‘Twentieth-Century == Muse == « Elliott Antokoletz «iar of Conret Catsoin in Pabicton Date ‘Avwroxourr, Ewuorr Twentetentary misc J Elie Antokokets me Includes biographies references and index BBN cxsopnt360 1, Masie— doch eonttry—Hisory an tc. 1. Tie MLig7-A6s_ top ei s'ag—des oe96s1 Ge NN In Memory of My Father, Jack Antokoletz Editorial/production supervision: Michael R. Steinberg Interior design: Arthur Maisel Cover design: Patricia Kelly Prepress buyer: Herb Klein Manufacturing buyer: Patrice Fraccio ‘Acquisitions editor: Bud Therien (©1998 by Prentice-Hall, Inc. A Pearson Education Company Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 All rights reserved. No port ofthis book may be reproduce, in any form or by ay mea’, without pein in writing om the publisher. Printed in the United States of America wot76 sagan ISBN 0-13-934126-9 Prentice-Hall International (UK) Limited, London Prentice-Hall of Australia Pty. Limited, Sydney Prentice-Hall Canada Ine., Toronto Prentice-Hall Hispanoamericana, S.A., Mexico Prentice-Hall of India Private Limited, New Delhi Prentice-Hall of Japan, Inc., Tokyo Pearson Education Asia Pte. Lid., Singapore Editoria Prentice-Hall do Brasil, Ltda., Rio De Janeiroaleatoric coms Chance, improvisation, ages in his open form, gestions 10 Be eve 5 ‘Changes for Fe and minimalism wots, a ‘The latter t¥ ‘Two opposing compositional tendencies, which stem Sum pitches, = carly twentieth century, had reached their most intensive stage of po! element of OS in the 1950s. With the move toward integral serialism, which was oumae notation 1 upon the precepts of total composer control over all aspects of the =a introduce edifice, a reaction also led many of the same composers to comsae == and piano possibility of relinquishing rational control over both the generatic= aa | organization of the musical events. The historical factors that led = =a schism are manifold. There has always been some degree of rhythm aa monic, and formal freedom for both the composer and the peo throughout earlier centuries, as manifested in the use of rubato or 2! Sua indications, fermatas and grand pauses, improvisation in cadenz3-lke sa sages, realization of figured bass, and even the elimination of the Same resulting in metric freedom, as in keyboard fantasias of C. P. E. Ba s Since the early twentieth century, attempts to free the performer Sum diver oa the exactness dictated by conventional notation were manifested in comma serializati tion with various aspects of performance in otherwise fixed compossam The use of tone clusters and the elimination of the barline in works of Ives ane ‘Cowell resulted in both harmonic and rhythmic indeterminacy, while sae ame of sprechstimme permitted a degree of pitch and harmonic indeterminam> = works of Schoenberg and others. More radical possibilities in terms of <== poser control over structural unification were implied already in the <== futurist experiments with collages of noise drawn from nontempered nats and mechanical sources. However, it was only after World War II, with cee emergence of a more clearly defined philosophical basis, that a decisive == occurred from fixed composition to spontaneous performance (or realize tion). Thus, several distinctions may be observed in the approach to alestom= (or chance) composition. These include the elimination of rational compose= control over content and/or form in producing a composition that is never theless fixed as far as the performer is concemed, use of special indications === notation (either conventional or newly invented) leading to a shift towan performer determination in the generation and ordering of events, and the elimination of both composer and performer control leading to randomness and indeterminacy. PIONEERS OF CHANCE OPERATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES: IVES, COWELL, ‘AND CAGE The first decisive steps toward full realization of chance: ‘operations were taken by the American composer John Cage (b. 1912), who came to his first entirely 474.Chance, imp ms, open form, and minimalism 475 aleatoric compositions in the early 1950s through a series of evolutionary stages in his technical and philosophical development. Among his first com- positions to be conceived in terms of chance operations was his Music of Changes for piano (1951). This tendency was foreshadowed in his earliest works, in which he continued along certain lines of both Ives and Cowell. The latter two experimented with percussive sonorities and nontempered pitches, but it was Ives who had first thought in terms of introducing an element of choice or chance, as indicated in his score commentaries and in the notation itself. Occasional use of unrealizable notation led the performer to introduce his own improvisations. Ives’ Hallowe'en (1906), for string quartet and piano with drum ad libitum, permits either three or four repeats of the piece in an indeterminate tempo to be played “as fast as possible without disabling any player or instrument.” In Scherzo: Over the Pavements, for winds, percussion, and piano, a cadenza is provided “to play or not to play.” Cowell also began to introduce the possibility of choice and indeterminacy in the 1930s. His String Quartet No. 3 “Mosaic” (1934) is comprised of fragments to be organized by the performers, and also includes certain flexible notations resulting in chance and complete improvisation. ‘As early as the 1930s and 1940s, Cage began to experiment with diverse approaches to composition, including a tendency toward both pitch serialization and mathematical rhythmic formulation, extensive use of per- ‘cussion instruments, and the invention of new sonorities for piano, which led to the breakdown in the distinction between pitched and nonpitched ele~ ments, He also began to use electrically produced sounds and manipulations of phonograph recordings in such works as Imaginary Landscape No. 3 (1942). In his Bacchanale (1938), for prepared piano, in which he modified conven- tional piano sounds by inserting metal, rubber, wood, and other types of objects between the piano strings, he was able to simulate a kind of percussive texture reminiscent of the Eastern-Asian gamelan orchestra, an idiom that ‘Cowell had already imitated in his Ostinato Pianissimo (1934) for percussion ensemble. This early non-Western orientation was to serve Cage's interest not only in the expansion of the sonic spectrum, but also as one of the most significant sources in his later philosophical formulations leading to chance operations and improvisation. Cage’s most radical departure from traditional Western influences began in 1949, when he turned to Indian philosophy and music and to Zen Buddhism, studies sparked in part by his own doubts and questions regarding the meaning and purpose of music. An Indian student of Cage informed him that, according to her Indian teacher, music served to open the soul to the Divine spirit. Indian musical sources, based on improvisation around scalar and rhythmic formulas (ragas and talas), was one of the factors contributing to Cage's move toward indeterminacy. His move away from musical rationality came more specifically from the concepts inherent in Zen Buddhist philoso- phy, based on the mystical and antirational in which one does not look for universal purposes:478 Chance, improvisation, open form, and minimalism Every being is the Buddha just as, for the anarchist, every being is 2 ruler. Now, my music liberates because I give people the chance to change their minds in the way I've changed mine. I don’t want to police them." ‘We need first of alla music in which not only are sounds just sounds but in which people are just people, not subject, that is, to laws «established by any one of them, even if he is “the composer” or the “conductor.” The situation relates to individuals differently, because attention isn’t focused in one direction. Freedom of movement is basic to bok this art and this sociecy.? The idea that one “is to choose flexibility when one can, as opposed == ‘fixity,’ " Jed Cage to devise various means not only by which the compos could relinquish control (either partially or totally) over the creation 22 organization of musical events, but also to provide for varying degre=s == indeterminacy for the performer as well. One of the basic techniques came = early as 1950 from his study of the I. Ching (ancient Chinese Classic =f Changes), a book originally used for divination and claimed by follow== throughout history to be a means of understanding and controlling fus== events. For Cage, the use of the I Ching sticks, analogous to rolling dice provided an objective means for realization of the various musical parame ters: pitch, duration, dynamics, mode of articulation, etc. In his Music = Changes for piano, special connections are established between chance proc=- dures and mathematical proportions that define relations between durations and the hierarchy of structural levels. As indicated by the composer, “the thythmic structure . .. is expressed in changing tempi (indicated by ls numbers) (beats per minute) [69, 176, 100, etc. ].”"