|
- International Improvised Music Archive To Front Page...
|
| A pdf edition is available here. |
This bibliography only lists items up to 1999. If you are here for the first time or if you are doing a general literature search, you should also visit the Addenda 2000- in a separate volume.
See some imagined FAQs here!
In the event that an URL is no longer active, you may try www.archive.com with its "wayback machine" which can in some cases find old material, even after many years.
Last revised:
Newsletter with feeds and editorial digest a couple of times a year:
Archive of Newsletters
EXPERIMENTAL
IMPROVISATION PRACTISE AND
NOTATION 1945-1999 (1).
AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY.
by Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen.
English Edition, 2002f
FAQ 2000- addenda (What's this?)
This system has been employed for classifying the subjects:
| VARIABLE WORKS AND AURAL SCORES | WRITINGS | OTHER |
|
A. EDITIONS OF WORKS AND AURAL SCORES A1. 13 representative examples (annotated) A2.1. Some relevant independently published composers (Danish and foreign). A checklist. A2.2. Some Danish and foreign anthologies/series/collections. A3. Danish works. A4. Aural scores (both foreign and Danish) B WORKS AND AURAL SCORES HAVING BEEN PUBLISHED IN EXTENSO, BUT NOT AS INDEPENDENT EDITIONS B1. Improvisation recipes by students of Aalborg University B2. Various works published in Denmark B3. Various foreign works B4. Aural scores (both danish and foreign; annotated) C: WORKS AND AURAL SCORES, PARTS OF WHICH HAVE BEEN QUOTED IN PUBLICATIONS C1. Danish / publ. in Denmark C2. Foreign D. UNPUBLISHED WORKS AND AURAL SCORES D1. Various works - Danish and foreign D2. An annotated selection of compositions by Niels Viggo Bentzon available at Edition Wilhelm Hansen |
E. WRITINGS ON NOTATION E1. General and large writings E2. Specific themes E3. The "Bent Lorentzen - debate" 1987-88 F. COLLECTIONS OF EXERCISES, WRITINGS AND MUSIC WORKS FOR EDUCATIONAL USE F1.1 Collections of exercises and related writings F1.2 Lilli Friedemann F1.3 Gertrud Meyer-Denkmann F2 Miscellaneous writings F3 Music works for educational use, collections of such works and series G. WRITINGS ON IMPROVISED MUSIC G1.1 General surveys and general history G1.2 Periodicals, specialised G1.3 Periodicals, general G2.1 Documentation, reports and discussion concerning specific improvisors, groups, works, events, tendencies G2.2 Stockhausen G2.3 Zorn G2.4 Earle Brown's December 52 G2.5 Wolff G3 General philosopy, aesthetics, music theory and music analysis G4 Psychology G5 Miscellaneous writings H. OTHER WRITINGS. H1 General accounts of music history, dealing thoroghly with themes concerning new notation forms and/or improvisation
H2.1 Bibliographic and discographic
literature |
I.
RECORDINGS
I1. Variable works and music played from recipes I2. Free improvisations J. ELECTRONIC ADDRESSES AND RELATED J1.1. Selected internet addresses J1.2: On Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies on the internet J2. CD-ROM K.EXHIBITIONS OF NEW NOTATIONS AND THEIR CATALOGUES a) Copied from Davies (1986B;E1) b) Some further exhibitions and catalogues L. EDDIE
PREVOST
ON
ASSOCIATION OF
IMPROVISING MUSICIANS
|
|
C O N T E N T S |
PRESENTATION OF THE CLASSIFICATION
|
I. TEXT PART |
VARIABLE WORKS AND AURAL SCORES. EDITIONS OR PUBLISHED? CATEGORIES A-D
EXISTING BUT NOT PUBLISHED. CATEGORY D
COLLECTIONS OF EXERCISES, WRITINGS AND MUSIC WORKS FOR EDUCATIONAL USE. CATEGORY F
WRITINGS ABOUT IMPROVISED MUSIC CATEGORY G.
IMPROVISATION/GENERAL SURVEYS AND GENERAL HISTORY - CATEGORY G1.1
IMPROVISATION/PERIODICALS - CATEGORY G1.2
IMPROVISATION/STOCKHAUSEN: CATEGORY G2.2
IMPROVISATION/ZORN: CATEGORY G2.3
IMPROVISATION/BROWN: DECEMBER 1952 - CATEGORY G2.4. A SPECIAL STUDY
IMPROVISATION/WOLFF - CATEGORY G2.5
IMPROVISATION/GENERAL PHILOSOPHY, AESTHETICS, MUSIC THEORY AND MUSIC ANAYSIS - CATEGORY G3
IMPROVISATION/PSYCHOLOGY - CATEGORY G4
IMPROVISATION/MISCELLANEOUS - CATEGORY G5.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL, DISCOGRAPHICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL LITERATURE - CATEGORIES H2.1, H2.1.1 and H2.2
MUSIC TERAPHY LITERATURE - CATEGORY H3.1
OTHER - THAT WHICH IS NOT PRINTED PAPER. CATEGORIES I-K.
VARIABLE WORKS AND MUSIC PLAYED FROM RECIPES - CATEGORY I1
FREE IMPROVISATIONS - CATEGORY I2
ELECTRONIC ADRESSES AND RELATED. CATEGORY J.
EXHIBITIONS WITH NEW NOTATIONS AND THEIR CATALOGUES. CATEGORY K
APPENDIX A. EDITIONS OF WORKS AND AURAL SCORES
APPENDIX B. WORKS AND AURAL SCORES HAVING BEEN PUBLISHED IN EXTENSO, BUT NOT AS INDEPENDENT EDITIONS
APPENDIX C: WORKS AND AURAL SCORES, PARTS OF WHICH HAVE BEEN QUOTED IN PUBLICATIONS
APPENDIX D. UNPUBLISHED WORKS AND AURAL SCORES
APPENDIX F. COLLECTIONS OF EXERCISES, WRITINGS AND MUSIC WORKS FOR EDUCATIONAL USE.
APPENDIX G. WRITINGS ON IMPROVISED MUSIC
APPENDIX J: ELECTRONIC ADRESSES AND RELATED
APPENDIX K: EXHIBITIONS OF NEW NOTATIONS AND THEIR CATALOGUES
APPENDIX L: EDDIE PRÈVOST ON THE ASSOCIATION OF IMPROVISING MUSICIANS
APPENDIX M: A SHORTLIST OF RECOMMENDED WRITINGS
| Although I have used up a lot of words
here, I want to stress that I don't
believe that words can stand in for
music. But lack of words (lack of a
language for discussion) is a problem
for any field of music that tries to
survive in today's administered world.
...improvised music badly needs its
history to be written...It needs more,
better writing, more argument, more
explicit, clearly formulated
disagreement.
From the preface to Couldry (1995;G1.1) |
PREFACE
This bibliography, the working out of which started in 1997, has as its background my desire to document the abundance and wealth of interesting matters in a field I've been engaged in since the beginning of the seventies - as a composer, musician, music therapist, music organisation worker and teacher. Many of the musical works mentioned here I know from both practise and from theoretical study. A number of authors and writers I have met personally, in Denmark as a part of the immediate context, and during journeys. (2)
As a composer and musician I have since 1971 in the Group for Alternative Music been occupied by improvisation as a way in which to expand the monologue of composition into a dialogue and as a music form in itself. My context started on a background of classical music and has become increasingly mixed since. At Aalborg University, Music Therapy, the disciplines of Intuitive Music and Graphical Notation have existed since 1983 and 1986, developed and managed by the present writer. Intuitive Music is about collective improvisation as a playing practise. And about creating works for variable ensemble, frameworks within which to improvise. The subject of Graphic Notation deals with creating aural scores which map a given music recording and can be employed for remembering, for guiding the listening and for a closer analysis.
Readers are invited to contact me with comments and questions - c/o Aalborg University or via the email contact page at my homepage http://www.intuitivemusic.dk/intuitive/imail.htm.
I wish to thank all those who helped me, especially Guy de Bièvre and his staff at Logos Music Archives and Wilhelm Schlüter at Internationales Musikinstitut for special assistance.
This text deals with
- those music works which are sometimes known as the librarian's enfant terrible: music with new notations which in a number of cases have not been written for a clearly specified ensemble.
- aural scores which also employ new forms of notation, and with
- improvisation in its free forms as a special new performance practise, its history and theory. This is BOTH about works giving space for improvisation AND about the practise of playing without pre-arrangements.
All those are musical phenomena having arisen on the background of the expanded concepts of material of new music - shortly, music as the art of soundmaking.
The text aims at contributing to research related to music history and to music therapy by sharply focusing on the written ressources which provide material and knowledge. Target groups include students, music therapy and music education colleagues, fellow musicians and composers and librarians. It aims at making the significance of these musical phenomena more visible and at being an aid in literature search. Through commenting with abstracts I have striven to make the literature more present to the reader also in those cases where it is solely presented through this text. A number of entries include references to Danish and foreign research libraries.
The basis for this is extensive bibliographical research. It reveals a "skyline", giving a fascinating impression of the development and developing on of a music practise during the 20th century which forms an aspect of new composed music and other genres. A music practise which has also had an essential significance to modern music education and music therapy - entire educational methods and institutions, among which existing music therapy educations, have directly originated from it.
Like is always the case with bibliographical work on a certain scale, light is shed both on areas where there is density of information and thoughts and where this is exactly absent ... and this could give realistic insight into what we are building on and could maybe yield inspiration to create some of that which one has not seen being done by others yet.
A selective and critical main principle has been employed: writings that seemed less substantial have not been included - else, one could have indexed the totality of articles in some of the periodicals investigated.
The list is based on first-hand knowledge of the writings and works, and at the same time, cf. the remarks in the specific appendices, I have striven to be as exhaustive as possible in the literature search. Writings and works I have not read or held in my hands have only exceptionally been listed. Parts of F1.2 and F1.3 (dealing with writers the relevance of whom I consider safe) are the most extensive among such exceptions.
Special attention has been given to listing Danish works, but the investigation has been international in its scope. Certain limitations have been dictated by language and geography - I have searched for literature in Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, English, German, French and in some exceptional cases, Italian. (3)
Reflections on the "skyline" mentioned above lead to insight in the relation between published and unpublished in the field of music works and aural scores, to methodic considerations related to the literature on notation and to consideration of educational target groups. Further it leads to treating a large mass of materials and knowledge on the subject of improvisation, both as taking place within compositions and as free improvisation in its own right. Here, historic lines of developments and a wide range of attitudes and theories within many disciplines are uncovered - from the reflections of the seventies taking an immediate starting-point in the contemporary context to the weighty book works of the nineties. Relevant music history works and accessible bibliographical aids are mapped and described, a connection is made to the discipline of music therapy, and the way in which electronic media supplement the written ones is examined. (4)
Unfortunately, I could not provide a lot of illustrative examples. For copyright reasons I could not quote freely, as would have been natural. But see instead the references! And: maybe this text should not be "read" but is rather for browsing. Remember, you can of course use common procedures of the browser to search for any text string. The text part has of course the aim to connect and to summarise, but it cannot and is not at all supposed to form a synthesis of everything. It is essential that the reader looks around in the appendix part according to interest and need. If you have the paper edition, you could place a finger in each section!
The chapters dealing with music works refer to paper publication which has been the sole form until few years before 1999 - digital publishing might play an expanding role in future.
Probably, my subjective form of engagement shines through at some places, and my own works as a composer and theoretician have been included. Hopefully, my interest in the subject also creates an inner coherence. I have sought to counteract arbitrariness by means of a reflected, systematic classification, and in the appendix part accounts have been made for the limitations applying to each list.
PRESENTATION OF THE CLASSIFICATION
IT HAS BEEN THE AIM TO MAP THE COMPOSITE FIELD OF IMPROVISATION AND DIFFERENT NOTATIONS - SEE THE SCHEME EXPLANING THE CLASSIFICATION IN THE VERY BEGINNING OF THIS TEXT.
The many differently designed part-bibliographies do form together a complex conglomerate which, however, seeks to cover the field of study comprehensively.
In A-D VARIABLE WORKS are investigated, that is compositions with space for improvisation and/or new notation forms AS WELL AS AURAL SCORES. It is specially noted how independently published works are supplemented by other categories which in a more or less complete way makes further material visible, and referring to some well-known names I advocate for the significance of these categories. Concerning material published in Denmark (categories A, B and C) the lists have been made as complete as possible. Concerning foreign material I have sought to provide a perspective by combining three very different forms of listing: 13 representative works have been taken up in A1 with special care for giving references in the comments. In return, A2.1 aims at providing a reasonable large number of composer's names. A2.2 about anthologies/series/collections supplements.
E-H list WRITINGS, books and articles. They can deal with both music works with space for improvisation and with free improvisation practise.
Central is G which has the ambition of providing an adequate representation of the ideas and the documentation material existing around new improvised music. One section lists periodicals. Others seek to classify into surveys, specific themes, a few often mentioned authors, philosophy and related, psychology and finally a residual category with "miscellaneous" - for those writings that did not fit into the other ones.
G is supplemented by some important adjacent categories: on notation as a special study (Category E), music education as a field overlapping music works (F), literature on music history, selectively treated with a view to what is directly relevant (H1) and literature from music therapy (H3) where psychological viewpoints come forward.
I-L, OTHER, deals for a great part with that which has not been printed on paper, also with exhibitions and material related to them. (5)
I provides some examples of recordings. J can introduce the reader to internet ressources. K accounts for a tradition of making notation exhibitions, aiming at the general public.
Whenever reference is made in thext to an entry it is done with the author's last name followed by (year in parentesis; signature in case the context does not make it clear). Recordings are, however, mentioned by sale title instead of last name, and for the small category J the relevant sub-category only is mentioned. Each signature has its own appendix in the last part of the text with a list.
Those who need a shortlist of recommended writings will find it in appendix M.
VARIABLE WORKS AND AURAL SCORES. EDITIONS OR PUBLISHED? CATEGORIES A-D
The criterion for being included here for works is that they must provide freedom for the performer for independent activity. New notation forms must play an essential role, not just add details to a composition which has chiefly been composed the traditional way, or variability must be extensive. (6) Works solely providing guidelines to performers concerning the making of their own written-out versions have not been considered (Ladislav Kupkovic and Klarenz Barlow are examples of composers of such works).
Those who wish to acquire basic orientation in this field can look through Brindle (1975/1986;H1) which, in addition to providing many examples also gives good historical orientation. Gieseler (1975;H1) can be recommended as a comprehensive "picture book", quoting many kinds of notations. Karkoschka (1966;E1) examines closely a nice selection of notations. Other than this, it is recommended to the extent possible to look through libraries' collections for work editions and other literature (use the checklist A2.1). - And in order to get an impression of what free improvisation is like, one can look for recordings under I2 and for sound file quotes and concerts on the Internet - and/or plunge into one's own experiences.
One can very well improvise without notes or arrangements of any kind. But in the written tradition of recipes and fremeworks which are not, like traditional composition, a pre-arranged text, lie also some valuable insights into the musical language. This can inspire to trying out previously made recipes, to the creation of new ones and to sharpening musical attention also during improvisation in a music therapy ocntext and during improvisation with no arrangements at all.
The figure below shows the relation between classifications A, B, C and D - describing a scale from unpublished to independently published for works and aural scores. The relative size of each section stand for its supposed volume.
A: Editions
B: Having been published in extenso (=completely), but not as independent editions
C: Parts of which have been quoted in publications
D: Unpublished
Clearly, editions are in several ways the best form. They guarantee that the material has been completed and that relevant comments etc. have been added. The works can be searched by composer and title, and they are sold in special shops.
Appendix A1 is a short list (alfabetically arranged) of some important, foreign works/collections, stressing representativity and craftmanship in a music history context. It intends to provide examples of some of the most essential types of works, and it also gives priority to some historically basic works and to the quality of their elaboration.
Instead of giving a comprehensive list of foreign works I have limited myself to that which is strategic. A2 is a checklist of names, seeking to be comprehensive in this aspect, which can be used, for instance, if one would like to see what is a library's capacity in this field. - There are not many birth years after 1940. See, however, the next chapter on the categories B and C and the reduced visibility of this area since the seventies due to fall of interest among the publishers.
A2.2 is a list of anthologies and series - to have many works at one place can have a great practical significance. Johnson (1981) is big and versatile with many types of works and notation - one could wish for a European counterpart to this. However, the Europeans have contributed with publisher's series which are weighty indeed - besides the concert music in category A, see also the educational section F3 as well as F1.1 with collections of exercises. Cage (1969) was to a lesser degree made with a view to practical use, but it presents a large and colourful cavalcade. Bosseur (1997) is a composer having verbal notation as a speciality, and this anthology gathers together a large number of works written over the years.
A3 and A4 aim at being complete lists. A3, Danish editions, concentrates especially around one publisher, The Society for the Publication of Danish Music. A marked exception is Bent Lorentzen who, in contrast to Niels Viggo Bentzon had a "breakthrough" into publication of a number of works with new notations at Wilhelm Hansen (see, however, also the category D2). The fact that The Society for the Publication of Danish Music has a strong foothold concerning new notation forms is related to the so-called "manuscript series" with its "print-on-demand" way of publishing which does not impose heavy demands on the budget of an edition. This form of publishing existed since the seventies; even earlier, the Swedish started to do so, and their arrangement still exists - see Swedish Music Information Center (J1.1). - The category A4 is an exclusive one even if dealing with both Danish and foreign, and maybe ideas for new publications could arise from considering this fact. It contains aural scores (7) mostly of electronic music. They can be both exact and analytical or of a more suggesting kind for educational purposes. The aural scores of Stockhausen and Wehinger are often quoted.
PUBLISHED. CATEGORIES B and C.
But, as the triangular figure above suggests, there is more material than that which exists in independent editions. The big publishers had an interest in publishing differently notated music in the sixties and seventies when experiments with notation was a dominating tendency. After this, as dominant tendencies became more retrospective, the number of publications strongly decreased. In this way, a "minimum percentage rule" was virtually introduced which made the work which was nevertheless carried out less visible.
Other than this, works may be sold out from the publisher, they can be difficult or impossible to acquire through usual channels even if they are for sale, high pricing can be an obstacle or, as a final possibility, the dissimination in quoted form may exceed the dissimination as an independent edition and begin to take on a life of its own. (8)
Due to the "minimum percentage" problem and other problems it is even more interesting that works have been published in their entirety without this being as an independent music edition - category B. Often, these works do not take up very much space - in many cases this is so with differently notated works. With some browsing and investigating around one will in this and the following category have an essential supplement to the works published in the composer's own name. Probably the works will here appear with less commenting than would have else been the case. Those who study and maybe play it are then to interpret independently where nescessary.
As one can see, some works by students from Aalborg University have become accessible in this way. It is also through this channel that the public could catch a glimpse of this form of activity with Danish composers like Bent Lorentzen, Niels Viggo Bentzon og Hanne Ørvad during recent decades - this happened for the last two mentioned thanks to minor Danish newspapers! Even recent works of the American classic Brown (Brown 1994,1995;B3) must be sought after in CD booklets - since they ocntain no references to a publisher one can suspect that there is no such instance. Keller is just one example of a composer of elaborate and different improvisation works who lead a similar humble life.
Now turning to works only quoted partly in publications - category C - it seems that the quantity increases. Gieseler's music history bog (Gieseler 1975;H1) can thus be credited of drawing on a variety of unpublished material. Anthony Braxton is remarkable as a well-known composer with many CD releases, the music of whom does not seem at all to have been published in an independent written form. Here we have the special situation that a comprehensive material comprising several volumes has been published which quotes from them! See Braxton (1996;C2), also Wilson (1988;C2) Heffley (1996;C2) and Lock (1990;C2).
EXISTING BUT NOT PUBLISHED. CATEGORY D.
It is consistent with earlier assertions made here that I will now suggest that among unpublished works which have never been quoted in public there exists essential and even influential productions - category D. Two of the most well-known Danish composers exemplify this:
Niels Viggo Bentzon's contributions to Danish music life is to a high degree based on his special, individual mixture of traditional and Fluxus-like elements. During the sixties his work with this attracted wide interest also outside music circles as such, and in Danish media he became simply a symbol of avantgarde tendencies in music during the subsequent decades. Despite of all this, none of the compositions which concretely document his work with this are available in a published, written form. It is to be suspected that this has had serious consequences for which works have been played after their first performance and adopted into musicians' repertories. Here, however, as probably in a number of other cases, the publisher keeps material available to those interested - Appendix D2 describes a selection of such works by Bentzon with new notations. (9)
Per Nørgård developed his own improvisation practise during the seventies based on written, short model compositions over which the performers made variations. This practise was carried on by Hans Gefors at the Music School of Holstebro. Recently, a program from a Danish free high school shows that Nørgård is still cultivating this practise (Toftdahl 1999;H4). A publication around this, specialising in the rhythmic dimension only and using drums, Hansen (1999;F1.1), was published shortly before the old century was over - after approx. 25 years!
In this practise, the infinite row (a Fibonacci-based series) was given the appearance of a way of writing utilising a number of parts which were all variants over the same principle, but with different pitch range and tempo - cf. works like 2. symphony and others in which this is displayed in a clear form. Additional composers could contritute with more parts. The movement was repeated in cycles, and players could and were also supposed to vary the music gradually, normally without adding more tones to the written basis, but, rather, by means of their own phrasing and accentuations - and by means of the important "principle of the Swiss Cheese". That means, to make pauses, in the service of phrasing and also in order to develop new structures in the music seen as a whole. Musicians were also free to alternate between the various parts and their styles. This is the improvisation practise Nørgård (1977;G2.1) describes - Hansen deals solely with the rhythmic aspect and with percussion, while the melodic aspect is not the subject of the book. (10)
Unpublished works, as we saw in the instance of Niels Viggo Bentzon, can appear in a "latent" form of publication, available on request from a publisher - and unpublished works can even be dissiminated in printed form. The postcard-compositions by Fuzzy, Henrik Colding-Jørgensen, Jørgen Lekfeldt and Jørgen Plaetner which were published as a private publication by Danish Composer's Society in 1992 on the occasion of one of the concerts of Composer's Biennale, have each been printed in 1000 copies.
In the following examples the playing material is unpublished whereas the music has been released on LP and CD:
The American composer John Zorn who is also well-known as an improvisor in many countries wrote so-called "game-pieces" the study and practise of which has become a "cult", as an expression of the nineties has it. They are ingenious games with rules. Zorn's inspirations for this were team sports and so-called war games (as far as I understand a form of computer-based games). The idea of music as a game with rules as known for instance from Chr. Wolff, is thus carried on here on new grounds. (11)
English composer and improvising musician Steve Beresford carries such principles on in his composition "Fish of the Week" (1993) which, similarily to the pieces of Zorn, takes place over some time - here approx. an hour. Music by Zorn as well as by Beresford of this kind has been released on PL and CD, (12) but the written material is only known in narrow circles. According to a message dated 1998 from the publisher (Hips Road Edition), a printed edition of the Cobra game piece is on its way. But, remarkably, only after the publication of a number of other much less famous pieces. (13)
English Bisset (1997;G2.1) mentions in a small print for circulation on London Electric Guitar Orchestra also Zorn as one of the sources of inspiration.
In certain cases it may be adaequate that works are not published - the composer can regard them as being bound to their context and to a personal presentation. (14)
But market considerations are probably the most serious obstacle. For composers outside of classic music and traditions of fine art this problem might assume an almost absolute character, while publishers connected to these traditions may sometimes accept taking some risks. (15)
From Jost (1984;G1.1) one can gain insight into "Graphiken, verbale Konzepte, Ablaufpläne" [graphics, verbal introductions, process recipes] produced by members of Globe Unity Orchestra in the seventies. Kumpf (1984;G5)) and Noll (1977;G5) also quote notations including ones by well-known free jazz musicians. (16)
As a conclusion to this examination it can be said that there has clearly been more activity than appears from independent publications alone, as we could see from the prominent examples Bentzon, Nørgård, Zorn and Braxton. In the historical process, a number of composers have since then, outside of the attention of media and publishers, worked slowly and seriously on with those phenomena which were brought forward by emancipative tendencies in the sixties and on.
There is a well-known and widespread literature on new notations, but to a great part this deals with expansions and additions to traditional scores, rather with the radical alternatives. Such a catalogue-like approach examines symbols one by one taken out of their work context as well as out of their historical context, and they disregard the original notations as totalities. Despite of such shortcomings, Karkoschka (1966;E1) provides, however, also a broad and thorough examination of many important examples, in addition to the catalogue-like approach prevailing in the rest of the book. Stone (1980;E1), Risatti (1975;E1) og Cope (1976;E1), however, do not at all look beyond the catalogue approach (17).
Confronted with this state of affairs one must bring forward the point of view expressed by Sylvia Smith (J1.1, see the appendix text), curator for one of what has become a large number of exhibitions with new notations, that art is here to enrichen human consciousness and that excessive standardisation limits its possiblities for doing this. And as both Smith (J1.1) and Hambræus (1970;E1) note, "traditionel notation" is certainly not one thing, but consists of different forms developed through different periods to serve quite different ends. Standardisation has always had its limits somewhere. Bosseur (1993;E1) points to the multitude of sounding possibilities in new music and ask whether any one way to communicate it can really be satisfactory:
"The vocabulary of sound is now limitless, to our greater benefit today; can it then accomodate a system of writing to be shared by all, a standardized "sheet music"? Can the variability of implications springing from the sound phenomenen - a variability we can actively live, as soon as we decide to cast aside the restrictive dogma and the prohibitions of schooled music - be matched by anything other than a plurality of models of transmission?" (s. 25)
- and he characterises some of those differences which may nescessitate different notations from one work to another:
"...the musician's debate does not simply revolve around the distance to be taken from the norms of traditional notation: it is a question of rethinking, for each score, the level of information and the mode of communication to be brought into play, as a function of the specific properties of each project." (p. 26)
The catalogue approach is a-historic and alienates the study of notation from the study of music history. Obviously, this has a pragmatic background in a need for convenient reference books. That does, however, not render such a one-sidedness more acceptable towards music as an art form. Exactly the study of music history, which is practised in other contexts within the same institutions that use the books, yields a perspective of how creative activity has flourished in quite different appearances under different societal and cultural conditions. Insight in this can build up trust in new artistic solutions being found, even if seemingly established principles are challenged. (18)
A different and less pragmatically narrow kind of view certainly also exists, contrasting to the eclectical catalogue approach: the examination of different composers' approaches and the putting them into a historical perspective. This approach does not ignore the fact that several kinds of aims with notations exist, and consequently a number of works are studied in their entirety. Writings of this kind are Bosseur (1993;E1), Brunner et al. (1974;E1), Davies (1986A;E1), Gieseler (1978;E1), Karkoschka (1975 I-II;E1) and Roschitz (1967;E1), as well as the chapter "Beispiele..." in Karkoschka (1966;E1) mentioned above. Hambræus (1970;E1) can also be mentioned here, and this book deals also generally with notation in its historical development.
The subject of notation overlaps with visual art, and this has inspired some large illustrated books, Motte (1990;E1) and Maur (1985;E1). Bosseur (1993;E1) deals with some multimedia- and intermedia-aspects.
Reading about new notations inevitably leads to the study of the notations and their details as a predominant activity. Apart from the pictorial elements having an immediate aesthetic interest, many of the writings in category E can serve as material giving inspiration to musicians, composers and creators of aural scores, for their own new works. I found Gieseler (1975;H1) to be next to unsurpassed in this respect, even if notation is not the text's primary concern. Here, reference must also be made to indispensable, illustrated music history books like Brindle (1975/1986;H1), Maegaard (1964/1971;H1) and Sutherland (1994;H1). Logothetis (1972;E1) was placed in E1 being the only presentation of one composer's notational system and thoughts about in book form, while various articles by the same writer appear under E2.
Amidst all the views and thoughts about notation, Kowal (1971;E1) provides a remarkable example of very fundamental empirical work. He asks the question, which practical ends do different notation forms serve best - and answers the question with a concrete analysis. This is an approach in the literature so rare that the article must be characterised as a pioneering work, and it ought to inspire a number of further studies. The fact that elementary characterisation of notation forms and their practical evaluation is so absent in the literature must be seen in relation to the peculiar tendendy to deal with the subject in a fragmented way commented upon earlier.
One more instructive treatment of such general notation comparison is to be found in Maegaard, p.119f (H1; 1964/1971). He states the first two measures of Stockhausen's Klavierstück 1 both in the original metric notation and in an exact optic notation and provides an illuminating discussion of pros and cons of each.
Category E2 includes writings on single composers, writings with theoretical considerations, my own works on the Danish development and about the important notation form consisting of using words which I have found no other works dealing with in depth. Runswick (1996;E2) is a composer's account for his notational system used in several works - maybe it could be a good idea for others to write such accounts? Hagvet (1988;H4) suggests how one can apply a psychological view to the human development of writing practise, and this also sheds light on the way the writing is perceived and how it functions as a means of expression and communication. It can also be mentioned that Cardew (1971;G3), in a different context, remarks on the fundamental justification for employing notation that it allows others to have more advanced experiences than were otherwise the case. Thus, a child of a certain age can play music by Beethoven, even if could only have been composed by an adult. (p.xix). For Brown, Logothetis and Haubenstock-Ramati as composers, notation have been a prime concern. Brown (1965) mentions a pragmatic reason why Americans were the first to employ framework-like notations and did this in the boldest way: the short rehearsing time due to economic limitation did not allow for rehearsing complex works notated in great detail. - Kohler (1987) points to the important, direct inspirations from Kandinsky and his theory to the notations of Logothetis and Haubenstock-Ramati. This is a currently (2008) lesser-known fact of European notation history and should, among other things, be integrated into future overview writings.
E3a-E3e are consecutive contributions to a Danish debate (19) which touched upon some important problems concerning notation of new music: on one hand the closed nature of traditional notation, on the other the dangers of misunderstanding presented by open notation forms.
Notation variants neither for playing nor for guiding the listener, "reading music" like Schnebel (H4:1969) exist, but are not treated as part of the focus here.
PRACTICALLY AND DIDACTICALLY ORIENTED LITERATURE, INCLUDING COLLECTIONS OF EXERCISES. CATEGORY F.
Inventing and arranging exercises for musicians is in my experience an activity very similar to composition, it's just the context being different. John Stevens preferred the word "pieces" instead (20), even within a clearly educational context.
The target groups in the category F extend from Kindergarten age to adults, from amateurs who are absolute beginners to professional musicians, and from instrumental schools to exercises for general use. Canadian Murray Schafer who is especially known for his interest in soundscapes, improvising musician Vinko Globokar living in France, the German pioneering music educators Lilli Friedemann and Gertrud Meyer-Denkmann, and the jazz- and improvising musician Stevens and music educator Paynter, both English, are some important international names in this field. Musician and composer Michael Vetter (Germany) and composer, musician and workshop leader Pauline Oliveros (USA), both work especially with the meditative dimension. The exercise collections of Globokar and Spahlinger are extensive, and their background in compositional training result in some very thorough and varied treatments of musical material, the playing situation and interaction between players. Hansen (1988; A4) combines electronic specially made compositions by various Danish composers with open spaces for the children's own productions. Ford (1995;F2) is a pioneer of improvisation teaching for university students as a general form of communication training. The anthology Reimers (1970; F2) is the sole listed writing which can serve as an introduction to several educationists and their methods. Paynter, Meyer-Denkmann, Friedemann, Schafer and those publishers' series mentioned under F3 are mentioned in this book, and excerpts from some of their works are quoted. To compare and to summarise could be a relevant task for a writer interested in music education, maybe a student writing a final paper or PhD! - Other than this, see, as ever, the comments in the single entries.
WRITINGS ABOUT IMPROVISED MUSIC. CATEGORY G.
Writings dealing specifically with improvisation as a stage in a working process leading to a result being wholly fixed in traditional notation have not been included here.
IMPROVISATION/GENERAL SURVEYS AND GENERAL HISTORY - CATEGORY G1.1
The word improvisation can signify many different things. The standard work Bailey (1992) points to exactly this multitude and its subject matter includes traditional classical organ improvisation, Indian Raga music, Flamenco, several kinds of Western popular music and free improvisation. Having background in free improvisation himself, Bailey provides a good characterisation of this "non-idiomatic" music, an expression from the book which has become well-known among improvising musicians. Another concise expression from the book is the twin concept of "instrumentalist/anti-instrumentalist".
Danish Goldstein og Korgaard (1994) also deal well with the multitude in their overview and summary from various sources.
A number of writings follow broadly the development of improvised music with a basis in specific genres. Even if Couldry (1995) deals solely with English music, his historical considerations and his documentation are thorough and interesting, and original thoughts about virtuosity and collective ways of playing are brought forward. Frisius (1996) traces the development in classical music and describes also the recent development well. Levaillant (1981) describes predominantly a number of French phenomena and their relation to both jazz and new music. Dean (1992) takes his starting-point in jazz after 1960. Jost (1987) provides a broad account of personalities in Euopean jazz of which many are also well-known within improvised music. Some of the various writings of Ferand date back before 1945 but provide good information on the many appearances of improvisation in the long history of classical music - a subject on which some writings have also been included in G5 - and they provide analytical viewpoints that could also be employed to later music.
Free improvisation became widespread as the result of a historical development in which experiences from different genrers have been exchanged between musicians and in which the divisions between genrers have been broken down; instead, the concept of improvised music or free improvisation has arisen as a genre in its own right. Noglik (1990A and 1990B) describes among other things how European jazz played an especially strategic role as a background for this. How experiences from different genres have been fused he sought to describe concisely in the thesis he put forward in a lecture, (21) saying that the aspect of "sound [or: timbral] research" in freely improvised music comes from the tradition of composed new music, the "interactive" aspect comes from jazz. In Bergstrøm-Nielsen (1994) a rudimentary division of phases of the development of improvised usic is sketched out. Poulsen (1997/98) describes a number og contexts in thich improvised music solves problems and thus is of an essential current interest. Fell (1999?) puts forward the concise distinction between "invasive" and "non-invasive composition" for improvising musicians, a distinction well fit for discussions.
Hamm (1975) and Belgrad (1998) outline general society characteristics and cultural tendencies in USA being the immediate background for the often earlier development of experimental music here, compared to Europe.
The books by Feisst (1997) and Müller (1994) take their basis in musical analysis. They are indispensable for future analyses going into depth [at least, for those who can read German] - both are academic works on a high level which after several decades of confusion and discussions being fixed to details and to local issues contribute to greater breadth of view and to greater conciseness of concepts. Feisst uncovers the conceptual context of and the many views concerning improvisation with composers and describes closely their practice examining a large and broad selection of examples. Müller lets a number of well-chosen examples contrast each other sharply and, in so doing, he leads the way to a nescessary new musicological dealing with performance practise, examining the various forms in which composition and interpretation overlap each other in recent music in which improvisation plays a role. Interpretation can no longer be put aside as less important than compositional method and reception, he states.
Wilson (1999) also describes characteristic aspects of the special performance practise of improvised music, more seen from the free practise. Here, notation and electronic/instrumental techniques are dealt with. Fell (1999) classifies various forms of composition from the point of view of the improvising musician, "invasive" and "non-invasive".
IMPROVISATION/PERIODICALS - CATEGORY G1.2
New improvisation forms are relative sparsely represented in magazines, but nevertheless the list G1.2, magazines dealing thoroughly with improvised music, can be stated. Of course, more magazines exist in which relevant material can be found - see G1.3.
Thomas (1998) also divide magazines into specialised ones and broadly orientated ones, and the broadly orientated ones seem to dominate for the time being. This makes exchange of news in this special area more difficult - access to debate, theoretical articles, reviews, concert calendars and current advertising of record labels strengthen this area of music life especially when appearing in a certain quantity and currently. Several important magazines (The Improvisor, Hurly Burly, Rubberneck, Gränslöst) have stopped lately, at least in paper form for the three first mentioned. On the other hand, the internet yields generally new possibilities.
IMPROVISATION/DOCUMENTATION, REPORTS AND DISCUSSION CONCERNING SPECIFIC IMPROVISORS, GROUPS, WORKS, TENDENCIES, THEMES - CATEGORY G2.1
Here, we go more into details - including material which has not ceased to raise interesting, general questions.
Around the time of experimentation within composed new music from the end of the sixties till somewhere in the seventies there are a number of very well-formulated contributions. Often, composers took initiative to the formation of improvising groups. Evangelisti (1966) describes the immediate background in tendencies within composed music in which mbore decisions were presented to the performer than before. Globokar (1971) also speaks from the viewpoint of composition and he sees a challenge in a greater creative participation from the musician. Both composition professor Karkoschka (1971) and composer / musician Globokar remark that a number of improvising groups do not primarily play "for music's own sake*" but also for social reasons - something which can be seen in relation to the general emancipative tendencies of the time. This situation was the direct background for the coming into being of recent, improvisation based music therapy. Karkoschka (1971) distinguish so between possible motivations: "artistic, aesthetical; meditative, religious; educational; therapeutical; social getting to know each other, communication; express oneself. Find one's own - also collective - identity - ; political, revolutionary". In this connection mention can also be made of Andreani (1972;H4), an article reflecting the critical spirit of its time, looking critically at the "esoteric" aspect of classical composition and seeing improvisation as one of the ways to get beyond this. By its language, Stumme (1973) also bears witness of the atmosphere of this time. Burde (1975) signalises few years later a different climate for the tendency which the Germans call "improvisation movement" - and later on, Globokar (1993), assures the reader, like the present author, that experimental tendencies continue, even if the spotlight from the media has disappeared.
Free group improvisation belong to the major social and musical innovations in music. Socially seen it transcends among other things the norms saying that art is supposed to be created by one individual, that musicians subordinate to the more or less exact prescriptions from the composer (this norm was especially strict within art music), and that known forms of education and training are prerequisites for creating. Musically, it investigates (thus Karkoschka (1971), Keller (1973), Hellhund (1995;G3) and Meyer (1994:E2)) timbre and processes in time, which notation, being fixed to pitches and countable rhythms, has suppressed. This development was preceded by, among other things, the noise-instruments of the futurists and by electronic music. One can perceive this music more holistically as sound. Brown (1966) describes at an early time his vision of the musical space as a widening out of the perspective, at the same time musical and social, a departure from the simplification and one-dimensionality of earlier times. Globokar also views composition seeking to fix everything as inadequate despite its creative aspects, since creative collaboration may stay away - Globokar (1971, s. 62).
The music professor Carl Dahlhaus at Berlin University was a prominent sceptic of his day (Dahlhaus 1973;G3 and 1979;G3). In the debate about improvisation he sought to convince his readers that the parameter of timbre in music is less important than pitches, and he viewed improvisation, being bound to the moment and to the situation, as a provocation against the concept of the musical work and against compositional reflection over the music's tradition.
In composed European avantgarde music of the fifthies, traditional haronic, melodic structures and structures beloning to other traditional ways of writing were deconstructed into a "network" of serial construction. This could result in a "pointillistic" music, concentrating on the single sounds which could stand out with their individualities. The situation was similar to that in the works by Webern from the forties, but it was a freer application of the principle, without regular metre and taking place in many possible layers of tempo.
It is a remarkable historical coincidence that the same pointillistic phenomena appears in English improvised music some time later (22) - the German musician Peter Brötzmann nemed it the "English syndrom" [untranslatable play of words - this expression mean rickets in both German and Danish] (Wilson 1999;G2.1). In return, English musicians could perceive Brötzmann's playing like this - Wilson (1999;G1.1) p. 37: "Als "teutonisch" empfanden britische Improvisatioren die massiven Klangsalven eines Peter Brötzmann...Die britische Improvisationsmusik hingegen, wie sie Musiker wie Derek Bailey, John Stevens, Evan Parker, Tony Oxleypraktizierten, vielfach verhaltener, fragiler, transparenter, fragmentierter, weniger direkt emotional" ["British improvisors perceived the massive sound bursts of a Peter Brötzmann as "Teutonic"... British improvised music, on the other hand, as practised by Derek Bailey, John Stevens, Evan Parker, Tony Oxley much restrained, fragile, transparent, fragmented, less direct emotional"]. - The different answers to the enquete in Atton (1988 and 1988-89;G5) suggest, speaking of a related issue, to which extent British musicians perceived a special common identity in their music. Cf. also Munthe (1990;G2.1) on this issue more generally.
