff Philip Thomas,Stephen Timothy Chase Limited preview - 2010 |
Common terms and phrases
American Experimental Music Apartment House Exercise audience avant-garde bars bass Boulez Bread and Roses Brecht Burdocks Cage's cello Changing the System chords Christian Wolff clarinet clef composer compositional concert conductor context continuity Cornelius Cardew create Cues Darmstadt David Behrman David Tudor discussion Duo for Pianists durations ensemble Example Exercise 24 Exercises with Peace experimental music Frederic Rzewski Gresser Harmonie Band hocketing idea improvisation indeterminacy indeterminate individual instructions Instrumental Exercises Interview John Cage John Tilbury Keyboard Miscellany kind Kotík listener Looking North material melody Morton Feldman movement musicians notation orchestra Ordinary Matter percussion Percussionist performance phrases pianist pitches players playing political possible Preludes Prepared Piano Programme note Prose Collection quartet relationship rhythm rhythmic structures Robyn Schulkowsky score Scratch Orchestra seminar sense situation social solo Song sounds string suggests techniques tempo texture traditional trio Variation violin voice Webern Wobbly Music Wolff's music writing York School