* While intricate mathemat ical patterns are reminiscent of the proportional and rhythmic subdivisions employed in his First Construction in Metal (1939), the use of the I Ching sticks and the tossing of coins determined the charts, which were then reinterpreted into traditional notation. Some freedom is also allowed in performance by “the notation of durations. . . in space” (Ex. 19-1). Similar chance operations for achieving freedom of content in both composition and performance followed in Music for Piano 1 (1952). Imperfec- tions on the original music paper served as an objective basis for determining the pitches, which were written arbitrarily in whole notes. Durations, pedals. and the manner of producing the piano tones (pizzicato, striking, scratching * Michael John White, “King of the Avant-Garde,” Observer (London) (Septem ber 26, 1982); also See Richard Kostelanetz, Conversing with Cage (New York: Limelight Editions, 1988), p. 257. 2 Kostelanetz, ibid. > Ibid., p. 268. + For more detailed information on these proportional relations, see Cage's preface to the score. dynamics pieces inChance, improvisation, open form, and minimaliem 477 EXAMPLE 19-1. John Cage, Music of Changes for piano, opening, notation of durations in space. ~ (eten on 4 (© 1961 by Hanna re Reprinted by prison of CF, Peters Corporation and muting the strings, etc.) are left to the performer freely, while tempi are frce within a controlled framework of seven seconds per system. In Music for Piano 2 (1953), dynamics and tempi are also free, while the modes of tone production are set compositionally. In Music for Piano 4-19 (1953), another aspect of chance was introduced for further removing composition from predictability and fixity in performance: “The 16 pages may be played as separate pieces or continuously as one piece, or. [sic]"” In Music for Piano 21-52 (2955) and 53~84 (1936), more radical possibilities were provided for spon- taneity and variety in performance. In the former set, in which coin tossing is used, pieces from each of two groupings (21-36 and 37-52) may be played simultaneously or individually and with freedom in tempi, durations, and dynamics, while in the latter set varying numbers of pianists may perform the pieces in whole or in part. In other works of the early 1950s, Cage exploited the possibilities for480 Chance, improvisation, open form, and minimalism According to Cage, Wolff was the first to eliminate the “glue” of musical continuity.* However, in contrast to Cage's initial compositional intentions, these composers were concerned primarily from the outset not so much with indeterminacy in the compositional process (as could be achieved by the use of the I Ching sticks or groups of radios), but rather with the establishment of given time conditions leading to spontaneity in performance by means of graphic not=- space taken tion. The intention was to set the spatial and temporal framework within dotted lines which any number of possibilities could be realized spontaneously. Sound ne and silence were only aspects of a larger set of gestures and visualizations in 2 seme music of “action.” The mobiles of Alexander Calder and the “action” paint ‘The pexdi ings of Jackson Pollock, for example, also served as influences on Brown’s use naa of graphic musical possibilities for allowing numerous changes in spatial the genceal perception from one performance to the next and for achieving spontaneity ters, the Feldman was interested in the work of the abstract expressionist primagy painters in New York particularly, whose influence led him to the invention that “a By of new notational means for achieving partially unplanned results in perfor notation, mance. He began to experiment with graphic notation in the early 1950s in several works for various combinations of conventional instruments. The general two series of pieces entitled Projection (190-1951) and Intersection (19s1— In his ww 1953) were the first of Feldman’s works in which graphic notation provided procedures only a general framework for each of the parameters, so that performance piano (1985 flexibility was permitted within a given range of possibilities. In Intersection in achieving: for orchestra (Ex. 19-3), as in the other pieces of these two sets, boxes ar ee undete: served as Se! EXAMPLE 19-3. Morton Feldman, Intersection I for orchestra, boxes produce 2 used in place of notes, with pitches only relatively determined By theit from one placement within one of three registral areas dissociation Feldman: Taser el ees 7 OF winps lows of sa led we Ele ape ee toe] ee BRASS + : ot] egy H : ia Se vious TET he ND wh viotas indicate relay aE H Five Page: (a5 Canoe aes Ae ee ees wy EOE mobility scam BASSES L fm A b the choice of ent Ce ee es ee upside dom staves, and way of analog * Ibid, p. 72. used in his SsChance, improvisation, open form, and minimalism 481 used in place of notes, so pitches are determined only relatively by their placement within one of three registral areas (high, middle, and low). Thi allows for any tone to be sounded within a given range that is delimited fiexibly by the performer. The performer may enter at any point within a given time frame, the individual durations determined “by the amount of space taken up by the square or rectangle, each box [delimited by vertical dotted lines] being potentially 4 icti. The single ictus ot pulse is at the tempo 72 or thereabouts.” In certain cases, a numeral may also be assigned to a segment to indicate how many events are to occur within a given time frame. ‘The performers may also choose the dynamics freely, which must then be maintained at the same level for the remainder of a given time frame. Despite the general flexibility and indeterminacy in connection with certain parame~ ters, the composer's personal style is clear and consistent. The composer's primary interest in timbral color is revealed, for instance, in the indication that “a minimum of vibrato should be used throughout by all instruments.” By 1953, Feldman moved from graphic back to more conventional notation, but the restrictions induced by the latter tended to conflict with his general musical aims for achieving freedom and spontaneity in performance. In his works of the late 1950s and 1960s, he refined his various notational procedures in an attempt to fulfill his aesthetic goals. In his Last Pieces for piano (1963), he reconciled his use of traditional notation with his interest in achieving partial spontaneity in performance. This was accomplished by controlling the tempi and representing exact pitches by rhythmically undetermined note values. In his Piece for four pianos (1957), a single part served as the basis for independent realization by the group of performers to produce a freely polyphonic or heterophonic texture. Such sound generation from one source simultaneously permits a sense of both relatedness and dissociation among the separate parts. In his set of pieces entitled Durations (1960-1962), all aspects of the notation, except for the durations themselves, are controlled. Somewhat more indeterminate in realization is The Swal- lows of Salangan (1961) for wordless chorus and instruments. In the 1970s, Idman reestablished his use of conventional notation in composer co: trolled works. Brown also turned in the early 1950s to new notational methods for achieving degrees of indeterminacy in performance. In his series of pieces entitled Folio (1952-1953), for undetermined instrumentation, he began to use what he referred to as time notation, based on different notehead lengths to indicate relative durations, while the exact pitches are defined. In his Twenty. Five Pages (1953) for piano, he first developed his principles for achieving mobility according to the concept of open form, which allows the performer the choice of reordering the pages of composed material and to read the score upside down. Indeterminacy in performance is introduced further by the use of time notation, the spontaneous assignment of bass or treble clef to the two staves, and the flexible determination of the time span for each system. By ‘way of analogy to sculpture and painting, his graphic notation, which he first used in his November 1952 (Synergy) and December 1952, served as a kind of482 Chance, improvisation, open form, and minimalism spatial representation for the performer to “set all this in motion.”