It's a peculiar fact of history that some of the pioneers of the pointillistic way of playing, Paul Rutherford, John Stevens and Trevor Watts were together in Cologne, stationed by Royal Air Force in the years 1958/59. However, according to Smith (1998) they listened to American jazz, and they only heard the composed music later according to Rutherford. According to Watts (2002;G2.1) there was no direct connection, and their own new way of playing developed only later, like in Spontaneous Music Ensemble from 1966 in which John Stevens' inspiration from Webern became important. But according to Galanter (2015;g2.1) Derek Bailey and Evan Parker had heard music of Stockhausen. So the emanicipation of the individual sound came about to some degree independently of each other in both European serialist composed music of the fifthies and in English and European improvised music in the sixties. In improvised music, pointillistic playing assumes a new function to an important degree, and this is related to the "group voice"-way of playing, Couldry (1995;G1.1) describes. It's also a curious fact that also Tony Oxley, Evan Parker, Günter Christmann, Derek Bailey and more musicians are known to have taken direct inspiration from Anton Webern - Wilson examines this in detail in (1999;G1.1 p.37ff) and mentions it also in (1999;G2.1) - but the contemporary phenomena which were musically closer to them is not mentioned here. Concerning still other appearances of pointillistic playing one could point to American music by Cage and Feldman in the early fifthies, which did not have any direct consequences for improvisors either, as it seems - even if the music philosophy of Cage has with certainty inspired improvisors - Wilson (1991;G5)). Bop-music from the forties, with its use of staccato and rests in phrasing, must also be reminded of here, and I have found no allusions to that either, nonwithstanding the fact that many musicians probably had this repertory "under their skin".
Free improvisation often takes place in ensembles of three or more musicians, but both solo and large ensembles exist - large ensembles are dealt with in Pfleiderer (1999).
Other groupings in the list are writings around jazz (Jost 1974 and 1984, Wagner 1993). Laskin (1991), Childs (1982-83) and Gunden (1983) provides a few hints about the American scene; Whitehead (1998) provides material on the Dutch one.
As important individual phenomena in England, the Scratch Orchestra occurs among others (see Cardew 1974, Nyman (1974;H4) and Parsons 1994 as well as Parsons 1994;A2.2). Anonymous (1981), Bell (1982 og 1987), Toop (1978 og 1993), Leigh (1994) and Appendix L suggest an area which deserves more history writing antyder et område som kunne fortjene mere historieskrivning, the development of London Musician's Collective and other groupings in London from the seventies and on; Bell (2000;G2.1) provides the most comprehensive summary seen till now.
Biswurm (1999) takes a step in the direction of making an overview of the various relevant festivals. There are many more than mentioned by him, and of course the picture is ever changing. A related subject could be musicians' organisations and their activity, an area on which there seems to be no written literature apart from what was mentioned above on such manifestations in London. However, reference can be made to the internet concerning this.
The intuitive music of Stockhausen, Earl Brown's famous "December 52", John Zorn's "game pieces" and Chr. Wolff have their own categories, see below.
IMPROVISATION/STOCKHAUSEN: CATEGORY G2.2
On the collections of text notated music, Stockhausen (1968 og
1970;A1) there are a number of program notes, original texts,
interview, comments from musicians who know them and analysis.
Stockhausen (1993A) is almost a re-edition of the original texts
of the collections.
Maconie (1991) provides a good discussion of selected pieces by Stockhausen himself. Stockhausen (1978 or 1993B) is an
essential original text which opens a perspective in taking up
critical comments from an audience.
Even among new music
specialists the knowledge of the actual contents of the
collections can be limited. Maconie (1976) provides background and analytical comments in a relatively short form. Kohl (1978) and Bergstrøm-Nielsen (1997) provide analytical examinations in length. Müller (1997)
and Hopp (1998) analytically examine the works Plus-Minus and
Kurzwellen.
IMPROVISATION/ZORN: CATEGORY G2.3
"Game Pieces" from 1984f illustrate a relatively recent development for which the pluralism previously described by Globokar has become a central feature:
"To begin with, this improvised music sounds like "contemporary music" when all those present employ a "contemporary music language"... When, incidentially, someone turns up who has only played jazz or Indian music, the result changes fundamentally. It becomes a peculiar and unbalanced mixture of two worlds. Let me add immediately that the unbalanced aspect is not nescessarily a negative factor" (Globokar (1972;G2.1) transl. by CBN. See also concerning this Stanyek (1999;G3) and Keller (1973;G3)).
By continuing the practise of composing with roles based on contrast or similarity between musicians (see Globokar 1970;G2.1) Zorn can be said to be a younger heir to the ideas of Globokar and to carry out this work on a new basis, mixing of the genres having grown a more natural background for this activity during the eighties. The list includes a number of interviews and short writings. In Wilson (1999A;G3), "Game pieces" are placed into a larger perspective, taking also Chr. Wolff into account.
IMPROVISATION/BROWN: DECEMBER 1952 - CATEGORY G2.4. A SPECIAL STUDY
This work with its characteristic picture of vertical and horisontal rectangles of different thickness which are hanging in the air as it were, is probably the most quoted graphical music work at all. The performance instructions are, however, only known to relatively small circles, and there is much confusion as to how to understand it. Since a coherent presentation of the work, its background and context which also takes into account the history of how the work was perceived seems not yet to have been written, it appeared to me as a good idea to do it here.
First some dry facts about "December 1952": Original publishers were Associated Music Publishers, cop. 1961 and the joint title was "Folio and 4 Systems". Large format, approx. A3, possibly folio. AMP is controlled by Music Sales Ltd., 8-9 Frith Street, London W1 V 5TZ, according to letter from British Library, see the note under "PUBLISHED. CATEGORIES B AND C",page 11. Complete original title: "December 1952 for one or more instruments and/or sound-producing media".
The published music includes a written introduction and performance instruction in which the first quotation p. 59 from Brown (1966;G2.1) (with hanging indention) and the "space diagram" also described there appears, dealing with the basic idea of the work. Both are quoted by Müller (1994;G1.1), p. 205. As a concrete performance instruction it says further: "The composition may be performed in any direction from any point in the defined space for any length of time and may be performed from any of the four rotational positions in any sequence. In a performance utilizing only three dimensions as active (vertical, horizontal, and time), the thickness of the event indicates the relative intensity and/or (where applicable instrumentally) clusters. Where all four dimensions are active, the relative thickness and length of events are functions of their conceptual position on a plane perpendicucular to the vertical and horizontal plane of the score. In the latter case all of the characteristics of sound and their relationships to each other are subject to continual transformation and modification. It is primarily intended that performances be made directly from this graphic "implication" (one for each performer) and that no further preliminary defining of the events, other than agreements to total performance time, take place. Further defining of the events is not prohibited however, provided that the imposed determinate system is implicit in the score and in these notes" (23).
If one compares this quotation to the first mentioned one and of course to the graphic picture itself, one should have reasonable information about how to play the piece. As I understand the instruction, one must in all cases read the picture in a freely chosen, yet systematic manner, letting up and down on the paper correspond to pitch and letting thickness correspond to dynamics, maybe to clusters on keyed instruments. An advanced way is to imagine the picture or the player in motion so that the relative position of elements to each other change. It is essential that the elements are perceived as single elements which are in principle exactly defined, and performance should first and foremost take place directly from playing the picture, with only principles, not details being fixed in advance.
Bosseur (1993;E1) provides (p.15ff) a good and instructive introduction to the idea of the notation, taking as his starting-point the individuality of elements and the dependence on their context they consequently acquire, and he continues by accounting for the endeavours of Brown towards making the notation ambigous.
Recent information about how the piece was composed show that exactly the systematic and exact aspect was important. Brown was inspired by the mathematician Schillinger (Rötter p.5 quoted by Müller p.202). He states in an interview from 1995: "Do you know how December was made? It was produced by using random sampling tables of numbers. I wanted to activate only three parameters - relative frequency, relative loudness, relative duration" (Ryan 1997;H4, here quoted from the original English manuscript).
Through the mobiles of Calder Brown was inspired by the idea about the open space which can be seen as a metapher for the possible transformation of sound in all dimensions. The piece may look like a mobile. With some formulations by Müller, one can perceive the picture like a photography of the space within a movable cube, and the interpreter is to recreate the movement in sound. On can, nowever, also choose a more static version, corresponding more to the "photo" ("a performance using only tree dimensions as active" in the performance instructions). The idea of a space and the openness in performance which can be seen as a consequence of this, "conceptional mobility" as Brown calls it in the edition, has been brilliantly described by him in (1966;G2.1).
Müller deals with backgrounds, the context of Brown's compositional universe (which comprised all degrees of precision in the writing), he scrutinizes the performance instructions and comments upon that which he with a concise formulation sees as Brown's implicit "Theory of improvisation" - seeing improvisation as expanding the possibilities of composition, making it more differentiated by adding things which could not be notated, either because suitable symbols did not exist or because a sufficient differentiation was not practicable. December 1952 was an extreme case for Brown with a maximum of openness. If he were to go beyond that, he would have had to give performers blank pages, he says (Bailey 1992;G1.1 p.62). The performance instructions deal with the exact reading of the elements in the manner of a coordinate system as basic: pitches for up/down, thickness for dynamics and time horizontally. If one conceives of the figure in motion this gets more complicated, yet there is no dispensation for being careful in the interpretation. When Müller says about the analogy to spatial movement that it is "just" a "help to understanding" ('lediglich', p. 206) it is relevant to add that such help is not at all "just". However, Kontarsky (1965;E2 p.94) who is an expert performer of new music, alleges, even with explicit reference to the performance instructions, that "the drawing is not at all to be understood as a basis for a structurally comparable musical version, but it is intended to stimulate the player or the players to make an improvisation of any kind" (24).
Even though it is my opinion that Müller and Kontarsky over-emphasise the work's "improvisation educational" aspect and neglect the methodical aspect in the performance instructions, the differing of their attitudes to those of the present author and Metzger, as well as to that of Richards (1992;G5 p. 58) as far as my perception of his statement go about "helpful rules from the composer" and that of Bosseur (1993;E1) demonstrate that the instructions have not been understood in the same way even by specialists who have studied them (25).
If we now turn to look at performance practise around Brown's own performances, new aspects are added. The work received much attention in 1964 at the summer courses in Darmstadt, where Brown distributed the graphic picture to musicians and acted as a conductor at a performance of it. Several of those present report that the music did not seem to match the simplicity of the picture: "the performance contained trills, glissandi, crescendi and even all kinds of solo licks which could not have been derived with even the best of intentions from the scanty design on the page" (Aloys Kontarsky quoted by Evan Parker, in Bailey p.81). Karkoschka writes (1966;E1) p. 93 that "wawing processes and very extended crescendi" occurred, as well as the theme from Richard Strauss' Till Eulenspiegel. He has also reported that someone in an subsequent discussion asked Brown why the graphic picture was used when a quite different music was played. Brown answered that this was so in an improvisation and that the graphic picture had an influence at the subconscious level of the performers (Karkoschka 2000A;H4).
It could seem we have now come a certain distance away from what performance instructions say, and maybe one can also wonder at Brown's statement from 1972 "the conductor is 'forming' the improvisation" (Brown 1992;H4 quoted from Feisst (1997;G1.1) p.97). Karkoschka, however, points to the fact that one according to Brown can arrange the paper obliquely. This could well explain why crescendi and glissandi occurred.
However, the explanation is different in this case. Brown saw the composition as determining what the conductor should do, not the individual musician. He has accounted for this in some details in Rötter (1986;G2.4) where he also mentions that the material to be used was exercised through three rehearsals.
The following statement also suggests that Brown as a conductor takes over the artistic resonsibility. With December 1952 this is not the only imaginable method, but it can have been an obvious solution, especially considering the historic moments: "I think of these open-form compositions as being in the hands of the conductor once I've written all the material. The conductor is improvising with the orchestra as the instrument" (Duffalo 1989;H4) p.112 quoted from Feisst p.100). And Brown saw an active, educational effort when working with the musicians as nescessary: "Well, in a certain sense I have to teach improvisation each time I do that piece with different people" (Bailey, p.64) (26).
With a conducted version it will be up to an evaluation of a fundamental kind to determine to which degree "the imposed determinate system is implicit in the score and in these notes", the conducting activity being a "further defining of the events", as performance instructions say - also, how far the "continual transformation and modification" can go which the performance instructions mention as a possibility.
Metzger (1972;H4) reports on preparations to a LP recording taking place later, in 1972. He thinks that Brown acted contrarily to his own rules by limiting which instrumens that could be played and by strongly encouraging the performers to react to each other and develop the material, in addition to letting the conductor Rainer Riehn conduct the ensemble, against his original intention. But nonwithstanding this conflict between composer and conductor one cannot exclude the possibility that the conducting functioned in accordance with the rules.
On closer scrutinity, one can conclude that there are reasons to undertake a "rehabilitation" of Brown from the critique stated at the Darmstadt performance and by Metzger of alleged inconsequence (27).
Clearly, performance instructions do not state that a specific texture must result or that crescendos or the theme from Till Eulenspiegel cannot be part of the process. It seems that two different notions of the piece exist: the one is more traditional and presupposes that there is a text which must correspond to that wich sounds. The other notion is of the piece as a structral idea which can lead to unforeseen results. Such an idea is commonly known from for instance the Variations pieces by Cage which are exactly structural ideas, not texts depicting sequences of sound but formulas capable of generating many different things. The performance instructions do certainly not exclude that December 1952 is perceived in this way. The immediate associative and sound-depicting aspect is not the notation's only one. Seen in this light, objections even appear conservative.
In case the work is conducted, Müllers statement may come true (p.206): "As an introduction to improvisation, the construction and appearance of the graphics becomes of secondary importance, and the idea about performance takes on increased importance. It is less the graphics than the comments from the composer to performance practise that conveys the idea". At the same time, it is clear that performances which more directly represent the graphics also exist (28).
Maybe this doubleness contributed to the fame of the piece: it quickly conveys an atmosphere of a spacious and floating music, a number of essential reflections on musical tradition and innovation lie behind, and at several occasions (Bailey (1992;G1.1) mentions p. 64 at least a third performance with Brown taking part) Brown has used it as initiating improvisation. Each of all these aspects could attract attention in itself, but to include them all in their entirety has been difficult during discussions and for music history writers.
Even the new music specialist Karkoschka (1980;E2) categorises the work in an article as something which can be used for preparation of the music and which does not need to be played directly from, on the basis of Brown's appearance in Darmstadt 1964 (2000B;H4), whereas instructions say that performances should primarily take place directly from the picture. With Griffiths (1995;H4) we have a worse situation, however - he writes that there are "no instructions about how these shapes are to be realized as sound" (p.95) - a statement which could make one wonder whether he has been negligent enough not to check whether a printed edition with instructions existed at all.
A quotation by Brown summarises how December 1952 was a vision about a music capable of assuming different appearances when being brought to life by a performance practise still to be put into realisation: "In 1952 I was convinced that music, our music, was going to move in a certain way which would be more inclusive of flexibility, let us say, and it has moved in that direction" (Bailey p.63).
From the Darmstadt 1964 concert and one of the rehearsals there exists recordings kept at Internationales Musikinstitut Darmastadt - see Brown (1964; I1). On listening, I hear music sounding like composed new music of that time, and the quotation aspect is not especially apparent. Clearly there is variation in dynamics, tempo and in the number of musicians playing at one time. It is furthermore interesting to note that conducted improvisation and the conductor Butch Moris received a good deal of attention in the nineties; the practise of Brown can be seen as a forerunner.
For those who wish to study December 1952, especially Brown's own, classic text (1966;G1.1) is recommended, put into perspective by Müller (1994;G1.1) and of course the published score (Brown 1961;A1). The New York School (1992;J) contains a CD recording; Müller refers to 3 LP recordings. One of those he analyses in detail while additional 2 analysis are of recordings that have not been published. Finally, one more LP recording exists as part of the release mentioned under Metzger (1972;H4).
IMPROVISATION/WOLFF - CATEGORY G2.5
Wolff has created many different innovative notations. The works mentioned here under A1 and A2.2 show a varied selection of them. He became especially known for the "cue"-feature, that is, performers having to wait for each other in order to go on. In this way, the music became based on interdependence between players and thus took an important step away from being a fixed entity, pre-shaped by the composer, while still retaining elements of exactness and precision. In pure cultivation, this principle can be observed in pieces like For 1, 2 or 3 Players (DeLio (1984;G3) - Duet II (Behrmann (1964/65;E2)) and In Between Pieces, all of which receive analytical examinations in the literature - in the last case, there are even two different analyses (Müller (1994;g1.1 - Landy (1991;H4)).
Good presentations of Wolff's music in the context of music history can be found in Wilson (1999;G1.1), Feisst (1997;G1.1), Bosseur (1979;H1), Sutherland (1994;H1) (29) and Nyman (1974;H4) - all present a number of examples and comment on them.
Gronemeyer and Oehlschlägel (1998) gathers together a large number of articles about Wolff, program notes and other materials, all of which appear in both German and English.
IMPROVISATION/GENERAL PHILOSOPHY, AESTHETICS, MUSIC THEORY AND MUSIC ANAYSIS - CATEGORY G3
A number of improvisors write articles on their music and its meaning. And the interest in writing is not generally confined to academic circles. It appears that creative dealing with the ever changing sound provokes an interest in aesthetics and in philosophical description of the music's qualities (30).
Aesthetic and philosophical view may very well connect to classical concepts, like with Caroll (1996)'s interest in the cyclic phenomenon. The possibilities existing for the listener in music which from the side of the composer has not been fixed in all details are put into a larger perspective of history of philosophy by Toncitch (1970) - the fact that the open-ended, creative process becomes more accessible for the musician and for the listener is viewed as a direct addition to the list of inner states laid down by Aristotle! (31)
More specifically modern ideas also come up, like for instance Shoup (1996)'s personal reflections on how "reality" may be viewed in a simplified and naive way or in a more complex way. Recent chaos theories in natural science have also left traces (Bratlyn (1988) and Lee (1992)), although in the form of rather general considerations. The thoughts of Nunn (1992) can be said to deal with the point where musician and music meet, and as devising a dialectical brainstorming method aiming at pinning down sources of musical dynamics that could be focused on. Gulda (1971) attacks the one-sidedness of written music culture. Maybe somewhat simplified one could call Prèvost (1975, 1994, 1995) a radical existentialist. He is the author of a regular, large book with personal reflections which does not deal with biographical and anecdotical material but exactly with philosophy connected to the music.
Eco (1989 (1962)) connects to major developments in the history of philosophy and science in the Western world, with its underlying notion of "possibility" and necessity of development since baroque times, in his comments to contemporary European music which has performance ambiguity.
A philosophical field of special interest could be ethics. Inspired by Taoism, Cardew (1971) described a number of individual virtues which improvised music both demands and cultivates in the musicians. Those are characteristics having to do with personal maturity - ranging from "Integrety" til "Acceptance of Death". Kösterke (1996) describing anarchy as an utopian ideal for free forms of being and working together. Here, as is also the case with Cardew, tolerance and the ability to abstract from one's own needs, are seen as important. samarvejde. Social virtues, like sharing responsibility and actively contribute to the totality are also added, however. It can also be mentioned, as Wilson (1998;G5) points out when dealing with the groups Nuova Consonanza and AMM, that musicians may have norms for what they would like to avoid, for instance playing elements from known music. Related to ethics and moral are also the issues about copyright fees, since it has irritated many musicians that composers receive money for music in which the musician has a decisive creative role. Globokar demonstrated against this by calling himself "Anonymous" on a recording of music by Stockhausen, Smith (1973;G2.1) ask for a practical solution - and Hambræus (1997;G5) shows a possible one, simply registering a work (or an arrangement of it) as of more authors, and the fee will be distributed among them.
The "social virtues" may also be viewed from a larger perspective dealing with society. New music can appear isolated from the large music public. It can be a relevant challenge to address broader circles, cf. Andréani (1972;H4). It can also be maintained that the form of collaboration manifested by musicians makes a difference as to what the listener finally perceives - whether the form is forced and autoritarian or it is am inspired and catching example of human collaboration. It is a fact, however, that much music, popular and classic, is still performed under forms of conductorship as autoritarian as at the times of Papa Haydn and that this is often regarded as quite unproblematic - nonwitstanding the fact that Western culture has in other areas during recent centuries accepted personal freedom and teamwork. Boredom is one possible way of reacting for the musician (Globokar 1976 s. 107), stress another one. Keller (1973) elucidates the role of musician's collaboration for the public with reference to the "Lehrstück"-view of Bertolt Brecht. Globokar (1971;G2.1) discusses the problem, relating it to a contrasing opinion which he sees as widespread, holding, as it seems, that music should sound obliging and not present too much challenge - p.62:
"Nowadays one notices everywhere the wish to "humanise" music. In order to achieve this, we must accept a risk and first "humanise" the tasks of the performer" (transl. by CBN).
Ratte (1996) connects to a concept which is known wichin musicology by considering improvisation as "informal music" in the sense of Adorno. And the reflections brought forward by Keller (1973) who, related to the Brecht-discussion, consideres a continous process of quoting and modifying each other's musical language elements still point forward. Improvised music consists, by its nature, to a high degree of dialogues between different ways of expression - the contrasts are not just different sides of one composer's conception, but there is instead a composite phenomenon of different "dialects" or even different languages, which may have quite different forms of logic. Various models of collaboration are discussed in Stanyek (1999;G3). Evan Parker who organised the festival he deals with, has coined the concept "multi-mindedness" denoting the dialogic and composite character of improvisation. (32)
Essential considerations concerning methods of analysis are given by Johnson-Laird (1991) and Lewis (1996;G3), who both attack the misunderstanding that improvisation is performed in a way comparable to the performance of a composition which is reproduced by heart. This misunderstanding is, with a concise word, called the "motif theory". (33)
Generative grammar is considered in detail with the first mentioned writer as a more adaequate frame of understanding - the music can be understood as being produced in a way similar to spoken language - cf. Small (1984).
For the actual analysis of improvised processes Lutz (1999;G3) provides tools which take the performers' different, possible roles toward each other and their shifts into account, cf. the insights of Sarath and Noll mentioned below, which also touch upon psychological matters. Additionally, Noll introduces categories closely describing the music in his typology of "pointillistic", "continuous", "dissociative", "conventionalised" fields of sound as well as "rest fields", opening up perspectives for describing improvisations very concretely. Last but not least, Nunn (1998), among other things, expands upon the customary concept of theme or motif, coining useful concepts of "Identities", their transformations and their transitions.
Many writers see improvisation as especially exploring the parameter of timbre, of non-countable time proportions and of interaction - dimension which traditional music writing, being fixed to pitches and metrum, has not been well-suited to handle - thus karkoschka (1971;G2.1); Keller (1971;G3); Dahlhaus (1979;G3); Noglik (1990;G1.1); Meyer (1994;E2); Hellhund (1995;G3).
The study of time experience borders on the discipline of psychology. Sarath (1996) provides frames of reference which among other things take their starting-point in the now - "localized present", "overarching present" and a "retensive-protensive" time experience, differing from the "expanding temporality" of composition. Noll (1977) also treats the dialectique between "retention" which is an immediate keeping in memory and "reproduction", taking place more focused and at will. See also Wünsch (1991;H3.1) who distinguishes between "passive" and "active" repertory. (34)
IMPROVISATION/PSYCHOLOGY - CATEGORY G4
Logically, here we find a number of writings taking their starting-point in the playing process. Behne (1990) proposes a simple model for the musician's intrapsychic communication with himself/herself. The simplicity of this can be seen as resulting from the "reduction of complexity" which Andreas (1996) mentions. Flusser (1983) point to theories about playing as a human activity by Piaget and Caillois (1971;H4) as relevant tools. Hengesch (1973) also considers playing. Hovancsek (1996) deals with how the musician may challenge the usual order of sensory perception. Hearon (1991) points to the fact that improvised music par excellence can evoke an emotional process in the musician or the listener which is shifting and unforeseeable.
Through all this there is an underlining of the empirical unforeseeability and the free exploration. Therefore, this area could be of special interest for music therapists who work with improvisation. The considerations springing from the playing process point to the detailed process of musical work and puts it into perspective. They complement the various general analytical, psychological theories which deal with general frameworks for human development and its stages.
More themes can be mentioned: time experience which was also touched upon at the end of the last chapter. Riley (1976) is a comprehensive enquete with many different musicians' statements. General considerations on creativity are put forward by Andreas (1996) and Nachmanovitch (1990) - the last mentioned writer does so in a book which is well accessible to the common reader and in a perosnal way.
The writers mentioned here refer to psychological traditions of thought centering around the individual. The musical process is, however, often of a collective nature, cf. for instance Lutz (1999;G3) and Couldry concerning "group voice", see above under G2.1. It thus appears that there is a need for further thinking and integration of thoughts across disciplines in which musical experiences might possibly also inspire psychologists.
IMPROVISATION/MISCELLANEOUS - CATEGORY G5.
A number of the writings in this mixed category could be headed under the keyword "practise". Atton (1988)'s enquete deals among other things with how musicians practise and Cusack(1978)'s enquete deals entirely with this issue (or, as it is being put in at least one case, whether there is "practising" at all separate from music creation). The question in Kiseritsky and Schwabe (1995)'s enquete concerning whether improvisation is an attitude or a craft is also for a great part answered with reference to practical experience. Miscellaneous writings in which attitudes and opinions are in focus rather than systems of thought are also put here, for instance van den Berg (1985) in which Bailey questions the use of composing music instead of improvising it. Viewpoints which might reconcile the two sides can be seen with Barrett (1992;G5) and one is also expressed by Leandre in Laskin (1991;G2.1). Several writers compare improvised music to folk music; Eloy (1970) elaborates on this with some music ethnological considerations - cf. Atton (1988) and Richards (1992).
Here I have of course also put writings dealing with several topics.
GENERAL ACCOUNTS OF MUSIC HISTORY, DEALING THOROGHLY WITH THEMES CONCERNING NEW NOTATION FORMS AND/OR IMPROVISATION - CATEGORY H1
Generally, one has to warn against believing that the topics of notation and of improvisation are automatically covered in general music history books, even in recent ones dealing with music of the sixties, seventies and on. (35)
The only published Danish book including such topics seems still to be Maegaard (1964/71). Even if it only traces developments until the year 1964 it is a classic highly recommended, but of course one must supplement it with more recent material - Goldstein and Korgaard (1994;G1.1) can help.
For those who can read English, good assistance can be found in Brindle (1975/1986), which both provides orientation on tendencies and many good notation examples. Sutherland (1994), also British, has a more selective approach but is also an important book. German Gieseler (1975) has its strength in the large number of notation examples and their bibliographical notes. Also in French there exists a comprehensive book, Bosseur (1979). Finally, Cope (1971) gives an American perspective. (36)
In general music history books dealing with broad outlines, a certain amount of generalisation, arbitrariness and distortion of historical reality may occur, even in the better ones. It is therefore recommended also to consult more special literature if possible.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL, DISCOGRAPHICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL LITERATURE - CATEGORIES H2.1, H2.1.1 and H2.2
Only quite few writings dealing solely with bibliography of improvisation can be listed here, and they are not quite relevant for the focus of the present investigation - Anonymous (Egon Kraus)(1970;H2.1) which seems for the greatest part to deal with relatively old forms of improvisation practise and Anonymous (1973;H2.1) on various writings. Møllerhøj (1980;H2.1) is not about improvisation, but a general inventory of the works of Niels Viggo Bentzon.
This area can, however, not be characterised as a neglected one. Dean (1992;G1.1) has an important contribution which is divided into: "books and articles"; "printed musical scores"; "recordings and films" (CD medium not included) and finally "an illustrative core collection of recorded improvised music and how to obtain it" (LPs).
The biblio- and discography of Levaillant (1981;G1.1) also belong to the comprehensive ones. The recent Frisius (1996;G1.1) lists a number of writings and some examples of performing material. Within categories E1, E2 and G various material can be found passim.
Especially concerning performing material, Gieseler (1975;H1) must be mentioned, along with the exhibition catalogues Drew and others (1986;E1) as well as Brunner and others (1974;E1). Hoch (1991;E2) and Hoch (1992;E1), in which the list of performing material from the previous publication is reproduced together with various other relevant material, can supplement the others.
Clearly, the catalogues of the big publishing houses are important, but the quality of dealing with the topics can be doubtful. They should be read with a sound portion of scepticism and one should be ready to follow up with enquiries.
Concerning discography (including "cassettography"), Couldry (1995;G1.1) is a weighty and detailed account of a recent English development. Those materials are found both in notes and in an appendix with "Selected Recordings 1990-95" (for the most part CDs in the last mentioned one). Sutherland (1994;H1) has thematic small discographies after the individual chapters.
Mention must be made of May (1977;H2.1) with its compact way of individual characterisation which, by means of relevant keywords, provides a tangibly clear overview of a large repertory - this sets an example to be followed, by publishers and others!
The fact nonwithstanding that Bull (1987;H2.2) has been published in the USA, it seems to be the biographical reference work having the greatest number of particular composers, also when looking for European ones. Reference is made to a large number of indexes from which it is possible to trace additional material (articles) on the composers. The sometimes sparse selection of composers of the larger and more well-known reference works can thus be supplemented considerably.
It is a general problem to find updates of this kind of material. Concerning recordings, reviews can, however, assist the search - see below under I. RECORDINGS.
MUSIC TERAPHY LITERATURE - CATEGORY H3.1
H3.1 is a selection of music therapy literature which may suggest how music therapy contributes to the understanding of musical improvisation.
Music therapy means different things and connect to differing concepts of music (Becker 1996). Improvised music in its free forms relates to psychodynamically oriented music therapy (Scheiby 1984, Holck 1985 and Jørgensen 1986). One can still say that it builds on the method of free association which was discovered by the ancestor of this direction, Sigmund Freud. The music, which is often created together, is to be a free space for the client to explore her/himself and try out new roles. Bruscia (1987) provides a conprehensive and systematic overview of improvisational methods in music therapy.
It is possible to find literature in which the authors search for the foundations of psychodynamic music therapy in the historical development of music forms (for instance Søgaard and Sørensen (1987), Langenberg 1988, Lenz 1998 and Niedecken 1986) and reflects on this. In German there exists the concept "improvisation movement", used generally about the trend of music history in the sixties and seventies (Kapteina 1996). But the interest in music history and for a field like aesthetics which belongs specifically to music or to art is still modest - however, a state of affairs viewed critically by the present author (Bergstrøm-Nielsen 1999) and by Stige (1998). Aesthetics are also discussed by Friedmann (1996) who mentions a viewpoint from which aesthetic enjoyment could possibly be regarded in a reductionistic way as fulfillment of needs but who himself holds that the aesthetic dimension has its own laws which cannot be reduced to psychology. - Even Ruud who is a grand old man in music therapy, likes to describe music therapy in a broad context, but his interest in musicology is highly selective. He states a criticism of musicology, dealing with its neglects concerning describing music therapy and the effects of music (Ruud 1990). But when such words as improvisation and culture are mentioned together in the title of his most recent book, improvisation practise in the music culture surrounding us is not a part of his subject matter as could be expected, but instead aspects of social psychology (Ruud 1998). (37)
Bordering between the areas of music education and music therapy
one finds the exercises in Næss (1989) and Hegi (1993). For Kapteina (1992), pedagogical training functions as a warm-up activity for therapy.
Thanks to psychology, music therapy is able to go beyond some difficulties related to dealing with personal experience, which could appear as too private and arbitrary for being dealt with theoretically. Both for the development of the specific interdisciplinary relations for music therapy and for music therapy seen from outside in a general context of music studies, it can be of special interest not only to consider a psychological view as an alternative frame of reference instead of, for instance, the historical one, but also to consider how the psychological view can be combined and integrated with concepts dealing with music itself.
Seen from theory of science, it is a challenge to consider the apparent quite contradicotry views which the psychological and the musical discourses could lead to (Bergstrøm-Nielsen 1984). Theory of language is a possible model for combining the concepts (Bergstrøm-Nielsen (1999;H3.2); Pavlicevic 1997 and Ruud 1998).
The method for interpretation of music is of crucial importance to the interdisciplinary character of music therapy. Bruscia is a prominent writer in this field (Bruscia 1987 and 1994; see also Stige and Østergaard (1994), Stige (1995 and 1996) and Bergstrøm-Nielsen (1999). See also the writings on graphic notation in H3.2. And even before one has "found out" what the music "means", (38) there is a question about the basic description and analysis of music (Pedersen and Scheiby 1981; Deuter 2001).
WRITINGS RELATED TO THE TEACHING OF INTUITIVE MUSIC AND GRAPHIC NOTATION AT AALBORG UNIVERSITY AND OTHER PLACES - CATEGORY H3.2
Here are my own a accounts of the contents and method in my subjects. Bergstrøm-Nielsen (1992ffA and B) are used in the teaching of graphic notation. 1993 is a comprehensive article on the same topic. Jensen (1998) and Dammeyer (1998) provide examples of practical use of the method as a part of case descriptions. Langenbach (1998) argues for the special relevance of graphic notation in therapy contexts, and Mahns (1998) throws it into relief with other methods. Concerning intuitive music there are the collections of exercises (1990ffA+B;F1.1) which also address teachers also within music education and people who would like to explore this music form for theirselves. (1999) provides a presentation of both subjects.
OTHER - THAT WHICH IS NOT PRINTED PAPER. CATEGORIES I-K.
Today we have a quite good and comprehensive selection of improvised music on CD. One background for this is the independent organising activity from the side of musicians theirselves, which also meant the forming of independent record labels. In England, such labels became known in wide circles as so-called "indies". Some of them are run by individuals with their own music - this is the case with activity on such different scales as Stockhausen Complete Edition and Blaise Siwula's label with "burn-on-demand"-CDs. Acta, FMP, Incus, Matchless are examples of indies of an earlier date having started before the time of CDs, releasing music by several different musicians, even if (as is the case with Acta and Matchless) they are run by individuals, or mainly by individuals. It seems that the big commercial labels are still reluctant to deal with freely improvised music, whereas music having written introductions like Music & Graphic.. (1988) might on some occasions creep into their repertory.
The independent music is to a higher degree sold through post and email order (sometimes direct) than is the more mainstream-oriented and saleable music, even if in some countries special shops exist. Post- and email-companies selling music from a large number of labels have also begun to flourish. (39)
The periodicals Resonance (G1.2), Hurly Burly (G1.2) and Gränslöst (G1.2) take care of/have taken care of the overview for the reader with a large number and thorough reviews - see more periodicals in G1.2, G1.3 and Musings(J1.1) and The Improvisor(J1.1).
VARIABLE WORKS AND MUSIC PLAYED FROM RECIPES - CATEGORY I1
A number of historical works can be found on CD, but coverage is not complete. While, for instance Stockhausens' Aus den Sieben Tagen was re-released on 7 CD-s, possibly only one CD release exists with a piece from the other collection by Stockhausen of verbally notated pieces, (Soundplay 99;I1). The various releases of music from the New York School on Hat Hut Records (The New York School 1-3 (1992/19921994;I1); Chr. Wolff. For Ruth Crawford (1994;I1); Earle Brown: Four Systems (1994;I1)) testify to a recent endeavour to cover this area.
The taking over at the record market of CDs at the end of the eighties put LPs into a historical sidetrack, but re-releases were also prompted. - The situation for recordings is different to that of written publications, speaking of traditional publishing houses. It seems to be their policy to emphasize certain composers whose works are then regularly published. The attitude to recordings from the side of big labels seems to be more selective and eclectic.
Viewed on their own background, many kinds of music are represented in this category, and the CD medium also brings new things forward which would hardly appear in written form - as, for instance, Fancy Dancer (1995;I1); Fish of the Week (1996;I1); Assessments and Translations (1995;I1); "Listen, feetpackets" (1989;I1).
FREE IMPROVISATIONS - CATEGORY I2
Hardly any other music genre invites greater variation of instruments than free improvisation. All known "classic" and "popular", ethnic and self-built instruments can be used, as the present list also makes apparent.
The music may sound relatively traditional and melodic-harmonic like in No World... (1992;I2) or more "characterised by the use of sounds" like Transmutating (1993;I2). Some musicians work within a jazz idiom, as in 'Live'...(1993;I2) and Infinite Blueness (1996;I2). Maxwels Dämon - Nefastismaschine (1996;I2) and For Four Rooms (1996;I2) cultivates pointillistic ways of playing, as also known from new music with a classic background. A way of playing inviting much listening to each other and making poasible a high degree of flexibility.
In freely improvised usic, musicians often form shifting constellations. Other kinds of musicians may also perform in many constellations, but in improvised music it influences the music on another scale. And improvised music sets no limitation in advance as to how ensembles are put together. Wheels Within Wheels (1996;I1) and Synergetics - Phonomanie (1996;I2) demonstrate this especially clearly with spectacular meetings between very different musicians. In Up Your Sleeve (1980;I2); Relay III - Random Play (1996;I2), European Chaos String Quintet (1993;I2), Linien (1996;I2) and Company 91 (1991;I2), the pluralist aspect is an important characteristic of the music. er det pluralistiske en væsentlig egenskab ved musikken. This can both be in the form of shifting references to known styles in the common musical lnaguage or of contrasts between musicians and what follows from this in the playing process. Pluralism has a historical background in collage music from Ives and on in classical music history. Here it develops on on new grounds - polyphony, which was earlier the composer's notion of dialogue, becomes a real dialogue. Instead of "agreeing upon" a common basis, musicians can work directly with that which comes up in the situation.
ELECTRONIC ADRESSES AND RELATED. CATEGORY J.
Internet-addresses may change, therefore I have stated my own homepage as an entrance to a number of places, the URLs of which will be updated if needed. - Generally one can say about the significance of the internet that there has been a flourishing of sites for individual musicians, record labels and local concert organisations. FRIM's site is a comprehensive and frequently updated general forum for Scandinavian concerts and news, as well as international links to musicians and organisations. Also European Free Improvisation Pages provides good overview of labels with exact data on their releases, musicians (especially those related to the British Scene at the time of writing this) and more, despite a confusing division between those labels having links from the front page and those stated under links inside the site (those having links from the front page are described by Stubley himself). Articles in full-text can be found at Col Legno, Hurly Burly, Improvising Across Borders, London Musician's Collective and The Improvisor. Improvising Across Borders is a comprehensive manifestation of academic writings from a 1999 San Diego congress.
Links to sites on Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies (both the work itself and comments are accessible) have a special category, since they are not on my homepage.
EXHIBITIONS WITH NEW NOTATIONS AND THEIR CATALOGUES. CATEGORY K
Certainly, exhibitions have in many cases contributed to bringing new notations to a larger public, and they represent, together with their catalogues, based on research, editorial and curator work, a part of the activity which should not be forgotten. Appendix K contains a copy of the informative historical list of exhibitions from Davies (1986B;E1), an update of later exhibitions and a list of catalogues.
---
In trying to be as complete as possible, mention should also be made of the video medium, which at present yields a limited number of relevant releases, thus "Steps Across the Border" from Look Now!/RecRec Genossenschaft, Zürich documenting Fred Frith, and some concert recordings from Incus Records.
***
In a number of cases, more information exists in the author's database, such as IS-numbers, number of pages, quotations from the publications and works quoted. I have renounced to attain a consistent correctness in the use of letters with special accents (like for instance Prèvost) - often only the basic version of the letter (in this case e) is stated. In return, names might be easier to search electronically, especially when bearing this in mind.
Of course, overlappings and ambiguity as to where an entry belongs occur. A reasonable number of "See also"-references have been stated. Do check them also - they can be absolutely just as important as the other entries under a given category.
Aalborg University Library (AUB), Institute Library for Musik og Musikterapi at Aalborg (AUM) and the Royal Library in Copenhagen have been my primary places for literature search. Institute of Musicology, Copenhagen, has supplemented them. A stay at Logos Music Archives (see below) has been highly fruitful. Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt has answered enquiries by post. The internal "Hand archive" at Universal Edition, Vienna, has been used, also the discotheque of the Danish Radio.
These online-databases were used: RILM (40), Uncover, The Music Index 1981-92, International Index to Music Periodicals 1996-, First Search, Pro Quest, Auboline (AUB), REX (The Royal Library), ODIN (Odense Universitety Library) and SOL (State Library, Århus). Furthermore, the internal search system for the Danish Radio's discoteque, DISØ.
The following libraries I have also visited in person: the libraries of the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music, Copenhagen; Music Conservatory of North Jutland; Odense University Library (situated at the music conservatory); Music Conservatories of Jutland (Århus) and Esbjerg; Æstetikbiblioteket and the library of the Institute of Musicology, both Århus.
Generally, only very sparse references have been made to non-published material and small prints. Abbreviations for libraries have been applied in the entries when I knew the item was there - other than that, the lists have to a certain limited extent (checking some of the most important writings) been compared to the libraries' databases. Articles from commonly known periodicals often have no references to libraries, since they are generally available many places. In certain cases, library references may serve a strategic role. Thus, they can tell where rare materials can be found. And maybe users of the libraries could feel tempted to study materials which are easily available at their local library. The fact that an entry does not mention a library should prevent no one from checking whether it is actually there. Besides, see some Danish library databases under J.
For an explanation of the classification - see the scheme at the very beginning of this text!
CONCERNING LIBRARIES (abbreviations used and various information)
AEST: Æstetikbiblioteket, Langelandsvej 139, 8000 Århus C, Bygning 582. Open shelves. Contents can be seen from the internet - see J1.1.
AUB: Aalborg Universitetsbibliotek, Langagervej, 9220 Aalborg Øst. Open shelves. Contents can be seen from the internet - see J1.1.
AUM: Institutbiblioteket for Musik og Musikterapi, Kroghstræde 6, Aalborg Universitet. No public loans.
BRIT.LIBR.: British Library, London. Contents can be seen from the internet - see J.
