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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... musician. He has a particular interest in Christian Wolff's music, which he has performed and directed for various festivals and concerts in the UK and abroad, most recently a performance of Changing the System for six quartets at the ...
... musician. He has a particular interest in Christian Wolff's music, which he has performed and directed for various festivals and concerts in the UK and abroad, most recently a performance of Changing the System for six quartets at the ...
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... musicians . As Wolff has remarked , ' I like to operate on a number of fronts . I don't function very theoretically ; I respond pragmatically to situations'.12 He affirms that he is not interested in the score as a formal abstraction ...
... musicians . As Wolff has remarked , ' I like to operate on a number of fronts . I don't function very theoretically ; I respond pragmatically to situations'.12 He affirms that he is not interested in the score as a formal abstraction ...
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... musicians as different as György Kurtág and Sonic Youth.2 2 Christopher Fox , Programme booklet , 25th Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival ( 2002 ) , p . 17 . something totally strange , unlike anything else you know.3 3 Frederic ...
... musicians as different as György Kurtág and Sonic Youth.2 2 Christopher Fox , Programme booklet , 25th Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival ( 2002 ) , p . 17 . something totally strange , unlike anything else you know.3 3 Frederic ...
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... musicians of any background and experience, whilst Thomas draws upon his experience of performing many of Wolff's works, both solo and ensemble. composers, historians, musicologists, performers There is no attempt to be exhaustive in ...
... musicians of any background and experience, whilst Thomas draws upon his experience of performing many of Wolff's works, both solo and ensemble. composers, historians, musicologists, performers There is no attempt to be exhaustive in ...
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... Musicians ' , Research Studies in Music Education 15 ( December 2000 ) : pp . 3–14 . 55 For this statement in a relevant context , see Michael Hicks , John Cage's Studies with Schoenberg ' , American Music 8 ( summer , 1990 ) : pp . 125 ...
... Musicians ' , Research Studies in Music Education 15 ( December 2000 ) : pp . 3–14 . 55 For this statement in a relevant context , see Michael Hicks , John Cage's Studies with Schoenberg ' , American Music 8 ( summer , 1990 ) : pp . 125 ...
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