* The “Score” of the latter, which is the first entirely graphic work (Le., in was any hint of traditional, notation is abandoned), has itself been used = = example of visual art. The horizontal and vertical lines and rectangles, what provide indeterminate indications for extremely flexible possibilities i= see performance realization of the various parameters, suggest a graphic sous the mechanically abstract canvases of Pieter Mondrian.” In the Preface to score, Brown indicates that “the composition may be performed in direction from any point in the defined space for any length of time and mz» be performed from any of the four rotational positions in any sequence. Brown’s move toward greater formal mobility and spontaneity performance (as derived from the visual artistic assumptions of Calder Pollock, respectively) led to his first orchestral works in open form Available Forms I (1961), for eighteen instruments, and Available Form: (1961~1962), for large orchestra and two conductors, Brown evolved open-form concept based on an original approach to the relation between controlled and improvised elements fully. In these works, the local ew themselves are fixed while the structural framework is not. This is a reverss of Feldman’s partially unplanned techniques, in which a given range possibilities for each of the parameters serves as a structural delimitati within which the local events could be improvised freely. Through the choices of the individual performers, Brown's local events, which are devex mined and fixed, can be improvised into “available forms.” In the firs these two works, each of the large sections is subdivided into five small ‘ones, which can be performed in any order and combination according to decisions of the conductor. This procedure was expanded in the second pi in which two conductors make independent choices. These are nevertheles: part of an interaction based on an awareness of the spontaneous decisions o the other conductor. Several sections of the latter score are shown in Ex. 19-4. EXAMPLE 19-4. (facing page) Earle Brown, Available Forms II, for lars orchestra and two conductors, excerpt from Orchestra I score, open form based on free ordering and combination of subsections according to ind pendent choices of two conductors. (Copyright © 1962 (Renewed) Assoo- ated Music Publishers, Inc. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.) ‘GROUPS DEVOTED TO A MUSIC OF RANDOM SOUNDS AND ACTIONS (Out of the experiments of Cage and the New York School, which resulted in a new perspective regarding the relation of the composer, performer, and spectator to each other and to the creation of the musical happening, came ° See Earle Brown, in the foreward to Folio and Four Systems (1932). 4° For a comparison of Brown’s graphic score with Mondrian’s Composition with Lines, see Brian Simms, Music of Twentieth Century (New York: Schitmer Books, 1986), PP. 366-367.dj z =i * % % z 3 % % sa k 2 a ‘4484 Chance, improvisation, open form, and minimalism several groups concerned with the concept of an all-inclusive art. In the late Gen 7 1950s and 1960s, several groups of aleatoric composers experimented wits sonia the possibilitics inherent in the breakdown of the distinctions between iso- aoe re lated musical sounds and real life events. Motivation for this development and audience came from the theatrical and gestural implications contained in such works 2= a a ‘Cage's Water Music and o'd" and in the graphic scores that were based on the 4 3 Mumena principle of mobile or open form. All these sources permitted extreme ood Magia freedom of choice for the performer in an unbounded process having little = collaboraing do with any structural notions delimited traditionally. These expanded con Festive a cepts were embodied prominently in the philosophy and aesthetics of tae tors (19615 Fluxus group (situated at several international locations and in New York ie oa ONCE (at Ann Arbor, Michigan), and others that emerged in various parts of an the United States during the 1960s. omer La Monte Young and George Brecht, both of whom became mem= be - ie bers of the Fluxus group, were interested in the extension of aleatoric perfor ba fe ee ‘mance techniques into the areas of theatre, gesture, and particularly mixes peciaae media. Cage gave lectures, concerts, and classes in experimental music in the Gace summer of 1958 at Darmstadt, where he was to have a significant influence o= 25° Samm American, European, and other composers. Young’s contact with the mus - of Cage at Darmstadt in 1959, while studying with Stockhausen, led hime away from his previous twelve-tone orientation toward a diversified anc ola “intentionally purposeless” musical theatricality. His interest in a music of - a = action, in which he had often only included textual indications for the realiz=- os a tion of his intentions, was first revealed significantly in his Poem for Chain: Coe Tables, Benches, etc. (1960) and Compositions 1960. In No. 2 of the latter, the pana performer is instructed to build a fire, in No. sto let a butterfly loose and « bap the composition when it flies out of the door, and in No. 70 hold a perfa= ere ince fifth “for a long time.” In Compositions 1961 Nos. 1-29, the performer = ea instructed to “draw a straight line and follow it.” In one of his works, he has ee also provided instructions whereby the performer should “prepare any piece Coa and play it.” Many of the above. ‘compositions were included in An Anthology Gea a (2963), edited by both Young and Brecht, based on “chance operations dena concept art, meaningless work, natural disasters, indeterminacy, antia= ieee plans of action, improvisation, stories, diagrams, poetry, essays, dance «: noe ae structions, compositions, mathematics, music.” These categories reveal wal oa ‘Young’s interest in the fusion of various aleatoric practices, which are rem niscent of both Cage's interests in Zen Buddhism, Indian improvisation, 22 naa ‘he nihilistic assumptions in the antiart of the early twentieth-century Dadass a id sta movement. In 1962, Young had founded the Theatre of Eternal Music, toe ene conception of which appears to have been anticipated in his works of the lane es 2 1950s and early 1960s. At this time, he began to employ transparent textures ee that consisted of a minimal number of held notes of indeterminate length (= tended aa in Compositions 1960 No. 5), an approach that was to become the basis of tae which mig “Minimalist” movement. His composition entitled The Tortoise, his Dream were and Journeys, which he has continued to compose since 1964, exemplifies b= concept of “eternal” time that underlies his open-ended compositions: process.Chance, improvisation, open form, and minimalism ‘Two of the main composers of the ONCE group, Robert Ashley and Gordon Mumma, made significant attempts to revitalize the live masieal situation by producing a type of music that would maximize both performer and audience participation. Creation of the musical experience, based on gesture and activity among the performers and spectators, was thus intended fo be as removed as possible from the traditional role ofthe composer. Ashley and Mumma also extended their work into the visual arts and the theatre collaborating with artists and architects in the establishment of the ONCE Festival (1961-1968). In Ashley’s Public Opinion Descends Upon the Demonstra- tors (1961), audience sounds and activities determine the ‘composer's choice in the presentation of prerecorded taped sounds. As the work develops, there is Fi increasing interaction between the audience and the tape operator (per- former). The significance of live audience and performer interaction in which gesture and activity are primary, is also evident in Mumma’s seoree that provide instructions for the physical movement and gestures of the performers, as in his Gestures I for two pianos (1962). Thus, the implementa, tion of action in the music of the Fluxus and ONCE groups reveal the belief in ‘Cage's own idea that everything in life is music."