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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... seminars there since Milton Babbitt in 1964 , and he re - established the presence of American experimentalism after a period of partial neglect.3 Wolff arrived in Darmstadt amidst a storm of ideological discourse that lingered in ...
... seminars there since Milton Babbitt in 1964 , and he re - established the presence of American experimentalism after a period of partial neglect.3 Wolff arrived in Darmstadt amidst a storm of ideological discourse that lingered in ...
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... seminar , Wolff characterized American experimental music as detached from economic concerns and therefore free to experiment uninhibitedly . He also criticized the aggressive , imperialist behaviour of the United States , and ...
... seminar , Wolff characterized American experimental music as detached from economic concerns and therefore free to experiment uninhibitedly . He also criticized the aggressive , imperialist behaviour of the United States , and ...
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... seminars are taken from the recordings archived at the IMD . Further sources on proceedings at the 1972 and 1974 Ferienkurse include the Darmstädter Beiträge zur Neuen Musik XIII and XIV ( Mainz , 1973 and 1975 ) . The 1973 issue ...
... seminars are taken from the recordings archived at the IMD . Further sources on proceedings at the 1972 and 1974 Ferienkurse include the Darmstädter Beiträge zur Neuen Musik XIII and XIV ( Mainz , 1973 and 1975 ) . The 1973 issue ...
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... seminar participants to actively engage with the music , he suggested trying a version of Part 1c , which he characterized as a series of ' fuses ' ( elongated sounds ) and ' detonations ' ( succinct sounds ) . Prior to the realization ...
... seminar participants to actively engage with the music , he suggested trying a version of Part 1c , which he characterized as a series of ' fuses ' ( elongated sounds ) and ' detonations ' ( succinct sounds ) . Prior to the realization ...
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... seminar through several more sections of Burdocks, Wolff ended the session by playing a recording of three different parts of the work. He referred to the recording as a 'chamber version' rather than orchestral, since it included just ...
... seminar through several more sections of Burdocks, Wolff ended the session by playing a recording of three different parts of the work. He referred to the recording as a 'chamber version' rather than orchestral, since it included just ...
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