DKDM: Det Kgl. Danske Musikkonservatorium, København. A substantial part of the collection on open shelves. In the year 2000, an registration was started (CDs first), becoming available in REX (see Kgl. Bibl. under J).
DKDM+D: Same, recording matching the entry exists also.
EM: Esbjerg Musikkonservatorium. Open shelves. No public loans.
FRBMB: Frederiksberg Musikbibliotek.
GLHB: Gladsaxe Hovedbibliotek.
HB: Hovedbiblioteket, København. Open shelves, however, literature of earlier dates in stores.
IMD: Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt, Nieder-Ramstädter Strasse 190, D-64285 Darmstadt, tel. +49 (0)6151 13-2416 eller +49 (0)6151 13-2417. Special library for new music. Accessible for persons according to arrangement. Possible to obtain loans via post, also internationally.
KB: Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Kbh. [Royal Library, Copenhagen]. Contents in the database REX, also on the internet, see under J.
LOGOS: Logos Music Archives, Kongostraat 35, B-9000 Gent, Belgium. Library and archive for experimental music. Periodicals are indexed so that one can search them according to keywords etc. Contains also a number of unpublished music works.
MI: Musikvidenskabeligt Institut ved Københavns Universitet. Open shelves.
MKAR: Musikkonservatoriet, Århus. No public loans. Open shelves. Contents acquired from the year 1990 can be seen in an internal database, before that time on catalogue cards.
MVAR: Håndbiblioteket. Musikvidenskabeligt Institut, Langelandsvej 139, bygning 580, 8000 Århus C.
NJMK: Nordjysk Musikkonservatorium. Open shelves. Internal database.
OUB: Odense Universitetsbibliotek. Situated at the Conservatory of Music. A limited selection on open shelves. Contents can be seen in Odin, see J.
SB: Statsbiblioteket, Århus. Public loan. Contents can be seen from the internet - see J.
ÅB: Århus hovedbibliotek.
DR: Danmarks Radio, internal library.
APPENDIX A. EDITIONS OF WORKS AND AURAL SCORES
A1. 13 SELECTED, REPRESENTATIVE WORKS
THIS LIST IS BASED ON: a collection of especially selected examples, for the readers' orientation and to suggest how the subject has been defined.
In A1, special efforts have been made to systematically provide selected literature references in the comments.
a1/ Berio, Luciano: Sequenza III for a womans' voice. Wien (UE 13723), 1968. DKDM+D NJMK AUB MKAR IMD EM OUB KB SB.
An instance of a detailed notation with new means. Spatial notation of durations employing distance between tones on the paper - this must be felt, not counted. Special signs for special sounds, for example laughter, "noisy chewing", singing with mouth closed, whispering. May be performed alternatively by a man, by substituting "for a woman" in the text for "for a man". Litt.: an analysis in Landy (1991;H4); mention in Brindle (1986;H1); mention in Bosseur (2005; E1);
a1/ Brown, Earle: December 1952 from "Folio". N.Y. (Associated Music Publishers, nr. AMP 96 124-3), 1961. AUB AUM OUB KB.
December 1952 is one of the most famous and most frequently quoted instances of graphic notation. It consists of a number of rectangels, some thinner, some thicker, some vertical, some horisontal. The work was inspired by Calder's mobiles and originated together with reflections about musical sound and space - see the important article Brown (1966;G2.1). The introduction in the printed edition yields some more infromation. The notation itself is quoted innumerable places, often without more definite information. The entire work with explanations is re-published in DeLio (1989; A2.2). More literature: Ryan (1995 and 1997;H4), accounts for the origin and ideas behind; mentioned in Brindle (1975/1986;H1); mentioned in Sutherland (1994;H1); thorough mention in Metzger (1972;H4); mention in Bosseur (1979;H1); interpretation proposal for piano in Meyer-Denkmann (1998;F1.3); thorough analysis in Müller (1994;G1) grasping different important aspects; mention in Brown (1972;H4); mention in Karkoschka (1980;E1); a good deal of mention in Bailey (1992;G1.1) p.60-65 with interview of Brown; thorough mention in Feisst (1997;G1.1) p.92-99; interview in Duffalo (1989;H4); mention in Brown (1972;H4); article by Brown (1965;E2); interview in Rötter (1986;H4); mention in Stone (1980;E1) and Maur (1985;E1) who both stress parallels with visual art; mention in Logothetis (1972;E2); thorough mention in Bosseur (1993;E1); mention in Bosseur (2005; E1); important historical information in Velasco-Pufleau (2012;G2.1) and in Bièvre (2012;H1). Olsen Storesund (2017;G3.1) has an extensive analysis with a practical aim. Mention in Hutchins (2016;E2). Last but absolutely not least, see the special section G2.4 about this work and its history!
a1/ Cage, John: Variations III. For one or any number of people performing any actions. N.Y. (Henmar Press/Ed. Peters nr. 6797), 1963. AUM MKAR OUB IMD AUB KB.
This work can be realised by means of improvisation, in contradistinction to the more predetermining procedures otherwise employed by Cage. Includes a text with instructions and circles to be cout out from transparent sheets and then thrown out randomly on a piece of paper and read according to the rules. Here we have all the precision and concentration about the here-and-now so characteristic of Cage formulated in an extremely sensitive way! Mention in Bergstrøm-Nielsen (1986;H4) and in Bosseur (1979;H1,p.64-65) (which describes all the works belonging to the Variations series).
a1/ Cardew, Cornelius: Treatise (1963-67). Buffalo (Gallery Upstairs Press), 1967. Brit.Libr.
Cardew's tour-de-force with a special form of free graphic notations which by their visual language seek to let the spectator find his or her own interpretation. At the time of creating this, Cardew was employed as a draughtsman. Background information inclusive of performances in Cardew (1971;E2); mention in Schwartz et al. (1993;H1); comprehensive treatment in Trescher (2000;E2); introducing mention in Sutherland (1994;H1).
a1/ Detoni, Dubravko: Graphik IV für 4 bis 12 beliebige Instrumente [for 4 to 12 instruments ad lib.]. Spielpartitur (Graphik). London/N.Y. (Schott), 1972. Introduction in German and English. Part of a series: Schott Workshop nr. 8. AUB OUB KB
Twenty-two sheets with graphic pictures - varied, clear and suggestive. A good representative for this kind of graphics. Litt: review in Simonsen (1972/73;E2) quoting four of the sheets.
a1/ Feldman, Morton: Projection I for cello solo. New York (Peters), 1950/51. AUB IMD KB.
Pioneering work in which Feldman for the first time divides the total pitch area into three registers. Quoted and commented upon in Brindle (1986;H1). An analysis in DeLio (1996;H4).
a1/ Haubenstock-Ramati, Roman: Mobile für Shakespeare. For voice and 6 instruments (1959). UE, 1961. MKAR IMD KB AUB.
One of the first "mobiles" by Haubenstock-Ramati with relatively fixed elements to be chosen in a free sequence. Mention and quotation in Brindle (1987;H1), p.75-77; quoted in i Brunner et al. (1974;E1); quoted in Drew (1986;E1); quoted in Meyer (1994;E2). Also quoted in Karkoschka (1966;E1) giving a detailed mention.
a1/ Ichiyanagi, Toshi: Sapporo. N.Y (Ed. Peters), 1963. Instructions in English. OUB AUM AUB KB.
Employs a simple system of signs with straight lines, oblique lines and dots for held tones, sliding tones and short sounds. Also signs for simple actions (like looking on or listening without playing). All melody instruments and voices can be used. Mentioned in Metzger (1972;E2).
a1/ Logothetis, Anesthis: Grafische Notationen. München (Edition Modern - new address: Rhodter Strasse 26, D-76185 Karlsruhe), 1961. Introductions in German. AUM AUB KB IMD OUB.
Special symbols and interesting visual appearance of notations. Literature: Logothetis (1973;E2); Logothetis (1990;E2); Zenz (1994;E2); Read (1988;E2).
a1/ Stockhausen, Karlheinz: Aus den Sieben Tagen [From the Seven Days]. Wien (Universal Edition UE 14790. French edition (Venue des sept jours): UE14790F), 1968. Japanese version (UE14790J), cop. 1970. AUB KB SB IMD OUB.
Music notated with texts. The latest edition has also English translations. A French translation was published separately by Universal Edition. Various meditative approaches, and yet it appeals to the player's own formulation of concrete details. Literature: see the special category G2.2. For an alternative edition of the pieces, see under A2.2.
a1/ Stockhausen, Karlheinz: Für kommende Zeiten [For times to come / Pour les temps a venir]. 17 Texte für Intuitive Musik (comp.1968-70). Kürten (Stockhausen-Verlag), 1976. AUB SB (dog ej udlån) IMD OUB KB DKDM.
Music notated with texts. In German, English and French. New, ingenious structures. Literature: see under the category G2.2.
a1/ Wolff, Christian: Edges. New York (Edition Peters nr. 66315), 1969 (cop). AUM AUB IMD KB.
Piece with signs representing different sounds and sound
qualities. One possible way to interpret it is to see them as
influences of differing intensity in the musical universe for the
individual player. An English experimental group has been named
after this piece. Literature: Sutherland (1994;H1 p. 144-46) for
en general introduction to Wolff and p.212; also Wilson
(1999:G1.1 p. 80-82). Good mention of the piece in its
compositional context by the composer in Daske (1984;G2.5). The
complete performing material from the published edition is quoted
in Feisst (1997;G1 p. 65-66). Also online at Ashwal et.al. (2001;(E1)): http://www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu/picturesofmusic/pages/wolf.html
Mention in Gottschalk (2012;G3) p.197. Olsen Storesund (2017;G3.1) has an extensive analysis with a practical aim.
a1/ Wolff, Christian: Burdocks for one or more orchestras; any number of players; any instruments or sound sources (but there are places which require specific pitches to be played). New York (Edition Peters nr. 66313), 1971. AUM KB IMD AUB.
A many-sided collection of quite different pieces which can be combined. Literature: Sutherland (1994;H1 p. 144-46) for a general introduction to Wolff and Wilson (1999;G1.1 p. 80-82). Section 5 re-published in DeLio (1989; a2.2).
A2. VARIOUS RELEVANT COMPOSERS AND WORKS
A2.1. SOME RELEVANT INDEPENDENTLY PUBLISHED COMPOSERS (DANISH AND FOREIGN). A CHECKLIST.
THIS LIST IS BASED ON:
1) Various collected data and materials since 1971.
2) A number of reference works: Gieseler (1975;H1); Brindle (1986;H1); Sutherland (1994;H1); Drew and others (1986;E1); Welsch (1995;H4); Vinton (1974;H2.2); Sadie (1980;H2.2); Morton and others (1992;H2.2); Gaster (1980;H2.2); Anonymous (1985(approx.)ff, (1998;H2.1.1); Anonymous (1973);H2.1.1.
POSSIBLE EXPANSIONS OF THIS LIST:
1) Examination of catalogues of an even greater number of relevant publishers. Visits / research stays with selected publishers in addition to what has been done with Universal Edition, such as Edition Modern, Schott, etc. Visits / research stays with selected specialists / at selected libraries.
In order to be "independently published", only separate publication under the composer's own name have been listed here, not works represented in anthologies. The list has been made as comprehensive as possible. The most well-known names are probably covered to a reasonable extent, while a number of others have not been discovered. Nationality and years have been given where possible. The list has been extracted from a database with the author which in many cases contain more information, for instance, names of works and sources quoting the works. - Some well-known names one could be especially likely to encounter have been marked out with bold letters.
Ashley, Robert (USA; 1930)
Andriessen, Louis (NL; 1939)
Bark, Jan and Rabe, Folke (S; 1934 + 1935)
Becker, Günther (D; 1924)
Becker, Irene (DK; 1951)
Bedford, David (UK; 1937)
Berberian, Cathy (UK; 1925-83)
Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl (DK; 1951)
Berio, Luciano (I; 1925-2003)
Borup-Jørgensen, Axel (DK; 1924-2012)
Boucourechliev, André (BULG/F; 1925)
Bosseur, Jean-Yves (F; 1947)
Braun, Gerhard (D; 1932)
Brecht, George (USA; 1925)
Brouwer, Leo (CUBA; 1939)
Bruynèl, Ton (NL; 1934-1998)
Brown, Earle (USA; 1926-2002)
Brün, Herbert (D/USA; 1918-2000)
Buonomo, A.
Bussotti, Sylvano (I; 1931)
Cage, John (USA; 1912-1992)
Cardew, Cornelius (UK; 1936-1981)
Childs, Barney ( ; 1926-2000)
Ciuciura, Leon (P; 1930)
Coleman, Randolph (USA; 1937)
Colding-Jørgensen, Henrik (DK; 1944)
Detoni, Dubravko (KROATIA; 1937)
Davidsson, Elias (Palestine/Iceland;1941)
Dittrich, Paul-Heinz (D; 1930)
Donatoni, Franco (I; 1927)
Eisma, Will (INDONESIA; 1929)
Engelmann, Hans Ulrich (D; 1921)
Englert, Giuseppe (I; 1927)
Eno, Brian (UK/USA; 1943)
Feldman, Morton (USA; 1925-1987)
Ferrari, Luc (F; 1939-2005)
Fink, Siegfried (; 1928)
Fulkerson, James (USA; 1945)
Furrer, Franz (CH; 1929)
Gehlhaar, Rolf (D; 1943)
Globokar, Vinko (F; 1934)
Gorecki, Henryk M. (P; 1933)
Grahn, Ulf (S; 1942)
Gubaidulina, Sofia (RUSSIAN; 1931)
Haubenstock-Ramati, Roman (P/AU; 1919-1994)
Hekster, Walter (NL; 1937)
Hegaard, Lars (DK; 1937)
Heller, Barbera (D; 1936)
Hellermann, William (USA; 1939)
Henry, Otto (USA; 1933)
Henze, Hans Werner (D; 1926-2012)
Hespos, Hans-Joachim (D; 1938)
Hoch, Peter (D; 1937)
Holliger, Heinz (CH; 1939)
Huber, Klaus (CH; 1924)
Huber, Nicolaus A. (D; 1939)
Ichiyanagi, Toshi (JAP; 1933)
Ishii, Maki (JAP; 1936)
Johnston, Ben (S; 1926)
Jolas, Betsy (F; 1926)
Kagel, Mauricio (ARG/D; 1931)
Karkoschka, Erhard (D; 1923-2007)
Kelemen, Milko (YUG; 1924)
Komorous, Rudolf (CHECZ/CAN; 1931)
Kopelent, Marek (CHECH; 1932)
Kotonski, Wlodzimierz (P; 1925)
Kupkovic, Ladislav (SLOVAKIA; 1936)
Lachenmann, Helmut (D; 1935)
Lanza, Alcides (ARG; 1929)
Leeuw, Ton de (NL; 1926)
Lekfeldt, Jørgen (DK; 1948)
Levine, Jeffrey L. (USA; 1942)
Lidholm, Ingvar (S; 1921)
Logothetis, Anestis (BULG/GR/AU; 1921-96)
Lonberg-Holm, Fred (USA;196x)
Lonquich, Heinz Martin (D; 1937)
Lorentzen, Bent (DK; 1935)
Lutoslawski, Witold (P; 1912-94)
Maderna, Bruno (I; 1920)
Marmorstein, Dan (USA/DK; 1950)
McKenzie, Jack (USA; 1930)
Mellnäss, Arne (S; 1933-2002)
Miereanu, Costin (Romania; 1943)
Miroglio, Francis (F; 1924)
Mitrea-Celarianu (Romania; 1935)
Montague, Stephen (USA; 1943)
Morthensson, Jan W. (S; 1949)
Moran, Robert (USA; 1937)
Nilsson, Bo (S; 1937)
Nørgaard, Helmer (DK; 1923-98)
Offermans, Wil (NL; )
Oliveros, Pauline (USA; 1932)
Orton, Richard (UK; 1940)
Otte, Hans (D; 1926)
Penderecki, Krzysztof (P; 1933)
Philips, Tom (UK; 1937)
Plaetner, Jørgen (DK; 1930-2002)
Rabe, Folke (S; 1935)
Rasmussen, Henrik (DK; 1961)
Raxach, Enrique (ESP/NL; 1932)
Reams, Murray (USA;195x)
Regner, Hermann (D;1928)
Renosto, Paolo (I; 1935)
Sandstrøm, Sven-David (S/USA; 1942)
Schafer, Robert Murray (CAN; 1933)
Scherchen, Tona (F; 1938)
Schidlowsky, Leon (CHILE; 1931)
Schmidt, Irmin (; 1937)
Schnebel, Dieter (D; 1930)
Schneider, Urs Peter (CH; 1939)
Schäffer, Boguslaw (P; 1929)
Schönbach, Dieter (D; 1930)
Serocki, Kazimierz (P; 1922)
shinohara, Makoto (JAP; 1931)
Singleton, Elwin (USA; 1940)
Smith, Stuart Saunders (USA; 1948)
Stachowski, Marek (P; 1936)
Stahmer, Klaus Hinrich (D;1941)
Steffens, Walter (D; 1934)
Stockhausen, Karlheinz (D; 1928-2007)
Streiff, Peter (CH; 1944)
Szalonek, Witold (P; 1927)
Søegaard, Fredrik (D; 1951)
Toft, Johan (DK; 1959)
Toncitch, Voya (Grancher, J.F.) (F; 1939)
Tremblay. Gilles (CAN; 1932-1982)
Vetter, Michael (D; 1943)
Vincze, Ivan (CHEZ/DK; 1930)
Walacinski, Adam (P; 1928)
Welin, Karl-Erik (S; 1934-1992)
Wolff, Chr. (USA; 1934)
Wütrich, Hans (CH; 1937)
Zonn, Paul (USA; 1938)
A2.2 SOME DANISH AND FOREIGN ANTHOLOGIES / SERIES
THIS LIST IS BASED ON: Various collected data and materials since 1971.
POSSIBLE EXPANSION OF THIS LIST:: Same as for A2.1.
a2.2/ See also Brown (1961;A1); Detoni (1972;A1); Logothetis (1961;A1); Stockhausen (1968;A1, 1970;A1); Wolff (1971;A1), Oliveros (1974;f1.1). See also the educational series in F3.
a2.2 / Anthology of New Zealand Graphic Scores. Wellington (Wai-te-ata Press), 1984.
Contents are: Third Movement of Four Haiku (1967) for prepared piano and 21 solo strings / Jack Body. Feet (1978) for tape (footsteps) and trombonist with hard soled shoes ; Ear music / Lyell Cresswell. Blood & Bone (1970) ; Play (1970) / Philip Dadson. The poets agree to be quiet by the swamp (1984). Choir ; Variations (1980) / Mark Langford. Music for wall (1982) / Jenny Mcleod. Two people fall silent for four seconds during a conversation among five people in a crowded room ; 1/2 a minute of song for five voices (1981) / Cilla McQueen. Extro-Intro (1977). Solo horn / John Rimmer. Cello for Pamela Gray (1981). Cello ; Geometric scores (1975/76): (Intersecting circles. Cubes 3. After Joseph Albers. Diagonals). Piano / Michael Smither. Catwalk (1984) ; Going to the movies (1984) ; Movements: Wireless telegraph (1984) ; Movements: Extension (1984) / Ivan Zagni
a2.2/ Soundings. Santa Fe (Soundings Press), AUB (incomplete) IMD (incomplete).
Series comprising playing material and articles.
a2.2/ (Hobbs, Christian): Verbal Anthology. London (Experimental Music Catalogue), 1972. KB.
Contributions by Ashley, Bryars, Bebbett, Hobbs, Shrapnel.
a2.2/ (Raes, Godfried-Willem, ed.): Logos Anthology. London (Experimental Music Catalogue/Gavin Bryars), 1973 (s.a.). LOGOS BRIT.MIC.
Small anthology with pieces and a manifest which among other things states: "Logos was founded in Ghent 1968 by its actual leader. Although the members have changed very much, the artistic manifesto remained rather constant: no longer authoritarian scores nor relations between the members, no 'professionalism', no fixed composer-poerformer rules...trying to link politics to music, emancipation of real creativity (=negation+action), process-music instead of musical products". Logos has since then grown into an institution with several full-time employees, regular concerts, library and archive.
a2.2/ Anonymous: Schott Workshop. Werkreihe für junge Ensembles mit neuen Musizierformen. (Schott),
Series from Schott publishing company. There were a minimum of 16 releases. In a listing printed on the back of WKS 16 they are divided into "VOCAL" (Eckert, Alex; Fauth, Ulrich St.; Regner, Hermann),"INSTRUMENTAL" (Fink, Siegfried; Lisken, Gerd; Regner, Hermann; Pongracz, Zoltan; Rudzinski, Zbgniew) and "MUSIKALISCHE GRAPHIK" (Detoni, Dubravko; Stroe, Alex). Some of the works seem to be for educational use.
(a2.2)/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: Postcard series. Publ. by author, 1976, 1980. Danish and English texts. Contains Postkort-Musik/Postcard-Music, Ild-Musik/Fire-Music, Kontrast-Spil/Game of Contrasts, Sø-Spil/Sea-Game, Ettone-Spil/One Note Game, Fyld-ud Spil/Fill Out Game, Textmusik III/Textmusic III, Pusle-Spil/Puzzle Game. DKDM, AUB
a2.2/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen: From the Danish Seasons. 20 improvisational pieces for ensemble ad lib. or solo. København (The Society for the Publication of Danish Music), 1999. IMD.
Review: (1999;G2.1).
a2.2/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: Lydlandkort 1978-82 (Joker-Spil; Udstrålinger; Frankfurt(M) Hauptbahnhof Acht Uhr Zehn. Kbh. (The Society for the Publication of Danish Music), 1978-82.
a2.2/ Bosseur, Jean-Yves: Le temps de le prendre, Paris (Editions Kimé) 1997.
This is a large collection comprising 204 pages of verbally notated music which has originated during the years 1967-1993. Performances, recordings and previously published editions have been indicated by the author where appliccable. In an introductory chapter the author states some considerations about this way of composing. He makes his verbal descriptions deliberately short in order to avoid the usual situation for the musician of simply having to play what is notated and in order to leave the carrying out of details to his/her expertise. It is a more concise form of notating than the traditional one: "Focusing on this play process and the art of notating it has interested me at least as much as their realisation...to translate an idea as concisely as possible... intead of stressing its development which I could have achieved during a later phase of composition with more traditional notation means, to perceive it as a strong organism, with all its potentials" (p.15). He also makes a comparison to the various forms of sketches made by painters and advocates for similar, more flexible ways ofpresenting musical ideas: "I've always regretted that the composer doesn't seem to have as many tools as the painter for presenting an artistic projec...The fixedness of conventional notation and the status of the score have stiffened the relation to the musical work, hardly alowwing a place... for the sketch, for the concept of 'work in progress'. Now, employing different ways of notating, I have precisely attempted to play with several time levels of the elaboration of a musical idea" (p.15f). - The pieces may describe developments inside the musical material as in "Pétrifier" (p.41) which prescribes a way in which more and more static elements alternate with, and are inserted into, a melodic line. "Boucles" (175f), the only collection of pieces here to have a graphic arrangement of the text as well, employs an ingenious, simple device of starting together, then spreading out into different variants in a kind of heterophony - coming together again - etc. For instance, "Points" ramificates into both "accents" and "beatings" at the same time, later uniting into "lines". Interdependence of parts and reactions on each others' playing can play an important role. Thus, "Pour deux (transmettre)" (p.95) and "deux bandos" (p.64) prescribe many ways of transforming elements. "Deux cuivres" (p.64) is a game in which the tones which one musician is playing within an overtone scale depends on which sordine the other musician employs. Some pieces relate to space and movement; some employ special soundmaking means, like "L*homme-orchestre" (p.24) in which various instruments and soundmaking means are placed on the body. Still ohers require a conductor or co-ordinator; some are theatre-like, for instance "a portee de voix" (p.91ff) which employs elements of role-playing in reciting; some pieces employ playback of pre-recorded material along with live performance; pieces may be for specified or unspecified instruments or voices.
a2.2/ Brecht, George: Water Yam (1960-62). N.Y.(Fluxus)/N.Y.(Fluxus)/London (Experimental Music Catalogue), 1963/1966/197x.
Three editions of this Fluxus classic, a collection of "scores for music, events, dance...". The first edition comprised approx. seventy cards, the next one hundred. Source: Nyman (1976) in which a number of these works are quoted. This is also the case in Young (1970).
a2.2/ Cage, John (ed.): Notations. New York (Something Else Press), 1969. DKDM AEST IMD KB.
Many examples of notations traditional and untraditional, of the last kind can among many others be mentioned Andersen, Eric (I Have Confidence In You); Andriessen, Louis; Babbitt, Milton; Bayle, Francois; la Cioppo, Georg; Castillo, Graciela; Chiarr, Giuseppe; Christiansen, Henning; Clementi, Aldo; Donatoni, Franco; Feldman, Morton (The King of Denmark for percussion); Haubenstock-Ramati, Roman (Mobile für Shakespeare in extenso); Hunt, Jerry E.; Kasemats, Udo; Kelemen, Milko; af Klintberg, Bengt; Logothetis, Anestis; Maginis jr., William R.; Mellnäss, Arne; Meyer-Denkmann, Gertrud; Oliveros, Pauline; Otte, Hans; Hyatt, Sydney Wallace.
a2.2/ Cardew (ed.): Scratch Music. MIT Press (MIT 239 Music), 1974. SB HB.
Includes "Draft Constitution", a collection of scratch music and "activities". Signed contributions by: David Ahern; Greg Bright; Cornelius and Stella Cardew; Michael Chant; Carole Finer; Roger Frampton; Lou Gare; Phil Gebbett; Bryn Harris; Christopher Hobbs; David and Diane Jackman; Christopher May; Tim Mitchell; John Nash; Michael Parsons; Tom Phillips; Howard Skempton; Catherine Williams.
a2.2/ Cardew (ed.) (Scratch Orchestra): Nature Study Notes. Improvisation Rites 1969. London, 1971. Online: http://www.intuitivemusic.dk/iima/ (see under Scratch... in table of contents). AUB.
"Improvisation rites" by members of the Scratch Orchestra. Texts with playing materials and instructions, ranging from concrete games with rules to philosophical paradoxes.
a2.2/ Christiansen, Henning: Modeller. Første serie op. 33 (1964--> 1967). København (Engstrøm og Sødring), 1968. KB.
Collection with 21 pieces. Most often notes are employed, some few additional graphic elements. Visually appealing with an "architechtonic", block-like and simple design. Some pieces have a fixed sequence of events, some must be interpreted freely. The collection was also distributed on postcards in its day.
a2.2/ DeLio, Thomas; Smith, Stuart Saunders: Twentieth Century Music Scores New Jersey (Prentice Hall) 1989, ISBN 0-13-934530-2
Anthology of traditionally written music for the most part, however, these are also included:
Ashley, Robert: in memoriam...Esteban Gomez (quartet) (1988)
Lucier: I am sitting in a Room (1970)
Wolff: Burdocks, Section V (1971)
Brown December 1952 (including the important part with text and a diagram)
Brün, Herbert: Mutatis Mutandis (1968). excerpt
a2.2/ Ear Magazine East vol.8, no 1-2, February/March/April/May 1983. 10th Anniversary Special Issue.
An anthology of compositions and other materials, whole or in excerpt, by a large number of musicians. The following list is the present authors' selection based on a criterion of listing innovative notation use related to composition or aural scoring:
Cage, John; Haymann, R.I.P.; Goldstein, Malcom; Moran, Robert; Kruger, Starry; Fettermann, Jack (Those by Kruger and Fettermann seem to be good examples from the "greyzone" of "arranged improvisation" probably much used, yet maybe not always written down and rarely exchanged with others, let alone published. They consist in sketch-like sequences of sections using some descriptive words); Canick, Michael (taking cues from audience members' involuntary movements); Higgins, Dick; Barnett, Bonniq; Balcells, Eugenia; Kupferman, Meyer; Beaulieu, John; Albert, Thomas; Curtay, Jean Paul; Zorn, John; Tragtenberg, Livio; Goode, Daniel; Devonshire, Chris; McCaffry, Steve; Cameron-Wolfe, Richard; McLow, Jackson; Lytle, Michael.
a2.2/ Emborg, Harald (ed.): Korsang i Danmark II, WH. Kbh. (WH), 1972. NJMK EM.
Includes Bent Lorentzen: Fædrelandssang (free graphics and performance instructions); Helmer Nørgård: Hvor lys og skygge mødes, sitrer det blødt (free canon); Axel Borup-Jørgensen: Fire lydmønstre for speech choir.
a2.2/ Eno, Brian and Schmidt, Peter: Oblique Strategies. Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas. Cop. 1975. Third, again slightly revised edition, 1979.
Box with cards that one can for instance draw while playing. Cards give ideas to actions or principles one can contemplate - for instance: "Only one element of its kind" or: "Balance the consistency principle with the inconsistency principle". Still popular among musicians - a number of internet homepages testify to that; see J1.1.
a2.2/ Johnson, Roger (ed.): Scores. An anthology of New Music. USA (Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.), 1981. LOGOS SB HB Brit.Libr.
From the editor's preface: "This book is an anthology of recent musical compositions selected for their musical interest, artistic quality, and accessibility to performance...Most of the pieces included can be termed "avant-garde" or "experimental", insofar as these words still have meaning." Contributions by: Goode, Daniel; Oliveros, Pauling; Weber, Carole; Lockwood, Annea; Barnett, Bonnie Maria; Parsons, Michael; Hellermann, William; Jones, David; Hayman, Richard; Lucier, Alvin; Maue, Kenneth; Nurock, Kirk; Ashley, Robert; Wolff, Chr.; Weber, Carloe; Benary, Barbera; Browne, Richmond; Cisneros, J.George; New Verbal Workshop (Marder, Herbert and Norma); Rosenberg, Jim; Sullivan, Timothy; Curran, Alvin; Tenney, James; Riley, Dennis; Monk, Meredith; Costa, Noel G. Da; Palestine, Charlemagne; la Barbera, Joan; Beckley, Bill; Goldstein, Malcom; Haimsohn, Jana; Glass, Philip; Reich, Steve; Nyman, Michael; Goode, Daniel; Budd, Harold; Thomas, Carter; Anderson, Beth; London, Edwin; Johnson, Tom; Brown, Marion; Crumb, Georges; Tucker, Tui St. George; Higgins, Dick; Borishansky, Elliot; Luening, Otto; Fox, Jim; Parsons, Michael; Capro, Charles; Cacioppo, George; Corner, Philip; Jones, David; Childs, Barney; Rzewski, Frederic; Taylor, Brian; Levine, Jeffrey; Troxell, Jerry; McCarty, Frank; Anderson, T.J; Gibson, Jon; Koblitz, David; Browne, Richmond; Albright, William; de la Vega, Aurelio; Brown, Earle; Lockwood, Annea; Mumma, Gordan; Cage, John; Anderson, Laurie; Michaelson, Carl; Johnston, Ben; Lentz, Daniel; Johnson, Roger; Schafer, R. Murray; Riley, Terry; Cardew, Cornelius; Roussakis, Nicolas; Pepe, Carmine; Berger, Karl H.; Peaslee, Richard; Mayer, Stephen; Rama, D.B.; Smith, Stuarth; Salzman, Eric; Wishart, Trevor; Cope, David; Schwartz, Elliot; Austin, Larry; Knowles, Alison; Dean, Laura; Winsor, Phil; Coleman, Randolph. Numerous works including improvisation and new notations among which could be mentioned verbally notated pieces by Rzewski; Jones, David; Childs and Oliveros.
a2.2/ Lekfeldt, Jørgen: Musik for 3 eller flere. Collection comprising Mantra-Spiral, ARUA and Auditio.www.edition-s.dk 1995.
a2.2/ Nyman, Michael: "George Brecht", Studio International, nov./dec., 1976. OUB.
Features an interview and quotation of a number of pieces from Brecht (1963ff;A2.2).
a2.2/ Offermans, Wil: Improvisationskalender. 52 Improvisationen. Frankfurt (Zimmermann ZM 31950), 1996.
Plans for musical processes, free graphics, drawings of objects to stimulate associations. Short performance instruction in six languages.
(a2.2) Oliveros, Pauline: Four Meditations for Orchestra, Deep Listening Publications 1996.
Although written for orchestra in this publication, this selection seems also to be playable by small ensembles - in fact, The Tuning Meditation previously appeared in a collection for meditative work with voices (Deep Listening Pieces, Deep Listening Publications 1990) with a slightly different description. These pieces deal with silence, with pitch exchange, with interdependence (=sending and receiving sounds), and with a central sound to approach and depart from. They describe musical elements and actions, whereas Deep Listening Anthology 2009 (see the addenda department) rather describe meditative work leading to music activity and music sound.
a2.2/ Parsons, Michael (ed): Twenty-Five Years from Scratch. London (London Musician's Collective - Unit B1, Lafone House, 11-13 Leathermarket Street, London SE1 3HN - fax: 0171-403-1880), 1994.
Large program for anniversary concert reprinting texts and playing material concerning the Scratch Orchestra. Texts include "Draft constitution" which was published by Cardew to herald the start of the orchestra and members' comments twenty-five years after; playing material include an extract from "Nature Study Notes" (p.12f, no reference given - see also the edition Cardew (1971;A2.2)); Cardew: The Great Learning, Par. 7 for choir; verbaly notated pieces by Cristopher Hobbs; Wolff: Burdocks, extract (see also Wolff (1971:A1)). Some of the material has also been reprinted in Parsons (1994;G2.1).
a2.2/ Plaetner, Jørgen and Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: improvisationskalender I-III. Kbh. (Samfundet til Udgivelse af Dansk Musik), 1996. AUB AUM OUB DKDM SB.
366 improvisation pieces in A5 format, one for each day of the year. Many kinds of pieces and musical material. With prefaces and introductions.
a2.2/ Pressing, Jeff (ed.): Compositions for Improvisors: An
Australian perspective, 1994.
An anthology comprising works by 32 Australian composers,
having been composed between 1965 and 1994 (with one precursor
from 1841). A historical note by the editors about improvisation
precedes the collection, and a compilation of biographical CV
notes on the contributors is to be found at the end.
As for notation forms that can be discerned here, there are
traditionally notated sheet music and arrangements presupposing
soloing in usual ways, texts (both as describing performance
set-up and as playing instructions as well as of a more purely
literary kind), free graphics and symbols used as elements of
other kinds of scores, mobiles, cue-systems, spatial notation and
aleatoric microstructures.
As the editor explains, it covers both mainstream and
experimental tendencies. Generally, focus is on composition forms
having a high rate of prescribing details. The variety of forms
and the prescence of many original ideas may, however, make it
an inspiring book for both musicians, composers and those who
study composition/notation.
Represented are: Ernie Althoff; Judy Bailey; Dale Barlow; Brian Brown; Warren Burt; Tim Dargaville; Roger Dean; Barry Duggan; Serge Ermoll; Sandy Evans; John Fawkner; Roger Frampton; Tony Gould; Paul Grabowsky; Percy Grainger; Michael Hannan; Sarah Hopkins; Keith Humble; Vineta Lagzdina; Stephen Leek; Chris Lesser; Rainer Linz; Chris Mann; Barry McKimm; Ron Nagorcka; Mike Nock; Jeff Pressing; Robert Rooney; Niko Schauble; Andrew Schultz, Hazel Smith, Felix Werder.
a2.2/ Scratch Orchestra, The: Scratch Anthology of compositions. distr. by Experimental Music Catalogue, London, 1971. LOGOS.
Contributions by: Ashley, Biel, Brecht, Brett, Bright, Cardew, Chant, Curran, Dadson, Finer, Gebbett, Harris, Hobbs, Jackman, May, Parsons, Reason, Robbins, Rzewski, Shrapnel, Skempton, White, Williams, Wolff.
a2.2/ Stockhausen, Karlheinz: "Texts about the recordings / Texte zu den Aufnahmen", Stockhausen Complete Editon, booklet with CD 14A-G. Kürten 1993. AUB OUB DKDM+D.
Quotes 12 of the pieces From the Seven Days and functions thus almost as a re-edition of the performance material.
a2.2/ Vetter, Michael: Pianissimo. Improvisieren am Klavier. Eine Rezeptsammlung. Zürich/Mainz (Atlantis Musikbuch-Verlag), 1996. AUB.
Large collection of pieces/exercises. With a CD on which the author plays some of them. Review by Schwabe (1997;G2.1).
a2.2/Wolf, Daniel James: Prose Anthology 1983-88, 1996. http://home.snafu.de/djwolf/prose.htm
a2.2/ Wolff, Christian: Prose Collection. Frog Peak Music, Box 1052, Lebanon, NH, USA (tel/fax (603) 448-8837, 1968, nyudgivelse ca. 1994. AUB. Online: www.frogpeak.org/unbound/wolff/wolff_prose_collection.pdf
Four of the pieces are also printed in Johnson (1981;A2.2).
a2.2/ Young, LaMonte and Mac Low, Jackson: An Anthology.. USA, Heiner Friedrich (First ed. cop. 1963), sec. ed., 1970.
Fluxus-anthology. Contributions by Brecht, Bremer, Brown, Byrd, Cage, Degener, de Maria, Flynt, Ono, Higgins, Ichiyanagi, Dennis, Dong, Ray Johnson, Mac Low, Maxfield, Safro, Forti, Paik, Riley, Rot, Waring, Emmett Williams, Wolff, Monte Young. George Maciunas has designed the book.
A3. DANISH WORKS
Only composers with editions of single works in their own name have been included here.
THIS LIST IS BASED ON:
1) Investigation at The Society for the Publication of Danish Music 1996f. Enquiery at Edition Egtved 1999.
2) various collected data and materials since 1971.
a3/ See also Christiansen (1968;A2.2), Hansen (1988;A4) and Pedersen (1995;F3).
a3/ Becker, Irene: Adventure no.7 (1993). Kbh. (The Society for the Publication of Danish Music), 1997.
a3/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: see also under Plaetner, Jørgen,
a3/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: Quadrivium for klaver. Kbh. (The Society for the Publication of Danish Music), 1972.
a3/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: Joker-Spil m.m. (tillige Gruppe-spil, Udstrålinger, Mimesis II, Sø-Spil, Tekstmusik VI, Ild-Musik, Postkort-Musik). Publ. at own expense, 1972-80. NJMK DKDM.
a3/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: Mimesis I for blæserkvintet. Kbh. (The Society for the Publication of Danish Music), 1974.
a3/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: Tekstmusik. Kbh. (The Society for the Publication of Danish Music), 1975-91.
a3/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: Postkort-kompositioner (8 forskellige) for ensembler ad lib. Kbh. (The Society for the Publication of Danish Music), 1976-80. NJMK AUB EM.
a3/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: Grafiske Modeller for ensembler ad lib. Kbh. (The Society for the Publication of Danish Music), 1992. NJMK AUM AUB.
a3/ Bertelsen, Michael: The Seven. For a man's singing voice and a piano played with woollen gloves. Kbh. (Dan Fog/The Society for the Publication of Danish Music... 3. Serie, nr. 243), 1973. DKDM.
a3/ Colding-Jørgensen, Henrik: Museik (1979). Kbh (The Society for the Publication of Danish Music), 1995. NJMK AUM AUB.
In colours.
a3/ Emborg, Harald Bjerg and Høffding, Finn (ed.): Korsang i Danmark II, WH. Kbh. (WH), 1972. NJMK AUB OUB.
Works relevant in this context: Lorentzen, Bent: Fædrelandssang (en grafisk collage). Nørgaard, Helmer: Når lys og skygge mødes (canon for choir groups which develops by means of indeterminate tempo differences). Borup-Jørgensen, Axel: 4 lydmønstre for talekor.
a3/ Jørgensen, Erik: Kvintet for 2 klaverer, 2 slagtøjsgrupper og kontrabas. Kbh. (The Society for the Publication of Danish Music), 1966. DKDM+D.
a3/ Jørgensen, Erik: Notturno for orkester. Kbh. (The Society for the Publication of Danish Music), 1973. DKDM.
a3/ Lekfeldt, Jørgen: Arua for 3 melodiinstrumenter (1977). Kbh. (The Society for the Publication of Danish Music), 1995. NJMK AUM AUB.
a3/ Lekfeldt, Jørgen: Auditio for melodiinstrumenter (1979). Kbh. (The Society for the Publication of Danish Music), 1995. NJMK AUM AUB.
a3/ Lekfeldt, Jørgen: Mantra-Spiral for melodiinstrumenter (1975). Kbh. (The Society for the Publication of Danish Music), 1995. NJMK AUM AUB.
a3/ Lorentzen, Bent: Intersection for orgel. Kbh. (WH 4207), 1970. DKDM+D EM SB.
a3/ Lorentzen, Bent: Granite for cello, 1971. NJMK.
a3/ Lorentzen, Bent: Five easy pieces (klaver). Kbh. (WH 4250), 1973. DKDM EM OUB SB.
a3/ Lorentzen, Bent: Puncta for orgel. Kbh. (WH 4244), 1973. DKDM+D NJMK EM OUB SB.
a3/ Lorentzen, Bent: Syncretism for clar trb vcl pft. Kbh. (WH) cop, 1973. NJMK EM OUB SB.
a3/ Lorentzen, Bent: Groppo for orgel. Kbh. (WH 4295), 1975. DKDM+D NJMK EM.
a3/ Lorentzen, Bent: Triplex for orgel. Kbh. (WH4254), 1975. DKDM+D EM OUB SB.
a3/ Lorentzen, Bent: Colori for klaver, 1978. NJMK.
a3/ Nørgaard, Helmer: Lydens/tonens skabelse (for school class) (ca. 1970). Kbh. (The Society for the Publication of Danish Music), 1995. NJMK AUM AUB.
a3/ Nørgaard, Helmer: Præludium-Recitativ-Arier (for skoleklasse) (ca. 1970). Kbh. (The Society for the Publication of Danish Music) 1995. NJMK AUM AUB.
a3/ Plaetner, Jørgen: Summer Pieces for klaver (1976). Kbh. (The Society for the Publication of Danish Music) 1995. DKDM NJMK AUM AUB.
a3/ Plaetner, Jørgen: Winter Music for ensemble ad lib (1994). Kbh. (The Society for the Publication of Danish Music), 1995. DKDM NJMK AUM AUB.
a3/ Rasmussen, Henrik: Spillerum (Playing Spaces) (1992-96). Kbh. (The Society for the Publication of Danish Music), 1997.
a3/ Søegaard, Fredrik: Position horisontal / Position vertikal (Position horizontal / Position vertical) (1997). Kbh. (The Society for the Publication of Danish Music), 1999.