™ ‘DARMSTADT: TOWARD INDETERMINACY In 1954, Cage and Tudor presented aleatoric concerts throughout Europe, a ‘our that served to introduce aleatoric operations into the European avart. garde community. However, because of their strong commitnent t the composer control, the younger feneration of European composers came to absorb aleatoric techniques only gradually and cautiously. Neverthe the seat change had been ripen ing since the mid-1950s. The complexities stemming from the preoccupation with mathematical abstraction in the predetermined post-Webernian con texts of Boulez’s Structures I and Second Piano Sonata and Stockhausen’s Kreuzspiel, Klaviersticke I, and Kontra-punkte were to present formidable demands on the listener's perception as well as on the live performer, Music spontaneity and improvisation, basis. In their more flexible works of the 1950s, European composers tended to be consistent as to which parameters were to be controlled amd which might introduce elements of indeterminacy. Because these composers were emerging from a strong tradition based on the principle of organised " See Cage, Silence, n.6, above, p. 95.sound, they seemed least inclined to relinquish control over fixed pitch. For many of these composers, indeterminate sounds could result in a nonmusical product only, a prospect foreign to those “brought up in the ultraprecision of integral serialism.”'* Instead, the first steps toward indeterminacy among the Darmstadt composers were manifested in the spontaneous and flexible order ing of composed sections, tempi, and durations. In 1937, Boulez's lecture on “Alea” signaled the final dissolution of the extreme serial restrictions of the early 1950s. In contrast to Cage however, chance was to be introduced without the abandonment of com- poser responsibility. The interest was in the accommodation of, rather than the submission to, chance. As early as Le Marteau sans maitre (“The Masterless Hammer,” 1952~1954; revised 1957), Boulez’s interest in “organized delir- ium” was evident in the setting of certain portions of René Char’s surrealistic text and in his expansion of serial techniques, which created paradoxically 2 flexibility that permitted the joining of the rational to the irrational. One aspect of this flexibility is manifested in the possibility of variable structural perceptions on the part of the listener within the framework of an otherwise fixed form. While little freedom is permitted in performance, except for occasional indications of free tempo, each movement may be perceived ambiguously either as part of one large integrated cycle of movements or as part of three smaller interlocking cycles consisting of “T'Artisanat furieux” (Movs. 1, 3, and 7), “Bourreaux de solitude” (Movs. 2, 4, 6, and 8), and “Bel édifice et les pressentiments” (Mov. 5 and its “double,” Mov. 9), the latter cycle of which is central to the work." Boulea’s increasing need for flexibiley, as portended in this work, is expressed in his own self-critical statement: Some of the concerts at Darmstadt in 1953/54 were of quite lunatic sterility and academicism, and above all became totally uninteresting. . . . [Le Marteau ] is much easier to understand, and ‘more attractive than the first book of Structures or Polyphonie. . . ‘There is in fact a very clear and very strict element of control [but} there is also room for what I cal local indiscipline. . . .* Between 1955 and 1957, in his Piano Sonata No. 3, Structures ITfor two pianos, and Pli selon pli for soprano and orchestra, Boulez established his notion of guided chance, in which indeterminacy occurs under rigidly con Reginald Smith Brindle, The New Mute (London: Oxford University Press, 1975), pp. 66-67. +8 Degrees of clarity and ambiguity among these three cycles of movements are discussed by Dominique Jameus, “Analytical Remarks on the Three Cycles of Le Marteat sans Matte,” in From Pierrot to Marceau (Los Angeles: Arnold Schoenberg Institute, 1983), pp. 22-24. * Pierre Boulez, Par voloné et par hasard:entretiens avec Célestin Delitge (Paris: Les Editions du Seuil, 1976; Eng. trans. by Robert Wangermée as Conversations with Célestin Deliége (London: Ernst Eulenberg, Ltd., 1976), p. 66. wolled o- mants (ante ae and sé ‘more contr flexibility in at different} which perme be permuted: remain as the occur within while thet this piece o fragments organization of these four “cach of the the left-hand to give us results from: into the foe sity Press aleatoric SommeChance, improvisation, open form, and minimalism 487 trolled conditions. In the Sonata, his approach to the five movements, or formants (antiphonie, trope, constellation and its double, constellation-miroir, stro- phe, and séquene), reveals a structural mobility in performance similar to, but more controlled than, that in the music of Earle Brown. The degree of flexibility in what the composer has referred to as a “work in progress” varies at different levels of organization. The overall order of the five movements, which permit the creation of additionally distinct but related developants, may be permuted in eight ways, except for the position of constellation, which must remain as the central movement. '® Degrees of determinacy and flexibility can ‘occur within each of the movements. In antiphonie, only the form is variable, while the tempo and style of its sections are fixed. In accordance with its title, this piece consists of two antiphonal groups (A and B) of two and three fragments written on two separate pages, and there are four possibilities of organization to choose from (Ex. 19~s)."® According to the composer, ifeach of these four possibilities were written out completely, we would see that “each of the original fragments written on the right-hand page is doubled on the left-hand page by the same fragment varied.” Thus, the performer is free to give us various alternations of the two antiphonal elements according to one of the four schemes provided. Trope consists of two simple and two complex subsections (A. texte and B. parenthése, C. commentaire and D. glose, respectively), which can be played in various orderings and with elaborative segments interpolated freely (Le., troped). At the same time, the formal mobility of this movement, which results from the performer's option of introducing segmental interpolations into the four subsections as well as permuting these subsections to produce an open, or circular form, is 2 projection of the permutational possibilities inherent in the four pitch cells that outline the basic twelve-tone series and its variant set-forms. Example 19-6 outlines the cellular properties of the set and provides an illustration of a sectional interpolation between the third and fourth cells in the opening statement of the series of parenthése.1” Thus, the structure is controlled but flexible. Fixed and variable aspects are based on more complex interrelations in constellation and its retrograde, constellation-miroir. The title itself is derived from the manner in which groups of notes are distributed on long unfolding sheets. The movement is modelled on Mallarmé’s poem Un Coup de Dés, in which word sounds are transformed by means of reorganization and segmen- tation, thereby producing a sense of indeterminacy through dissociation or ambiguity of meaning, Similarly, Boulez permitted dissociation and trans- '® See Pierre Boulez “Sonata, que me veux-tu2” trans. D. Noakes and P. Jacobs, Perspectives of New Music x/2 (1963): 32-44, for a detailed plan of the work and its Possibilities of development. © Tid. p. 39. » Seeibid., pp. 38-40. See also Paul Griffiths, Boulez (London: Oxford Univer- sity Press, 1978), pp. 39-41, for a more specific discussion of the relation between the aleatoric form and the properties ofthe series.488 Chance, improvisation, open form, and minimalism ‘EXAMPLE 19-5. Pierre Boulez, Piano Sonata No 3, antiphonie, vati- able form consisting of two antiphonal groups (A and B) of two and three fragments on two separate pages, including four possible choices of organization Anciphone 1Pforme 2 forme x x G = 3torme storme lected hat en bat x (ee otnte Site avec {© Gopi 161 by Univers Eaton (Londo) Le, Landon. © Copy renewed Al rigs resirved Used by permision of European American Ms Disribcers Crportion sol US ad Caran gee or soveralEtion London formation of pitch and intervallic components by removing them ftom their “serial matrix” by means of structural flexibility in performance."