Experimentalism can refer to the state of philosophy, or a particular music style. If you are looking for the philosophical term, please bear in mind this is the incorrect article for use.
Experimental music is any music that challenges the commonly accepted notions of what music is. There is an overlap with avant-garde music. John Cage was a pioneer in experimental music and defined and gave credibility to the form. David Cope (1997), describes experimental music as that, "which represents a refusal to accept the status quo."
The term usually refers only to European classical music, for experimental popular music see: art rock.
As with other edge forms that push the limits of a particular form of expression, there is little agreement as to the boundaries of experimental music, even amongst its practitioners. On the one hand, some experimental music is an extension of traditional music, adding unconventional instruments, modifications to instruments, noises, and other novelties to (for example) orchestral compositions. At the other extreme, there are performances that most listeners would not characterize as music at all.
While much discussion of experimental music centers on definitional issues and its validity as a musical form, the most frequently performed experimental music is entertaining and, at its best, can lead the listener to question core assumptions about the nature of music.
The Experimental Music Catalogue, founded in 1968 by Christopher Hobbs, publishes scores and recordings of experimental music.
Keywords
Aleatoric music- Also called 'chance music' (Cage's habitual usage). Music in which the composer introduces the elements of chance or unpredictability with regard to either the composition or its performance.
Graphic notation- Music which is written in the form of diagrams or drawings rather than using “conventional” notation (with staves, clefs, notes etc).
Microtones- A pitch interval that is smaller than a semitone. This includes quarter tones and intervals even smaller. Composers have, for example, experimented in dividing the octave into 31 and 53 microtones, and using this scale as a basis for composition.
Techniques
Some of the more common techniques include:
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- "Prepared" instruments—ordinary instruments modified in their tuning or sound-producing characteristics. For example, guitar strings can have a weight attached at a certain point, changing their harmonic characteristics (Keith Rowe is one musician to have experimented with such techniques). Cage's prepared piano was one of the first such instruments.
- Unconventional playing techniques—for example, strings on a piano can be manipulated directly instead of being played the orthodox, keyboard-based way (an innovation of Henry Cowell's known as "string piano"), a dozen or more piano keys may be depressed simultaneously with the forearm to produce a tone cluster (another technique popularized by Cowell), or the tuning pegs on a guitar can be rotated while a note sounds (called a "tuner glissando").
- Incorporation of instruments, tunings,rythms or scales from non-Western musical traditions.
- Use of sound sources other than conventional musical instruments such as trash cans, telephone ringers, and doors slamming.
- Playing with deliberate disregard for the ordinary musical controls (pitch, duration, volume).
- Use of 'radical' scores which serve as non-conventional written/graphic 'instructions' to be actively interpreted by the performer(s). Cage is credited with the original development of the radical score and this influence continued through other composers/artists such as LaMonte Young, George Brecht, Yoko Ono etc. and far beyond. The most radical score of all is often said to be 'December 1952' by Earle Brown, who studied under Cage.
Cope (ibid) describes a "basic outline" from "simple to...complex":
- Situation and circumstance music
- Soundscapes
- Biomusic
- Antimusic
Notable composers and performers of experimental music
- Main article: List of experimental musicians
See also
Further reading
- John Cage, "Experimental Music" and "Experimental Music: Doctrine", in Silence (Wesleyan University Press, 1961)
- Michael Nyman, Experimental Music, Cage and Beyond (Cambridge University Press, 1974)
- Thomas B. Holmes, Electronic and Experimental Music: Pioneers in Technology and Composition (2002)
Source
- Cope, David (1997). Techniques of the Contemporary Composer. New York, New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 0028647378.
External links
Radio
MISC
- EMACM - The Experimental Musicians and Artists Co-op Malaysia.
- Experimental Music Catalogue - Experimental Music Catalogue has been publishing American and British experimental music scores and recordings since 1969. This site sponsors the Journal of Experimental Music Studies (JEMS), a peer-reviewed online journal devoted to experimental music.
- Hertz-Lion - Hertz-Lion is a digest of links to websites devoted to those involved in the creation of leftfield and avant-garde music, with different pages devoted to venues, labels, artists and culture. Eclectic and wide-ranging.