Se indspilning: The Soegaard Ensemble. Chronox (1998;I1).
a3/ Toft, Johan: Stykke for publikum og ensemble (1995). Kbh. (The Society for the Publication of Danish Music), 1997.
a3/ Vincze, Ivan: Tekster til intuitiv musik (Texte für Intuitive Musik/Texts for intuitive music) (1994), 1997. Kbh (The Society for the Publication of Danish Music). Also in English, Slovakian and Hungarian.
A4 AURAL SCORES (PUBL. AS INDEPENDENT EDITIONS; BOTH DANISH AND FOREIGN; ANNOTATED)
THIS LIST IS BASED ON: various collected data and materials since 1971.
See also: Gringer (1993; E2)
a4/ Borum, Helena; Daussel, Tinne; Pedersen, Birte Litrup; Svane, Henrik: Jørgen Plaetner: Nocturne for Flute and Tape. Aural Score. Wilhelm Hansen, 1975. AUB.
Aural score in colors with introductory texts dealing among other things with the way it was made.
a4/ Busotti: see under: Pousseur, Henri.
a4/ Hansen, Finn Egeland: Ny musik i skolen. Teksthæfte, plancher med grafiske partiturer, kassettebånd. DR, bestill.nr: 66-85 10 00 (lærerhæfte); 66-85 10 19 (kassettebånd); 66-85 10 27 (plancher), 1985.
Contains four aural scores for electornic music, for children who play along with the tape. This book is out of print, but all of its content is reprinted in Hansen (1988;A4).
a4/ Hansen, Finn Egeland: Båndtropering. Strategier for ny musik i skoleundervisningen. Herning (Folkeskolens Musiklærerforening. Dansk Sang B-serien (Gudenåvej 162, 7400 Herning, 07 12 94 52), 1988. NJMK AUB AUM OUB SB.
A collection of aural scores of electronic music by many different Danish composers and pedagogues (Borum, Stefan; Frandsen, John; Frounberg, Ivar; Fuzzy; Hansen, Finn Egeland; Knudsen, Kenneth; Lorentzen, Bent; Pedersen, Gunner Møller; Siegel, Wayne; Ungvary, Thomas; Werner, Sven Erik; Wium, Per. The pieces are to be played along with by children. One can make additions to the scores.
a4/ Ottem, Bernt Johan: Lytteboka. Illustrations and lay-out: Rune Hansen. Norsk Musikforlag, cop, 1971.
Contains among other things aural scores giving overviews of symphonic music by Brahms and Beethoven.
a4/ Pousseur, Henri: Electre. Représentation graphique réalisée par Sylvano Busotti.... Wien (Universal Edition UE 13843 LW), 1968. KB SB.
Aural score for electronic music. The text is included in the graphic representation and integrated into many kinds of expressive structures.
a4/ Stockhausen, Karlheinz: Studie II, elektronmusik. Wien (UE), 1956. DKDM+D IMD KB OUB.
A frequently quoted classic piece. Very exact rendering of the sounds in the electronic work, and at the same time clear and geometrically shaped.
a4/ Stockhausen, Karlheinz: Kontakte für elektronische Klänge, Klavier und Schlagzeug (1960). Aufführungspartitur. London (UE 14246) cop, 1966. NJMK AUB IMD KB OUB.
Aural scores form a part of this performing material. They make it possible to orient oneself in sounds on the tape, and they have indications for time and sections as well as simple symbols for different sound structures etc.
a4/ Wehinger, Rainer: Ligeti: Artikulation. Hörpartitur. Mainz (Schott), 1970. DKDM IMD EM KB AUB OUB.
A fine analytical aural score in colours of Ligeti's short electronic piece. Mentioned by Dobson (1973;E2).
APPENDIX B. WORKS AND AURAL SCORES HAVING BEEN PUBLISHED IN EXTENSO, BUT NOT AS INDEPENDENT EDITIONS
B1. IMPROVISATION RECIPES BY STUDENTS AT AALBORG UNIVERSITY:
THIS LIST IS BASED ON: my own activity as a writer and workshop leader.
b1/ Baggesen, Sine: "Spire" - "I blomst" - "Vissen" ("Sprout" - "In flower" - "Withered") in: Bergstrøm-Nielsen (1999a+b;H3.2).
b1/ Bergholt, Dorte: Fiske-stimer [Fish-shoals]. In: Jønch-clausen (1994;H4), 1994.
b1/ Ed, Agneta: En formssag [A formal matter]. In: Bergstrøm-Nielsen (1992,1995;E2 samt 1991;H3.1)
b1/ Errebo, Henriette G.: "Håbløshed - Død - Forvandling" ["Hopelessness" - "Death" - "Transformation"] in: Bergstrøm-NIelsen (1999a+b;H3.2),
b1/ Nielsen, Frank Ehlers: Uden titel [no title]. In: Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl (1988/89;H3.1),
b1/ Vestergaard, Elise: The Big Bang. In: Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl (1991;H3.1),
B2. VARIOUS WORKS PUBLISHED IN DENMARK
THIS LIST IS BASED ON: various collected data amd materials since 1971.
b2/ Anonymous: Bentzon, Niels Viggo: postcard-composition in: Anonymous: "Plancheudstilling på Centralbiblioteket", Lokalavisen Viborgbladet, 12/11, 1993.
See also Bentzon (1992;D1).
b2/ Eriksen, Carsten Bo: Die Atonism (impromptu pour piano) (1998) in: Dansk Musik Tidsskrift nr. 5, 1997/98.
b2/ Toft, Johan: Lunefulde Forår (1995). In: Johan Toft: "Grafisk notation, intuitiv & minimal musik", Dansk Sang vol. 48,6, juni, 1996/97.
b2/ Töth, Dezider; Bjertnes, Odd; Ericsson, Mikael; Klapper, Martin; Steklík, Jan - Valoch, Jiri; Adamus, Karel; Christiansen, Henning: various recipes for playing printed in: Fabricius et al. (1986;E2),
B3. VARIOUS FOREIGN WORKS
THIS LIST IS BASED ON: solely references to some examples mentioned in the text.
See also Ausländer (1997;f1.1)
b3/ Brown, Earle: Folio II/I (1970), Folio II/II (1991), Folio II/III (1993). Booklet with CD Earle Brown: Four Systems (1994;I1). AUB.
Includes Four Systems fra 1954 and Folio II. A collection of graphic and concept pieces (1970, 1991, 1993). See Brown...(1994;I).
b3/ Brown, Earle: Folio II, "1980", Folio II, "1991" (Same as "Folio II/II" on the CD Four Systems (1994;I1)), "For Ann (s.a. - 70-93?). Booklet with CD The New York School vol. 3 (1994;I1).
Includes among other graphic pieces Folio II. A collection of graphic and concept pieces (1970, 1991, 1993).
b3/ Keller, Max E.: Psychogramm (1971) in: Bergstrøm-Nielsen (1988;H3.1, 1990ffa+b;F1.1, 1992;F1.1),
b3/ Keller, Max E.: Stück für Improvisatoren (1971) in: Kumpf (1981;H4),
b3/ Monahan, Gordon: Piano Mechanics (1981-86). MusikTexte 27, Januar 1989.
8 movements for piano with minimanistically inspired materials, optical notation and very "graphic" graphics.
B4. AURAL SCORES PUBL. IN EXTENSO BUT NOT AS SEPARATE EDITIONS (DANISH AND FOREIGN):
THIS LIST IS BASED ON: my own publishing activity. Various collected data since 1971.
b4/ See also: Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl in: Bergstrøm-Nielsen (1993;E4),(1988;H3.2), (1999;H3.2), F2 - Landy (1994:F2)
b4/ See also: Dammeyer Fønsbo, Charlotte in: Bergstrøm-Nielsen (1999;H3.2a+b)
b4/ See also: Lindvang, Charlotte in: Bergstrøm-Nielsen (1999;H3.2a+b)
b4/ See also: Pedersen, Jane (AAU-stud.)In: Bergstrøm-Nielsen (1992;E2), (1995;E2), (1988/89;H3.2), (1991;H3.2), (1993;H3.2).
b4/ Lorentzen, Bent: Aural scores for electronic music "Visions" (1978) and "Cloud-Drift" (1973) on the cover of LP: Bent Lorentzen Electronic Music. Point records PLP 5072 (Society for the Publ. of Danish Music), 1987.
b4/ Stockhausen, Karlheinz: Hymnen. Elektronische und konkrete
Musik. Mitlese-Partitur, London (UE15142) 1973.
"Mitlese-partitur" in German means "Score for reading along".
National anthems along the way and pitches of other sounds are
stated, and electronic sounds are depicted in some cases as noise
bands and fields.
b4/ Stockhausen, Karlheinz: Kontakte für elektronische Klänge,
Klavier und Schlagzeug. Aufführungspartitur, London (UE 14246)
1966.
The electronic part towards which players orientate themselves
is stated on top of the score with graphics and various
information.
b4/ Ørvad, Hanne: Aural score for "Cascademusik", ""Cascade"-musikken er nu komponeret færdig", Frederiksborg Amts Avis. 16/11 1995.
APPENDIX C: WORKS AND AURAL SCORES, PARTS OF WHICH HAVE BEEN QUOTED IN PUBLICATIONS
C1 DANISH / PUBLISHED IN DANMARK:
THIS LIST IS BASED ON: my own activity as a writer. Various collected data since 1971.
c1/ Grønberg, Kim; Bjertnes, Odd; Chiari, Giuseppe: Quotes from various improvisation recipes in: Fabricius and others (1986;H4).
c1/ Jeppesen, Niels; Mortensen, Karin; Ochsner, Hanne-Mette: Quotes from various improvisation recipes in: Bergstrøm-Nielsen (1988/89;H3.2).
c1/ Winther-Rasmussen, Anne; Munk-Madsen, Niseema Marie; Bang Sørensen, Tine; Høgsbro, Thorkil; Paulsen, Sonja; Mæng, Anne; Jespersen, Birgitte: Quotes from various aural scores (graphic notations) in: Bergstrøm-Nielsen (1992;H3.2) and (1993;H3.2).
C2 FOREIGN:
THIS LIST IS BASED ON: solely references to those examples mentioned in the text.
c2/ See also Gieseler (1975;H1) and passim in E1 and E2.
c2/ Braxton, Anthony: Composition Notes Vol. A-E. Lebanon, NH, USA (Frog Peak Music - orders: frogpeak@sover.net), 1988.
c2/ Heffley, Mike: The Music of Anthony Braxton. Westport, Conn./London (Greenwood Press), 1996. AUB.
P. 320 and 385 features exx. of different notations by Braxton.
c2/ Lock, Graham: Booklet til CD med Anthony Braxton: Composition 98 (1981). hatNOW Series, 1990. DR.
Mentions the significance of graphic elements for Braxton's notation; quotes an example with pictorial material growing out of traditional notation.
c2/ Schnebel, Dieter: Denkbare Musik. Schriften 1952-1972. Köln (DuMont) 1972.
Most of Schnebel's experimental works have not been published but exist in a number of cases as models which have been re-worked upon for specific new performances. This collection, however, allows for a rather extensive study of the methods employed and the compositional ideas.
There are quotations from and explanations/comments to the following works: "Hörfunk (Radiophoner I-V)" (p.138) - "raum-zeit y" (1958-) für eine unbestimmte Anzahl von Instrumentalisten (p.249ff) - "Das Urteil (nach F. Kafka)" (1959) (p.252ff) - "glossolalie für Sprecher und øInstrumentalisten" (1959-60) (p.257ff) (about this work and its unpublished basic model, see also Nonnenmann ((g1.2);2010) - "reactions für 1 Instrumentalisten und Publikum" (1960-61) (p.268f) - "visible music für 1 Dirigenten und 1 Instrumentalisten" (1960-62) (p.269ff) - "nostalgie. Solo für einen Dirigenten" (1962) (p.273ff) - "espressivo. Musikdrama für einen Klavieristen" (1961-63) (p.281) - "concert sans orchestre für einen Pianisten und Publikum" (1964) (p.282ff) - "anschläge - ausschläge. Szenische Variationen für 3 Instrumentalisten" (1965-66) (p.303ff) - "visible music I. Plan einer Fassung für einen Dirigenten und einen Gitarristen (Für München, Juli 1966) (p.336ff) - ki-no. Nachtmusik für Projektoren und Hörer" (1963-67) (p.345ff) - "glossolalie 61 für Sprecher und Instrumentalisten (1959-61) (p.384fff, with 8 illustrations) - "lectiones für 4 Sprecher und Zuhörer" (1964-) (p.400) - "fall <-> out. Passion für einen Vokalisten und Publikum" (1965-) (p.401) - "dt31/6 für 12 Vokalgruppen" (1956-58/1964) (p.408, 414, 416) - "amn für 7 Vokalgruppen (Sprechchor)" (1958/66-67) (p.416f) - ":! (madrasha2) für 3 Chorgruppen" (1958/67-68) (p.418f) - "für stimmen IV für Orgel, Nebeninstrumente und Tonband" (1966/68-69) (p.439ff) - "Maulwerke für mehrere Artikulationsorgane und Reproduktionsgeräte" (1968-) (458ff) - "Atemzüge für mehrere Stimmorgane und Reproduktionsgeräte" (1970-71) (p.471ff).
Many works by other composers are quoted, among which 4:33 by Cage which is rendered in its entirety in verbal transcription, however without the publishing year 1960.
c2/ Wilson, Peter Niklas: "Mit Arnold Schönberg in Korea. Anthony Braxton: Musiker zwischen Afroamerika und Europa", MusikTexte 23, Febr., 1988.
Contains a notation example from KSZMK PQ EGN
APPENDIX D. UNPUBLISHED WORKS AND AURAL SCORES
D1 DIVERSE - DANSKE and UDENLANDSKE:
THIS LIST IS BASED ON: solely references to those examples mentioned in the text.
d1/ See also aural scores by Dammeyer Fønsbo (1998;H3.2) and Jensen (1998;H3.2).
d1/ Bentzon, Niels Viggo: Uden titel (Postcard-composition). Privattryk (Dansk Komponistforening), 1992. AUB AUM.
A model to be varied over freely, according to what the composer stated to this author.
d1/ Beresford, Steve: Fish of the Week. Copies of parts of the manuscipt, own archive, 1993.
d1/ Burn, Chris: various playing recipes on CD Cultural Baggage. MS (Chris Burn), 1990.
d1/ Colding-Jørgensen, Henrik: Image. Privattryk (Dansk Komponistforening), 1992. AUM AUB.
The 1992 edition was not for sale. A later copy in A4-format was later made available at the Society for the Publication of Danish Music.
d1/ Fuzzy: Tre grafiske stykker. Privattryk (Dansk Komponistforening), 1992. AUM AUB.
d1/ Gefors, Hans: Samlingsark for sammenspil. Photo-copied materials, 1975.
d1/ Gefors, Hans: Sammenspel i Hostebro. Photo-copied materials, 1976.
d1/ Gefors, Hans: WORK SHOP WORK (Diskantark + Basark). Photo-copied materials, 1983.
d1/ Lekfeldt, Jørgen: Post factum 1. Private printing (Dansk Komponistforening), 1992. AUM AUB.
With this work, the 1992 postcards were made available at the Society for the Publication of Danish Music.
d1/ Nørgård, Per: Orpheus. Basisark I. 1975. Manuscript/photocipies, used in the "Orpheus playing group".
See also the article on experiences with this music, Nørgård (1977:G2.1).
d1/ Plaetner, Jørgen: Dette er ikke nødvendigvis et kort stykke. Private printing (Dansk Komponistforening), 1992. AUM AUB.
d1/ Zorn, John: Cobra (1984), annotated by Steve Beresford. Copies from parts of the manuscript, own archive, 1986. (Publication of score in preparation by Hips Road Edition)
D2. AN ANNOTATED SELECTION OF COMPOSITIONS BY NIELS VIGGO BENTZON AVAILABLE AT EDITION WILHELM HANSEN
THIS LIST IS BASED ON: an examination of selected works undertaken 1992 on the basis of Møllerhøj (1980;H2.1) and a photo-copied appendix by Edition Wilhelm Hansen.
POSSIBLE EXPANSION OF THIS LIST: examination of further works on the basis of the writings mentioned and an enquiry about their possible updating.
d2/ Bentzon, Niels Viggo: Kemiske Madrigaler [Chemical Madrigals] op. 185. For blandet dobbeltkor a capella. MS (Ed. Wilhelm Hansen), 1965.
Very original verbal and graphic recipe for rehearsing and performance - a beautyful example of the fantasy of Bentzon and a humoristic and concentrated portrait of the "wild sixties"! One takes a number of traditional madrigals, subjects them to a "breakdown" by means of improvisation through several rehearsals till they are no longer recognisable. Then one re-arranges the material with inspiration from the graphic pictures (which take their inspiration from chemical formulas for various drugs). A conductor is in charge of this process. Quote from the composer's preface: "REALISATION PRACTISE OF THE MADRIGALS. If one imagines, speaking of sound purely, the creation of something equivalent to the concept of formula, in a chemical or mathematical sense - then these endeavours must take the direction of expressing a sort of diminished version of an imaginary "finished" result which has been "backwards thought out"...".
d2/ Bentzon, Niels Viggo: Montmartrekoncert op. 179. MS (Ed. Wilhelm Hansen), 1965.
Looks like a sketch for the composer-pianist's own use. Remark on the title page: "The piano part is notated with "graphic notation"".
d2/ Bentzon, Niels Viggo: Mycelie (Mykologisk suite for orgel) op. 186. MS (Ed. Wilhelm Hansen), 1965.
For organist Finn Reiff. - Graphic notations on staves inspired by mushrooms; concrete performance instructions for each movement.
d2/ Bentzon, Niels Viggo: Pan on defensive (an open-air sketch) op. 238. MS (Ed. Wilhelm Hansen), 1965.
For flute and two other instruments. Aleatoric elements to be coordinated with the performers moving back and forth between different chairs.
d2/ Bentzon, Niels Viggo: Vinduesmusik - Klasseværelsesmusik - På gaden op. 262. MS (Ed. Wilhelm Hansen), 1970?.
Written for a Copenhagen gymnasium. Traditionally notated choir and orchestral parts with various alternating elements, described in verbal and metaphoric ways. For instance, shouting down into the schoolyard of the name "Nebukadneser" is prescribed, and it is to be spatially enlarged and dimished, thus making a "shouting fan".
Read an introduction to literature about notation from 2017 here. If this link does not work, click here.
Une introduction en Francais sur notation écrit en 2017 ici. Ci cette link ne functionne pas, cliquer ici.
THIS LIST IS BASED ON: Various collected data and materials since 1971. Examination and ordering from a large number of bibliographies in the articles and books dealt with. Subscriptions, including Musics, Dansk Musiktidsskrift, MusikTexte, Resonance, Gränslöst. - Research stay at Logos Archives, Gent, summer 1997.
E1 GENERAL AND LARGE WRITINGS
e1/ See also Scribing Sound Collection (J1.1) and parts of Wilson (1999;G1.1); Brindle (1986;H1); Cage (1969;A2.2); Landy (1994:F2); Brown (1986;G3.1)
e1/ Bosseur, Jean-Yves: "Sound and the Visual Arts. Intersections between Music and Plastic Arts today. Paris (Dis Voir), 1993. AEST.
The first chapter, "The Eye and Musical Notation. Francis Miroglio. Tom Phillips", deals with new notations featuring exx by Kagel (Sonant), Feldman (King of Denmark), Cage (Cartridge Music; Variations I), Francis Miroglio, Tom Phillips (for the last two mentioned, see the colour plates situated towards the back of the book). More works receive detailed mention without being illustrated, aong others works by Cage, Feldman and December 52 by Brown. The author critisizes the lack of interest in recent times from the side of the publishing houses for this repertory and defends the plurality of notations by pointing to the artistic plurality. One chapter here deals with Tom Phillips, with interview excerpts - English visual artist (b. 1937), known for his visual works to play from - another chapter deals with Francis Miroglio who employs other notations in his works to a certain extent.
The other chapters continue to explore the multimedia- and intermedia aspects. The chapter "Space, architecture" deals with the relation of composers to space, and an interview with Xenakis from 1992 examines closely his relation to graphic work - which he uses as an intermediary stage between the idea and its working out. Xenakis speaks critically of open notations (p.56) and he thinks (Boulez is also known for holding that opinion) that the composer is a specialist in expressing musical ideas, whereas musicians tend to reproduce that which is familiar to them. Other chapters have the headlines "Plastic contributions to the music experience. Milan Knizak" - "Sound sculptures. Takis" - "Beyond artistic categories. Wolf Vostell. Milan Grygar" - "John Cage and the visual. John Cage" - "Internedia. Nam June Paik. Stan Dougals". As everywhere, there are interview with those persons mentioned in the headlines. In the interview with John Cage it is said among other things: p.125): "You have invented many "graphic stimulations" in your notation for pieces like Cartridge Music, the Piano Concerto, and the Variations. Were your preoccupations exclusively musical, or also visual and spatial?" - "They were musical. But since I made these notations, it brought about people to ask me to graphic work" - "So it encouraged you?" - "No, it encouraged other people to ask me to do something...".
e1/ Brunner, Armin; Muggler, Fritz (ed): Das Schriftbild der Musik. Ausstellung in Helmhaus Zürich 19. Mai bis 22. Juni.. 1974. LOGOS.
Exhibition catalogue. Lists of the exhibits - and a division into main categories: "1. Aussereuropäische Notationen"; "2.Frühe europäische Notationen"; "3. Traditionelle Notation"; "4. Traditionelle Notation mit Erweiterungen"; "5. Mischformen", which also has as a sub-category: "Mobile"; "6. Grafische Notationen"; "7. Verbalnotation". Also "Sondergruppen": "1. Elektronische Musik"; "2. Computermusik"; "3.Pädagogische Notationen"; "4. Kagel/Stockhausen"; "5. Schweizer Komponisten". Quotes new notations by among others Brown, Stockhausen, Haubenstock-Ramati, Kagel, Furrer, Penderecki, Ligeti, Busotti, Moran, Klaus Huber, Cage (4'33" in extenso). Good bibliographical information.
e1/ Cole, Hugo: Sounds and sign. Aspects of musical notation. London/NY/Toronto (Oxf. Univ. Press), 1974. DKDM.
A very thoughtful and brilliantly written text in which both historical and new forms of notation are discussed. "The efficiency of a notation (or any directive system) has nothing to do with the completeness with which it 'describes' required sounds or actions. The function of the sign is to serve as a trigger to action..." it is stated on p.15. And such section headings as "Communication in music", "The psychology of notation" and "Failures of communication" deal substantially with their issues. Further sections concern "Pitch", "Time" "Dynamics and timbre", "Articulation and phrasing", "Auxiliary notations" and carry forth a discourse that could be equally useful for both relatively conservative as well as experimentally orientated composers and others concerned.
From the latter point of view, the concluding discussions in "Where now" and "postscript" are noteworthy - besides, of course, the treatment of new notations in "Experiment and reform". Reflecting the cultural climate of the time, he mentions the possible point of view of new notations as "anti-notations" which "seek to undermine the traditional composer-performer relationship" (p.149). But a detailed discussion about the pros and cons of literacy (vs. oral traditions) follows, travelling through both historic considerations and essential observations about the new musical material - such as the following: "From the avant-garde, comes the idea that notation can evolve in the direction of freedom as well as in the direction of greater control. This was foreshadowed in the harmonic advances of the early twentieth century, where situations were thrown up in which the running of parts to exact timetables was no longer a strict necessity. It was the necessity of avoiding discord that made exact synchronization into a vital organizing principle. (In the same way, trains have to run to a timetable partly because they must not be allowed to collide. Make trains of soft rubber, and the timetables can be relaxed" (p.151-52).
Examples by among others Cage, Stockhausen, Kagel, Haubenstock-Ramati, Moran, Wolff, Cardew, Kupkovic, Busotti. [This entry revised 2017]
e1/ Cope, David: New Music Notation. Dubuque, Iowa (Kendall/Hunt Publ. Company), 1976. KB.
The author examines notation symbols within the categories "pitch", "rhythm", "dynamics", "articulation" and "timbre (woodwinds, brass, percussion, harp, piano, strings, vocal, electronic)." The book contains a remarkable "annotated bibliography" with writings both in German and English. Among other things this bibliography opens up a perspective of various instrument-specific writings. Unfortunately, despite the fact that the author is identical with the one who wrote Cope (1971;H1) he does not care much for radical innovation in notation, as can be seen from his comments to Thomas (1965:E1) ("this volume exemplifies confusion in contemporary music notation rather than solving it", p.117) and his comments to Cage (1960;A2.2) ("A rather useless (but often curios)..collection", p. 116).
e1/ Dahlhaus, Carl: art. i Thomas, Ernst (ed.): Notation neuer Musik. Carl Dahlhaus - György Ligeti - Roman Haubenstock-Ramati - Mauricio Kagel - Earle Brown - Siegfried Palm - Aloys Kontarsky - Christoph Caskel. Mainz (Schott), 1965. Part of a series: Darmstädter Beiträge zur neuen Musik IX.IMD.
Many examples are taken up and critisized.
e1/ Davies, Hugh: "Musical Notation - Old and New", EYE MUSIC. The Graphic Art of New Musical Notation, Exhibition Catalogue. St. Albans (Arts Council of Great Britain), 1986A. Brit. Libr. LOGOS.
A historical examination, many concrete examples with illustrations.
e1/ Davies, Hugh: "Bibliography - Selected List of Previous Exhibitions of Musical Notation - Catalogue", EYE MUSIC. The Graphic Art of New Musical Notation, udstilingskatalog. St. Albans (Arts Council of Great Britain), 1986B. Brit. Libr. LOGOS.
Valuable bibliographical and historical information.
e1/ Drew, Joanna; Harrison, Mich; Davies, Hugh et al. (ed.): Eye Music. The Graphic Art of New Musical Notation.. London (Arts Council), 1986. Brit.Libr LOGOS.
Exhibition catalogue. With a list of exhibited works, bibliography and a list of previous exhibitions of musical notations. This catalogue includes also Davies (1986;E1) and Griffiths (1986;E1).
e1/ Catalogue for the exhibition Musique et Graphisme. Issy-les-Moulineaux du 14 au 21 février 1983, dans le cadre de l’Atelier Musical dirigé alors par Sylvie Drouin. http://www.paalabres.org/article-de-reference/musique-et-graphisme-1983-ensemble-aleph/ . pdf for download. Retrieved 18.January 2018.
Works are presented according to categories, the exact meaning of which is not always easy to follow for this writer - the sparseness of examples compared to the totality displayed at the exhibition being maybe one reason. But the thoughtful approach appears to have generated a good variety. Thus, both computer made representations of Webern, electronic and instrumental music and different kinds of parameter treatment are dealt with. The catalogue is a valuable source of knowledge about a number of not so generally known composers.
Works depicted are by: M.Kagel, B.Nilson, F.Miroglio, A.Boucourechliev, Kayne, Earle Brown, B.Maderna, S.Bussotti, D.Lustgarten, B.Maderna, K.Stockhausen, A.Logothétis, P.de Haas, R.Haubenstock-Ramati, Penderecki, L.Schidlowsky, Mauricio Kagel, A. Peschek, Ligeti, Netty Simons, J.Cage, Beurle, T.Bruynel, P.Castaldi, K.H.Stahmer, Xenakis, A.Boucourechliev, Earle Brown. A number of additional composers and their works at the exhibition are listed but not depicted. These may be retrieved in the catalogue.
e1/ Evarts, John The New Musical Notation: a Graphical Art? Leonardo 1968, October vol. 4 p. 405-12
Written at an early date, this article presents examples of new notations together with mention of contemporary reactions, testifying both to the confusion and attempting to grasp what is the artistic essence of this. Regarding the latter, Karl Roschitz is given the word from an article in Austrian Music Life, autumn 1967 (not mentioned in the reference list) with a long quotation. It deals with the endavours by composers to adapt the notation more fully for the idea in question - so as to make it more clearly and directly stated both in their own working it out and for the performers. Works by Brown, Haubenstock-Ramati, Kagel, Moran (Four Visions), Stockhausen and Komorous are quoted.
There is a French summary in which the quotation by Roschitz mentioned above is stated in its entirety.
e1/ Gieseler, Walter: "Zur Semiotik graphischer Notation", Melos 1, 1978.
Demonstrates hov ambiguous form (global form indetermined, its parts determined), variable form (global form determined, its parts indetermined) exist in the untraditionally notated repertory. Quotes Franz Furrer-Münch (various works, 1975-76), Louis Andriessen (Paintings, 1965), Dieter Schnebel (MO-NO, Musik zum Lesen, 1969) and Boguslaw Schäffer (2 utwory...").
e1/ Hambræus, Bent: Om Notskrifter. Paleografi - tradition - fornyelse. Stockholm (Nordiska Musikförlaget), 1970. DKDM EM MKAR KB.
The section "Behöver vi nya noteringar?" quotes notations by Penderecki (Threnos), Cerha (Spiegel II), Ligeti (Volumina), Stockhausen (Mixtur), Bussotti (Piano piece for David Tudor 4), Logothetis (Mäandros), Cage (Fontana Mix), Ichiyanagi (piano piece), Morthensson (Some of These...) and Kagel (photographic notation quoted from the magazine Magnum) as well as oscillograms and discusses various types.
e1/ Hoch, Peter: Komposition - musikalische Graphik - Freie Improvisation in einem erweiterten Begreifen von Musik. MS(Fotokopieret), 1992.
Various considerations - types of playing material - lists of places with teaching activity and exhibitions of untraditional notations - a bibliography of playing material (which would have benefited from indications of years of composition or publication, even though catalogue numbers are quoted).
e1/ Karkoschka, Erhard: Das Schriftbild der neuen Musik. Bestandaufnahme neuer Notationssymbole. Anleitung zu deren Deutung, Realisation und Kritik. Celle (Ed. Moeck Nr. 4010), 1966. DKDM NJMK MKAR OUB AEST EM KB IMD SB AUB.
Provides a large catalogue about notational innovations. Probably the most well-known book on this subject: in 1999 translations into English and Japanese exist, and a Chinese one is in preparation. Probably the most important general book on new notations, even though verbal notation and the plus-minus-notation of Stockhausen is not included - it was written before those phenomena came up. The book "loses itself" to some extent in relation to the area of interest of the present discourse into the borderline area near traditional notation. But nevertheless a large section is devoted to discussing works in their entirety; these are: Berio (Circles), Brown (November 1952 and December 1952, from Folio), Bussotti (Fragmentations; Mit einem gewissen sprechenden Ausdruck; Siciliano), Cage (59½ Seconds for a string player; Solo for Voice; Imaginary Landscape no.5; Cartridge Music), Engelmann (Cadenza op. 23), Evangelisti (Aleatorio); Hashagen (Cymbalon), Haubenstock-Ramati (Credentials; Mobile für Shakespeare - in extenso), Kagel (Transición II; Sonant; Improvisation Ajoutée), Karkoschka (Desiderato Dei), Kayn (Galaxis), Koering (Musique pour une passion), Kriwet (Texttheater; Sehtexte), Helms (Fa:m Ahniesgwow), Kupkovic (...für Bassklarinette allein), Lachenmann (Introversion I), Ligeti (Volumina; Aventures; Atmosphères), Logothetis (Odysee; Cycloide I, II II und I+II+III fra "Grafische Notationen"), Lutoslawski (Jeux Venetiens), Moran (Four Visions 2 and 3 - in extenso), Oliveros (Sound Patterns; Tropismen), Otte (Alpha-Omega), Penderecki (Miniaturen III; Anaklasis; Flourescences; Dimensionen der Zeit und der Stille, Pousseur (Charactères; Mobile), Raxach (Estrofas), Riedl (Stück für Schlagzeug; Geschwindigkeit), Schäffer (Imago Musicae; Azione a due; Tertium Datur; Extreme), Schnebel (Concert sans Orchestre; Glossolalie), Serocki (Segmenti), Stockhausen (Zyklus; Refrain; Momente), van Vlijmen (Mythos).
e1/ Karkoschka, Erhard: Notation in New Musik. London/New York, 1972. SB.
English edition of Karkoschka (1966;E1) - see the entry for this. Japanese edition: Tokyo (ZEN-ON) 1978. In 1999, a Chinese edition is in preparation.
e1/ Karkoschka, Erhard: "Notation wohin?" Melos/NZ 3, 1975.
Discussion of some new ways to notate orchestral music.
e1/ Karkoschka, Erhard: "Notation wohin?" (Schluss), Melos/NZ 4, 1975.
Quotes own works, including one having also an aural score by the author, and music for reading by Josef Anton Riedl.
e1/ Kontarsky, Aloys: "Notationen für Klavier", in: Thomas, Ernst (ed.): Notation neuer Musik. Carl Dahlhaus - György Ligeti - Roman Haubenstock-Ramati - Mauricio Kagel - Earle Brown - Siegfried Palm - Aloys Kontarsky - Christoph Caskel. Mainz (Schott), 1965. Part of a series: Darmstädter Beiträge zur neuen Musik IX. MKAR.
The author reports among other things about a student who insisted on playing "December 1952" by Brown according to his own ideas. He sees this as being in accordance with both Brown's performance in Darmstadt and with his published instructions, even though his own interpretation, which he also describes, would be very different and present itself as a traditionally written version.
e1/ Kowal, Roman: "New Jazz and some problems of its notation", jazzforschung/jazz research 3/4, 180-193. Wien (UE), 1971/72. KB.
A remarkable article about notation, by its empirical approach - a point of view which ought to be common but which seems still to become dominated by polemic approaches and superficiality even with distinguished academics. The author examines examples of the use of "precise notation", "frame notation", "graphic suggestions", "verbal suggestions" and "improvisation with notation" and sets up a table for overview (p.185) illustrating what these different methods are capable of and not. Thus, "precise notation" is suitable for notating "duration" and "tempo". "Frame notation" is suitable for "register, pitch, mode", "duration", "metro-rhythmic progress" and "dynamics". "Graphic suggestions" are suitable for both "tone color, instruments", "register, pitch, mode", "duration", "metro-rhythmic progress", "dynamics" and for "character - mood of expression". Verbal notation is suitable for notating all the dimensions mentioned as well as for "articulation", and later on in the table a method is listed, the more dimensions it can cover. All mentioned dimensions have been illustrated with concrete examples in the text. This article calls for more studies employing this kind of approach!
e1/ Landy, Leigh: "New? Notation" in: Ear Magazine East vol.8, no 1-2, FebruaryMarch/April/May 1983. 10th Anniversary Special Issue.
An attempt at making a status about notational experimentation in music, seen from 1983. After historical summaries, the author reflects on the role of compositional experiences with pure sound outside of notes, and possible reasons for bringing the rise in experimentation in this field to an and. He also makes a personal statement on his own use of new notations in at least half of his works and traditional notation in the other half. Traditional notation may serve well in some cases. On the other hand, contemporary music has become increasingly "crosscultural" meaning that composers can more often expect performers to be able to improvise.
e1/ Logothetis, Anestis: Zeichen als Aggregatzustand der Musik. Wien-München (Verlag Jugend und Volk; Jugend und Volk 6087-3), 1974. Part of a series: Edition Literaturproduzenten..
As is also the case in articles and editions of works (see under E2), Logothetis presents his notational system consisting of signs for pitches, "associative signs" (for dynamics, timbre and more) and "action signals" (lines, points etc. to be transforred to movement on the instrument). However, this small book contains something more. It starts with a historical view of the development of notation. Here, some original thoughts are expressed: that the introduction of thirds as a much used harmonic interval despite their definite theoretical status of "imperfect consonances" depended on the fact that they made a good visual appearance in the five staff-system. Another observation stated is that with the system of several staffs, a kind of coordinate system was practised several hundred years before this appeared in the analytical geometry of Descartes during the 1600-century. New music is partly a derivative from the traditional "crossing-point bound nature" ("Scnittpunktshaftigkeit") of musical writing, but at the same time it includes elements, such as noises, which are not capable of being notated in this way. About the fundamental role of music writing the author says that p.6) the music becomes "grasped, reproductable, but also composable...we can analyse it, manipulate it and take it into our development process. And...communicate it to a third part". The last paart of the book is dedicated to descriptions of the authors' own untraditionally notated works since 1959, with and without a horisontal time axis, some also consisting of words graphically arranged.
e1/ Maur, Karin von (ed): Vom Klang der Bilder. Die Musik in der Kunst des 20.Jahrhunderts. Exhibition Catalogue. München (Prestel Verlag), 1985. AUM.
Large illustrated book on music as a theme in visual arts, visual art taking its inspiration in music and on musical notation.
e1/ Motte, Helga de la: Musik und Bildende Kunst. Laaber-Verlag, 1990. AUB.
The author claims that time and space have become relative notions in modern reality! Many good illustrations from new notations and from visual art.
e1/ Risatti, Howard: New Music Vocabulary. A Guide to Notational Signs for Contemporary Music. Urbana/Chicago/London (University ofIllinois Press), 1975. DKDM AUB MKAR KB.
Catalogue of new phenomena in music writing, however, mostly seen as additions to traditional music notation and revisions of its elements.
e1/ Roschitz, Karlheinz: "Zur Notation neuer Musik", Österreichische Musikzeitschrift Jg. 22 Heft 4, 1967. MI.
Underlines the importance of sound and timbre in mew music as an important basis for new notations. Idea and notation should fit together the best possible way. Draws on Karkoschka (1966;E1). Quotes from Haubenstock-Ramati (Credentials; Mobile für Shakespeare), Berio (Circles), Moran (Four Visions, 2+3, notations and explanation of signs in extenso), Otte, Hans (Tropismen, 1960), Logothetis (Odyssee; Meandros), Friedrich Cerha (Enjambements).
e1/ Schaeffer, Boguslaw: Introduction to composition. Krakow (PMW), 1976. AUB.
With a large collection of examples, including a number of untraditional notations. Gives a comprehensive selection of works by the author.
e1/ Smith, Sylvia; Smith, Stuart: Musical Notation as Visual
Art, in Percussive Notes Vol. XVIII 1981.
A good introduction to new notations. Authours analyze the
difference between traditional and new notations, pointing out
how the former is comparable to an alphabet, whereas the latter
kind is often employing signatures dealing with larger entities
and thus having a more abstract nature, open for individual
inperpretations and reinterpretations. This is illustrated by
quoting from Stuart Smith's Here and There.
Next step is an elementary, but enlightening, account of how
two scores that are both "pictorial" may function quite
differently, Earle Brown's "December '52" and Herbert Brün's
"Mutatis Mutandis". Quotes are made from the published
introductions of the printed editions in both cases. Often,
authors seem not even to be aware that this essential part of
Brown's piece exists at all - maybe because the graphic part is
so often quoted alone. Attempting to charazterize common
misunderstandings, authors state that "Due to poor education in
modern music, many musicians assume that most pictorial scores
are basically alike - that they are pictures of concepts like
improvisation, spontaneity, or chance, and that 'anything goes'
in performance. Or, since particular notes are not specified in
the alphabet-style of traditional notation, the greater latitude
of control is misinterpreted as the composer's lack of care what
happens sonically" (p.11). It could seem that even 27 years
later, at the time of writing this, this is not completely wrong.
Please note that the illustrations fig.4, 5 and 6
have been erroneously put into wrong places so that the
information about December '52 becomes somewhat meaningless
unless you know that fig. 5 is the graphic score, not 4.
e1/ Stone, Kurt: "Notation", in: Vinton: Dictionary of Thwentieth-Century Music, 1974.
e1/ Stone, Kurt: Music Notation in the Twentieth Century. A practical guidebook.. N.Y/London (Norton), cop., 1980. KB.