® While the overall mobility of the musical structure results from certain choices permit. ted within a scheme of fifty-cight segments printed on nine pages, two general paths are indicated, one in red for chordal textures (bloc), the other in green for pointillstic ones (points), in which local signs indicate the path that the performer can follow. Other rules are provided for determining the tempi. In addition to fixed tempo indications in certain sections, there are conditional indications at the beginning or ending of each line, which are dependent upon the performer's choice of progression from one segment to 1° See Anne Trenkamp, “The Concept of ‘Alea’ in Bouler’s Constelation- Miroir,” Music and Letters 57/1 (January 1976): +5-vepuor wng een 2) uaBvonpeng pu $n 0 wood soa aI UOLEUY wRMos 0 soe ap esse sud y panaves Bilee> 3 opHO] “PT (eqD) LONI BAU A 6h ule "eo aL (om pr op nomen me oD.490 Chance, improvisation, open form, and minimalism the next. There is also a range of variables in other parameters such as timbre perfos and register, etc. While strophe is somewhat strophic in construction, in which choice: the lines are chosen by rules of guided chance, Séquence is based on more variable possibilities for the succession of the sections as determined by the use of transparent paper placed randomly over the music sheet. Thus, the degree of flexibility throughout the Sonata varies according to the particular structural direction, in which the performer is given limited choices within 2 mobile scheme of composed segmental groups. Boulez himself compared such works to the street-map of a town: “You don’t change the map, you Perceive the town as itis, but there are different ways of going through it ‘when you vist it you choose your own direction and your own route; but itis obvious that to get to know the town you need an accurate map and knowl- edge of the traffic regulations." Aleatoric principles were also established with the Darmstadt pre- miére of Stockhausen’s Zeitmasze (1955-1956) and the Klavierstiick IX (1954, completed in 1961), in which “variable” and “fixed” are joined in contexts of “order” and “relative disorder” within a process of “open form.”®” In Zeit- masze, time measurements are determined flexibly within the dictates of several prescribed time measurements and by the technical capacities of the five woodwind players (¢.g., duration of a prescribed group within a single breath, or to play as fast as possible, etc.). The form is a continuum connect. ing two extremes of “playing synchronously” and “playing in isolation— and turmoil—in different and mutually independent time-strata,” between which “is a series of degrees of reciprocal dependence and individual freedom.”?* Klavierstick XI(1956), which was first performed at Darmstadt in the summer of 1957, is Stockhausen’s first completed aleatoric piece of his Klav- iersticke. In its mobile or open form, nineteen note-groups are printed in conventional notation in an irregular distribution on a single sheet of paper, with performance instructions given on the reverse side. The performer begins by randomly choosing any group at any tempo, dynamic level, and mode of attack. At the end of that fragment, one of six tempi, dynamic levels, and modes of articulation is indicated to determine how the next randomly chosen note-group is to be realized. Other indications regarding octave transpositions, etc., are observed upon a second playing of any of the nineteen groups. Once a group has been played for the third time, the piece is over. ‘Thus, some groups may be repeated while others may be omitted in a given See Boulez, Conversations, n.14, above, p. 82. ® Brigitte Schiffer, “Darmstadt, Citadel of the Avantgarde,” The World of Music 11/3 (1969), p. 37. % See Stockhausen's comments in Karl H. Wémer, Stockhausen, Life and Work, ed. and trans. Bill Hopkins (London: Faber and Faber, 1973; original version 1963; Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1976), p. 37.Chance, improvisation, open form, and minimalism 491 Performance, so every performance is indeterminate (variable) in terms of the choice and ordering of the composed sections and in ona assignment of tempi, dynamics, and articulations within specified ranges. Steckemeee continued fo experiment with open form in Zyklus (1956) the ttle indicating a circular formal procedure in which the beginning, ending, and deena are undeter- mined. the most significant influen: ideas of “instrumental” theatre and absurdity, like ‘Cage’s chance-music uted to the increasing emphasis on gesture, theae aul Mich tended toward further complication of existing maea conditions. As early as 1950, in his choral Palimsestos, and mors significantly in his Anagrama (1955-1958), i OTHER EUROPEAN COMPOSERS OF ALEATORIC MUSIC Tae muliplicity of conceptual and technical possibilities at Darmstadt re- sulted in the need for a complete reevaluation by European componee only of the notion of limited freedom for the perfortnes, boy also of the composer's role in the use of guided chance. In 1960, Bowler attempted to clarify the current state of the art in six lectures, entitled “Pesca. Ja musique uaFO* forthe description ofthis and some of the following works, see Erhard Rarkoschika, Notation in New Music, A Criticial Guide to Interproaton ext ‘Realization, ‘mans. Ruth Koenig (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1972), Part Thee492 Chance, improvisation, open form, and minimalism aujourd’hui,” and these concerns for the direction of music were expressed by outlines 2 others at conferences and lectures at Darmstadt in subsequent years.” Boulez central and other European aleatoric composers never accepted chance procedures as ordering =e the exclusive basis for composition. Rather, they continued to experiment between the with graphic and conventional notational systems in order to achieve degrees work the of flexibility in both the compositional process and performance. Henri physical = Pousseur, Luciano Berio, Gydrgy Ligeti, Witold Lutoslawsky, and Krzysztof sounds ane Penderecki, while occasionally employing serial procedures, exploited the where she possibilities of fixed and variable elements in highly individual styles. fragments A continuing interest in mobile form, based either on fixed or variable tained to details, and in the transitional possibilities between musical sounds and score) F spoken language is evident in the works of Pousseur beginning in the 1950s. following In two of his piano pieces, Mobile (performed at Darmstadt in 1958) and both vocal = Caractéres (1961), which include a mixture of conventional and unconven~ coupling & tional notational signs to indicate degrees of flexibility in the realization of fling verbal details, the composer developed special techniques to insure indeterminacy tion all toe and mobility in the ordering of events. In Caractéres, sheets with cut-out that holds windows are placed over sheets with printed notes. The notes are then played : as they appear in the windows, and in accordance with marginal indications manip for dynamics and meter. Within the mobile form of his “fantaisie variable integra genre opéra” Votre Faust (1960-1967), for voices, five actors, twelve instra- composer Gi ments, and tape, Pousseur used the speaking voice asa basic sound source and European incorporated noises according to the dictates of the drama. Inhis App The fusion and interchangeability