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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Page viii
... rhythmic structure and use of 'Westryn Wind' in the second half, bars 211–18 Christian Wolff, Black Song Organ Preludes (1987), use of staves to determine the orchestration of lines in Spring (1995), movement i, bars 29–31 William ...
... rhythmic structure and use of 'Westryn Wind' in the second half, bars 211–18 Christian Wolff, Black Song Organ Preludes (1987), use of staves to determine the orchestration of lines in Spring (1995), movement i, bars 29–31 William ...
Page xiv
... structures are most usefully and clearly made in terms of time (rhythmic structures). that musical continuity need not follow along single, homogeneous categories ... That by making indeterminacy integral to the process of composing and ...
... structures are most usefully and clearly made in terms of time (rhythmic structures). that musical continuity need not follow along single, homogeneous categories ... That by making indeterminacy integral to the process of composing and ...
Page 37
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Contents
Part II The Music | 49 |
Part III Politics | 141 |
Part IV Performance | 191 |
List of Works | 219 |
Bibliography | 237 |
Discography | 245 |
Index | 253 |
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 bass Boulez Bread and Roses Brecht Burdocks Cage’s cello Changing the System chords Christian Wolff clef co-creatorship composer composer’s 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 Kotík left blank intentionally listener material melody morton feldman movement musicians notation orchestra Ordinary Matter Peace March percussion Percussionist performance phrases pianist piece 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 traditional trio Variation violin voice Webern Wobbly Music Wolff’s music writing York School