Accounts for the standardization of various notational signs taking as its basis the "Index of New Musical Notation" from a four-year collective research project which was followed by an international conference in Gent, Belgium 1974 where standards were agreed upon.
e1/ Tesarowicz, Szczepan: Charakterystyka i pròba systematyki nowoczesnes notacji muzycznej w kontekscie przemian we wspOtczesnyck technikach wykonawszych. Krakow (Akademia Muzyczna w Krakowie wydziat kompozycji, dyrygentury i teorii muzyki. Praca Dyploma, vejleder: A. Walacinski). Manuskript, 1993.
A comprehensive collection of new notation forms with special emphasis on Polish music. Chapters have been classified by musical parameters and by instrument groups. Bibliography.
e1/ Thomas, Ernst (ed.): Notation neuer Musik. Carl Dahlhaus - György Ligeti - Roman Haubenstock-Ramati - Mauricio Kagel - Earle Brown - Siegfried Palm - Aloys Kontarsky - Christoph Caskel. Mainz (Schott), 1965. Part of a series: Darmstädter Beiträge zur neuen Musik IX. MKAR EM AEST.
See also Dahlhaus (1965;E1); Brown (1965;E2); Kontarsky (1965;E2).
E2 SPECIFIC THEMES
e2/ See also Hagvet (1988;H4); Kolleritsch (1971/72;G5); Pritchett (1996;H4); Dennis (1991;G2.1); Brown (1986;G2.4)
e2/ (Div.): Nutida Musik årg. 32, nr. 3,. Sveriges Riksradio, 1988/89.
Special issue on graphic notation.
e2/ Ahlin, Sven: "Att vilja förstå - om musikens förhållande till skriften", gränslöst 4, 1997.
Deals with Valkare (1997;E2). In the scheme fig. 2 it is maintained that the auditive dimension "has primacy/has reception and cognition mechanisms with a reciprocal reward" - music writing "has the potential to a) transcend time and space b) create power c) preserve and accumulate information - p.35.
e2/ Anonymous (ed.): Logothetis-Zyklus. Konzerte zur Logothetis-Ausstellung vom 20.3.97 - 20.4.97 im Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Museumstr. 52, 1997.
Program articles by Matthias Henke (includes a different, shorter version of Henke (1996;E2)), Christoph Jäggin and Max E. Keller. Illustrations, short bibliography, list of selected works.
e2/ Auh, Myung-sook; Walker, Robert: "Compositional strategies and music creativity when composing with staff notations versus graphic notations among Korean students", Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, summer 1999.
Empirical study of 38 students working with either traditional or graphic notation. A significant difference was found, to the effect that "the non-traditional group used more diverse compositional strategies than the traditional group".
e2/ Behrmann, David: "What Indeterminate Notation Determines", Perspectives of New Music 3/2, p.58. Also in: Boretz + Benjamin: Perspectives on notation and performance NY 1976 (The Perspectives of new music series), 1964/65. KB.
Discusses the principles behind Chr. Wolff: Duet II for horn and piano - as the title of the article states. In contrast to the original edition which appears with a cramped writing this article gives clearly printed samples. Also Durations I and Projection IV by Feldman is investigated. The 1976 edition is marked with the year 1965.
e2/ Bentzon, Niels Viggo: "Sylvano Bussotti" i: Fokus på en musikalsk fløderandssituation, Holstebro (Mogens Wenzel Andreasen og Bogan's forlag) 1999.
Considerations about Busotti's notation form which the author characterises as "filigran conventionalism" (p.64). Maybe an extended use of grace notes is meant by this. With illustrations
e2/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: "Grafisk notation i ny dansk musik", in: Composer's Biennale 1992, programbog. Kbh. (Dansk Komponistforening), 1992. AUM.
Historical sketch of how Danish composers have employed untraditional forms of notation. With illustrations and an English summary.
e2/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: Materiale fra plancheudstiling "Grafisk notation i ny dansk musik". Mappe med tekster and illustrationer (MS), 1992. AUM.
Contains the complete material for the exhibition as well as English translations. The copy at AUM was made from the original copies. The exhibition, however, gives a different and more lucid experience than the book. It can be borrowed free of charge (however, transportation costs must be paid) at the Music Information Centre, Copenhagen.
e2/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: "Grafisk notation i ny dansk musik", Gymnasiemusik 2, s. 34-43, april, 1995.
Historical sketch of how Danish composers have employed untraditional forms of notation. With illustrations (English summary only to be found in the Composer's Biennale edition Bergstrøm-Nielsen (1992;E2)).
e2/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: "Sprog som musikalsk notation. En undersøgelse af verbal notation og dens forudsætninger med særligt henblik på Stockhausens Aus den Sieben Tagen og Für kommende Zeiten", Col Legno nr.1, 1998. MKAR.
Col Legno: see J1.1. The article deals with the use of language as a supplement to music notation from the baroque period and on; Fluxus and the Scratch Orchestra; Verbal Anthology (English) ((Hobbs);A2.2); Stockhausen's use of verbal notation before the text collections; detailed analysis of the two collections. The conclusion deals among other things with characterising different degrees of fixation of the musical content. They are called "fixing", "outlining", "hinting at" and "evoking". It also deals with the way in which verbal notation is often employed to describe general characteristics, frameworks, starting-points and possibly specific playing rules (which can be conditional, dealing with "if-then"-relations and thus be of a more complex nature than the traditional music notation). Verbal notation only rarely describes sequences of single elements the way the stave notation does.
e2/ Biget, Michelle (ed.): Les Cahiers du CIREM (Centre International de Recherches en Esthétique Musicale). Special issue "Musique et aleatoire(s)" vol. 18-19, dec., 1990.
Collection of articles about the use of chance and improvisation in composed music. An introduction deals with different views of chance as an illusion or as an element having creative powers, in a way similar to the debate of the seventies 70-ernes debat - the repertory dealt with by Brown (December 52) and Stockhausen (Klavierstück XI) is also of a retrospective nature. The concept of aleatorics is here used in a confusingly French manner as synonymous with indetermiation. See Guacerro (1990;H4); Castanet (1990;G2.4); Cisternino (1990;G2.4).
e2/ Brown, Earle: "Notation und Ausführung neuer Musik", in: Notation neuer Musik. Carl Dahlhaus - György Ligeti - Roman Haubenstock-Ramati - Mauricio Kagel - Earle Brown - Siegfried Palm - Aloys Kontarsky - Christoph Caskel. Mainz (Schott), 1965. Part of a series: Darmstädter Beiträge zur neuen Musik IX. MKAR OUB KB SB EM AEST IMD.
About the ideas behind Brown's work with new notations which he sees as having its basis in a "poetical nescessity" central for new music. Retrospective views are made of music history in which metrical rhythms and unambigous pitches were, according to Brown, only dominating since around 1600. The employing of ambigous notation had its starting-point among other places in the difficult situation for performances of music notated in a complex way in the USA (too little rehearsal time) and appeared as a solution to this practical problem. At the same time, it was a more direct form of working with "particles of time and sound". Traits from the biographical background of Brown concerning his music studies are outlined. Also inspirations from Schillinger are described (systematic thinking about musical parameters, cf. serialism), Calder (mobiles - the idea of an object which, however, is undergoing constant change) and Pollock (action painting and Pollock's great respect for the process in painting). The content of the article is summarised in the form of a number of thesis in the end.
e2/ Cardew, C: "Notation - Interpretation, etc.", Tempo 58, 1961, p. 21-33. DKDM IMD.
A collection of notes on notation. The author quotes from own works: Octet 1959, February 1959, February 1960, Third Orchestral Piece 1960, and from For Six Players by Chr. Wolff and Two Pianos (1957) af Morton Feldman. These extensive notes testify to Cardew's intense working with the subject of notation from a "functionalistic" view (p.29): notation is an element in its own right, not a depiction of the sound, and it should stimulate the performer to make a number of independent decisions. Among other examples quoted are those of elements relative with regard to context in the piano piece Febr. 59: the next tone follows when dynamics have reached a specified level; "long" or "loud" can be stated without further specification. - February 1960 has also been printed in Thomas (1966;E1). Also reprinted in Cardew (2006;G2.1).
e2/ Cardew, Cornelius: Treatise Handbook. Ed. Peters; Hinrichsen
Ed., 1971. AUB SB KB.
Includes diary-like thoughts by the composer from the working process with Treatise and notes about a number of performences of this work. It was composed during a working period paid for by an official grant. There are two essays: one is "Towards an Ethic of Improvisation" (= Cardew (1971;g3) which has a commentary by a fellow musician (Michael Chant as far as I remember?), the other "On the Role of the instructions in the interpretation of indeterminate music". It includes further "Bun nr. 2" for orchestra and "Volo Solo" for piano.
e2/ Cardew, Cornelius: "Wiggly Lines and Wobbly Music", Studio International, nov/dec, 1976.
Article with critical views on graphic notation by a formerly important representative of this notation form.
e2/ Castanet, Pierre-Albert (ed.): Les cahiers du CIREM (Centre international de recherches en esthetique musicale), special issue: "Musique et aleatoire(s)", numero 18-19,. Rouen, 1990(dec.)-1991(mars).
Various articles which hint at or deal with music having room for improvisation and different notations, among others Castanet (1990;G2.4), Cisternino (1990;G2.4), Guaccero (1990;G5) and Brouwer (1990;G5). In an introduction, stages in the discussion about this since the fifthies are characterised: "jugement sous le chock de la liberation graphique (sixties); "analyse encore naive, confronté a la revolution technique et electroacoustique et a l'émancipation des moeurs musicales" (seventies, Brouwer and others) and "opinion plus libre qui semble avoir tout assimili les libertes artistiques" of the eighties.
e2/ Charles, Daniel (ed.): musique en jeu, special issue: "notations/graphismes", nov., 1973. IMD.
Contributions dealing with theory by Charles, Daniel; Dorflès, Gillo; Laloum, Claude; Marie, Jean-Étienne; Miereanu, Costin; Nattiez, Jean-Jacques; Risset, Jean-Claude; Stockhausen, Karlheinz.
e2/ Christiansen,Henning: "Visuel musik", Museet for Samtidskunst, nyhedsblad, nr.3, 1991.
The author advocates for integrating the visual element in the musical creation. "Sound and picture melts together more and more; however, MUSICALITY itself remains as a common human phonomenon" (p.5).
e2/ Dobson, Elaine: The music of György Ligeti from 1958 to 1968: Form, notation and the concept of illusion. (MA Thesis, Univ. of Queensland), 1973. AUB.
The chapter "Notation II - Graphic systems" (p. 114-152) examines Volumina and mentions Articulation and the aural score Wehinger (1970;A4). P.137 one can read, with a quotation following from Ligeti in Thomas (1960;E1) - : "Is new notation a means of communication or an end in itself? Ligeti believes it can be both at the same time depending on the context in which one considers it. He makes the anology: 'traffic lights are symbols of command and an illuminated advertisement is a method of communication which conveys a meaning. Traffic lights and illuminated signs moreover also produce, when seen together, the pattern of lights of a big city's street: a poetic complex is experienced if one allows the significance of the individual light-signs to recede from one's consciousness'".
e2/ Eggleston, Suzanne: Review: Music Notation News: The Journal of the Music Notation Modernization Association, in: NOTES. Journal of the American Music Librarian Ass. dec., 1994.
The magazine mentioned in the title began in 1986 and was published at the time of this review in Kirksville, MD, USA. I 1992 the Association had members in 17 countries. That which is summararised here deals with revision and reform of traditional notation.
e2/ Gottstein, Björn: "Versuch einer Analyse der notationellen Krise", MusikTexte 76/77, Dezember, 1998.
The author describes three tendencies which responds to the "crisis of notation" 1) "Turning the visual aspects into absolutes" (for instance Kagel: Translation - Rotation, 1960); 2) "Turning notational shortcomings into aesthetic qualities" (for instance Leon Schidlowsky: DADAYamasONG, <1980 or before; see Karkoschka (1980;E2)>)" and 3) "Strictly keeping to the functional" (for instance tablatures).
e2/ Gratzer, Wolfgang: "John Cage und Morton Feldman", Archiw für Musikwissenschaft 53:4, 1996. KB.
First, Cage was inspired by the graphic notation of Feldman which, heroically, renounced the control over every tone. Later: "Feldman...decided rather early to abandon the way of graphic notation. He was, as he once more made it clear in 1982, "interested in the liberation of the sound and not in the liberation of the performer" (p. 345).
e2/ Griffiths, Paul: "Sound-Code-Image", EYE MUSIC. The Graphic Art of New Musical Notation, udstillingskatalog. St. Albans (Arts Council of Great Britain), 1986. BRIT.LIBR.
Historical review of other kinds of notation from a philosophical point of view which sees them as reflecting a modern ambiguity in musical language. Many illustrations.
e2/ Gringer, Peter: Die Kunst des Rhythmus. Professionelles Know-How in Theorie und Praxis. Mit einem Beitrag von Michael Küttner. Mainz (Schott, Bestell.nr ED 7868), cop.1993.
Rhythmic patterns are visualised elegantly with star-like figures. A special case of what is meant by graphic notation by this writer: visualising processes and entire sections or pieces of music.
e2/ Guaccerro, Domenico: "L'Aléa", du son au signe graphique", Les Cahiers du CIREM (Centre International de Recherches en Esthétique Musicale). Special issue "Musique et aleatoire(s)" vol. 18-19, dec. 1990.
Article from 1961 about degrees of indeterminacy in composed music. Views the freedom in performance as a humanistic and ethical dimension which should be sought after.
e2/ Harrison, Judith L.: Score reading and retention of twentieth-century compositions: effects of conventional notation, graphic notation and improvisation on aural perception (diss.). Grensboro, 1980. AUB.
Empirical study. Music by Gunther Schuller, Carlos Chávez and Paul Hindemith was presented for school pupils, both with traditional notation and with a notation which was similar to a system of co-ordinates. The various forms had equal score with regard to using the notation as a means to follow the music.
e2/ Haubenstock-Ramati, Roman: "Notation - material and form", Perspectives of New Music Fall-Winter, 1965. KB.
Reflections on composition, improvisation and notation. Among other things, it is said that "form can only be invented; material can only be discovered" (p. 41 - originally in italics).
e2/ Henke, Matthias: "Der eigenwillige Weg. Das dodekaphone Frühwerk von Anestis Logothetis", Positionen 27, p.23-26, 1996.
Various information about biography and the early music of Logothetis.
e2/ Henke, Matthias: "Die entfesselten Klänge. Logothetis' Weg zur graphischen Notation", Positionen 28, p.41-44, 1996.
On the graphically notated works of L. and their background.
e2/ Hoch, Peter (ed.): Bild und Musik. Musik und Bild. Ergebnisse eines Seminars. Schriftenreihe "Aus der Arbeit der Bundesakademie" Band 12,. Hohner-Musikverlag, 7218 Trossingen, Bestell-Nr. 7-075-072, 1991.
Various articles. Bibliographical information about published notations.
e2/ Karkoschka, Erhard: "Eine Hörpartitur elektronischer Musik", Melos 11, 1971.
Thorough discussion of criterias for aural scores. Information on the development up to the published score by Wehinger over Ligeti's Articulation <see Wehinger (1970;A4)>. Some of the author's own works are quoted.
e2/ Karkoschka, Erhard: "Leon Schidlowsky's "DADAYAmasONG". Eine musikalische Graphik und ihre Interpretation. I Göllner, Theodor (ed.): Notenschrift und Aufführung. Symposium zur Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Musikforschung 1977 in München. Tutzing (Hans SchneiderVerlag), 1980. Part of a series: Münchner Veröffentlichungen zur Musikgeschichte Bd. 30.
The author presents an outline for a classification of graphic scores ranking them as to how exact or how indeterminate they are. Earle Brown's December 1952 is seen as indeterminate to a high degree, due to the way it presented itself to the writer in Darmstadt 1964. The work mentioned in the title is quoted in extenso and is examined in detail. An instructive and informative article, apart from the reservation given above.
e2/ Knessl, Lothar: "Roman Haubenstock-Ramati's Freedom from restriction. A biographical sketch - notes on the works". World New Music Magazine 4, 1994.
"The graphics are not designated to be interpreted totally ad libitum, responsibility is not delegated, but so much is doled out to the player as is nescessary for him to be active in a complex group of relationships - an academy of listening! - not primitive and instinctive smog of improvisation".
e2/ Knessl, Lothar: "Töne des Abschieds. Roman Haubenstock-Ramati - ein Porträt". MusikTexte 54, 1994.
Contains among other things a characteristic of the mobiles.
e2/ Krones, Hartmut (ed.): Klangbild und Bildklang. Anestis Logothetis. Wien (Lafite), 1998. Part of a series: Komponisten unserer Zeit, 27.
Includes catalogue of works and biblio/discography.
e2/ Kohler, Armin: "Musikalische Graphik, ein
Befund", Musik und Gesellschaft (DDR) vol. 13, 1987.
Essential contributions to a historical view of new notation
forms are put forward here. In Europe during the beginning of the
20th century, there was a tendency towards fusion between the art
forms. With inspirations from music and the space-time continuum,
Kandinskiy theorized about the elements of visual art. This had
a direct influence on Haubenstock-Ramatis musical thinking and
on the work of Logothetis. As shown in the article, various point
forms shaped by Logothetis have close parallels to those of
Kandinsky.
This European development vas paralleled by the influence of
Pollock and Calder on Earle Brown and other composers in USA
later after 1945. (Paradoxically, this might still be better
known among Europeans than our own backgrounds in visual art).
Also the definition of "musical graphics" (coined by
Haubenstock-Ramati for the first exhibition of such works 1959
in Donaueschingen organized by him) is discussed. The author
considers that a double functioning of this is essential, both
as musical signs and as a visual work in its own right.
e2/ Logothetis, Anestis: ""Karmadharmadrama" in graphischer Notation", Österreichische Musikzeitung 27:10, Oktober 1972.
The author thinks that the use of graphic elements as notation in 1958 were still used "at the most as a stimulus for improvisation" and mentions Brown's December 1952 as an example - according to Logothetis, Brown allowed the interpreter to improvise, that is, practically, to play what he or she liked. Contrary to this, L. wishes to create a "polymorphic work" which does not just initiate improvisation but which designs concrete fields of possibilities - for instance, exact pitches in works of L. can be interpreted freely concerning registers, in melodical and to some degree also in dynamic respect.
e2/ Logothetis, Anestis: "Über die Darstellung des Klanges im Schriftbild (Einführung mit Spielanweisungen)" in: Impulse für Spielmusikgruppen. Wien (UE 20034), 1973. Part of a series: Rote Reihe 34. LOGOS.
With an introductory text by the composer. He accounts here for his ideas about a consequent graphic notation that make a different music possible which is "polymorphic", compared to what is possible within traditional notation and which at the same time avoids the problem of arbitrariness connected to inviting improvisation. This article can be recommended as an introduction to Logothetis' thoughts on notation.
e2/ Logothetis, Anestis: "Klangcharakterschrift. Zu meinem Werk" (1990) MusikTexte 53, März, 1994.
The author comments his own notational system. With examples.
e2/ Meyer, Thomas: "Ich verneine nicht, dass ich ein Lyriker bin. Roman Haubenstock-Ramati im Gespräch". MusikTexte 54, 1994.
Haubenstock-Ramati tells, among other things, about the idea behind his mobiles: the liberation of music from being fixed to linear logic and to rhythms to be counted.
e2/ Miereanu, Costin: ""Textkomposition" - voi zero de l'écriture musicale", musique en jeu 13, 1973.
Language theory thoughts on verbal notation by a composer. Stockhausen (1968;A1) is also discussed.
e2/ MT: "Roman Haubenstock-Ramati" (obituary), MusikTexte 53, März, 1994.
e2/ Otte, Hans: "Neue Notationen und ihre Folgen", Melos p. 76f, 1961.
This article, written at an early time, gives a portrait of traditional versus radical composer's attitudes to notation. The author expresses the hope for "a totally new, intense relation between interpreter and composer". Quotes "Décisions" by Haubenstock-Ramati.
e2/ Pooler, Frank et al.: New Choral Notation (A Handbook). New York (Walton Music Corp), 1971. DKDM.
e2/ Pritchett, James: The Music of John Cage. Cambridge (Cambr. Univ. Press), 1996. KB.
See the section "New notations", p. 109-125. Variations III is mentioned later in the book, p. 148-49, 150, 155.
e2/ Rainer, Oskar: Musikalische Graphik. Wien, 1925. Part of a
series: Lehrbücherei Bd. 40.
Accounts in details about experiments with playing from
pictures and discusses the relation between picture and music.
This book has inspired Logothetis to start his own work with
graphic notation, according to the "Kurzbiographie" [short
biography] in Anonymous (1997;E2).
e2/ Rastall, Richard: The notation of western music. An
introduction, London/Melbourne/Toronto (Dent & Sons) 1983.
A general notation history book which mentions also in a last
chapter some new and experimental ones. However, experimental
composition as such, which transcend the limits of staff
notation, is only represented by one example (Feldman's De
Kooning) and misleadingly placed under the heading of
"Indeterminacy", as if experimental composition with new
notations did not exist outside of this tendency. Information
seen from the present point of view is therefore too sparse to
make the book serve as a general introduction. Worth quoting is,
however, the author's classification of notations on p. 257,
which is very precise concerning some different roles of
notation, including that of experimental notations, in their
contrasting of those to "sight-reading" ones:
"1.mnemonic notation... in which the notation provides an
analogue to the sound of music already learned by ear;
2.sight-reading notation, in which the object is to allow the
performers to make at least a reasonably accurate attempt at the
music at sight; and
3.notation which cannot be used except by a process of
investigation and rehearsal"
e2/ Read, Gardner: Omtale af Logothetis: Grafische Notationen, Notes vol. 25:1, sept., 1988.
Review of Logothetis (A1;1961). Contains good, thorough descriptions of the material and its symbols. The author considers himself incapable of evaluating the "musical substance". Maybe one should understand "substance" here in a different way from traditionally! The review features much good description, however - and, curiously enough, the author mentions that the performer's contribution decides in the last end what comes out. So, a performance, which the author would like to hear in order to be able to judge better, would perhaps not solve the principal problem. See the writings of Logothetis himself under E1 and E2 about the idea of a "polymorphous" music.
e2/ Roggenkamp, Peter: Schriftbild und Interpretation in neuer Klaviermusik. Wien (UE 30207), 1996.
Contains among other things a small section on graphic notation.
e2/ Runswick, Daryl: RIG notation. Manus, 1996.
Manual giving the key to Runswick's notational system. The author says about it: "RIG is a notation suitable for all situations where strict prescriptive accuracy is not appropriate: situations ranging from floating textures ('mobiles') through passages with set events to be performed within an elastic time-scale, or semi-randomised, all the way through to completely improvised music. It is designed to be fully integrated into conventional notation, so that composers who wish to loosen their control of various parameters from time to time can do so...". Contains also a small article, "Notes for improvisors" which encourages a systematic learning of elements, but only keeping that which later presents itself spontaneously: "PRACTISE your phrases, LINK and VARY them, LET GO what you forget". Runswick teaches composition at Trinity College i London.
e2/ Simonsen, Fjeld (later: Fjeld, Anker): Review of Detoni: Graphik IV, Dansk Musiktidsskrift 2 p. 54, oktober, 1972.
Introduction and discussion of the contents; four of the graphic sheets are quoted.
e2/ Sündermann, Hans; Dahlhaus, Carl: "Musikalische Graphik",
Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, Jahrgang 128, 12, 1967.
Two discussion statements which followed an earlier article by
Sündermann printed in Neue Zeitschrift and a review by Dahlhaus.
Dahlhaus' review is to be found in "Bd. VIII, Nr. 5, Januar
1967", and Sündermann's article includes "page 478". For Dahlhaus,
Sündermann's studies are of an esoteric kind.
e2/ Sündermann, Hans; Ernst, Berta: Klang - Farbe - Gebärde.
Musikalische Graphik. Herausgegeben und mit einem Vorwort
versehebn von Univ.-Prof. Dr. Alois Eder., Wien/München (Anton
Schroll & Co) 1981.
This book investigates synaesthetic relations between music and
visual arts and between music and movement. The historic horizon
is Central European classical music tradition and expressionism,
and modern painters such as "Kandinsky, Klee, Feiniger, Marc and
Mondrian" (p.15). Studies and practise was undertaken in Vienna
by Oskar Rainer from 1925 till 1941 who was a professor at
Bundesrealgymnasium. His work was carried on by Dr. Hans
Sünderman (who died 1979) and Bertha Ernst, former students of
his, at "Institut für musikalische Graphik" - no further
description is given of this institute's location and status
(p.11).
This "Oskar Rainer Viennese school" of visualizing music does
not have the aural score approach - there is a focus on
"employing music as an inspiration for artistic creation". And
works shown may deal with illustrating selected properties of the
music, but they do so in a free, holistic way, not as a mapping
of details. - P. 21-54 are devoted, however, to describing
parallels between music figures and lines which may have zigzag
or wawe "movement", as well as other simple visual shapes as well
as some colour characteristics.
Some issues treated in the work are interval and key systems,
instrumental colour, period style, national/regional
characteristics and personalities of composers. Also dance, the
disciplines of conduction and hand-signs with imilar purpose are
taken up. An especially large section is devoted to educational
use, designing different kinds of developmental focus for
different ages. Illustrations are (of course) included, many in
colours.
e2/ Trescher, Margret: "Cornelius Cardews "Treatise" und die Gruppe AMM", MusikTexte 86/87, November, 2000.
Beneficially thorough examination of Cardew (1969;A1). Analytical considerations and discussions of perspectives, and in the same careful way the rise and basis of the improvisation group AMM is examined. The article has been reworked from a chapter in the diploma work "Die Hinwendung zur Improvisation bei Franco Evangelisti und Cornelius Cardew in den sechziger Jahren", Hildesheim (Universität, Fachbereich Kulturwissenschaften und Ästhetische Kommunikation) 1997.
e2/ Valkare, Gunnar: Det audiologiske fältet. Om musikkens förhållande til skriften och den unge Bo Nilssons strategier. Göteborg, 1997. Part of a series: Skrifter från Avdelingen för Musikvetenskap, Muskkhögakolan i Göteborg, nr. 49. AUB.
"The audiological field" is the space between the two poles: the auditive and the writing. Their relation is examined in the context of music history. More abstracting under Ahlin (1997;E2).
e2/ Werner, Sven Erik: "Musikkens skrift og tale" i Samfundet til udgivelse af dansk musik 1871-1971. Kbh. 1971. Online: http://www.sven-erik-werner.dk/sew05.pdf
The modern questioning of the relation between writing and speech is discussed philosophically with reference to Derrida. The line of thought seems to be that the practise of writing beginning with Mozart and Beethoven, characterised among other things by thematic dualism in the sonata form, represents a "critical thoughtfulness" towards the immediate reality. The relation between speech and writing becomes dialectic and not just two sides of the same matter.
e2/ Zenz, Katrin: "Skulpturen. Anestis Logothetis gestorben", MusikTexte 53, März, 1994.
Deals with the notational system of Logothetis; bibliographical references to writings by him on the subject.
E3. THE "BENT LORENTZEN-DEBATE" 1987-88
e3a/ Lorentzen, Bent: "Orgelmusik I", Dansk Musiktidsskrift, 1986/87.
Composer Bent Lorentzen accounts for a new edition in traditional notation of his organ works which were originally published in graphical notation. This was worked out following practical experience showing him difficulties of relating to it by musicians.
e3b/ Hansen, Jens Bruno: "I anledning af Bent Lorentzens Organ Music I", Organist-bladet 5, maj, 1988.
Critisises the revision of Lorentzen which abandons graphic notation. Hansen finds that the graphic notation appeals more directly to the musicians and a co-creative effort, and the revision thus puts an end to the open aesthetic attitude which was the original impulse.
e3c/ Vad, Knud: "En kommentar til Jens Bruno Hansens artikel om Bent Lorentzens orgelværker", Organist-Bladet nr. 6, juni. Dansk Organist- og Kantorsamfund, 1988.
The organist who first performed many of the organ works mentioned and who collaborated with Bent Lorentzen around their coming into existence protests 'against the revision. He finds, contrarily to Lorentzen's view, that the grahic notation meets the musician well and he finds that the revised version narrows down the possible interpretations in an absurd way.
e3d/ Lorentzen, Bent: "De uskrevne spilleregler. Grafisk noteret musik", Nutida Musik 3, 1988/89.
Bent Lorentzen gives way to the criticism and allows the graphic versions of the organ works discussed to remain valid. At the same time, however, he draws attention to the problem that there are unwritten rules belonging to performance practise which are in danger of being forgotten in the long historical run, where lack of background knowledge can result in a complete misunderstanding of the work.
e3e/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: "Det antiautoritære kan ikke være én mulighed blandt mange, siger Prometheus", Nutida Musik 3, 1988/89.
Some comments to Bent Lorentzen around the idea that anti-authoritarian ideas cannot be just one possibility among other ones, if one believes in them.
APPENDIX F. COLLECTIONS OF EXERCISES, WRITINGS AND MUSIC WORKS FOR EDUCATIONAL USE
THIS LIST IS BASED ON: Various collected data and materials since 1971. Examination of a large number of bibliographies in articles and books. Subscription to magazines including Musics, Dansk Musiktidsskrift, MusikTexte, Resonance, Gränslöst. - Research stay at Logos Archives, Gent, summer 1997.
F1.1. COLLECTIONS OF EXERCISES AND RELATED WRITINGS
f1.1/ See also Oliveros (1971;A2.2); Vetter (1996;A2.2); Hansen (1988;A4); Runswick (1996;E2); Friedemann (F1.2); Nimczik (1997;F3); Meyer-Denkmann (F1.3); Bailey (1992;G1.1) p. 118-122; Nunn (1998;G3); Hegi (1993;H3.1); Næss 1989;H3.1);
f1.1/ Ausländer, Peter: Experimentelles Musik- und Tanztheater in der schulmusikalischen Praxis und in der kulturellen Jugendarbeit, Landesarbeitsgemeinschaft Spiel und Theater NRW e.V, Vlotho 1997.
Includes a printing of the open composition PLAY III by Johannes Fritsch
f1.1/ Ausländer, Peter: "Vokalimprovisation", ringgespräch für gruppenimprovisation LXIV, märz, 1998.
For adults. Various good exercises.
f1.1/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: Intuitiv musik - en mini-håndbog. Målgruppe "unge og voksne". Manus, 1990ffa. OUB AUM KB.
(See Bergstrøm-Nielsen (1990ffb;F1.1).
f1.1/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: Intuitive Music - a Mini-Handbook. Photo-copied, 1990ff. OUB AUM KB. New online edition here.
Handbook for people who wish to play or teach freely improvised music and improvisation pieces. With sections on how to start with different types of groups, training of musical awareness, parameters of the musical sound, the history of improvised music and a bibliography.
f1.1/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: "Intuitive Music - a Mini-Handbook". Logos-Blad (Belgium) 3, 4 + 5, 1992.
Handbook for people who wish to play or teach freely improvised music and improvisation pieces. With sections on how to start with different types of groups, training of musical awareness, parameters of the musical sound, the history of improvised music and a bibliography. 1992 edition.
f1.1/ Bradlyn, Mark: "Figure, ground and field. Gesture and texture. A gestalt strategy for group improvisation. The Improvisor IX, autumn, 1991.
Exercises.
f1.1/ Dean, Roger T. with assistance from Ashley C. Brown: Creative Improvisation: Jazz, Contemporary Music and Beyond. How to develop techniques of improvisation for any musical context. Milton Keynes(UK)/Bristol(USA) (Open University Press), 1989. AUB.
Practical exercises most of which deal with pitch-bound music, but also aiming at experimental music. There are sections on "Timbres and textures for improvising" - "Combining and responding" - "Improvising within thentieth-century compositions" and "Texts and visual stimuli for improvising". This includes a discussion of possible interpretations of "Set Sails for the Sun" (Setz die Segel zur Sonne) by Stockhausen, also pieces by Jackson McLow, Tom Phillips and Will Eisma receive individual scrutinity.
The book concludes with a number of questions improvisors could ask themselves, such as "Why improvise anyway...", "Personal character in improvising", "Universal constrains in improvising", each of which is set into perspective by both critical and symphatetic quotations, and the author states strikingly that "these issues are not ones for which unique and logically defensible solutions can presently emerge. They are rather tempting dishes for you to taste at all times" (p. 116).
f1.1/ Dennis, Brian: Experimental Music in Schools. Towards a New World of Sound. Slough, UK (Oxford University Press), 1970.
Practical handbook dealing with how to make schoolclass compositions to be realised with common participation - notation, instruments etc.
f1.1/ Djill, Tom: "Deep listening retreat with Pauline Oliveros", The Improvisor XI, 1996.
For adults. Among other things, information about exercises used.
f1.1/ Globokar, Vinko: Individuum-Collectivum Vol. 1-3. San Domenico di Fiesole/Firenze (Quaderni di BeQuadro) / Saarbrücken (Pfau), 1986 / s.a.[1995]. AUM.
Improvisation exercises. The volumes have themes: exercises with musical parameters, with collaboration, with interdependence. With beautyful graphic illustrations. Text is in French and Italian in the Italian edition, in the German one it is in German and French. The author allows the Italian edition to be photo-copied (according to communication during his course in Luzern 1990).
f1.1/ Hansen, Ivan (ed.): Per Nørgård: Trommebogen/Drumbook. Øvelser og værker for slagtøjsgrupper/Exercises and Works for Percussion Groups. Ringsted (Wilhelm Hansen), 1999.
From Per Nørgård's preface: "...many [tempo] layers...players actually grow into the faster, more difficult layers...The ultimate goal of ensemble playing based on my "infinity series" is to break down the barriers between the music-making of children, adults, amateurs and professionals, allowing everyone to join on an equal footing, and to be able to enjoy each other's differencies, with devotion and concentration".
f1.1/ Karkoschka, Erhard: Kollektives Improvisieren /Collective Improvisation, cop. Darmstadt (Tonos Editions), 1973.
This work has both German and English text. The author attaches much importance to the intellectual activity around the exercise of music, analysis and decisions.
f1.1/ Lorentzen, Bent: Lydformning. Kordramatik. Kbh (WH), 1971, 1982. DKDM NJMK EM OUB SB AUB.
See the English edition: Lorentzen (1973;F1.1).
f1.1/ Lorentzen, Bent: New Choral Dramatics. New York (Walton Music Corp.), 1973.
English edition of Lorentzen (1971,1982;F1.1). For children and young people. Jingles for speech choir, graphic pieces etc. A classic work having been re-printed in a new edition.
f1.1/ Lorentzen, Bent and Dupont, Karin: Familien Blok (blokfløjteskole), 1962. NJMK SB.
f1.1/ Lyhne, Henning: Lydværkstedet. Musik og rytme med selvskabte instrumenter. København (Høst og Søn), 1979. AUB.
Target group is children and young people. Thorough description of many kinds of instruments and how to make them. The section "spillemåder [playing techniques] has various good ideas in the form of keywords for starting-points for a free playing together.
f1.1/ Morrow, Charlie: "At synge. Opskrifter og kommentarer (1976)". Dansk Musiktidsskrift 2, 1984/85.
Exercises with singing and breathing.
f1.1/ Oliveros, Pauline: Sonic Meditations (1971). Baltimore (Smith Publications), 1974. AUB.
A classic work in meditative and improvised playing practise. From the description of the catalogue of the publisher: "a collection of verbally notated meditations that may be enjoyed by anyone in a variety of ways: read as poetry, performed alone, or performed for an audience". Among other things the imagination, including imagination of possible sounds, have a role. One often concentrates on one kind of sound or on a slow, gradual change. Some exercises imply participants contacting each other, in others they are just together in the same room.
Mention in Wolff (1987;G2.5); a thorough mention and characterising of all the pieces in Gunden (1983;G2.1). An impressionistic report from a short session by Yarden (1981;G2.1).
f1.1/ Paynter, John: Lytt på nytt (1972). Oslo (Norsk Musikforlag A/S), 1974. SB.
School children as the target group. On new music as a background, exercises, ideas. While "Sound and Silence" is the better known work by Paynter, it is nevertheless here that one can find several examples of simple, practical notations. The book does not mention the English source from which it has presumably been translated.
f1.1/ Philipp, Günter: "Gedanken zum Improvisationsunterricht heute", Musik und Gesellschaft (DDR) vol. 35, Nov. 1985. MI.
Various considerations about experiences with and effects of working with improvisation in school.
f1.1/ Porter, Randy: "A case for improvisation to be an integral part of music curriculum", The Improvisor XI, 1996.
Target group is music students. Describes exercises.
f1.1/ Reibel, Guy: Jeux Musicaux. Vol.1: Jeux Vocaux, Paris
(Salabert) 1984.
This collection of choral pieces/exercises/ideas is addressed
to a broad range of music people, from professional choir to
amateurs and to teachers and students. There is also a small
chapter on how the kind of music described may be made with
children (more orientated towards "stories" and
movement-following).
The collection is extensive - more than 200 pages in approx.
A4 format are devoted to the description of the practical ideas,
and excellent, simple musical graphics are an integral part of
this, making ideas clear at a glance and also effectively
suggesting variation possibilities iwthin ihe specific idea
proposed.
Reibel is successor of Pierre Schaeffer as Professor of the
Electroacoustic Composition class and of Musical Research at
Conservatoire de Paris. The ideas proposed are presented within
four categories: 1) Energy-Space (small category), 2) Dimensions
of the tone (very extensive and subdivided into: Pitches-Masses;
Dynamic Profiles; Pointillistic tones; Colours-vocals;
Attacs-Consonants), 3) Suns and spoken readings (various
subdivisions).
The work combines stunningly analytical sense and creative
instinct, and is an essential one for comtemporary/experimental
choir people on many levels, as was intended. Ideas being
intended as suggestions, creative personalities who can work on
themselves, as improvising conductors or as composers, seem,
however, to be required, but the inspirations given make it
possible for new people to start right here.
A second volume on instrumental playing was announced in the
book, but seems not to have appeared at the time of writing this
(2008).
f1.1/ Schaarschmidt, Helmut: Die instrumentale Gruppenimprovisation. Modelle für Unterricht und Freizeit. Regensburg (Bosse), 1981. AUB.
For young people. Rather traditional view of music, but a fine systematic collection.
f1.1/ Schafer, R. Murray: Schöpferisches Musizieren (1965). Wien (UE 20035), 1971. Part of a series: Rote Reihe 35.
Target group seems to be school children. Book with discussions and exercises.
f1.1/ Schwabe, Matthias: Musik spielend erfinden. Improvisieren in der Gruppe für Anfänger und Fortgeschrittene. Kassel etc.(Bärenreiter), 1992.
Large collection of improvisation exercise and improvisation games. The subtitles of the chapters indicate the underlying systematic view: "Kommunikationsspiele auf Trommeln und anderen Instrumenten [Communication games on drums and other instruments]" - "Erfahrungen mit Klängen und Geräuschen [experiences with sounds and noises]" - "Assoziative und andere improvisatorische Gestaltungsaufgaben [tasks in putting music together stressing associative and other dimensions]" - "Improvisationsspiele für fortgeschrittene Gruppen [improvisation games for advanced groups]" - "Erfahrungen mit der Stimme [experiences with voice]" - "Einstieg in metrisches Erfinden [introduction to metric inventiveness]" - "Metrische Improvisationen für fortgeschrittene Gruppen [metric improvisations for advanced participants]". The author takes games with rules as his basis, for instance guessing games; movement is often a part of the activity. A concluding chapter, "Sieben Themen über Improvisation [seven themes on improvisation]" contains also some shrewd pedagogical considerations - among other things, with down-to-earth considerations making comparisons to nature sounds, speech melody and movement as a common means of expression in freely improvised, sound-oriented music - as an answer to possible critical views having their basis in more traditional notions. Here are also stated some considerations about how the games can be presented to participants. The author practises a playful attitude which at the same time also seeks for pure cultivation of material: "es geht nicht mehr um irgendeinen interessanten Klang, somdern darum, dass dieser in Dauer, Lautstärke, Akzentuierung, Farbe und rhythmischer Qualität zielgerichtet ist [the object of this is no more just some kind of interesting sound, but about the sound being goal-directed concerning duration, dynamics, accentuation, colour and rhythmic quality]", it is stated p. 50 about the exercises of chapter III.
f1.1/ Schwabe, Matthias: ""Du bist doch kein Klavierlehrer!". Improvisation im Klavierunterricht mit Kindern", ringgespräch über gruppenimprovisation LVII, Juni, 1993.
Improvisation exercises for piano teaching of children.
f1.1/ Spahlinger, Mathias: Vorschläge. Konzepte zur Ver(über)flüssigung des Komponisten. Wien (UE) no. 20070, 1993. Part of a series: Rote Reihe 70..