of musical sounds with words and orn a syllables in partially indeterminate graphic contexts became widespread by in pitch aad the late 1950s. Berio had become acquainted with the new experiments in matic action and theatre music at Darmstade and had by that time also moved away ponents, from the principles of integral serialism toward greater formal mobility and score of indeterminacy in performance. The latter interest became evident in his tise of proportional notation in Sequenza I (1958), for solo flute, and in Tempi Concertanti (1958-1959), for flute, violin, two pianos, and four groups, in which the spatial distance between the notes indicates their relative, unmea- sured temporal distances. Flexibility also results from the composer's instruc~ tion that a particular figure “can be read starting from any point whatsoever and going left to right or vice-versa. The pattern may be repeated several times—always as fast as possible and within the limits of proportionally indicated duration.” Certain sections of Berio's Circles (1962), for voice, harp, and two percussion, are characterized by such flexibility and graphic indeterminacy a3 well as by a smooth transition between sung and spoken sounds. This is produced by means of special manipulations and transformations of words and syllables. The musical arrangement of three poems by E.E. Cummings % Published as Penela musique ayjourd’hui (Paris: Gonthier, 2963); Eng. trans. as Boulez on Muse Today (London: Faber and Faber, 1971).Chance, improvisation, open form, and minimalism 493 ‘outlines a chiasmal form (A B C B’ A’), in which the third poem serves as the central musical focus, after which the first two poems return in reversed ordering and with internal variation. The intention was to create fluidity between the vocal and instrumental sounds, so that towards the center of the work the singer and certain instrumentalists reverse both their musical and physical roles. The singer begins to produce fragmented instrument-like sounds and noises, followed by her movement closer to the instruments, where she begins to play the chimes and the percussionists utter syllabic fragments. The transformed instrumental-vocal style of the singer is main. tained to the end of the work. The graphic notation (e.g., see p. 24 of the score) reveals some degree of indeterminacy in both pitch and rhythm. The following comment provides insight into the composer's flexible approach to both vocal and instrumental realizations in many of his compositions: “The coupling of vivid, directly comprehensible musical gestures and partly bat fling verbal fragments is entirely characteristic of Berio. It reverses the situa- tion all too frequently found in contemporary music of a linear, coherent text that holds together a rather loose agglomeration of musical ideas.””>* Both instrumental composition and composition produced by the manipulation of words and syllables in which fixed and variable elements are integrated into the musical process, were also exploited by the Hungarian composer Gyérgy Ligeti. From 1956 on, he was in close contact with the European avant-garde and in the late 1950s lectured regularly at Darmstadt. Inhis Apparitions (1958-1959) and Atmospheres (1961) for orchestra, and in the organ piece Volumina (1961-1962), Ligeti moved toward a sense of flexibility in pitch and rhythm as he evolved his technique based on interwoven chro- matic masses resulting in the obscuration of the individual sound com- ponents. While the composer's instructions are often detailed, the graphic score of such works as Volumina (Ex. 19-7) fosters a sense of indeterminacy in the area of extreme chromatic density and its rhythmic disposition, for which he only indicates the durational extremes of a given page. Around the same time, Ligeti’s expanding interest in the musical possibilities of phonetics was revealed in the score of Aventures (1962), for three solo voices and seven instruments, in which his detailed graphic notation includes numerous sym- bols to indicate the diversity of flexible spoken and instrumental sounds and the general activities within an intricate polyphonic texture. As indicated by the composer (e.g., see p. 7 of the score), the soprano, alto, and bass singers add hand-produced sounds to their extremely rapid contrapuntal syllabic reiterations, while the flute and hor players gesticulate without musical tone production and the percussionist is instructed to create noises by shuffling the Pages of a book. Thus, notwithstanding the composer's explicit composi- tional intentions, degrees of sonic flexibility result inevitably from the realiza- tion of the exactly notated and the graphically represented materials. % David Osmond-Smith, Playing on Words, a Guide to Luciano Berio's Sinfonia (London; Royal Musical Association, 1985), p. 90.494 Chance, improvisation, open form, and minimalism EXAMPLE 19-7. Gydrgy Ligeti, Volumina, for organ, graphic score, wi . 11, permitting sense of indeterminacy in extreme chromatic density he ime and thythmie disposition ordering where tae ow S oe s psyche of with and var based ox = notated indey within entry come ete etc cach grees oa for the ally « features decades, (1966-2 formas fe Meee Ml-Pgune Heit nore = also & rasa Gaba sss ey, _ 4 approact | ____ if ad S ties o= and rasta noise, (190 ory cite arene CF ot Creo nig Such for thes —— While Ligeti was opposed to the aesthetics of John Cage and the Date notion of the “happening,” as expressed in his satire om Cage im his Tro spel bagatelles and the “musical provocation” Die Zukunft der Musik (1961), for ity, wha lecturer and audience, the Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski (b. 1913) ra tumed to aleatoric operations in the early 1960s after being influenced by 2 va hearing of Cage's Concert for Piano and Orchestra > This change of composi. come tional attitude was one of several that his style had undergone since the late roel 1930s. His earliest works had revealed a concern for integrated formal con- of Hie struction based on a nonfunctional diatonic tonal-harmonic system within an a ata Eastern European folkloristic idiom similar to that of Bartok. During the tions next two decades, he moved toward a more integrated tonality infused by 2 highes kind of twelve-tone serialism. The first radical change in his controlled am approach to form and other compositional aspects, however, came in 1961 fa full on 5 Steven Stucky, Lutoslawski and His Music (Cambridge: Oxford University a Press, 1981), p. 84. oeChance, improvisation, open form, and minimalism 495 with his Jeux vénitiens (“Venetian Games”), for chamber orchestra, in which he implemented the notion of open form. A degree of variability in the ordering and synchronization of material is manifested at certain points, where the “abundance of potentialities concealed within the individual psyche of each performer” is included in the compositional process, but without any abandonment of the composer's “claim to authorship.” Fixed and variable were joined in what Lutoslawski called “aleatoric: counterpoint,” based on the principles of guided chance, or controlled freedom, Within differentiated sections of this work, the pitches are precisely notated, while indeterminate rhythmic notation permits a degree of free and independent polyphonic unfolding between the separate instrumental groups within certain guidelines controlled by the conductor. The conductor gives entry cues to the brass and woodwinds at one-second intervals, after which each group continues without the conductor, but observes the conductor cues for the entries of the other groups. The large letters indicate points of synchronization, so local rhythmic and contrapuntal indeterminacy is actu- ally controlled on a higher architectonic level. Open form and other aleatoric features were only suggested in several of his works during the next two decades, as observed in the dialectical formal process of his Symphony No. 2 (1966-1967), in which the sections “Hesitant” and “Direct” indicate trans. formation from chaos to order. In the early 1960s, the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki (b. 1933) also tended toward some indeterminacy in pitch and sonority in an original approach to pitch combinations, which