Indeterminacy
Aleatory Music
Stockhausen's approach. The "field of possibilities" and
"margin of error" mentioned in his article (...how time passes....
Examples of aleatory works:
Boulez and aleatorism. A relativistic point of view
(multiple choices). Stephane Mallarme, Le Livre
Examples of works:
Improvisation as part of Western musical culture: the figured bass, cadenzas
for concerti, jazz. Part of folklore and other traditional cultures.
Freedom given to the performer either to fill in some details (boxes with
instructions) or to re-arrange the modules of a piece. Calder's mobile
sculptures.
Existentialism. Hidegger, Sartre, Camus, etc.
- existence precedes essence.
- living in the Present moment.
- the question of suicide
- freedom of choice
- search for truth and intellectual/moral honesty; not taking things for
granted (Becket).
- personal responsibility - Sartre's The Respectful Whore
- the "bourgeois" morality: Pier Paolo Passolini's Accatone
- indifference: Camus' The Stranger
The beatnicks in the US. Be-bop jazz and Lenny Bruce.
The "momente" form. Stockhausen's Momente
. Alain Robbe-Grillet - Pour a nouveau roman, against
skin-deep reality. Critique of 19th century storytelling.
- frozen moments in time - "tableaux vivants"
- the beginning is not a priviledged moment
- errasing the difference between life and art/spectacle, between audience
and performers.
Regarding art (music) not as an object (commercial) but as a living thing.
Not a ritual (concert) but part of our daily activities (life).
Class of Compositions. An archetype which allows for an
arbitrary number of realizations or variants. Plus Minus
by Stockhausen. Open Works. Umberto Eco - The Role of the
Reader.
- the work as an "universe"
- the more variants you hear, the more you learn about the "universe" and
the better you know the piece.
Chance music as a snapshot which is reproduced (viewed) exactly the same
everytime (the piece is performed from a precisely notated score). Aleatory
music and open works as a pattern which is realized everytime in a slightly
different way.
Textkomposition. Stockhausen - "Aus den sieben Tagen
". Compositions involving only text (instructions or poems).
La Monte Young and his "Compositions 1960".
Concept art.
- the concept more important than the realization
- Examples:
- the letter discussing a painting in lieu of the painting
- meaning, the dictionary definition
- the chair in the picture and its definition
- the artist exposing himself (also: the Russian guy who played dog).
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