Twenty-eight verbally notated playing introductions (only one has also traditional notation) which are detailed and at the same time described in a compact way, published during the nineties of the south German composition Professor Matthias Spahlinger, suitable for children and adults (according to the dedication they seem to have been used at a gymnsaium). The subtitle indicates precisely the aim of the author which is also elaborated on in the introduction of the book: the texts are meant to provide ideas and challenges but are not meant as 'traffic rules to be followed strictly' - they can be reflected upon, changed and contradicted along the way.
Spahlinger engages himself in musical material and in playing situations. For example, material can be defined from parameters as durations, dynamics, tempo - or from 'irreversible occurrences', for instance sounds in everyday life or a regular pulsation. - The playing situation can be characterised by independence of participants in their relation to each other, by one having to wait for the right opportunity to begin playing or they can have the form of a game with rules. Some few "concept-pieces" in which participants cannot hear each other are also included. - Mention in Wilson (1999;G1.1).
f1.1/ Stevens, John et.al.: Search and reflect. A music workshop handbook. London (Community Music), 1985.
For young people and adults. Exercises with pulse and rhythm; impovisation exercise. Written for and is used by Community Music, an organisation for music teaching based on voluntary work in London. The author accounts for how he started pedagogical practising trough his concert public and for his method in Bailey (1992;G1.1) p. 118-122.
f1.1/ Vetter, Michael: Il flauto dolce ed acerbo. Cellen (Moeck), 1974. OUB.
f1.1/ Vetter, Michael: Hör-Spiele. Materialien zu freier musikalischer Verwendung. Bd. 1-5.. Wien (UE 30 388, 30 389...), 1977.
No fixing of target groups - these exercises can be made easy or difficult according to wish. 2 volumes. Volume 1 contains simple and yet varied graphic basic models through three chapters: "2 lines" - "3 lines" and "pauses". Instructions about their use in German, English and French.
f1.1/ Vetter, Michael: Blokflötenschule. Lehrgang. Wien (UE 207730+31), 1983. Part of a series: Wiener Instrumentalschulen. DKDM NJMK.
f1.1/ Vetter, Michael: Literaturhefte 1-4 für F-Blockflöten. Wien (UE 20732), 1983. DKDM NJMK (For recorders in F. Edition for also C-Recorders also exists).
f1.1/ Vetter, Michael: Blokflötenschule. Ergänzungsband. Wien (UE 207730+31), 1983(?). DKDM NJMK.
f1.1/ Wittich, Werner: "Zur Didaktik der freien Improvisation", Musik und Bildung 5. p.242-46, 1973.
On work in school classes with creative sound with series of pictures as the starting-point.
f1.1/ Paynter, John; Aston, Peter: Sound and Silence. Classroom projects in creative music. Cambridge University Press, 1970. OUB AEST SB.
For school children. Comprehensive book with many exercises and ideas. Has been translated into German, Italian and Japanese, parts of it into Swedish, Dutch and Portuguese.
f1.1/ Paynter, John: Sound and Structure.. Cambridge University Press, 1992. OUB AUB.
For school children. Includes a cassette tape.
F1.2 LILLI FRIEDEMANN
f1.2/ See also Stumme (1973;G2.1),
f1.2/ Friedemann, Lilli: "Gemeinsames Improvisieren in einer Instrumentalgruppe", in: Junge Musik, P. 127, 1955.
f1.2/ Friedemann, Lilli: "Gebundene und freie Improvisation mit Instrumentalgruppen", Musica-Practica, P. 82, 1962.
f1.2/ Friedemann, Lilli: "Gemeinsame Improvisation auf Instrumenten" in: Musik im Unterricht (A), P.101, 1962.
f1.2/ Friedemann, Lilli: Gemeinsame Improvisation auf Instrumenten: Mit ausführlichen Spielregeln: Ein praktischer Beitrag zur Musiklehre. Kassel/Basel/Paris/London/N.Y., 1964. OUB.
f1.2/ Friedemann, Lilli: "Gemeinsame Improvisation - ein Studium generale der Musik?" in: Musica-Practica, P.13, 1965.
f1.2/ Friedemann, Lilli: "Instrumentalunterricht und Gruppenmusizieren", in: Musik im Unterricht (A), P.334, P. 373, 1967.
f1.2/ Friedemann, Lilli: Improvisieren zu Weihnachtsliedern/Für Gruppen von Sängern und Spielern aller Instrumente einschl. Orffschlagwerk/Mit einer allgem. Anleitung zu improvisierter Liedbegleitung. Kassel/Basel/Paris/London/N.Y., 1968.
f1.2/ Friedemann, Lilli: "Musikalische Bewusstseinsbildung ohne Noten" In: Musik und Bildung, P. 500,. Mainz, 1969.
f1.2/ Friedemann, Lilli: Kollektivimprovisation als Studium und Gestaltung Neuer Musik. Wien, 1969. KB.
f1.2/ Friedemann, Lilli: "Thesen zur Gruppenimprovisation - Kreatives Musizieren und Team-Musik in seiner gesellschaftlichen Funktion. In: Neue Musikzeitung 2, P.16", 1971.
f1.2/ Friedemann, Lilli: Einstiege in neue Klangbereiche durch Improvisation. Wien, 1972. KB.
f1.2/ Friedemann, Lilli: Spiel mit Klängen und Tönen, ein musikalischer Entwicklungslehrgang für Vorschulkinder und Schulanfänger. Wolfenbüttel, 1972.
f1.2/ Friedemann, Lilli: "Begegnungen mit der Gruppenimprovisation", i Stumme, Wolfgang (ed.): Über Improvisation. Mit Beiträgen von Elly Basic, Zagreb - Cesar Bresgen, Salzburg - Rainer Glen Buschmann, Dortmund - Lilli Friedemann, Hamburg - Hans Haselböck, Wien - Erhard Karkoschka, Stuttgart - Alfred Koerppen, Hannover - Günther Noll, Bonn - Wolfgang Stumme, Essen. Mainz (Schott), 1973. Part of a series: Bausteine für Musikerziehung und Musikpflege B21.OUB.
See the mention of this article under Stumme (1973;G2.1).
f1.2/ Friedemann, Lilli: Trommeln-Tanzen-Tönen: 33 Spiele für grosse und kleine. Wien (UE), 1983. Part of a series: Rote Reihe 69. KB.
F1.3 GERTRUD MEYER-DENKMANN
f1.3/ Meyer-Denkmann: Experiments in Sound. New Directions in Musical Education for Young Children. Wien (UE 26923),
English edition of Meyer-Denkmann (1970;F1.3).
f1.3/ Meyer-Denkmann, Gertrud: "Zur Methodik der Musikerziehung im Bereich der neuen Musik". In: Musik im Unterricht (A), P. 364, P. 401, 1966.
f1.3/ Meyer-Denkmann, Gertrud: "Musikalische Früherziehung in der Sicht neuen psychologischen und musikalischen Denkens". In: Musik und Bildung, P.16, 1970.
f1.3/ Meyer-Denkmann, Gertrud: "Suche nach einer neuen "pädagogischen Musik". In: Neue Musikzeitung P.1, Frbr./März, 1970.
f1.3/ Meyer-Denkmann, Gertrud: Klangexperimente und Gestaltungsversuche im Kindesalter. Wien (Univ.Ed.), 1970. Part of a series: Rote Reihe 11. KB AUB OUB.
Target group is kindergarten-aged children. Very creative book with many good ideas and at the same time good control. With illustrations in colour and a grammophone record.
f1.3/ Meyer-Denkmann, Gertrud: "Kreative Spielräume" In: Neue Musikzeitung, P. 16, 1970/71.
f1.3/ Meyer-Denkmann, Gertrud: Struktur und Praxis neuer Musik im Unterricht. Experiment und Methode. Wien, 1972. KB.
f1.3/ Meyer-Denkmann, Gertrud: Cassettenrecorderspiele und Tonbandproduktionen. Modelle und Projekte für den Unterricht. Regensburg, 1984.
f1.3/ Meyer-Denkmann, Gertrud: "Klangexperimente und Improvisationspraktiken. Einige kritische Anmerkungen", Musik und Unterricht 39, 1996. KB.
One of the most influential German music educators makes out the balance sheet. Historical reasons behind a current situation with less interest than before in an experimental music education which is open to improvisation are considered. Foundations of Meyer-Denkmann pedagogics in a stimulating interaction between "the hearing, seeing and tactile dimensions" (p. 32) are stressed. A musical new-orientation utilising creatively the ressources of media and technology of our time is recommended.
f1.3/ Meyer-Denkmann, Gertrud: Körper - Gesten - Klänge. Improvisation, Interpretation und Komposition Neuer Musik am Klavier. Saarbrücken (PFAU-Verlag - Postfach 102314, D-66023 Saarbrücken), 1998. AUB.
An alternative piano teaching book and book to get ideas from taking its starting-point in movement and use of various forms of clusters etc. Can be used at many levels and yield inspiration even to very skilled pianists. Interpretation proposals particularly, but not solely, for music from the fifthies and on - by Cowell, Brown (December 1952), Stockhausen, Ustwolskaja, Cage, Kagel - in addition improvisation propsals taking its starting-point in music by many other composers, graphically notated music by Barbera Heller being one of them. There is also a special section on Webern's Variations op. 27. One chapter deals with Fluxus and the piano. Many notation examples both in the book and in an appendix with loose sheets. Review: Reich (1999;H4).
F2. MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
f2/ Ford, Charles C.: "Free collective improvisation in higher education", British Journal of Music Education 12, 103-112, 1995.
Good description of teaching practise at university courses at Thames Valley University. Examples of pieces by students are quoted in extenso. The authour has developed a special practise of evaluation in which the written comments, not the music production, is evaluated and graded. The subject is for all students at an elementary level and aims at the development of personal communication and teamworking abilities. The author also discusses the classical paradox that the freedom in question is freedom to follow one's involvement on the conditions given by a specific task.
f2/ Leigh Landy: Experimental Music Notebooks. Chur (Harwood Academic Publishers), 1994. Part of a series: Performing Arts Studies Vol.2, p.844.
Primary goal group for this book is music theachers on all levels, but the author goes about a number og issues of possible general interest to composers, musicians and music listeners, stressing the "freeing up" aspects of experimental music and showing how new concepts of compositions relate to performance.
Thus, the chapter "Notation/Form/Interpretation/Performance" is at the heart of the matter. A classification of notations are presented, each with an example (by the author), and possible educational uses of each kind is discussed seperately. These are:
1) "Parameter-freed" notation, the most commonly known being optical notation (freed rhythm - parts being co-ordinated or each having its own pace), although one could work with pitches and dynamics as well. These, the author assumes, are well-suited for people who are at ease with traditional Western scores.
2) Reduction notation. "...a sort of grid notation that allows for sound events to take place in approximate gegisters at approximate times in notated densities (e.g. play any four notes on a specified instrument simultaneously or in quick succession at a given time in a designated register), often with notated articulations and dynamic marking as well. Morton Feldman was the composer who grought this sort of notation to the fore" (p.85-86). This form is characterized as "..a halfway house between the less completely notated parameter-freed notation and the total abstraction of an autonomous graphic image" (p.86).
3) Graphic notation.
4) Prose "DIY" [Do It Yourself] scores.
This classifcation is an interesting one systematically and practically, although some of it is certainly not water-tight. Cage's Variations IV is treated in the text as a main example of 4), Prose "DIY" scores, despite its important graphic elements - it could just as well have appeared under 3) Graphic notation where the author mentions such ones in which "general approaches are encoded in a symbol list". The major problem here seems to be that the mutual definitions of 3) and 4) tend to rule out a massive part of experimental notations in general consisting of sign-systems which are both graphic and governed by verbally formulated rules (Chr. Wolff, Haubenstock-Ramati, Toshi Ichiyanagi, John Zorn are just a few names). The concept of "game pieces" might be a relevant addition to Landy's list of notation methods being educationally interesting.
An aural score of Trevor Wishart's Vox 5 is included on p.51 - probably by Landy, as no source is given.
f2/ Oliveros, Pauline: Software for people. Selected writings, 1963-80. Baltimore (Smith Publications), 1984.
Deals among other things with the mandala as an organising device, used as an alternative to traditional notation (p. 232f). Detailed commenting of the author's own "Teach yourself To Fly", a meditative exercise from Oliveros (1974;F1.1) (p. 149f).
f2/ Prevost, Eddie (ed.): The educative potential of improvised music. A report on the forum held at the Oval House, London on November 16th 1982, 1983 (Association of Improvising Musicians).
f2/ Reimers, Lennart (ed.): Kreativ musikundervisning. Stockholm (Edition Reimers AB), 1977.
Good anthology covering many music educators (among others, Paynter, Murray Schafer, Friedemann, Meyer-Denkmann), gives an overview and text samples.
f2/ Ritzel, Fred: "Dieser freche Blödsinn wird seit Jahren in den Schulen geduldet. Über Improvisation in der Musikpädagogik" in: Brinkmann, Reinhold(ed.): Improvisation und neue Musik. Acht Kongressreferate. Mainz (Schott), 1979. Part of a series: Veröff des Instituts für neue Musik und Musikerziehung Darmstadt, Bd. 20. AUB IMD.
Improvisation is seen in the light of the history of music education, and its periods are considered.
f2/ Runswick, Daryl: "Notes for improvisors", in: RIG notation. Manus, 1996.
Invites to a systematic practising of elements which, however, only should keep that which subsequently comes up again spontaneously: "PRACTISE your phrases, LINK and VARY them, LET GO what you forget". Runswick teaches composition at Trinity College in London.
f2/ Schaarschmidt, Helmut: Improvisation. Streitschrift für eine handlungsorientierte Methode der Musikerfahrung. Deinstedt (Kompost-Verlag), 1991.
Provides arguments for improvisation in music teaching in schools and a discussion of general methodic foundations for learning.
f2/ Schwan, Alexander: Bidrag til art. "Improvisation" ("VI.5. Neue improvisatorische und improvisationsdpädagogische Ansätze seit den 1970er Jahren") i Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Finscher, Ludwig ed.), Zweite, neubearbeitete Ausgabe. Kassel etc. (Bärenreiter + Metzler), 1996. HB AUB OUB.
About experimental and explorative music pedagogics. A discussion of ressources in interactive MIDI/computer-systems.
f2/ Schweizer, Klaus: "Grafische Musik für Spielmusikgruppen", Melos 2, 1971.
f2/ Skytte, Birthe (ed.): Rapport om Paynter-projektet. Et samarbejde mellem skolernes musikundervisning og et symfoniorkester, 1987.
f2/ Wijk, Jan-Inge: Ariadnes Tråd - om sammenhænge i uddannelsen af musikere. MS, (Det fynske Musikkonservatorium), 1994.
Various historical sources are mentioned. A discussion of what could result from having improvisation taught in a conservatory context.
F3. MUSIC WORKS FOR EDUCATIONAL USE, COLLECTIONS OF SUCH WORKS AND SERIES
f3/ See also Anonymous (Schott Workshop;A2.2); Toft(1996;B2); Oliveros (1974;F1.1).
f3/ Röda Serien,
Swedish educational series devised by a publishing house. Some items are published together with German Rote Reihe (see also under this name).
f3/ Music for Young Players. Wien (UE), 1970ff ca..
Educational series. Some items are published together with German Rote Reihe (see also under this name). Some works are in a brief format, a kind of "sheet music".
f3/ Bakke, Ruth et al: Åpent hav. Nordisk samtidsmusik for klaverelever på begynderstadiet. Oslo (Norsk Musikforlag), 1983?.
Contains a few pieces notated in new ways.
f3/ Blasl, Franz and Stricz, Eric (ed.): Rote Reihe. (Universal Edition), 1970ff (approx.).
Large educational series devised by a big publishing house, both with single works, which are often very elaborate, and with books.
f3/ Bojé, Harald: Klavierschule. 1: für Anfänger mit einem Anhang von Hans Kann. Graphik: Michael Vetter und Ingeborg Vaas. 2: Klavierschule fåur Fortgeschrittene. 3: Lehrerheft. Wine (UE 20701 - 20702 - 20703), 1982. Part of a series: Wiener Instrumentalshulen..
f3/ Braun, Gerhard: Querflöten-Schule. Wien (UE), 1983. Part of a series: Wiener Instrumentalschulen..
f3/ Böchle, Roland (ed.) - Böchle, Roland; Frisius, Rudolf; Günther, Ulrich (Beratung und Mitarbeit): Wiener Instrumentalschulen,
See the individual entries: Bojé, Siegert, Mathez, Braun. In at least the three first mentioned, different notations are integrated into the presentation.
f3/ Karkoschka, Erhard: Komponiere Selbst! Ein Baukasten aus Klang- Zeit, Raum- und Bewegungselementen. UE 20032, 1972. Part of a series: Rote Reihe nr. 32.LOGOS.
f3/ Mathez, Jean-Pierre: Trompetenschule 1-3. Wien (UE 20601, 20602, 20603 (Deutsch)/ UE 20611, 20612, 20613 (English) / UE 20621 - 20622 - 20623 (Francais), 1976. Part of a series: Wiener Instrumentalschulen. SB.
f3/ Nimczik, Ortwin; Rüdiger, Wolfgang: Instrumentales Ensemblespiel. Übungen und Improvisationen - klassische und neue Modelle, I-II (Basisband + Materialband). (=Materialien zum Musikunterricht Bd. 2, Helms, Siegmund; Schneider, Reinhard ed.) Regensburg 1997 (ConBrio CB1083)
This is a collection of new educational music materials for use with young people, for use in schools and music schools, with contributions from many music educators and composers.
Materials appear as "Exercises and improvisations" (with subdivisions, seventeen in all), "Classical models" or "New models". "Classical models" (five in all) are, in fact, proposals orignating in old music by Quantz, Haydn, Beethoven and Bartok - as well as a reprint of Mozrt's "musical dice game". There is much freedom in the treatment of the old material, and this section serves thus as a link to history - suggesting that there needs to be no dualism between old and new. Old materials may be used just as creatively and in the spirit of open experimentation. Just one example is a catalogue of embellishments over one repeated tone by Quantz from 1752 - the different variants may be played canonically, mixed freely, etc.
The section of "new models" is subdivided into "recipes using written notes", "graphic notation" and "verbal recipes". The first one with written notes (eight in all) does not simply consist of "written-out pieces". Most pieces, on the contrary, consists of given elements with directions for use, and two of them focus on interaction by means of cues.
The recipes using written notes thus exemplify sophisticated composition forms combining old and new. As to the "graphic notation" and "verbal recipes" sections (which do in fact overlap, graphic notations employing verbal explanations and verbal recipes employing graphic illustrations) there are seven very different and weighty contributions.
There are two volumes, one with the materials themselves and one with comments and practical suggestions. This ensures that the works and models receive clear enough descriptions in all cases - it is not nescessarily an easy task for the composer to take all possible difficulties of understanding from the receiver's side into account. Beyond that, the comments also outline further prespectives.
Included are short biographies of contributing composers and a selected bibliography, with one section contatining mainly writings (which may, however, present works), with many recent items from the nineties and on. The other section features a list of educational series and anthologies. Whereas the first was exclusively of German texts, this last one also includes English items and one French. Such series have strategic importance, however some additional detective work at the library databases may be needed to track down what they contain - editor's names, years, or some annotative remark would have been useful.
Contributor's names are, in order of appearance: Jandl, Ernst; Spahlinger, Mathias; Cage, John; Siegert, Hans-Christian; Wulff, Bernhard; Bartok, Bela/editors; Johnson, Tom; editors; Quantz, Johann Joachim/editors; Haydn, Joseph/editors; Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus; Herfert, Franz Jochen; Rzewski, Frederic; Schmidt, Mia; Madarász, Iván; Rojko, Uros; Abad, Eduardo Flores; Dinescu, Violeta; Bruttger, Thomas; Keller, Max E.; Schlünz, Annette; Globokar, Vinko.
Some works previously published by theirselves in separate editions have been included entirely here, and so this publication could be a short-cut to them. They are: 4:33 by John Cage (without link from the index, but it is there on p.19 - with original English text), Five by John Cage (with German text) and La Ronde by Vinko Globokar.
The anthology seems a must-have for German-reading teachers dealing with young people and ensemble playing. At the same time, it could be an inspiring book for composers. It deals with exactly those innovative aspects of setting up non-linear structures, using different kinds of notation, cues etc., which have, despite their earlier historical break-through, been repressed in concert music by the seemingly so effective, dominant tendency of traditional writing-out.
f3/ Palacios, Fernando: Piezas Graficas para la educacion musical, 1993. Edita: Ateneo Obrero de Gijón. Downloaded 23.12 2019 from https://fernandopalacios.es/piezas-graficas-para-la-educacion-musical-2/
26 graphic pieces employing signs that are often suggestive of basic individual kinds of sound or textures. The visual language is ingeniously varied, even to an exceptional and beautiful degree, and pieces have various aims. There is an overview table comparing them according to instruments, musical parameters, structure and kinds of visual elements. Pieces come with short comments/explanations and some general texts. A recommended ressource to collect visual inspiration from for composers.
f3/ Pedersen, Gunner Møller: Sammen. Edition Egtved, 1995.
Educational work for four groups using stone/glass/wood/metal.
f3/ Siegert, Hans Chr.: Violinschule. Wien (UE 20661 - 20662 - 20663), 1986. Part of a series: Wiener Instrumentalschulen..
Editions in English, German and French. from the introduction, p.3: "The student should not only learn to read and reproduce notated music, but also to notate music which he or she has created. This is why notation forms (for instance, graphic notation) is utilised which the student can read and write, before he or she knows all details of traditional notation".
APPENDIX G. WRITINGS ON IMPROVISED MUSIC
THIS LIST IS BASED ON: Various data and materials collected since 1971. Examination of and ordering from a large number of bibliographies in articles and books. Subscriptions to periodicals including Musics, Dansk Musiktidsskrift, MusikTexte, Resonance, Gränslöst. - Research stay at Logos Archives, Gent (Belgium), summer 1997. The selection of composers having their own category has been limited to Stockhausen, Brown, Zorn and Wolff, all being prominent representatives of composition forms giving space for improvisation.
POSSIBLE EXPANSION OF THIS LIST:
Personal visits/research stays with selected specialists/at selected libraries/publishing houses.
G1.1 GENERAL SURVEYS AND GENERAL HISTORY
g1.1/ Bailey, Derek: Improvisation. Its Nature and practice in Music. Dorchester (The Brit. Libr. Nat. Sound Arch.), 1992. AUM AUB OUB SB.
Good information about improvisation in many different forms of music Indian music, baroque, jazz, rock, contemporary composed music, free improvisation (including Bailey's own groups, Joseph Holbrooks and Spontaneous Music Ensemble, as well as Alterations, AMM and the festival Company Week). Excellent discussions of the nature of improvisation, also in free improvisation. Good documentation with interviews of many different musicians - and a quite unusually reflected, careful and readworthy putting together of interview-based material. As the author says himself in the preface, he has striven to let that which is characteristic to the music forms in question stand out. In addition, sections on general themes such as audience, improvisation within composed music, solo playing (form is discussed in a digression here) and pedagogical practise yield interesting comparisons and discussions. One opposition which has become commonly known is between "idiomatic/non-idiomatic" music - whereas the "idiomatically" oriented musician identifies with the idiom, for instance "to play jazz", the non-idiomatic musician seeks the freedom beyond the idioms. Another opposition which strikingly characterises attitudes found in practise with musicians is between "instrumentalist/anti-instrumentalist" attitudes - the instrumentalist sees the instrument as his best friend, the anti-instrumentalist seeks away from dependence on specific instruments. The book is reasonably easy to read. Editions exist also in Flemish, German, French, Italian and Japanese!
g1.1/ Belgrad, Daniel: The Culture of Spontaneity. Improvisation and the arts in postwar America. London/Chicago (The University of Chicago Press), 1998.
This book can serve as a supplement to Hamm (1975;G1.1) - admittedly, the music examples of this author are older (!), but mention is made here of be-bop, and backgrounds like surrealism, existentialism and the psychology of C.G. Jung are mentioned, and the role of gestalt therapy with its critical attitudes towards society and its role as an inspirator for the arts is considered.
g1.1/ Bell, Clive: Review of Couldry (1995;G1.1), Resonance 4,1 [1996], p.45.
g1.1/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: "Improvisation i kompositionsmusikken efter 1945". Dansk Musiktidsskrift 1, 1975.
Examples of different new notations are discussed. My view of the historical dimension has become less restricted by the European scene since then.
g1.1/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: Improvisation i kompositionsmusikken efter 2. verdenskrig. MS (konferens-afløsningsopgave), 1976.
On backgrounds in new concepts of form and the musical work. Psychological digression on the concept of creativity. historic digression summarising Ferand. Comparative considerations concerning other contemporary music traditions. Systematic examination of selected variable works/introductions to improvisation. Analysis of free improvisations. Bibliography.
g1.1/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: "Improvisation - nu og før", Dansk Musiktidsskrift 6, p. 230-233, 1994/95. AUB NJMK.
Historical considerations about the development of improvised music, especially since the seventies.
g1.1/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: "Ny musik og improvisation", Musica Nova forår 95, programbog. København, 1995. (See "green file" at AUM).
Considerations on listening to improvised musik, on new music and its notation, on improvisation groups and on aesthetics and philosophy. See also errata in the programme book for the autumn, same year.
g1.1/ Couldry, Nick: Turning the musical table. Improvisation in Britain 1965-1990. Basingstoke, Hampshire, 1995. Part of a series: Rubberneck nr. 19.
Historical and systematic considerations. The last mentioned deal, among other matters, with the devices named by the author as those of "parallel voices" contra "group voice". The first one lets each instrument follow its own individual line, in some case in a virtuoso way. The second is formed by collective activity - "As gestures succeed or overlap each other, the aim is to achieve a completely natural flow WITHOUT relying on one or more players appearing to drive it forward individually" (p.9). This is a way of playing which is characteristic for parts of English improvised music and which has a clear parallel to the "pointilistic" composed music from the fifthies, without it seemingly being the case that direct influences exist. "Virtuosity" is another theme - the author lists under this a) extended techniques; b) anti-virtuoso approach (for instance, use of toys that prevent sophisticated playing); c) discoveries (for instance John Russll who rubs his guitar with a wet finger); d) invention of new instruments. An old aspect of music which presicely seems to play a role within improvised music in a new way. Review: Bell (1996; g1.1)
The book concludes with considerations about the crisis of composed music, about the relation between composition and improvisation which is sometimes intricate and about "improvisation's virtues" which are seen as subverting the hieracical mode.
In its discussions this book reviews very closely a large number of music recordings and it is an invaluable discographic ressource. It also forwards interesting thoughts of general importance, even though it can seem that the author's abundance of associations is sometimes greater than the consistency in following the themes having been outlined.
g1.1/ Dean, Roger T.: New Structures in Jazz and Improvised Music since 1960. Melksham, Wilks (Open University Press), 1992. AUB OUB.
Book dealing with several kinds of improvisation, inclusive of composition for improvisation, new instrumental techniques and a selection of recordings.
The chapter having the somewhat confusing title "Extra-musical symbols and instructions for improvisation" which is not further explained in the text provides information and considerations on among other things "instructional scores", in which verbal description, according to the author, play an important role. He states, interestingly: "The composer's ability to influence improvisation went beyond that in notated composition, since they could in principle interact with the improvising process and its procedures instead of simply providing musical material for improvisation" (p.74). This category of "instructional scores" can be seen as an interesting attempt at differentiating between various new notation usages. However, it is incompehensible to this writer that the author categorises both Oliveros (1974;F1.1) and Stockhausen (1968;A1) under those who specify results rather than the processes leading to these results; likewise, there is a lack of documentation for the thesis that "instructional scores" have become more common since 1975 - in Dean (1989;F1.1) to which the author refers, all examples were composed before 1975 (!).
The author is most definitely committed to his subject matter and with his practical knowledge of the subject matter he touches upon many interesting perspectives and details, but sharply formulated observations and thoughts can abruptly alternate with strange statements and sudden shifts of focus in the discussions making them incoherent, in spite of the declared aim (p. vi) to provide a "systematic analysis (perhaps the first) of changes in the nature and structure of improvised music between 1960 and around 1985". The author is stronger concerning description of details than of developments and general patterns, is more a practician then a theoretician - cf. Dean (1989;F1.1).
The book includes reference lists some of which are comprehensive: 157 books and articles, 16 written music publications, 139 recordings and films.
g1.1/ Feisst, Sabine: Der Begriff 'Improvisation' in der neuen Musik (Diss., Berlin, Freie Universität 1995). Sinzig (Studio, Verlag Schewe), 1997. Part of a series: Berliner Musik Studien 14.SB IMD AUB.
This is the book for those who seriously seek information about the role of improvisation in new music with classical background! While general music history books are often forced to make generalisations and to be very selective, this special study gives coherent information about a number of composers and works which is big enough to be representative, and there is a wealth of references to the works theirselves and texts pertinent to them. The text is accompanied by useful illustrations.
An introductory chapter, "Heterognity of the concept of improvisation with Cage, Boulez and Stockhausen" shows immediately how different the concept of improvisation can be perceived - and how Cage and Boulez who are known as opponents to improvisation have nevertheless in specific works dealt with it and called it improvisation. Improvisation groups are also mentioned here. Also, how the concepts of aleatoric procedures and open form by some authors have been seen as part of a tendency to which the concept of improvisation is also related.
There has sometimes been the misunderstanding here that those concepts (and indetermination as well) stand for more or less the same thing. In reality they can very well be opposed to each other; they arised in different contexts and describe different methods and attitudes.
After the chapter "Improvisation, Composition and Work" reporting on theretical discussion around the concept of the musical work, the important chapter "Concept and Reality of Improvisation in its context" follow, comprising 148 pages. It includes full-bodied sub-sections on: "Indetermination"; "Aleatoric procedures"; "Open form"; "Experimental Music" as well as "Minimal, meditative and intuitive music" - historical key concepts from which concrete manifestations together with manifested attitudes with composers throw light on the comcept and practise of improvisation in new music. It can be said that the concept of improvisation is only rarely employed by composers when dealing with works and their interpretation; however, in widely differing ways use is made of freedom in interpretation.
The book is well illustrated with quotes from performance material by Cage, Feldman, Wolff (Edges in extenso with all explanations is included), Boulez, Lutoslawski, Evangelisti, Brown, Andre Boucourechliev, Haubenstock-Ramatio, Cardew, Rzewski, Alvin Curran, Rzewski, Rich. Teitelbaum, Alvin Lucier, La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Oliveros, Stockhausen and Gunther Schuller.
At the end there is a full-bodied literature list also including a number of writings not mentioned in the present work. It also has the speciality of drawing on Italian sources in addition to German and English ones. A special list of the author's interviews and telephone conservations with authors has 22 entries.
Review (in German) in Scheib (2000;H4).
g1.1/ Fell, Simon H.: "Report on the Composition of Improvised Music No. 4", Rubberneck 28, 1999?.
Contains an important discussion of demands to be made upon composition for improvising musicians. Fell makes a distinction between "invasive" and "non-invasive" composition. He says about "invasive": "by this I mean a scheme or structure which requires the musicians to divide their attention between improvising and some other activity (watching the conductor, reading music, throwing sponges around(!) etc)." And by contrast: "my definition of non-invasive would be those methods which seek to define very general principles, such as who might play when, a very general description of the type of material to be explored (either verbal or notated) or an indication of the mood/atmosphere which the piece might seek to generate (without specific musical instructions). The essential point of non-invasive structures is that the musicians should feel sufficiently unencumbered that they can improvise sensitively, creatively and effectively." Part 1,2,3 were previously published in Rubberneck nr. 15, 17 and 24. See www.btinternet.com/~rubberneck/.
g1.1/ Ferand, Ernst: Die Improvisation in der Musik. Eine
entwicklungsgeschichtliche und psychologische Untersuchung (Zürich: Rhein-Verlag) 1938. Also English edition: Improvisation in nine centuries of Western music : an anthology with a historical introduction. Part of a series: Musikwerk (Anthology of Music) no. 12. (Köln: Arno Volk Verlag).
KB OUB SB.
Ferand examines thoroughly the role of improvisation in Western
classical music, also matters which are not commonly known to any
high degree.
g1.1/ Ferand, Ernst: Die improvisation in Beispielen aus 9
Jahrhunderten abendländischer Musik. Köln (Arno Volk Verlag), 1956. OUB.
Collection of examples.
g1.1/ Ferand, Ernst: Improvisation in nine centuries of western music; an anthology with a historical introduction. Köln: Arno Volk Verlag. Series: Das Musikwerk (Anthology of music), no. 12, 1961.
g1.1/ Ferand, Ernst: "Improvisation", die Musik in Geschichte und
Gegenwart (Lexikon), Kassel;Basel (Bärenreiter) 1957. DKDM NJMK AEST MKAR KB.
Ferand thoroughly examines the role of improvisation in Westrn
classical music and discusses it theoretically.
g1.1/ Ferand, Ernst: Improvisation in music history and education. Richmond: the William byrd press, 1946.
g1.1/ Foss, Lukas: The Changing Composer-Performer Relationship: A Monologue and a Dialogue. Perspectives of New Music nr. 2, Spring 1963 45-53
This article seems to be less known in Europe as it ought to be. It describes Foss' compositional efforts to open up for improvisation, comparable to what Globokar (1970 and 1971;G.2.1) and Karkoschka (1971;G2.1) did, but many years earlier. Additionally, it describes an idea of music based on interaction ("reaction" in his terminology) and its notation, thus revealing the fact that Chr. Wolff was not the only one to focus musically on that.
Performance practise in new music is undergoing a change, the author argues. Composers work with "handpicked" performers to a much higher degree than before - including himself with his Improvisation Chamber Ensemble. Because "new tasks demand new ideas of coordination", then "As a result, a thorough overhauling of conduction technique is in the making, new instrumental discoveries have antiquated every existing orchestration treatise - traditional limitations of voice and instrument have proved to be mythical..." (p. 46).
The following parts of the article is in the form of a dialogue with an imagined, sceptical musician. Notation matters are discussed, and the author shows an example using accellerando and ritardando instead of a more complex polyrhythmic notation. Generally, new notations should avoid that which is "unessential", in the interest of clarity and effeciency. A notation example from Echoi (1960-63) is quoted, employing some musical figures without a staff. It exemplifies "a music where the instruments or voices... act and react to and against one another, like characters in a play..." (p.49f). The importance lies in being a "musical" point of reference, as compared to what the author calls "makeshift" methods.
g1.1/ Frisius, Rudolf: Bidrag til art. "Improvisation" (bla. om improv. og improv.pæd. i 1900-tallet) i Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Finscher, Ludwig ed.), Zweite, neubearbeitete Ausgabe. Kassel etc. (Bärenreiter + Metzler), 1996. HB AUB OUB MKAR MVAR KB.
Provides a good summary of the more recent development of improvisation, especially those forms that can be connected to the development of notations.
g1.1/ Goldstein, Halina and Korgaard, Peter: Improvisation og frigørelse i det 20. århundredes kunstmusik og jazz. Projektopgave, Århus Universitet, 1994. AUM AUB.
Historical examinations of the role of improvisation in art music and jazz as well as within the "third field". The chapter "improvisation phenomena" deals among other things with various frameworks and with free improvisation in different music genres. A good summary concludes this work.
g1.1/ Hamm, Charles E.: "Changing Patterns in Society and Music: The U.S. since World War II", Hamm, Charles; Nettl, Bruno; Byrnside, R. (ed.): Contemporary Music and Music Cultures. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1975.
Provides pertinent historical information about the tendency of non-comformity as a counter-current to the official culture in USA which implied individualism, "to do one's own thing" and critique of the ruling faith in a rational progress in the development of society. John Cage and the free jazz of Ornette Coleman are mentioned as examples.
g1.1/ Hansen, Finn Egeland: Forelæsning om improvisation historisk set [lecture on improvisation, historically seen], Nordjysk Musikkonservatorium 21/3, 1996.
g1.1/ Irgens-Møller, Christer: "Improvisational music in Denmark", The 1st Festival of Scandinavian Improvisation Copenhagen 1995 (ed. Poulsen, Hasse), 1995. T LOGOS AUB.
g1.1/ Jost, Ekkehard: Europas Jazz 1960-80. Frankfurt/M (Fischer Taschenbuch), 1987. AUB MI KB.
Good reference book with long articles about many important figures in the history of improvised music, especially those with background in jazz - from Germany, Great Britain, Holland and France.
g1.1/ Landolt, Patrik: "Ein Blick in die "Fichen". Die Schweizer Szene im Jahr des Jubiläums", Landolt, Patrik; Wyss, Ruedi (ed.): Die lachenden Aussenseiter. Musikerinnen und Musiker zwischen Jazz, Rock und neuer Musik. Die 80er und 90er Jahre. Ein Buch der Wochenzeitung (WOZ) im Rotpunktverlag. Zürich (Rotpunktverlag), 1993.
See also Landolt (1993;G1.1).
g1.1/ Landolt, Patrik; Wyss, Ruedi (ed.): Die lachenden Aussenseiter. Musikerinnen und Musiker zwischen Jazz, Rock und neuer Musik. Die 80er und 90er Jahre. Ein Buch der Wochenzeitung (WOZ) im Rotpunktverlag. Zürich (Rotpunktverlag), 1993.
Collection of articles from the Swiss magazines Wochenzeitung and Taktloszeitung (published with a yearly music festival).
Most articles are interview-based and comprise the following artists: Fred Frith; David Moss; Eugene Chadbourne; Stephan Wittwer; Diamanda Galas; Derek Beilay; Peter Brötzmann; Willem Breuker und sein kollektiv; AMM; Barry Guy; Günter "Baby" Sommer; Irene Schweizers Quintett "Taktlos"; Heiner Goebbels; Karen Borca; Cecil Taylor; Ornette Coleman; Marilyn Crispell; Diedre Murray + Elliot Sharp; John Zorn; Maggie Nicols + Irene Schweizer; Shelley Hirsch; Joelle Leandre; Co Streiff; Lindsay Cooper.
Various articles by: Peter Kraut; Heiner Goebbels; Bert Noglik; Patrik Landolt; Werner Lüdi; Rosmarie A. Meier; Lindsay Cooper.
A speciality consists of a series of high quality portrait photos taken by Leonard Mühlheim of among others: Han Bennik, Derek Bailey, Steve Beresford, Alterations and others.
There is also a list of Taktlos-festivals 1984-93 - and small discographies. These are usually of an older date seen in relation to the book's publishing year. In addition to those already mentioned appearing in interview, there are also discographies of: Conrad Bauer; Johannes Bauer; Steve Beresford; Anthony Braxton; Rüdiger Carl; Tom Cora; Lol Coxhill; Jacques Demierre; Dietmer Diesner; Pierre Favre; Mich Gerber; God; Barry Guy; Wädi Gysi; Shelley Hirsch; Fred van Hove; Sven-Åke Johansson; Hans Koch; Peter Kowald; Steve Lacy; George Lewis; Paul Leves; Werner Lüdi; Rene Lussier; Radu Malfatti; Chr. Marclay; Misha Mengelberg; Phil Minton; Lawrence Butch Morris; Larry Ochs; Evan Parker; William Parker; Barre Phillips; Eddie Prevost; Hans Reiche; Jon Rose; Keith Rowe; Paul Rutherford; Alexander von Schlippenbach; Martin Schütz; Louis Sclavis; Alan Tomlinson; Phil Wachsman; Trevor Watts; Stephan Wittwer.
g1.1/ Levaillant, Denis: L'Improvisation Musicale. Biarritz, Editions Jean-Claude Lattès, 1981. Part of a series: Musiques et Musiciens. New edition: Arles 1996. LOGOS.
Interviews with many musicians. Among many others, mention of New Phonic Art and interview with Vinko Globokar in which experiences with "Correspondances" (1969) are mentioned - this is, as it seems, not directly mentioned in other sources, but this information is important for the understanding of globokar's attitudes. For him, this experience demonstrated that musicians can have a strong need to improvise according to their own terms and that the composer runs the rist of failing in his attempts to evoke improivsation within a work. After this, Globokar composed no more works which were open for improvisation, but he practised free improvisation extensively and published improvisation exercises.
The book also contains an important chapter about the equality of parameters in freely improvised music. Mention is made here of the concept "un fait sonore brut", the "musical crude phenemenon [or "raw material"]" being the real object for the serial thought which, with an expanded set of concepts, freed music thinking from being fixed to deal by convention with only a few dimensions which were moreover organized in a rigid, stepwise way.
g1.1/ Millroth, Thomas: "Sweden", The 1st Festival of Scandinavian Improvisation Copenhagen 1995 (ed. Poulsen, Hasse), 1995. T LOGOS AUB.
g1.1/ Müller, Hermann-Christoph: Zur Theorie und Praxis indeterminierter Musik. Aufführungspraxis zwischen Experiment und Improvisation. Regensburg (Gustav Bosse Verlag), 1994. Part of a series: Kölner Beiträge zur Musikforschung (Niemöller, Klaus Wolfgang ed.) Band 179. SB IMD AUB.