generally resulted in chromatic densi- ties or clusters. His interest in a variety of dramatic subjects in varied vocal and instrumental scorings, often characterized by the juxtaposition of con- trasting sonorities ranging from conventional musical sounds to speech and noise, were already evident since his first important works of the late 1950s. Such range of sonic materials has been exploited by the composer primarily for the purpose of a heightened expression of his underlying social of political statement, as in the choral and orchestral St. Luke Passion (1963~1963) and Dies irae (1967), the latter based on the extermination at Auschwitz. More specifically, Penderecki’s interest in expanded sonic possibilities and flexibil- ity, which he achieved by means of special performance techniques that often, result in semitone or quarter-tone clusters, may be observed in several works of the early 1960s. In Anaklasis (1960), for strings and percussion, the use of tremolo glissandi, harmonics, col legno, sul ponticello, and extreme registers results in colorful and often indistinct note clusters. In Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (1960), for fifty-two strings, timbral combinations and transfor. mations occur in contexts defined by exact and indeterminate graphic nota- tion, the latter consisting of such signs as blackened pyramids for playing “as high as possible” and other indications for use of the bow behind the bridge, etc. In the Stabat Mater (1962), cluster-like vocal writing is a result of indis~ tinct sonic utterances in the three choruses, whereas in Fliuorescences (1961), for fall orchestra, graphic notation distinguishes different types of clusters. In Ex. 19-8, thick black lines indicate chromatic clusters, whereas combinations of thin parallel lines indicate whole-tone clusters, the delimiting pitch contentishing ewo types of clusters @® s, mm. 92-94 graphic notation di )-8. Kraysztof Penderecki, Fluorescence, ® EXAMPLE 19. ®Chance, improvisation, open form, and minimaliem for each cluster of which is given directly underneath. Pitch indeterminacy is yet more evident in the percussion instruments, which the players are in structed to “vigorously rub with a file” or “saw a piece of wood (iron) with a hand-saw.” In each of the indeterminate string glissandi, only the ranges are defined by the given sets of interwoven lines. ‘Other European composers have also employed graphic notation to realize contexts based on degrees of flexibility and indeterminacy. However, few have ventured toward the extremes of freedom established by John Cage. Nevertheless, some have attempted a greater abandonment of composer control for a more flexible formal conception, and an improvisatory one, due to Eastern influence. At Darmstadt in 1967, Stockhausen expanded his inter- pretation of the traditional notion of “concert,” and also aimed at a more active involvement of the listener in the compositional process.” In a joint composition, entitled Music fiir ein Haus, by fourtcen international com- posers, the traditional notion of form was replaced entirely by that of “process,” and notation by the more direct use of instructions for the per- formers. Schiffer informs us further that “contemplation was practised and trances evoked. World outlook, philosophy and mysticism were brought into the picture, for in the meantime Stockhausen had succumbed to the attraction of Indian doctrines. He went the way of the Beatles, Yoga made its appearance at Darmstadt.””” MINIMAL OR “SYSTEMATIC” MUSIC SINCE THE EARLY 1960s: LA MONTE YOUNG, ‘TERRY RILEY, STEVE REICH, AND PHILIP GLASS Minimal or “‘tepetitive” music, which has been developing in the United States since the mid-1960s, has served as a prominent factor in blurring the distinction between art- and popular-music spheres. This movement, which has been reaching an increasingly wider and more diversified audience, has also had a certain influence on similar developments in Europe since the 1970s. While there are essential aesthetic and stylistic differences between European and American composers of minimal music, we may nevertheless observe European connections with American “repetitive” techniques in the music of the British composers Cornelius Cardew and Michael Nyman, the Hollander Louis Andriessen, the French Urban Sax group, and others. Among the first to compose minimal music in the United States was La Monte Young, who evolved gradually from a serial approach in the late 1950s to techniques based on repetition in 1962 following his association with the Fluxus group between 1939 and 1961. This transition from a serial to minimal context was first manifested prominently in his Octet for Brass (1957), in which he introduced extremely long, sustained notes into a serial context. Accord- ing to Wim Mertens, certain aspects of Webern’s music contributed to 2 See Schiffer, “Darmstadt,” n.20, above, p. 44. » Ibid,498 Chance, improvisation, open form, and minimalism Young's evolution, “especially the duality between [Webern's] structural 1a variation and the static sound that results from it. In Webern there is a cnoeeall tendency to produce continuous variations by using notes in the same octave imari Position throughout a piece, whatever their position in the row. However, = the listener perceives this process more as a stasis, as ifthe same information is being repeated over and over again.” Op. 16, Minimalist techniques may also be traced back to divergent late ha nineteenth- and early twentieth-century sources, which range from the early the aa works of Satie, for example, the three piano pieces of Gymnopedie (1886 cna 1888), with their simple, spare, and minimally changing mechanistic textures which be based on incessant alternations or repetitions of seventh chords, ete. to np Schoenberg's first Klangfarben music, Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 16, No. 5 ae (1909), based on a gradual “process” of pitch changes stemming from a single oa five-note chord. The basic assumptions of the latter, in which “process” is coma perceived primarily through changes of certain parameters (e.g., timbre) right ham while other parameters change minimally and tend to remain static (eg, — pitch), were to be manifested in various ways in the music of the minimalisis, ae The American composer and performer Terry Riley (b. 1935), who also came meloma to be associated with the Fluxus group of artists in 1959, collaborated with roa ‘Young in exploiting the possibilities of sustaining sounds for extended pe vol tiods (as exemplified in Riley's All-Night-Concert), both composers linking ania this technique to gesture, improvisation, and the dance ineluding! Riley’s In C (1964), for any number of melodic instruments, is a 7 Prototype of minimalist “process” technique based on limited and static pitch 7? content in a gradually changing continuum. In basic ways, this work foresha, aan dowed his study and performance of Indian music since 1970, his A Rainbow While ae in Curved Air (1970) reflecting the new influence of the modal melodic formu oc las and rhythmic patterns of Indian music. The affinity of certain Western alse) aa composers with Eastern Asian improvisation was already evident in Cowell's a gamelan-like percussion piece, Ostinato Pianissimo (1934), in which repetitive ida motivic patterns of limited pitch content had interacted in a continuum of a layers based on a steady pulse, but with complex cross accents. During his ra work at the ORTF recording studios in Europe between 1962 to 1964, Riley about had already acquired an interest in extended repetition of short phrases, tape firma loops producing ostinato pattems, and the layered accumulation of recorded an sound, all unfolding within the framework of a regular pulse. In his In C, the cay thythm is essential to a context based exclusively on a C-major chord throughout. While a single pulse is maintained, each performer plays through a sequence of fifty-three motifs, repeating each one an unspecified number of times. This results in changing overlappings and juxtapositions of each motif 2 with itself and other motifs in a gradually developing continuum based on z multiple canons and polyrhythmic combinations. Despite the complexity of a (97a Fiz Mertens, American Minimal Music: La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve > Reich, and Philip Glas, tans J. Hautekiet (London: Kahn & Averill io8)/p, oeChance, improvisation, open form, and minimalism In C, the possibilities of improvisation are limited. The composer has deter- mined that the form “has to be simple enough to lead the improvisational ensemble of the musicians through good channels.”