The author demonstrates how the subject of performance practise in indeterminate music has not received a sufficiently thorough treatment in previous literature (Boehmer, Nyman). Improvisation is a practise that can be seen both as innovative (cf. ricercare etc. earlier in music history and the view of Franco Evanglisti) and as regressive (Boulez). Collective improvisation receives special mention; absence of preconditions for the improvisation has been judged both as a weakness (lack of references) and a strength (the possibility to reorganise music). Also the roles within groups are discussed and the use of graphic and verbal notations. For both kinds, "regulative" as well as "suggestive" kinds exist. The book presents analyses of Cage: Variations I - Wolff: In Between Pieces for Three Players - Stockhausen: Prozession - Earle Brown: Folio. December 1952. These analyses are detailed and multi-facetted and include sections with special analyses of notation ans transscriptions. Seen from the point of view of performance practise, performances of works by Cage are characterised by the isolation of performers in relation to each other isolation in order to guarantee the emancipation of the sound; this can, however, also be seen as a weakness. The music of Wolff is, by contrast, characterised by the stressing of the communicative dimension. While this might be no surprise, it is, however, also defined more exactly as to how the anticipation of the other players' reactions play a special role in order to be able to perform the composition, an aspect which can be seen as strategically basic to human communication. About Stockhausen's Prozession it is concluded that the work is well suited as basis for improvised timbral processes of an organic kind natural to improvisation with a number of moments leading continuously to new moments. Browns December 1952 is treated in detail through dealing with its background and its systematic construction and through commenting on the performance instructions and reflection on the ways in which it is open to different interpretations. A versatile work which according to this author can lead both to a worked-out version in the manner of Cage and to improvisatory activities depending to a high degree on the musicians in question. - As a conclusion of the book it is maintained that it is inadequate to view indeterminate music only from the method of composition or from the reception. Only when performance practise is considered it becomes clear that interpretation of the music overlaps the area which also belongs to composition. (Curiously enough, the idea for the book came from a wish to view the music from a listeners' point of view, as we are told in the preface!). This could be the beginning of a new development in which the existence of music to a higher degree is bound to the persons performing it, like is maybe also suggested by the existence of composer-performer groups. (A critical note about the analysis of December 1952 with my own Group for Intuitive Music: there were no directly verbal agreements in the group as the author states. The transscription does not give an accurate representation of the rhythmic and tonal complexity).
g1.1/ Noglik, Bert: "Aktuelle Aspekte der Identität von Jazz und "improvisierter Musik" in Europa: differenziertes Selbstverständnis und Internationalisierung", Jazzforschung/Jazz research 19, 1987. KB.
This article can be seen as a forerunner of Noglik (1990;G1.1). It deals with the emancipation of improvised music from jazz and a situation in which various music forms exist, being relatively more or less "jazz-like". The author suggests that a similar taking-off from rock music has taken place, appearing most distinctly in England where rock music has its strongest foothold.
g1.1/ Noglik, Bert: "Improvisation als kulturelle Herausforderung. Zu Spielhaltungen, Specifika der Rezeption und zur sozialen Relevanz frei improvisierter Musik", i Fähndrich, Walter (ed.): Improvisation. 10 Beiträge (Beretning fra int. kongres om fri improvisation og improvisation som holdning, Luzern 1990). Winterthur (Amadeus Verlag), 1990. AUB OUB.
Important article which demonstrates the siginificance of European and British jazz music for the development of improvised music and outlines some immediate historic backgrounds. Also discussed are issues about self-presentation of musicians, listening qualities of the music, the question about to have or to be - well documented with quotations from musicians.
This article was written on the background of a lecture held at the congress. Here in oral form, the following explicit thesis was presented which also summarises the development very well: that the "sound-investigating" qualities of improvised music come from composed new music, whereas the "interactive" qualities come from jazz.
g1.1/ Noglik, Bert: Klangspuren (1990). Frankfurt (Fischer Sachbuch), 1992. KB AUM AUB.
Contains among other things the chapters (here transl. from German) "Finding one's self and opening. On the search for a European identity of improvised music", "Streams under the surface. On the continuous activity of musical modernity in European improvised music" and "Displacement horizons. On the change of concepts and the processes of listening". Review: Tozzi (2000;H4).
g1.1/ Noglik, Bert: "Selbstfindung und Öffnung. Improvisierte Musik in Europa", Landolt, Patrik and Wyss, Ruedi (ed.): Die lachenden Aussenseiter. Musikerinnen und Musiker zwischen Jazz, Rock und neuer Musik. Die 80er und 90er Jahre. Ein Buch der Wochenzeitung (WOZ) im Rotpunktverlag. Zürich (Rotpunktverlag), 1993.
Attempts an overview of the relation of freely improvised music to jazz, rock and folk music traditions.
g1.1/ Poulsen, Hasse: "Dette er ny musik", Dansk Musik Tidsskrift 6, 1997/98.
On improvised music as an innovation force, seen as an opposition to a general stagnation of new music. In improvised music, there remains a complex, present-day situation making it a constant challenge to bring the elements of music to life through shifting situations, in a collective context and in presenting it to the public. A more varied selection of instruments is employed; music related to the body and music relating more to the brain meet to a higher degree; the concept of musical work is in practice suspended, since the individual manifestation become more clearly "phenomena within a process", and the one-sided leading role of the composer is replaced by collaboration. - The objection which has sometimes been heard against improvised music saying that it lacks variation as to form, is met, saying that form is only one element among many and that form variation like everything else can also be trained by the musician.
g1.1 Paul Rosenfeld: A Plea for improvisation. Modern Music XIX (1), 1941, p.10-15.
This is a heart-warming text - the author dreams about reviving the forgotten art of improvisation in an age becoming used to classical music in recorded form. The utopian state is repeatedly referred to as "cadencas", and even though there is a discussion of the baroque practise of Scarlatti, music by Charles Ives is viewed as a strongly forward-pointing model.
This article was included as a special exception - else this bibliography only lists literature written 1945 and later.
g1.1/ Riikonen, Hannu T.: 1960 luku ja uusi tapa improvisoida. Nykymusiikin improvisaatioliikkeen piirissä vallinneista improvisaatiokäsityksistä. [1960's and a new way to improvise Concepts about improvisation among the contemporary music' improvisation movement]. Lisensiaatintutkimus. Turun yliopisto, Taiteiden tutkimuksen laitos, musiikkitiede, huhtikuu 2000. Licentiate dissertation, Turku (Finland), 2000. Turku University Library.
g1.1/ Smith, Leo [Wadada] (1973): notes (8 pieces). source a new world music: creative music. Published by Leo Smith. Reprint Chicago (Corbett and Dempsey), 2015
Manifesto for improvised music as the most important contemporary music production form, seen in its afro-american context and at the same times with claims for urgency and cultural importance not quite dissimilar to those of avantgarde white culture. Remarks on own compositions, and program-note like descriptions.
g1.1/ Stendahl, Bjørn: "From a good memory to freebag. Improvisation in Norway", The 1st Festival of Scandinavian Improvisation Copenhagen 1995 (ed. Poulsen, Hasse), 1995. T LOGOS AUB.
g1.1/ Smith, Hazel; Dean, Roger Thornton: Improvisation, hypermedia and the arts since 19845. Part of a series: Performing arts studies vol. 4. ISBN 3-7186-5878-x.
Book dealing with improvisation in music, in words, visually and with the body - in "Monomedia", Bimedia" and "Polymedia" with subdiviisons. General presentations and discussions and some historical sketches. An extensive bibliography of 24 pages.
g1.1/ Wallenius, Jarmo: "Finnish improvised Music", The 1st Festival of Scandinavian Improvisation Copenhagen 1995 (ed. Poulsen, Hasse), 1995. T LOGOS AUB.
g1.1/ Wilson, Peter Niklas: Hear & Now. Hofheim (Wolke Verlag), 1999. AUB.
This book is divided into two parts, one dealing with thematic essays and the other providing interviews and portraits. The thematic part throw light on the performance practise of improvised music from a number of essential angles. Thus, open notations are treated both in chapter 6 (on improvisation and visual art) and 7 ("Sprach-Spiele: improvisatorische Regelsysteme" [language games: improvisatory rule-systems], dealing with Wolff, Zorn and conducted improvisation). Scattered around the book are many (usually unpublished) graphic introductions to playing. Instrumental and electronic techniques are also treated. The concept of "heuristic dialogue", about the nature of improvised music, is discussed on, taking over from Eddie Prèvost. The essay Wilson (1998;G5) is reprinted. - The interview- and portrait part deals with Derek Bailey (2 interviews), Evan Parker, AMM (Keith Rowe), Tony Oxley, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Misha Mengelberg; Paul Bley, Malcom Goldstein, Joe+Mat Maneri, Bob Ostertag, Ernst Reijseger, Werner Dafeldecker, Uli Fussenegger and Burkhard Stangl.
Review: Scheib (2000;H4).
G1.2 PERIODICALS, SPECIALISED
g1.2/ See also Thomas (1998;H2.1); Dahlhaus (1973 and 1979),
g1.2/ The improvisor. Vol I-XI, -1996. AUB.
American magazine with articles (also non-interviews!) and reviews. Has continued after 1996 electronically, with reviews and a calendar, but till now with less articles than before. See J1.1.
g1.2/ Ringgespräch über Gruppenimprovisation, 1964-. AUB.
Publ. by Ring für Gruppenimprovisation [Circle for group improvisation], which historically started as a circle around the music educator Lilli Friedemann. The magazine were previously publ. 1 or 2 times a year, now once a year. Ressources are limited, but nevertheless it deals in a very good way with many subjects with articles, reviews etc. https://impro-ring.de/ringgespraech/ .
g1.2/ Musics, 1975-1980. LOGOS BRIT.LIBR.
Dealt with the London Musician's Collective and its context.
Information board-like notices, reviews, concert calendars,
articles which among other things reflect the interest in urban
and natural environments and in the music's context. 23 issues
were published. Essential document of its time.
Facsimile edition of all issues, 2016. Ecstatic Peace Library (distr. by antennebooks.com). ISBN 978-0-9972850-5-5
g1.2/ Rubberneck, 1985-2000.
English magazine, publ. in Basingstoke, Hampshire 2 times a year. Articles are usually based on interviews. Since April 2000 it has continued solely on the internet: http://www.btinternet.com/~rubberneck/.
g1.2/ Resonance. Published by London Musician's Collective. Fra vol. 5 med CD, 1992-. BRIT.LIBR LOGOS.
Magazine for improvised and experimental music publ. approx. 2 times a year.
g1.2/ Improjazz, 1993-.
French; according to the homepage of Peter Stubley (1998) with ephasis on improvised music. Publ. 10 times a year.
g1.2/ Gränslöst. Magasin för samtida musik., 1995-2000.
Swedish general magazine on new music - improvised music is also dealt well with. Was publ. 4 times a year. Very conprehensive section with relevant CD reviews.
g1.2/ Hurly Burly, 1997-2001.
Spanish magazine publ. by CEDI (Centro de Encuentro para el Desarollo de la Improvisacion / Center of Encounter for the Development of Improvisation). From no. 5 it was bilingual, Spanish and English. From no. 4 on a CD was included. Until 1998 much of its content was taken from English Resonance. From 1999 on, CD reviews begin to gain importance. From #17, 2001 only on internet against payment: http://hurlyburly.cjb.net/.
G1.3 PERIODICALS, GENERAL
According to its nature, this category cannot be sharply demarcated.
g1.3/ See also Landolt (1993;G2.1) om Wochenzeitung and Taktloszeitung; Thomas (1998;H2.1).
g1.3/ Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, 1834-.
This established German magazine, founded by Robert Schumann, began in 1999 to mention improvised music in articles and reviews, at the same time when Peter Niklas Wilson began to appear there as a writer.
g1.3/ CODA Magazine, 1958-. AUB.
Canadian. Calls itself "The Journal of Jazz and Improvised Music since 1958". 6 issues a year. Homepage: http://mars.ark.com/~codawest/ - E-mail: codawest@mars.ark.com. Regular CD reviews which are collected into themes. Improvised music is a rather small part of this magazine's field of interest.
g1.3/ Microphone, 1972.
Mentioned by Small (1996;H4). Mentioned by Toop (1993;G1.2) having 7 issues between February and September, publ. by Nigel Rollings as an organ for The Musician's Co-op, a grouping of jazz musicians which preceeded London Musician's Collective. Bailey (1992;G1.1) quotes from one article inside the book, about instruments used by percussionist Frank Perry. A later source (Roger Sutherland: "The Death of the Scratch Orchestra", Noisegate 8, [2001]) mentions a political debate between AMM members Keith Rowe and Eddie Prevost in the letters column.
g1.3/ Cadence. The Review of jazz & blues: creative improvised music, 1974-.
American. Monthly. Features interview and reviews of books and CDs. Also a distributor, and some of this material is also reviewed. The catalogue is sorted differently in different issues.
g1.3/ The Wire, 1982-.
Large and well-know English magazine, publ. monthly. Sub-title according to an adversiting 2001: Adventures in Modern Music. A previous subtitle was: Jazz, improvised music and....
g1.3/ Jazzlive, 1983-.
Austrian magazine. Subtitle: musikalische Grenzüberschreitungen [musical borderline crossings]. Publ. several times a year. Many CD reviews, also of improvised music. Internet: www.onstage.at/jazzlive.
g1.3/ Signal to noise. The journal of improvised & experimental music, 1997.
American. 4 issues a year.
g1.3/ Avant, 1997-.
English. Subtitle: Jazz, improvised and contemporary classical music.
G2.1 DOCUMENTATION, REPORT AND DISCUSSION CONCERNING SPECIFIC IMPROVISORS, GROUPS, WORKS, EVENTS, TENDENCIES
g2.1/ See also Nyman (a2.2); Raes (1973;A2.2); Wilson (G3); Gulda (1971;G3); Dahlhaus (1973;G3 and 1979;G3); Arndt (1999;G2.1) concerning Parker. See also Foss (1963; G1.1); Smith (1973;g1.1), Kowald (1999;g2.1)
g2.1/ musique en jeu. Special issue "sur l'improvisation, le concert", mars, 1972.
See also the articles from this issue Globokar (1972;G1.2) and Andréani (1972;G4).
g2.1/ Anonymous: "Minutes of LMC General Meeting 6. October", 1981.
This article documents endeaours for collaboration with stil more kinds of fellow musicians in order to preserve the venue in Gloucester Avenue (which existed til 1988). From London Musician's Collectives' homepage - see category J1.1.
g2.1/ Asplund, Christian: Frederic Rzewski and Spontaneous Political Music", Perspectives of New Music 33:1-2 (Winter - Summer), 1995.
Comments to the verbally notated piece Spacecraft (1967 - available through the publisher Adesso, see Steinauer et al.(1995;h1.2.1)) - which is seen as a model for collective action and in the context of the political views of Rzewski.
g2.1/ Bachmann, Claus-Henning: "Theorie und Praxis improvisierter Musik. Über ein musikalisches Phänomen der Gegenwart", Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 10, 1971.
Deals among other things with current tendencies, Gruppe Nuova Consonanza, Globokar, Cardew + Rzewski. Was also printed in Musik und Bildung 5, 1973.
g2.1/ Bell, Clive: "The LMC. An Overdue Review", 3. April, 1987.
On the founding of LMC and events at their own venue through the times. From the homepage of London Musicians' Collective, see J1.1.
g2.1/ Bell, Clive (ed.): LMC...the first 25 years. Resonance 8:2 + 9:1 (double issue, with double CD), special issue on London Musicians' Collective, 2000. LOGOS BRIT.LIBR.
LMC has arranged several thousands of concerts, published reviews and involved the greater part of those musicians performing improvised music in London - being the largest grouping of its kind. In this issue, so many and so varied contributions to describing it is given that it hints at an outline of its historic development, through the "Gloucester Avenue"-period 1977-1988, the "intermediary period" before 1992, and finally the times thereafter in which a reorganisation took place and large arrangements were set up.
Clive Bell: "A brief history of the LMC" traces the development from the start till the precursor "Musicians' Cooperative" (fra 1971, connected to Little Theatre Club). LMC's own venue inspired to many concerts, even though it was primitive and never got a toilet installed. 1975-80 the magazine Musics was published (see G1.2), in addition to this for an extended period of time also a newsletter (see Anonymous (1981;G2.1), and during 1977 and the next ten years an average of 200 concerts a year were arranged. When the rent contract was terminated in 1988, concerts were scattered around the city. In 1992, administrators Ed Baxter and Phil England were employed and an office was established. A more formal organisation structure was introduced. In the same year, the magazine Resonance started, and also at this year marked concert events with many young musicians participating took place, finally being covered by the media. One of those were the first of the yearly festivals with international guests.
David Toop: The Rag Tag Army: deals among other things with the colourful varity of members and reflects on the absence of media interest in earlier days.
Richard Scott: "Like birds or physichs or thinking": about the period 1988-92, in which Scott was the administrator.
Paul Burwell: "Platonic Ideals": on the start of LMCs and its democratic idea.
Steve Beresford/Peter Cusack: Youthful vigour: on the historical context at the start of LMC. Positive and negative evaluative remarks about the current form of organisation.
Richard Sanderson: And then there's the music: among other things, reply to those who critisize that the new LMC has not given high priority to a daily venue.
Maggie Nicols: In our different rhythms together: deals among other things with the open, weekly improvisation workshop The Gathering which still exists at the time of writing this (2002) and which originated as a counter-initiative to the prestige concert event "Fiume" in 1992.
Also more articles by members. Among oher places in the enquete "My favourite LMC moment" many personal, humoristic, informative glimpses from concert events through the times are given.
g2.1/ Beresford, Steve: Reshaping the sonic landscape. Interview with Butch Morris. Resonance vol. 6, 1, 1997, p.12-14.
On conducted improvisation, of which Morris is a main representative. One issue of discussion is how authoritarian this method is or not.
g2.1/ Bisset, John: Invitation for composers to write for London
Electric Guitar Orchestra, 1997.
Mentions that "L.E.G.O. has its roots in the ideas and
attitude of the Scratch Orchestra, the workshops of Fred Frith
and John Zorn's games". Year of its establishing is unknown, but
a "debut CD" existed in 1988. A document on the recent
development of London improvised music.
g2.1/ Biswurm, Roland HH: "Anarcho-Kunst und gepflegter Chic. Festivals der improvisierten Musik", Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. Special issue improvisation. No. 4, Juli/August, 1999.
On (jazz-)festivals in Salzburg, Ulrichsburg, Nickelsfdorf, Wien, Berlin, Lyon, Paris, Assier, Maiac, Elmau (nahe Garmisch), Füssen, Ruvo di Puglia, Uzeste, Clusone, Willisau (CH), Tampere (SF).
g2.1/ Breuer, Robert: "Lukas Foss improvisiert", p.8, Melos, 1961.
On the work Time Cycle.
g2.1/ Burde, Wolfgang: Review of Free Improvisation, DGG 2740 105, Melos/NZ 3, 1975.
Documents by its choice of words how the feeling of an immediate sensation and actuality associated with improvisation within new music is waning: "späten musikalischen Blüten des einst verhätschelten und nun allmählich in die Vergessenheit absinkenden Kindes "Ensemble-Improvisation" [late musical blooms of the formerly spoilt child called ensemble improvisation which gradually sank into oblivion]...
g2.1/ Cardew (ed): Scratch Music. MIT Press (MIT 239 Music), 1974. AUB.
"Draft Constitution", the initial design made by Cornelius Cardew for the orchestra withs its various own genres of music which were to a large part based on improvisation and which were carried out in practise on a grand scale during the following years. Also included is a collection of Scratch Music (written introductions to a common music to introduce playing sessions in which members played their own piece individually and everybody were to accompany everybody else) and a collection of "activities", short statements ranging from clear descriptions of what should be played to philosophical paradoxes.
g2.1/ Carlsson, Leif (ed.): "Varför improviserar du?", Gränslöst 2, juni, 1999.
A selection of papers read during "Fylkingens improvisationsdagar" [Improvisation Days of Fylkingen, welll-known Stockholm new music venue], Marcg 1999. Excerpts of texts by Johannes Bergmark and Dror Feiler.
g2.1/ Childs, Barney and Hobbs, Cristopher (ed.): Forum: improvisation. Perspectives of New Music 21, p. 26-111, 1982-83.
Interviews with and texts by: Austin, Larry <on improvised music in Davis, Calif.>; AMM (Prevost, Eddie and Rowe, Keith); Bailey, Derek (on Company Week); Golea, Vinny; Kaplan, Lee; Schwarz, Elliott; Solomon, Larry; Goldstein, Malcom; Silber, John; Williams, Davey <a surrealistic text>; Oliveros, Pauline <text for reading, with musical response ad lib.>. Also the statement can be found (p.26): "...the remaining interviews will appear in subsequent issues of this journal".
g2.1/ Corbett, John: Extended Play. Sounding off from John Cage to Dr. Funkenstein. Durham, North Carolina (Duke University Press), 1994.
According to a note on the cover, this book has "emphasis on African, American and European improvisors". Among many others, Sainkho Namtchylak, Barry Guy, Sun Ra are mentioned, and there are interviews with among others Derek Bailey, Anthony Braxton, John Cage, Steve Beresford and Evan Parker. Also some information about London Musicians' Collective which thanks to its pluralism is historically compared to the Fluxus movement in spite of differences. This seems, however, to be a misleading idea - see also the remarks by David Toop (1993;G2.1) on Fluxus having run into deadlock in the beginning of the seventies while other English phenomena were contributing to the development of improvised.
g2.1/ Dennis, Brian: "Cardew's 'Treatise' (Mainly the Visually
Aspects), Tempo No.177, June 1991.
On the background of information provided by musicians who
worked together with Cardew, imspirations from Wittgenstein for
Cardew's Treatise are described. visual elements of the graphic
work and the sequence of pieces are discussed.
g2.1/ Drees, Stefan: "Reflexionen, Analysen, Stellungnahmen. Vinko Globokars Texte im Pfau-Verlag", MusikTexte 79, 1999.
Among other things, an examination of the contents of the book (Globokar (1994;G2.1)) and some remarks concerning where the articles of Globokar have been printed.
g2.1/ Evangelisti, Franco: "Komponisten improvisieren als Kollektiv", Melos 3, 1966.
On the Gruppe Nuova Consonanza, improvising group consisting of composers. Evangelisti sees improvisation as the logical way to get on, as a music form which does justice to the openness and amgiguity of new music and one can do away with the contradictions of the so-called "open form" in composition.
g2.1/ Florey, Wolfgang: "Improvisation und Komposition im Kollektiv", Österreichische Musikzeitung 35:10, Oktober, 1980.
On the group Hinz & Kunst which arose at Hamburg Musikhochschule in 1969. Various projects with improvisation and collective composition are descibed. As a general consideration it is said that collective composition is both "effektiver und praktischer" [more effective and more practical]- but also that "nicht nur aus praktischen Erwägungen heraus ist das Arbeiten in der Gruppe notwendig, wir verbinden mit dieser Arbeitsweise auch die Hoffnung, dass sich etwas von dieser Gemeinschaftlichkeit auf unserer Produkt überträgt und sich mitteilt" (p.537) [The group work is not just nescessary for practical reasons, we also have the hope that by working in this way some of the collectivity of our product is transferred and communicates itself].
Lukas Foss: Improvisation versus Composition. The Musical Times 103/1436, October 1962, 684-685.
Describes in some general terms the way of working in the Improvisation Chamber Ensemble. See Foss (1963; G1.1) for a more in-depth-going account.
g2.1/ Galanter, Bruce Lee: Personal communication at Jyderup (Denmark) 18.June 2015
Derek Bailey and Evan Parker had a background of Stockhausen studies before presenting their pointillistic way of playing in the early 70ties.
g2.1/ Globokar, Vinko: "Réagir...", musique en jeu 1, 1970.
Discusses the need to expand musical composition to incorporate
the musician in a more acive role. - Detailed commenting on a
contimuum of reaction ways: from imitation to doing the
opposite/something else.
g2.1/ Globokar, Vinko: "Vom Reagieren", Melos 2, 1971.
See Globokar (1970;G2.1).
g2.1/ Globokar, Vinko: "Reacting". Translated by CBN. Online at IIMA, http://www.intuitivemusic.dk/iima/vg.htm
Includes illustrations (examples from Correspondences by Globokar) from the original French version which were omitted in the German one. See also Walduck (1997; G3) for a later elaboration.
g2.1/ Globokar, Vinko: "Man improvisiert... Bitte, improvisieren Sie!..komm, lasst uns improvisieren", Melos 2, 1972.
On the existence of many motivations for improvising and on two kinds of groups: one sees the result as a by-product, the other one pursues aesthetic goals. Also possible conflicts musician/composer are comented upon. Some characteristics of the music are its practising of a pluralism of styles, and the overall form is simple. This article was also published in French in musique en jeu 6, 1972: "ils improvisent... improvisez... improvisons!". Globokar's attitude to improvising seeing it as a purely private manifestation is critisised in Irmer (2013; g3)
g2.1/ Globokar, Vinko: "Der kreative Interpret", MELOS/NZ 2, 1976.
G. considers, among other things, the ethical nescessity in composed music for giving musicians a more free and active role and warns against various problems.
g2.1/ Globokar, Vinko: "Reflexionen über Improvisation" in: Brinkmann, Reinhold (ed.): Improvisation und neue Musik. Acht Kongressreferate Mainz (Schott), 1979. Part of a series: Veröff des Instituts für neue Musik und Musikerziehung Darmstadt, Bd. 20.AUB IMD KB.
Various considerations - the titles of sections are: "Was heisst Impr. im Bereich der Musik?" [what does improvisation mean within music?]- "Wozu dem Phänomen Improvisation auf den Grund gehen wollen" [Why should one wish to understand the nature of improvisation]- "Die Improvisation in der abendländischen Kunstmusik" [Improvisation in Western art music] - "Die Improvisation um 1968" [Improvisation around the year 1968] - "Improvisieren heute" [Improvisatin today] - "Der Zuhörer" [The listener] - "Improvisation als pädagogisches Mittel" [Improvisation as educational means] - "Die Kodes der Improvisation" [The codes of improvisation] - "Die freie Improvisation" [Free improvisation] - "Die kontrollierte Improvisation" [Controlled improvisation].
g2.1/ Globokar, Vinko: "Reflexions sur l'improv: le point de vue d'un practicien" (1978), Analyse Musical 14:1, jan., 1989.
French translation of Globokar (1979;G2.1) (RILM provides the name of the translater, so the text is not the original French one). There is no mention of this in the magazine, but mention is made of an Italian version of the same article in: Musica Realita no. 6, dec. 1980 and a mexican one: Panta nr. 2. Further the reader is informed that the article in its various versions is an abbreviated version of an unpublished French text written in 1978.
g2.1/ Globokar, Vinko: "In den Strudeln des Jazz und der neuen Musik", Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 154:5, Sept., 1993. KB.
Various general considerations and retrospects. Among other things it is mentioned that experimental tendencies continue underground despite of conservatism and institutionalisation. Maybe the following concluding words indicate that that G. has now a more understanding view of the possibilities of combining composition and improvisation: "Komposition, freie Improvisation und alle dazwischen liegenden Ausdrucksformen mischen sich...Sie berühren und beeinflussen sich gegenseitig. Aber wehe dem, der sie sich aneignen möchte, um sie in sein eigenes Werk zu integrieren! Er würde als Tourist verkleidet mit einem Tropenhut auf den Kopf erscheinen. Kunst ist, wie eine Gesellschaft übrigens auch, erst dann gesund, wenn sie Unterschiede ohne weiteres akzeptiert"." (p.13) [Composition, improvisation and all kinds of intermediary forms in between are combining...They interfere and influence each other. But woe be to him who would attempt to learn their practise in order to integrate them in his own work! He would appear dressed up as a tourist with a topee on his head. Art, like a society in general, too, is only healthy when differences are accepted without questioning].
g2.1/ Globokar, Vinko: Einatmen - Ausatmen. Fulda (Wolke), 1994.
Chapter 3, 4 and to some extent the chapter "Vinko Globokar im Gespräch..." deal with the relation between improvisation and composition. Historical and cultural considerations similar to those of earlier articles are stated; improvisation is seen as a research activity which the musician makes for his or her own sake. som en forskende aktivitet, musikeren især gør for sin egen skyld. However, Globokar has played with his group New Phonic Art 1969 - ca. 1979 at hundreds of concerts - there are some glimps from this activity. glimt herfra. Despite of his scepticism which was also mentioned at earlier occasions concerning "integrating" improvisations into compositions, the idea of letting musicians react to others' playing in different degrees of contrast which was brought forward in the article (Globokar;G2.1) receives detailed mention. Review: Drees (1999;G2.1).
g2.1/ Goldstein, Malcom: Special Issue around Malcom Goldstein - MusikTexte 28/29, marts, 1989.
g2.1/ Gunden, Heidi von: The music of Pauline Oliveros. Metuchen, NJ/London (The Scarecrow Press), 1983. KB.
See the sections "Improvisation" and "The sonic meditations". The last mentioned deal among other things with Oliveros' theory about "sonic awareness" and gives p. 108ff among other things an overview of all the pieces with compact characterisations, analytical remarks about the collection and more detailed examinations of selected pieces. Contains also a list of works, the study of which can reveal the importance of improvisation for Oliveros.
g2.1/ Hoch, Peter: Komposition - musikalische Graphik - Freie Improvisation in einem erweiterten Begreifen von Musik. MS, 1992.
Various considerations - classification of various kinds of material to play from - listing of places with teaching activity and of exhibitions of non-traditional notations.
g2.1/ Hodginson, Tim: "Sampling, Power and Real Collisions", in: Resonance. Published by London Musician's Collective (1992-), vol.5, nr.1, 1996.
A discussion of the role of sampling: does it mean liberation into a new community without boundaries? Are electronic instruments unfit for improvisation?.
g2.1/ Hodginson, Tim (ed): Structure and Freedom. Special issue, Resonance 6,1, 1997.
"...to map the common territory between improvisation and composition" is the aim of this special issue, quoting from the editor's preface. Information about and/or contributions from Iancu Dumitrescu, Butch Morris, Heiner Goebbels, John Zorn, Simon H. Fell, Charles Hayward, Tim Hodginson, Phil England, Richard Barrett, Chris Burn, John Butcher, John Bissett, George Lewis, Francis Silkstone.
g2.1/ Hoffmann, Niels Frédéric: "Improvisationslehren" Improvisation und neue Musik. Acht Kongressreferate Mainz(Schott), 1979. Part of a series: Veröff des Instituts für neue Musik und Musikerziehung Darmstadt, Bd. 20.AUB IMD.
Historical considerations. A concrete example is given concerning how a graphic picture can be interpreted differently within different styles.
g2.1/ Hult, Harald; Gustafsson, Mats; Jarvis, Edward (ed.): Sounds. Teksthæfte til LP "Sounds. Contemporary Swedish Music". Blue Tower Records, BLTLP 01/02, 1990.
g2.1/ Jost, Ekkehard: Free Jazz. Graz, 1974. Part of a series: Beiträge zur Jazzforschung; 4.IMD KB OUB SB.
Provides good descriptions of working methods of Coleman, Mingus, Taylor, Ayler - how collaboration between composer and musician assumes importance, however without having the character of something absolutely new like in composed new music. There is a characterisation of the "New Black Musik movement" which began early - Coleman's LP "Free" was released in 1960. - This book was reprinted 2003.
g2.1/ Jost, Ekkehard: "Grenzgänger. Komposition und Improvisation im Niemandsland zwischen Jazz und neuer Musik", in: Musik zwischen E und U (Ekkehard Jost ed.). Mainz (Schott), 1984. Part of a series: Veröff des Instituts für neue Musik und Musikerziehung Darmstadt, Bd. 25. AUB KB.
Various forms of interchange between jazz and new music is systematically examined.
g2.1/ Jost, Ekkehard: "Über das europäische im europäischen Jazz", in: Jazz in Europa. Darmstädter Beiträge zur Jazzforschung Bd. 3, Hrsg. Wolfgang Kraane, Hofheim (Wolke) 1994.
Comments the recent development with assimilation processes between jazz and new music - composition with Barry Guy is mentioned
g2.1/ Kallfelz, Andreas: "Ästhetik der Reproduktion. Zur Mu von P16.D4 und S.B.O.T.H.I.", MusikTexte 23, Febr., 1988.
Analyzes works by Braxton
g2.1/ Karkoschka, Erhard: "Aspekte der Gruppenimprovisation", Melos 1, 1971. See the English translation in the entry below.
The author views group improvisation as a sybstantially new phonomenon. In many cases, improvising activity pursue extra-musical goals, for instance meditation. Timbre and timbral processes and a new time experience are especialy characteristic of this music. By virtue of this, improvisation is innovative compared to composition - traditional notation has blocked the exploration of these areas.
g2.1/ Karkoschka, Erhard: "Aspects of Group Improvisation", http://www.intuitivemusic.dk/iima/ek.htm 1971 (transl.2004).
Translation from German of the classical article by Erhard Karkoschka from 1971 on improvisation as a liberating experience seen from a composer's point of view
g2.1/ Karkoschka, Erhard: "Improvisation. Überlegungen ende der siebziger Jahre" i Brinkmann, Reinhold (ed.): Improvisation und neue Musik. Acht Kongressreferate. Mainz (Schott), 1979. Part of a series: Veröff des Instituts für neue Musik und Musikerziehung Darmstadt, Bd. 20.AUB IMD KB.
This article examines systematically various motivations for improvising and the various kinds of material to play from. It discusses criteria for judging improvisations and propose the following (p. 102) 1) (this specifically for improvisation) successful statements and reactions; 2) (this and the following being comon to both improvisation and composition) rhythmical variety, colourfullness ("Farbigkeit"), multiple layers, level of instrumental technique and more 3) vigour of expression and originality. The author views improvisation as leading to other sounding results than composition does, this being a different situation from the one in earlier times (p.100).
g2.1/ Konrad, Sigrid (ed.): Laboratorium: Texte zur Musik 1967-1997 Saarbrucken (Pfau), 1998. Part of a series: Quellentexte zur Musik des 20. Jahrhunderts; 3.
This book reprints Globokar (1971;G2.1) and (1972;G2.1)
g2.1/ König, Wolfgang: Vinko Globokar: Komposition und Improvisation. Wiesbaden (Breitkopf und Härtel), 1977. KB.
This author claims that Globokar no longer cultivates free improvisation - an allegation vigouriously opposed by Globokar in a personal communication to the present author in 1990 and which is moreover also clearly disproved by the remaining literature!
g2.1/ Lake, Steve: "Steve Beresford talks to Steve Lake", Musics 14, 1977.
Interview with Steve B, about his working method and view of various matters.
g2.1/ Laskin, David L.L. (ed.): Ear Magazine vol. 15 no. 9. Special issue on improvisation, February 1991.
Among other things: Zorn (1991;G2.3); short portraits of a selection of improvisors (Jin Hi Kim and others), articles on Takehisa Kosugi and Joelle Leandre (interview with Sharon Kanan). Leandre emphasises a view of improvisation as that which lives in the moment in contrast to finished products comparable to the fact that life is a network of events; she also views composition, from this point of view, composition as being in its essence not different from improvisation. "We must remain in the process of doing, not in the goal of being done. I am against the concept of a "work"" (p.37) - "I believe in the ephemeral. My own musical style is my life, as represented by the encounters I've had, the collaborations in which I've been involved" (p.38). There is also a short article about AACM, Chicago (Association for the Advancment of Creative Musicians) on the occasion of its 25 years anniversary.
g2.1/ Leigh, Rich.: "Letter to the editor",Resonance 2,2, 1994.
Some additional remarks following Toop (1993;G2.1).
g2.1/ Lichtenhahn, Ernst: "Neue geniale Wendungen: Die musikalische Improvisation un 1800" i Fähndrich, Walter (ed.): Improvisation. 10 Beiträge (Papers from th eInternational congress about free improvisation and improvisation as an attitude, Luzern 1990). Winterthur (Amadeus Verlag), 1990. AUB OUB.
On historical concepts dealing with musical freedom and their changes, forerunners of the modern concept of "interpretation" of music.
g2.1/ Lockett, N.: "Ceo of free music", Ear Magazine 15.april, 1990.
On Company Week and Bailey's own working method.
g2.1/ Lukoszevieze, Anton: "Different strokes. Philip Corner talks to Anton Lukoszevieze, Resonance vol. 7 no. 1, 1999.
Deals among other things with notation and the desirability of letting the performer be responsible for details and for aspects that are problematic to notate. "I always hoped that what I did was evocative more than prescriptive...When I had to play some of the early John Cage prepared piano pieces, he told you the exact diameter of the bolt, how far from the bridge of the dampers the bolt should be...(s.13)...if you played it in concert you could be sure that you never got what they got when experimenting at home! I think that was one of the conditions that led me to leave it open.. and to let each performer find their own way to realise them" (s.14).
g2.1/ Meier, Rosmarie A.; Landolt, Patrik: "Zwischen Konstruktion und freier Improvisation. Barry Guy", Die lachenden Aussenseiter. Musikerinnen und Musiker zwischen Jazz, Rock und neuer Musik. Die 80er und 90er Jahre. Ein Buch der Wochenzeitung (WOZ) im Rotpunktverlag. Zürich (Rotpunktverlag), 1993.
Guy is known for his work with large groups and compositions giving space for improvisation. He tells here about how the reactions of musicians made him provide for more freedom in his compositions, about his musical development, Little Theatre Club, Paul Rutherford and others and about London Jazz Composer's Orchestra.
g2.1/ Meyer, Thomas: Improvisierte Musik in der Schweiz. Dissonanz/Dissonance 22, November 1989.
Discusses Swiss improvised music, both free improvisation and compositions, taking its starting-point in performances heard at donaueschinger Musiktage 1989. Also musician's organisations are described.
g2.1/ Meyer, Thomas: "Über das Verfertigen von Präludien. Eine Gebrauchskunst zwischen Komposition und Improvisation", Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. Tema-nummer om improvisation. No. 4, Juli/August, 1999.
On historical improvisation guides by among others Clementi, Couperin, Gretry, Telemann, Kalkbrenner
g2.1/ Motte, Diether de la: "Improvisation in der neuen Musik"i Brinkmann, Reinhold (ed.): Improvisation und neue Musik. Acht Kongressreferate Mainz (Schott), 1979. Part of a series: Veröff des Instituts für neue Musik und Musikerziehung Darmstadt, Bd. 20. AUB IMD KB.
Examines how variability is employed in compositions: Stockhausen: Klavierstücke I-IV (1954) (are, however, mentioned as exx of a complicated traditional notation); Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Intercommunicazione (1967); Aribert Reimann: Rondes (1967); Ligeti: Volumina (1966); Stockhausen: Klavierstück XI (1957); Boguslaw Schäffer: Musica per pianoforte (1958); Bernd Alois Zimmermann: tempus loquendi (1963); Earle Brown: Modules 1 + 2 (1968); Stockhausen: Mixtur (1964); Cardew: Solo with accompaniment (1967); Vinko Globokar: La Ronde (1972); Erhard Karkoschka: Komponiere selbst (1972); Hans Werner Henze: Elegie für junge Liebende (1959/61); Lutoslawski: Venetianische Spiele (Jeux Venetiens) (1961); Friedrich Goldmann: Sinfonie (1972); Klaus Huber: Tenebrae (1966/67); Zygmunt Krauze: Orchesterstück II (1970); Leon Schidlowsky: Koloth (1972); Dieter Schnebel: Konzert ohne Orchester (1970); Kagel: Prima Vista (1964); Diether de la Motte: concerto avventuroso (1974); Helmut W. Erdmann: Begrüssung eines eintreffenden Publikums (u.å.).
g2.1/ Munthe, Chr.: "Fri improvisationsmusik i Sverige/Free Improvised Music in Sweden", Hult, Harald; Gustafsson, Mats; Jarvis, Edward (ed.): Sounds. Teksthæfte til LP "Sounds. Contemporary Swedish Music". Blue Tower Records, BLTLP 01/02, 1990.
Takes as its starting-point the issue of how to characterise national and regional "schools" of freely improvised music, an interesting one and one which is seldom discussed. It includes a characterisation of Sweden's improvised music: "In contrast to the established fine arts, the Swedish free improvised music har nothing that even looks like a continous documentation and a permanent scene", it is said p.6. This state of affairs luckily has changed since then!
g2.1/ Munthe, Christian: "Improvisationen är en musikalsk metod som följer egna lagar", Orkester Journalen (S) 5, 1990.
Interviews. Mentioned by the author in Munthe (1992:G3).
g2.1/ Møller, Helle: Cornelius Cardews Musik. Æstetik, notation og interpretation i værker fra 1958 til 70. Speciale. MS, Århus (Musikvid. Institut), 1990.
Important informations about the Scratch Orchestra. Describes the particular improvisational genres of this orchestra: scratch music after individual introductions where everybody were to accompany everybody (used for starting the sessions); improvisation rites in which everybody followed one rule; compositions (for instance relevante pieces by Cage, Wolff, Stockhausen) and popular classics (often a short excerpt from well-known music performed as a kind of "amateur music sport".
g2.1/ Nørgård, Per: "Om at åbne for sig selv og lukke for det fremmede - og at lukke for sig selv for at åbne for det fremmede", bladet (Gruppen for Alternativ Musik), Kbh., november 1977. KB.