® Nevertheless, it is primarily in his use of improvisation that Riley differs from the other three minimalists. Exotic influences in addition to certain assumptions of Schoenberg's Op. 16, No. 3, are also manifested in the aesthetics of Steve Reich (b. 1936), whose writings on music and innovative techniques of composition carried the notion of “process” to its fullest development.°° His interest in African drumming, which he studied at the University of Ghana in 1970 (prior to which he had studied Western dramming and had also developed an interest in jazz), contributed further to his minimalist or “systematic” approach. This is evident in his Phase Patterns (1970), for four electric organs, which is based on changes in one aspect only. According to Reich, the piece entails “literally drumming on the keyboard: your left hand stays in one position and your right hand stays in one position and you alternate them in what's called a paradiddle pattern, which produces a very interesting musical texture because it sets up melodic things you could never arrive at if you just followed your melodic prejudices and your musical background.”® In Drumming (1970- 1971), for eight small tuned drums, three maracas, three glockenspiels, voices, and piccolo, the rhythmic element reflects his African studies clearly, and combines many techniques characteristic of his more mature works, including “phasing-shifting” (gradual shifting between two or more identical repeating figures), the augmentation process, etc.>2 His Music for 18 Musicians (1974-1976), based on an expanded timbral spectrum, introduces a new dimension into Reich's conception of “process.” ‘While the basic premises of minimalism (i.e., gradual change within a context of static pitch materials, use of a repetitious melodic pattern, and regular pulse) are still in evidence, more complex interactions of the various parame- ters (especially timbric and harmonic) are now permitted. The work opens and closes with a cycle of eleven chords, within each of which the players present pulsing notes.*® Each new chord is introduced gradually, after which there is a return to the initial pulsing chord. The latter is then sustained for about five minutes by two pianos and two marimbas as a kind of cantus firmus, above which sections are constructed in the form of arches or as “musical processes.” As part of the formal “process,” the changing harmonic thychm introduces accentual reinterpretations into the recurring melodic ® Ibid, p. 42. » Steve Reich, “Music as a Gradual Process” (1968), in Writings about Music, ed. K. Koenig (Halifax University of Nova Scotia Press, 1974), pp. 9-11. 31 Steve Reich, “An Interview with Michael Nyman,” The Musical Times 112 (1972): 230. 3 See Mertens, American Minimal Music, n.28, above, pp. s6~57. * Notes by the composer to the ECM Recording, 1978. See also ibid., p. 62 499500 Chance, improvisation, open form, and minimalism pattern. Reich’s interest in an expanded and diversified palette continued in * an his Music for a Large Ensemble and the Octet (1979). a Repetition in the minimalist musical contexts of Philip Glass (b. 1937) RECINALD Sums is based primarily on additive construction, a principle which finds its direct sources in Indian music. In the mid-1960s, after having worked with Ravi Joun Cace, ‘Shankar in Paris, Glass toured Central Asia and India, and his works from Paar Goa that time on reveal a decisive reorientation toward non-Western traditions. roa He established the Philip Glass Ensemble in New York in 1967, and in his following ensemble pieces he was to draw the minimalist techniques of repetition into a more popular, often loud rock-like idiom. From the influ- ence of Indian rhythms, he was to develop one of his characteristic techniques of rhythmic extension and contraction, which he combined with a simple diatonic, pervasively tonal surface. His first opera, Einstein on the Beach (1975), which exemplifies this new popular style, was one of a trilogy of wh: Glass has referred to as “portrait” operas—the other two are Satyagraha (1980) and Akhnaten (1984)—that drew his minimalism into a theatre idiom inspired by his contact with the new European theatre of Brecht and Beckett. However, it was already in the mid-1960s in Paris that Glass’ “music work and theatre music became closely intertwined.” In his first minimalist works, such as Strung Out (1967) for amplified violin, the additive principle is only one of several rhythmic procedures derived from Indian music. In this work, large units are comprised of smaller thythmic cells that are unrelated to them structurally. According to Glass, —. “these larger units are integrated in a cyclical process. Other cycles with different rhythms are added afterwards like in a wheel-work: everything works simultaneously in a continuous transformation.”®> While there are basic aesthetic connections to the approaches of the other minimalists, itis in these rhythmic features—cyclic occurrences, repetition, and progressive Jengthening of cellular units by the gradual addition of new noves—that Glass’ personal style is distinguished. Glass’ additive principles were devel- oped further in 1969 in his Two Pages, Music in Fifihs, and many other ensemble pieces after that time. SUGGESTED READINGS K Prenre BouLez. Par volonté et par hasard: entretiens avec Célestin Delidge (Paris: Les Editions du Seuil, 1975; Eng. trans. by Robert Wangermée as Conversations with Célestin Deliége (London: Emnst Eulenberg, Led., 1976). ——. _ Penser la musique aujourd’hui (Paris: Gonthier, 1963); Eng. trans. as Boulez on Music Today (London: Faber and Faber, 1971). ™ Philip Glass, Music by Philip Glass ed. Robert T. Jones (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, Ine, 1987), P. 4 °% Sce Mertens, American Minimal Music, n.2, above, p. 68.Chance, improvisation, open form, and minimalism 50 ——. “Sonata, que me veux-tu?" trans. D. Noakes and P. Jacobs, Perspectives of New Music 1/2 (1963): 3244, Recwwatp Suir Banos. The New Music (London: Oxford University Press, 1975), pp. ‘60-98 (on indeterminacy, chance, aleatory, and improvisation), Joun Cace. Silence (Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1961). Puma Giass. Music by Philip Glass, ed. Robert T. Jones (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., 1987). Paut Grins, Boulez (London: Oxford University Press, 1978). Cage (London: Oxford University Press, 1981). Gysrgy Ligeti (London: Robson Books Led., 1983). Dowmvique Jameux. “Analytical Remarks on the Three Cycles of Le Marteau sans Mate,” in From Pierrot to Marteau (Los Angeles: Arnold Schoenberg Institute, 1987), pp. 22-24. Enstanp Karkoscuka. Notation in New Music, A Critical Guide o Interpretation and Real tion, teans, Ruth Koenig (New York: Pracget Publishers, 1972), Part Three. Ricuanp Kosretanerz. Conversing with Cage (New York: Limelight Editions, 1988). Wis Mrsrens. American Minimal Music: La Monte Young, Temy Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass, trans. J. Hautckiet (London: Kahn & Averill, 1983). Davin Osmonp-Smrri. Playing on Words, a Guide to Luciano Berio’s Sinfonia (London: Royal “Musical Association, 1985). Steve Rete. “An Interview with Michacl Nyman,” The Musical Times 112 (1972): 229~ ——. “Music As a Gradual Process” (1968), in Writings about Music, ed. K. Koenig alifax: University of Nova Scotia Press, 1974), pp. 9-11. Bricrrte Scuumsex. “Darmstadt, Citadel of the Avantgarde,” The World of Music 11/3 (1969):32—44. Steven Stucky. _Lutoslawski and His Music (Cambridge: Oxford University Press, 1981). Anne Trenkamr. “The Concept of ‘Alea’ in Boulez’s ‘Constellation-Miroir,’” Music and Letters 57/1 (January 1976): 1-10. Kant H, Worner. Stockhausen, Life and Work, ed. and trans. Bill Hopkins (London: Faber and Faber, 1973; original version 1963; Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of Califomia Press, 1976).