Nørgård's describes and reflects on his own group improvisation practise.
g2.1/ Oesch, Hans: "Zwischen Komposition und Improvisation" in: Die Musik der sechziger Jahre, p.39-52. Mainz, 1971. NJMK.
With examples.
g2.1/ Oswald, John: "To be discussed, an interview with Peter Cusack", Musicworks 10, winter, 1980.
Discusson about magazine ideas and Musician's Collectives at the time when tha magazine Musics ended. Cf. Ritchie (1993;G2.1).
g2.1/ Parsons, Michael: "Scratch Orchestra 25th Anniversary" in: Resonance. Published by London Musician's Collective. vol.3, nr. 1, winter, 1994.
General information about the Scratch Orchestra. Among other things it reprints Cardew's "Draft Constitution" (see also Cardew (1974;G2.1) and examples of "Improvisation Rites" from "Nature Study Notes" (1969).
g2.1/ Pfleiderer, Martin: Klangnavigationen mit und ohne Kompass. Freie Improvisation in grösseren Ensembles", Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. Special issue on improvisation. No. 4, Juli/August, 1999.
About historic ensembles: London Jazz Composer's Orchestra (Barry Guy), Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra (Schlippenbach), Globe Unity Orchestra (Schlippenbach) and King Übü Örchestrü and Chris Burn's Ensemble (formed 1984).
g2.1/ Prevost, Eddie: Sleeve notes for "LIVE", MRCD 01/01, 1993.
Includes a reprint of a program note from 1978 which in a manifesto-like way dealt with collective improvisation as a musical revolution, dedicating the music to freedom movements around the world. Also, the relevance of this at the time of writing is discussed.
g2.1/ Ritchie, Michael: "Improvisation: Why? Where? & How Much?" in: Resonance. Published by London Musician's Collective vol. 1, nr. 2, summer, 1993.
Advocates for many-sidedness concerning LMC concerts and attacks an alleged one-sided attitude of earlier times. This article appears to have written for a discussion inside the organisation, but as a historic document it testifies to a change having taken place in LMC and improvised music life in London. See, however, also Toop (1993;G2.1). Cf. Oswald (1980;G2.1).
g2.1/ Rutherford, Paul: Telephone conversation with Paul Rutherford, 4/5, 2000.
Rutherford does not think he heard European classical avantgarde in Cologne 1958/59 during his stay there wich Royal Air Force, only later.
g2.1/ Schwabe, Matthias: "Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen: From the Danish Seasons" in: Ringgespräch über Gruppenimprovisation, März, 2000.
Review of Bergstrøm-Nielsen (1999;A2.2).
g2.1/ Smith, Bill: Note til CD Bailey/Stevens/Watts: Dynamics of the Impromptu, Entropy Stereo ESR 004, 1998.
Provides information about how Watts, Stevens and Paul Rutherford met at an extended stay with Royal Air Force in Cologne 1958/59. They heard American jazz in German radio and at concerts. The German music life with the seemingly obvious possibilities for being influenced by pointillistic avantgarde music also beyond Webern (the new music of that day, by Stockhausen, Pousseur and others) did not seem to play any role - se Rutherford (2000;G2.1) and Watts (2002;G2.1).
g2.1/ Smith, Leo: Notes (8 pieces). Source: a new world music; creative music Publ. by Leo Smith, 1973. LOGOS.
Describes improvisation as an element of black music culture, including how it is discriminated. It stresses among other things that improvised music is a common endeavour also in seemingly solistic forms. Comments the composition of own pieces. Together with Cardew's "Towards an ethic of improvisation" (1971;G3), this book is recommended by Derek Bailey (1992;G1.1) as an important document about attitudes to improvised music.
g2.1/ Stubley, Peter: "The Internet and free improvisation", The Improvisor XI, 1996.
Same article as in Resonance.
g2.1/ Stubley, Peter: "European free improvisation on the Internet", in: Resonance. Published by London Musician's Collective vol.4, nr.1, summer, 1996?.
On Stubley's website which collects general information on musicians, records companies - see J1.1.
g2.1/ Stumme, Wolfgang (ed.): Über Improvisation. Mit Beiträgen von Elly Basic, Zagreb - Cesar Bresgen, Salzburg - Rainer Glen Buschmann, Dortmund - Lilli Friedemann, Hamburg - Hans Haselböck, Wien - Erhard Karkoschka, Stuttgart - Alfred Koerppen, Hannover - Günther Noll, Bonn - Wolfgang Stumme, Essen. Mainz (Schott), 1973. Part of a series: Bausteine für Musikerziehung und Musikpflege B21. OUB.
Various articles which can be said to testify to the immediate historic novelty of improvisation in new music. Improvisation is viewed as a part of a comprehensive movement which in a revolutionary way turns well-known traditional concepts upside down. Thus Alfred Koerppen states: "For those who advocate open form, perfection is 'polished surface' and 'beautyful illusion'. Mastery means to him: to have finished too early. /To take a stand here has become a nescessity for the composer of today" (p.21). Rainer Glen Buschmann states: "On the background of tonal and metric bindings having been abandoned, the result is almost totally depending on the ear of the improvising musician" (p.41) - individual freedom to emanicipate oneself from earlier norms is seen as having an immediate revolutionary force, being a realisation of utopic ideas. In contrast to this, Lilli Friedemann speaks in "Begegnungen mit der Gruppenimprovisation" of the importance of getting beyond the immediate beginner's stage. She mentions the pitfall consisting of over-emphasizing verbal discussions of the group-dynamic aspect: "One believes to have s e e n t h r o u g h music in this function and to have made it useful" (p.67). Stumme has as a general remark that "Two dangers threaten group improvisation: on one hand a certain sort of chaotic growth and lack of substantial results, on the other hand a school-like treatment of differentiated processes which by their nature deal with the realisation of freedom" - also this statement seems to reflect the immediate (p.85) historic novelty. Erhard Karkoschka's "Komposition - Improvisation" is quasi a shorter version of (1971;G2.1).
g2.1/ Toop, David: "Letter to the editors", Resonance 2,1, 1993.
An eye witness points out many historic details around London Musician's Collective (as a comment on articles by John Corbett and Michael Ritchie). Mention is made of The Musician's Co-op, a grouping of jazz musicians which preceded London Musician's Collective and which was affiliated to the magazine Microphone.
g2.1/ Toop, David and Cusack, Peter: "The Music/Context Seminar. LMC, August 2nd", Musics 20, Dec., 1978.
Summary of the discussion at David Toop's Music/Context Festival. Includes remarks by Steve Beresford on a basic pluralist state in improvised music: conflicts have not been settled once for all, but they should be understood as a part of the musical process.
g2.1/ Ulman, Erik: "Grenzüberschreitendes Improvisieren. Das Symposium "Improvising Across Borders" in San Diego", MusikTexte 79, 1999.
See also Improvising Across Borders;J1.
g2.1/ Wagner, Christoph: "Heimliche Liebe? Über die Beziehungen zwischen freiem Jazz und neuer Musik", Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 154:5, Sept., 1993. KB.
Enquete on the relation to new music with the following improvisors: Bailey, Derek; Ochs, Larry; Hallett, Sylvia; Klucevsek, Guy; Coxhill, Lol; Butcher, John; Collins, Nicolas, Hauser, Fritz; Rothenberg, Ned; Hemingway, Gerry; Bergman, Borah; Leandre, Joelle.
g2.1/ Watts, Trevor: Mail-correspondance with Trevor Watts, May, 2002.
No direct connection to composed avantgarde music was made during the Cologne stay with John Stevens and Paul Rutherford in 1958. The pointillistic way of playing only developed in 1966, in the Spontaneous Music Ensemble. An example that led the way was "End to a beginning", on the record "Challenge", LP from 1966-67, reissued as Emanem CD 4053 in 2002). John Stevens' inspiration from Webern was an important factor.
g2.1/ Whitehead, Kevin: New Dutch Swing. NY (Billboard Books), 1998.
Presents a huge amount of raw data on improvising musicians in Holland since the sixties. The work is based on more than 50 persons having been interviewed. According to the cover notes the author traces the development of among other things "conducted improvisation" and "game pieces" and "the birth of the European free jazz scene in the 1960's". The fixing to details makes it, however, difficult for the reader to verify these claims. But a detailed index (with a nescessary comprehensive list of errata) makes the book well suitable as a reference book.
g2.1/ Wilson, Peter Niklas: "Die wiedergefundene Freiheit. Der Panist Herbert Henck als Interpret und Improvisator", Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 149:2, Febr., 1988. KB.
Two pages mention of the relation of Henck to improvisation, based on statements from him. He has published a number of improvisations on LP/CD and has his background in classical avantgarde.
g2.1/ Wilson, Peter Niklas: "Die "englische Krankheit", und was man von ihr lernen kann. Gedanken über Fortschritt und Tradition in der improvisierten Musik", Petersen, Peter; Rösing, Helmut (hrsg.): 50 Jahre Musikwissenschaftliches Institut in Hamburg. Bestandaufnahme - aktuelle Forschung - Ausblick, p.127-137. Frankfurt am Main (Peter Lang), 1999.
An introduction addressed to musiciologists characterizes improvised music as a field with constrasting attitudes and forms of practise. On the "pointillistic" way of playing in improvised music and its origins with John Stevens and Evan Parker in 1967. Thorough examination of quotations showing the significance of Anton Webern for them. Thorough descriptions of a number of recordings from these days.
g2.1/ Yarden, Nona: "A Meditation", Perspectives of New Music XIX 451-59, Spring-Summer, 1981.
Poetic description of a session with Pauline Oliveros with material from Oliveros (1974;F1.1).
G2.2 IMPROVISATION/STOCKHAUSEN
g2.2/ Se also Stockhausen (1993;A2.2); Sutherland (1994;H1) p.214ff; Couldry (1995;G1) p.27+29; Bailey (1992;G1.1) p.79-80; Deliege (1971;G5); Søegaard and Sørensen (1987;H.3.1), Miereanu (1973;E2).
g2.2/ Andraschke, Peter: "Kriterien der intuitiven Musik bei
Karlheinz Stockhausen, in: Colloquium "Musica Communicatio", Brno
(Mezinarodni Hudebni Festival 1989) 1989.
Stockhausens' verbally notated work collections are viewed here
as biographic and general historic documents, as "a searching for
personal and compositoric freedom" and "dissatisfaction with
established values in the fields of society and culture" (p.238).
How the texts have been realized and may be realized by other
groups than those close to Stockhausen, without personal
collaboration with the composer, is not part of the focus, even
if it is, surprisingly, stated that the Stockhausen recordings
became "models ['vorbildlich'] for performances by other
ensembles", however, with no documentation of when and by whom.
The focus on the creative years also seem to make it easier for
the author to subscribe to the idea that Stockhausen is an
especially authoritarian composer. He even sees the mystic and
irrational element as pointing in this direction too
("unconditional preparedness to receive", p.244), not as a
common, possible field of general human interest being
approachable by artistic means.
It is suggested, again without documentation, that additional
verbal agreements of an informal kind were an important part of
rehearsal work with Aus den Sieben Tagen / From the Seven Days.
This is seen as the background for instructions being to a higher
degree of a concrete nature in Für kommende Zeiten / For Times
to Come. According to "a dialogue" with Stockhausen (no date is
given), he made repeated listenings to recordings of his
intuitive music and transscriptions of it. On this background the
author suggests that Stockhausen took inspiration from these
studies to clarify the musical language in subsequent written-out
works.
g2.2/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: "Festlegen, Umreissen, Andeuten,
Hervorrufen. Analytisches zu den Textkompositionen Stockhausens",
MusikTexte 72, nov., 1997.
English version: https://vbn.aau.dk/ws/portalfiles/portal/13971940/FCSE.pdf
Analysis of the compositions in Aus den sieben Tagen (From the Seven Days) and Für kommende Zeiten (For Times to Come).
g2.2/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl; Lekfeldt, Jørgen; Maack, Lene; Vincze, Ivan: "Stockhausen privat", Dansk Musiktidsskrift 4, 1982/83.
Reports on conversations with Stockhausen on intuitive music and other subjects.
g2.2 / Blumröder, Christoph von: Die Grundlegung der Musik Karlheinz Stockhausens, Stuttgart (Franz Steiner Verlag) 1993.
The serial procedures in some of the pieces from Aus den Sieben Tagen are contemplated p. 167f
g2.2/ Bojé, Harald: "Aus den sieben Tagen. Textinterpretationen", Feedback Papers 16, August, 1978.
Twelve of the pieces from Aus den Sieben Tagen (From the Seven Days) are scrutinized in good detail with a view to the practical interpretation. Bojé was a member of the Stockhausen Group which toured 1968-70 with intuitive music.
g2.2/ Brinkmann, Reinhold: "Hören und Denken. Thesen zur "intuitiven" Musik", Neue Zeitschrift für Musik Nr.9, Sept., 1974.
In the name of marxism this author airs an absolute allergy against everything which is not rational, as well as against meditation.
g2.2/ Davies, Hugh: "Stockhausen's Intuitive Music", Musics 1, april/may, 1975. LOGOS BRIT.LIBR. Also online at IIMA: www.intuitivemusic.dk/iima/davies.htm
General introduction to Aus den sieben Tagen (From the Seven Days) with examples of musical issues given. Davies played the music as a member of the group Gentle Fire. Good introduction.
g2.2/ Hopp, Winrich: Kurzwellen von Karlheinz Stockhausen. Konzeption und musikalische Poiesis. Mainz (Schott), 1998. Part of a series: Kölner Schriften zur neuen Musik (Fritsch, Johs; Kämper, Dietrich ed.), Band 6.
Provides a detailed examination and a thorough analysis over 451 pages of the work Kurzwellen (Short Waves). See the detailed review Lekfeldt (2000;G2.2).
g2.2/ Kohl, Jerome: "Serial determinism and "intuitive music"", in: in theory only. Journal of the Michigan Music Theory Society vol.3, number 12, March, Ann Arbor, Michigan 1978. A revised version as the concluding chapter in the author's Ph.D. diss. pp. 227–52, Serial and Non-Serial Techniques in the Music of Karlheinz Stockhausen from 1962–1968 (Seattle: University of Washington, 1981). Also online at International Improvised Music Archive
The author examines Stockhausens' notion of serialism and the compositional construction of the pieces of Aus den Sieben Tagen (From the Seven Days). Furthermore, the relations of the pieces to one another in the collection is also analyzed and seen as organized according to similar principles. This is an important article that clarifies the relation of the Aus den Sieben Tagen pieces to Stockhausens' general notions of music.
g2.2/ Krellmann, Hanspeter: "Stockhausens Plädoyer für Intuition - ein Interview", The World of Music 2, 1970. KB.
Tri-lingual: German, English and French. Originated in the German newspaper Die Welt, 1969. A different English translation to be found in Nevill (1989;G2.2).
g2.2/ Kurtz, Michael: "Aus den sieben Tagen (1968-70)", Stockhausen. Eine Biographie. Kassel (Bärenreiter), 1988.
Biographical and performance history information around this collection (From the Seven Days). See also some important background information about other open works by Stockhausen: p.122f about Klavierstück XI, p. 195f about Adieu, and p. 211f about Kurzwellen
g2.2/ Kurtz, Michael: "Aus den Sieben Tagen: Points de vue biographique et historique sur les compositions-textes de mai 1968", in : "Karlheinz Stockhausen" (Livre-programme), Ed. Contrechamps/Festival d'Automne à Paris, Paris, 1988. (Online at: http://www.festival-automne.com/public/ressourc/publicat/1988stoc/stku040.htm
Further investigations around Aus den Sieben Tagen (From the Seven Days) and Stockhausen's relation to the practise of improvisation, drawing on various unpublished sources, among others.
g2.2/ Lekfeldt, Jørgen: Afsn. "Aus den sieben Tagen: den personlige oplevelse, meditation og kreativitet", in: Sölle og Stockhausen - musikkens teologi og teologiens musik, p. 147-155. Viborg (Schønberg), Dänemark, 1991. NJMK AUB FRBMB KB OUB MI.
Describes the biographical background of the music, the inspiration from yoga and the open, verbally notated music as an invitation to creative activity. The book also contains a detailed portrait of aesthetic principles in the music of Stockhausen. On both music analytical and general philosophical basis, the music of Stockhausen is compared to the theology of Sölle. Both are interpreted as expressions of emancipative/utopical modernity. A key concept with Stockhausen is the equality of the musical elements - an aesthetic principle that originated in the equality of parameters and their steps within serial music of the fifties. In music with ambiguous notation, also both musicians and different performances are equal.
g2.2/ Lekfeldt, Jørgen: Review of Hopp: Kurzwellen von Karlheinz Stockhausen..., Dansk Musik Tidsskrift nr. 2, sept., 2000/01.
Review of Hopp (1998;G2.2).
g2.2/ Maconie, Robin: "Aus den sieben Tagen" + "Für Kommende Zeiten", The Works of Karlheinz Stockhausen, p.250-261. London, 1976. KB OUB.
Also a second edition from 1990 exists.
g2.2/ Maconie, Robin (ed.): "Intuitive music", Stockhausen on Music. Lectures and interviews compiled by Robin Maconie. London/NY (Marion Boyars Publishers), 1991. AUM.
From a lecture in London 1971. Stockhausen tells about experiences with the works in pus-minus notation which preceded thos fro Aus den Sieben Tagen (From the Seven Days) and examines some of its works (Right Durations; Unlimited; Connection; IT) giving comments and reports from the playing experiences. Good introductory text.
g2.2/ Müller, Hermann-Christoph: "plus minus gleich. Karlheinz Stockhausens "Prozession", MusikTexte 67/68, Januar, 1997. OUB.
Introduction to the work and to the plus-minus notation.
g2.2/ Nakaji, Masatsune: "Le Dispositif Chaosmique de Transformation", in: GENESIS. The Bulletin of Kyoto Univeristy of Art and Design, vol 1, 1994. Also at http://www2.biglobe.ne.jp/~naxos/musik/fimusik.htm. Japanese version also available here.
A short essay portraying the playing of and listening to From the Seven Days as a liberating spiritual practise. Its way is contrary to dogmatic systems there is no description of an "absolute order" of the universe, nor of any didactic edifice defining specific stages ("floors" of the edifice) of spiritual development and which "outlook" the disciple will have from each of them. Instead, the vision is of a "chaosmos".
In the piece "Unlimited", focus is on here and now, leading the musician to be totally present in his/her own way; this leading to the striving to put all elements into their right place. This again pushes towards a transcendence of personal limits.
In Upwards, Downwards and still other works employing descriptions of rhythmic leveles, these become degrees of sharpness of sensibility for the music. The endeavour to play infinitely small rhythms lead to a transcendence of one's own limits. There is, again, an absence of dogmatism and instead, there is a structure to be used in individual ways: "the various rhythms are not principles set up in order to designate the difference within what has been represented, but degrees of intensity in themselves which are never represented; also they are practical degrees which designate the qualitative difference between various intensities".
Finally, playing must be set forth within the variety of the others playing. This challenges the individual musician while at the same time also provides support.
g2.2/ Nevill, Tim (ed.): "Intuitive Musik", p.35-44, Towards a
Cosmic Music, selected and translated by Tim Nevill. Longmead,
Shaftesbury, Dorset (Element Books Ltd.), 1989. AUM.
Includes various material dealing with intuitive music: an
alternative translation of the interview originating in Krellmann
(1970:G2.2), a transscript from a conversation in Kürten 1973;
Litany and Arrival quoted (in English) from From the Seven Days
and a translation of most of the program note Stockhausen
(1971B;G2.2).
g2.2/ Shimizu, Minoru: "Was ist Plura-Monismus?", in: Misch,
Imke; Blumröder, Christoph von et al. (Hrsg.): Internationales
Stockhausen-Symposion 1998. Musikwissenschaftliches Institut der
Universität zu Köln. 11 bis 14. November 1998. Tagungsbericht,
Saarbrücken, PFAU-Verlag 1999.
Describes the holistic thinking and special concepts with
philosopher Leibnitz and demonstrates how well they correspond
to Stockhausen's serial thinking - "to try to balance out the
different aspects of sound" with one of the article's Stockhausen
quotations. For Leibnitz, the spiritual "labyrinths" of continua
between extremes and that concerning the essence of freedom are
part of one and the same basic concept, that of infinity.
Likewise, the author asserts, serial thinking and intuitive music
are closely related in Stockhausen's thinking. This is an
important article which highlights philosophical backgrounds
which are too often misunderstood.
g2.2/ Stockhausen, Karlheinz: "Adieu für Wolfgang Sebastian Meyer", Texte III. Köln (DuMont), 1971A. OUB.
Stockhausen reports on the scruples he had in 1966, during which he, partly inspired by painters, partly provoked by a death, reflected on the troublesome working out of details in traditional composition. Adieu was a practical answer to this, some elements being notated with verbal and suggestive means.
g2.2/ Stockhausen, Karlheinz: "Aus den sieben Tagen", Texte III.
Köln (DuMont), 1971B. OUB.
Program note. A more recent version in Stockhausen
(1993A;G2.2).
(g2.2)/ "Intuitive Music (IT) and Questions and Answers on Intuitive Music given on February 15th 1972 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London". Filmed by Allied Artists, London, 1972. DVD, Stockhausen-Verlag. 83 Minutes.
Important discourse on the freedom from cliches and the intuition.- See also the transscipts: Stockhausen (1993B;G2.2) in English as well as Stockhausen (1978;G2.2) in German.
g2.2/ Stockhausen, Karlheinz: "Aus den sieben Tagen. 15
Kompositionen, Mai 1968", Texte IV, P. 108-129. Köln (DuMont),
1978. AUB KB OUB.
Introductory texts, among which are those from the LP covers.
A more recent version in Stockhausen (1993A;G2.2).
g2.2/ Stockhausen, Karlheinz: "Fragen und Antworten zur
intuitiven Musik", Texte IV, p. 130-144. Köln (DuMont), 1978. AUB
KB OUB.
Transscript from a discussion with Stockhausen. Important text
on intuitive music, on the freedom from cliches and the
intuition. For an English version, see Stockhausen (1993B;G2.2).
g2.2/ Stockhausen, Karlheinz: "Jazz-Gespräch am Telephon". In: Kumpf, Hans: Postserielle Musik und Free Jazz.
Wechselwirkungen und Parallelen. Berichte, Analysen,
Werkstattsgespräche.Rohdorf (rohdorfer musikverlag rmv 702), 1976,
2.Auflage 1981. Separately in: Jazz Podium 26,. 1977, Nr. 11, S. 11-14.
From the discourse around intuitive music Stockhausen is known for a sceptic attitude towards jazz improvisation, critising cliches and fixed vocabularies. This interview reveals that he had a high opinion on free solo improvisations:
"Then come the free passages which are always the most beautiful, which partly go beyond associations and are totally lyric. That is, then, for me really new music - and in most cases it is even better, regarding instrumental playing, than that which we have in so-called serious or classical music, because 'classical' musicians are not so sophisticated in free playing, they do not have so very much experience either, I have to say." (Quoted and transl. from p.169 in 2.Auflage).
g2.2/ Stockhausen, Karlheinz: "Texts about the recordings / Texte
zu den Aufnahmen", Stockhausen Complete Editon, booklet with CD
14A-G. Köln (DuMont), 1993A. AUB OUB.
Contains general and specific program notes (some are expanded
from earlier versions) and Stockhausen (1993B;G2.2). Available
from the publisher with English or German text.
g2.2/ Stockhausen, Karlheinz: "Questions and answers to intuitive
music", in: Stockhausen Complete Editon, booklet with CD 14A-G.
Köln (DuMont), 1993B. AUB OUB. Available with German or English text.
The English text is online at IIMA: www.intuitivemusic.dk/iima/sh_qa.pdf
Transscript from a discussion with Stockhausen. Important text
on the freedom from cliches and the intuition.
g2.2/ 七つの⽇より <1968> （ダルムシュタット国際現代⾳楽コースのプログラムのために1969年7⽉31⽇に書かれた作品解説、1993年 http://www001.upp.so-net.ne.jp/kst-info/linerNotes/CD14/Aus_Den_Sieben_Tagen_I.html
Note on Intuitive music from the program of the Darmstadt International Summer Course, 1969 (suplemented 1993). English version in Stockhausen Complete Works 14, Stockhausen-Verlag.
G2.3 IMPROVISATION/ZORN
g2.3/ See also Wilson (1999;G1.1) p. 80-85; Wilson (1999B;G3.
g2.3/ Bailey, Derek: "The composer - in practise (2)", in: Improvisation. Its nature and practise, 75-78. London (The British Library National Sound Archive), 1992.
Informative interview with John Zorn on his game pieces. The last part of the interview appear in what could be an edited form, compared to the seemingly more direct transscription in Brackett (g2.3;2010).
g2.3/ Beresford, Steve: "John Zorn interviewed", in: Resonance. Published by London Musician's Collective vol.2, nr. 2, summer, 1994.
One theme being dealt with is Zorn's view of improvisation/composition.
(g2.3)/ Drury, Stephen: Cobra-notes. [s.a.] http://arvidtp.net/bnm/cobra-score/cobra%20notes,%20Slusser.pdf. Accessed May 20 2015.
This is a typewritten document, presumably dating from the early nineties at the latest. Provides detailed comments to the individual cue categories of Cobra written by a participating musician.
g2.3/ Huesmann, Günther: "John Zorn. Über die Verfügbarkeit der Töne" i Ohnesorg, Faanz Xaver: Die Befreiung der Musik. Eine Einführung in die Musik des 20. Jahrhunderts. Köln (Gustav Lübbe Verlag), 1994. DR AUB.
P. 323f game pieces are dealt with.
g2.3/ Lange, Art: Art. in booklet of Zorn (1991;I1),
Quotes from Cobra; discusses historical context.
g2.3/ Lange, Art: "Der Architekt der Spiele. Gespräch mit John Zorn über seine musikalischen Regelsysteme", Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 2, 1991.
Discusses various Game Pieces and their devbelopment (there are at least seven). Quotes from the explanation of symbols from Cobra. Essential writing about Game Pieces.
g2.3/ Mandel, Howard: "Howard Mandel interview John Zorn", EAR Magazine Vol. II no. 2, oct., 1986. LOGOS.
Among other things on game pieces, on the idea that quite different musicians should be able to participate, and on the differences between various game pieces and their development.
g2.3/ Mandel, Howard: "Ich habe viele kleine Tricks". John Zorn interview. MusikTexte 23, Febr., 1988.
g2.3/ Mandel, Howard: "Guerilla Strategist: John Zorn interviewed by Howard Mandel", Resonance vol. 6 nr. 1, 1997.
A different version of the article in EAR magazine 1986.
g2.3/ McGuire, John: "Spiele um des Spiels willen. Der New Yorker Komponist und Musiker John Zorn. MusikTexte 23, February 1988.
Provides important information and analysis concerning Archery, Locus Solus and other game pieces. With a discography.
g2.3/ Rovere, Walter; Chiti, Carlo in collaboration with Achilli, Alessandro; chadbourne, Eugene; Coralli, Michele; Romero, Enrico: Itinerari oltre il suono. John Zorn. In Italian and English, Milano/Valdarno (Materiali Sonori Edizioni Musicali snc) 1998.
Features a number of articles dealing generally with the composer. Contains an extensive discography and a bibliography of several pages.
g2.3/ Solothurnmann, Jürg: "Trickfilmmusik" (1986), Landolt, Patrik; Wyss Ruedi (ed.): Die lachenden Aussenseiter. Musikerinnen und Musiker zwischen Jazz, Rock und neuer Musik. Die 80er und 90er Jahre. Ein Buch der Wochenzeitung (WOZ) im Rotpunktverlag. Zürich (Rotpunktverlag), 1993.
Zorn describes Game Pieces: "My pieces are written as a series of roles, that is, a series of structures and relations between musicians. As a composer, my interest is to deal in an abstract way with these roles" (p.251).
g2.3/ Watrous, Peter: sleeve notes for John Zorn: Cobra. 2 LP-sæt, hatART 2034, 1986.
On backgrounds for "game pieces" in computer "war games" and an introduction to them.
g2.3/ Whitehead, Kevin, "A Field Guide To Cobra," Pulse!, November 1994
g2.3/ Zorn, John: "Zorn on Zorn (as told to Art Lange, August 1990)", advertising in Ear Magazine vol. 15 nr. 9, febr, 1991.
On "working with blocks" and "using genre", among other places in Cobra.
(g2.3)/ Zorn, John: Cobra score. Cop. 1984. Without explanations (same graphic layout as in the booklet of Zorn (1991;i1). http://arvidtp.net/bnm/cobra-score/cobra%20score.pdf Accessed May 20 2015. [Previously http://www.4-33.com/scores/cobra/cobra.html]
G2.4 IMPROVISATION / BROWN: DECEMBER 1952
g2.4/ See also the writings mentioned under Brown (1961;A1). See also the recordings of December 1952 under Brown (1964; I1). See also Bièvre (2012;H1). See also Brown (1986;G3.1)
g2.4/ Bosseur, Jean-Yves: "Earle Brown. Interview with Jean-Yves Bossueur" Les Lettres Nouvelles, October-November, 1966.
g2.4/ Brown, Earle: "Notes, thoughts and assorted material from notebook; 1952 to 1953; relevant to "Folio" pieces such as "Synergy" and 'December 1952", Young, Lamonte and Mac Low, Jackson: An Anthology. USA, Heiner Friedrich (First ed. cop. 1963), sec. ed., 1970.
Transscriptions of those notes having been edited in facsimile in Brown (1961;A1) and includes also Synergy ("Nov.' 52") and December 1952. Some of the notes have been transscibed in Brown (1966;G2.1).
g2.4/ Brown, Earle: "Notes on some works: 1952-1971", Contemporary Music Newsletter Vol. VI number 1, January-February, 1972.
December 52 was performed at New York University in 1971. This article underlines both the aspectet of "mobility" and the aspect of improvisation: "the musicians are improvising the sound materials relative to the very simple graphic implications of the score and certain rehearsed signals between the conductor and the musicians. The conductor is "forming" the improvisation. Rather than a performed composition one hears a composed performance. All of the performers are the composers of this collaborative music-making" (p.1).
g2.4/ Earle Brown: The Notation and Performance of New Music. The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 72, No. 2 (1986), pp. 180-201. German version previously published as "Notation und Ausführung neuer Musik" (Notation and Performance of New Music) in Notation neuer Musik. Darmstädter Beiträge IX, Mainz (Schott) 1965.
An edited version of a 1964 Darmstadt lecture - published 22 years after.
The author views the development of new notations as part of an integral development characterised by "aesthetic and tehnical necessity" (p 180). Serial and aleatoric tendencies which implied a tendency away from subjective control by the composer could be seen as inviting new developments within "the necessary (and complementary) relationship which must exist between the composer, the score, the performer, and the audience, in directions which are also conducive to the composer experiencing his image as sound" (p.183). The composers' image becomes more accurately expressed because it is based on new experiences of the present world. This development could at the same time be seen as moving closer to music of older times having more ambiguity in the notation practise. - Else, topics include a contempletation of oral traditions in jazz and Indian music, instrumental versus electronic music, inspiration from Pollock's paintings, and more.
g2.4/ Castanet, Pierre: "Earle Brown et la tendance aleatoire des annees 50 aux USA (Introduction à l'analyse de December 52)", in: Les Cahiers du CIREM (Centre International de Recherches en Esthétique Musicale). Special issue "Musique et aleatoire(s)" vol. 18-19, dec., 1990.
Has a good illustrated and detailed presentation of a number of indetermined works from the New York school. December 1952 is also commented upon, however, without precise reference for quotations used. Quoted are: Wolff: For pianist; For 1,2 or 3 people; Feldman: Projection 4; Brown: 4 systems; Synergy II; November 1952; Twenty-Five Pages - also visual works by Mondrian and Calder.
g2.4/ Cisternino, Nicola: "Earle Brown, "December 52". L'ensemble graphique", in: Les Cahiers du CIREM (Centre International de Recherches en Esthétique Musicale). Special issue "Musique et aleatoire(s)" vol. 18-19, dec., 1990.
Presents results from a visual analysis of the graphic picture, having its background in a view of point and line as being visual archetypes of a "grapho/sonore" kind (p.37) as well as in the theory of Paul Klees. The analyses does not relate itself to the way in which the work was constructed and does not make any direct reference to the texts of Brown. It seems to be based in speculation and to confine itself to describing one possible way in which to read the picture. The author reads a structure having the form of a cross in the picture and views elements as related to each other in imagined rotating movements.
g2.4/ Ryan, Dave: "Y a-t-il une "ecole new-yorkaise" ? Entretien avec Earle Brown", Dissonance - La Nouvelle Revue Musicale Suisse nr. 52, mai, 1997.
About the early indeterminate works, including December 1952 -: "Do you know how December was made? It was produced by using random sampling tables of numbers. I wanted to activate only three parameters - relative frequency, relative loudness, relative duration" (here quoted from the original English manuscript).
g2.4/ Rötter, G.: "Interview mit dem Komponisten Earle Brown", in: Zeitschrift für Musikpädagogik vol. 36, 1986.
Deals among other things with the ahthor's experience with Schillingers system of music didactics. Detailled comments to the criticism of the performance in Darmstadt 1965 of December 52. About inspirations from Calder.
G2.5. IMPROVISATION/WOLFF
g2.5/
See also these works by Wolff: (1969;A1), (1971;A1), (1968;A2.2).
Entire works quoted in: Johnson (1981;A2.2), Parsons (1994;A2.2), Scratch Orchestra (1971;A2.2).
Important writings: Behrmann (1964/65;E2), Feisst (1997;G1.1), Müller (1994;G1.1), Wilson (1999;G1.1), DeLio (1984;G3), Wolff (1987;G3), Bosseur (1979;H1), Sutherland (1994;H1), Landy (1991;H4), Nyman (1974;H4).
Also mentioning/quoting in: Cole (1974;E1), Cardew (1961;E2), Paynter (1992;F1.1), Møller (1990;F2.1), Castanet (1990;G2.4), Kühn (1984;G5), Prevost (1984;G5).
g2.5/ Daske, Martin: "eine welt, die anders orientiert wäre". Interview med Christian Wolff, MusikTexte 4, April, 1984.
Gives a good overview of Wolffs production until then with his own words; among other things, there is thorough mention and commenting on "For 1, 2 or 3 people" and of Edges (Wolff 1969;A1).
g2.5/ Gronemeyer, Gisela; Oehlschlägel, Reinhard (hrsg.): Christian Wolff. Cues. Writings and Conversations / Hinweise. Schriften und Gespräche. Köln, 1998. Part of a series: Edition MusikTexte 005.
Bilingual reference work comprising 544 pages, featuring a large number of articles about Wolff's music, articles on other's music, reprint of Prose Collection (1968;G2.2) and one more text piece, Instrumentalist(s) - Singer(s) (1997), and more - indispensable for a closer study of the music of Wolff.
g2.5/ Wolff, Chr: "Open to whom and to what", Interface 16/3 p.133-141, 1987. KB.
Reflections on openness experienced as a quality of music by a listener. Three examples are considered: Luigi Nono: strinq quartet "Fragmente - Stille. An Diotima"; Pauline Oliv eros: "Teach yourself to fly" from "Sonic Meditations" and the author's "Bowery Preludes" (1985-86).
G3 GENERAL PHILOSOPHY, AESTHETICS, MUSIC THEORY AND MUSIC ANALYSIS
g3/ See also Laskin (1991;G2.1); Levaillant (1981; G1.1); Lutz (1999;G1.1); Müller (1994;G1.1); Feisst (1997; G1.1); Corbett (G3; 1995); Globokar (1970; G1); Foss (1963; G1.1); Smith (1973;g1.1).
g3/ Alperson, Philip: "On musical improvisation", The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, fall, 1984.
g3 + henv fra G2.1 (Parker)/ Arndt, Jürgen: "Evan Parker und
Alfred Whitehead. Freie Improvisation in philosophischem Licht",
in: Was du nicht hören kannst, Musik. Zum Verhältnis von Musik
und Philosophie im 20. Jahrhundert (Keil, Werner; Arndt, Jürgen
hrsg.), Hildesheim (Olms Verlag) [1999]].
"Process and Reality" is the title of a solo album by Evan
Parker which was recorded in a studio in 1991. It is also the
title of a series of lectures by the British philosopher,
published in 1929, from which Parker quotes in the booklet. This
article takes its starting-point in the principle of mutual
dependency between the flowing and the steady. The author examines
how this applies to Parkers' musical ideas and development, with
regard to the role of repetition, of multi-layering techniques
and of particular playing techniques. Also recordings by Sydney
Becket (1941) and Lennie Tristano (1951) are pointed out as
relevant predecessors.
Among other things, the author makes the point that one should distinguish between improvisation as an activity and what results from it.
g3/ Bradlyn, Mark J.: "Chaos Theory and Group Improvisation. The Improvisor VIII, winter, 1988-89.
Classic and modern understandings of theory of science is outlined, including concepts from chaos theory, among other things "sensitive dependence on initial conditions" (p. 16). Chaos theory signalizes an accept of that which is complex, as opposed to the understanding of nature by classic science as something which is chaotic in a way which is hostile to man.
g3/ Brown, Earle: Article in English in Darmstädter Beiträge X (Form in der neuen Musik) (p. 57-69). Mainz (Schott), 1966. OUB MKAR KB SB AEST IMD EM.
Essential article about ambiguity and emancipation in new music: concerning notation, collective creation, music as a complex process, the relation to space. Comments on the Folio works.
g3/ Brownell, John: "Analytical models of jazz improvisation", Jazzforschung/Jazz Research 26, 1994.
Examination of "reductionist" and "processual" analytic views on jazz-improvisation. Well-intentioned transscriptions of a number of jazz solos have been made by authors who view the music naively as following the same criteria for their structure as those for composed music. The "processual" view is preferred by the author as that which yields the most insight into improvisation, and writings undertaken on this background with inspiration in literature theory and structural linguistics (dealing with among others generative grammar) are critically examined.
g3/ Cardew, Cornelius: "Towards an ethic of improvisation", in: Treatise Handbook. Ed. Peters; Hinrichsen Ed., 1971. AUB SB.
Essential article. On individual virtues which improvisation can train - ranging from "integrity" to "acceptance of death". Also reprinted in Cardew (2006;G2.1).
g3/ Caroll, Doug: "Sound is round and so is music", The Improvisor XI, 1996.
Considerations on music and the cyclic principle.
g3/ Dahlhaus, Carl: "Komposition und Improvisation", Musik und Bildung 5, maj. p. 225-228, 1973.
Deals among other things with the dialectics of "illusionary spontaneity". Critical considerations addressed to those who view improvisation as a revolutionary practise - written during a passionate debate of its day. Dahlhaus thinks the form becomes random-like and amorphous, and one of his conclusions ist that improvisation seldom creates new forms and structures, instead it contributes especially to the differentiation of details.
g3/ Dahlhaus, Carl: "Was heisst Improvisation" in: Brinkmann, Reinhold (ed.): Improvisation und neue Musik. Acht Kongressreferate Mainz (Schott), 1979. Part of a series: Veröff des Instituts für neue Musik und Musikerziehung Darmstadt, Bd. 20.AUB IMD.
In this article, Dahlhaus describes improvisation as focused around dynamics and timbre, those historically "subordinate tone properties". These parameters he sees as connected to expressive gestures (p.14), although he also sees the emancipation of noises as having an important historical role (p.18).
g3/ DeLio, Thomas: Circumscribing the Open Universe. Lanhan/NY/London (University Press of America)), 1984. AUB.
Includes analyses of Cage: Variations II (1961), Feldman: Durations III #3 (cop. 1967), Chr. Wolff: For 1 2 or 3 people (1964).
g3/ DeLio, Thomas (ed.): The Music of Morton Feldman. Westport, Conn./London (Green wood Press), 1996. AUB.
Includes an elaborate analysis of Projection I for cello. This is the first work with its kind of notation. It consists of a box-like division of 3 registers, within each tones can be chosen ad lib. as well as some more symbols. The analysis demonstrates how new possibilities of differentiation arise as the traditional focusing on pitch is abandoned.
g3/ DeMaria, Michael Brant: "Improvisation, Attitude and the Self". The Improvisor IX, autumn, 1991.
Philosophical considerations on the background of Merlau-Ponty and Sartre - the music is experienced in a "prereflective awareness" (p.28).
g3/ Denly, Jim: "Improvisation: The entanglement of awareness and physicality", Resonance 1, 1992.
On the specific nature of free improvisation and the significance of interaction with the instrument. "Composition is frozen improvisation" said Igor Stravinsky and in response Pauline Oliveros calls improvisation "speeded up composition" (p.10) - this is an idea the author views critically. Also the assumption that the body acts, because it gets instructions from the head telling it what do do. Instead the author supposes that the body has a more independent, creative role. Cf. the "instrumental impulse" which Bailey (1992;G1.1) comments, addressing Curt Sachs (from The Wellsprings of Music, London 1944) which is not melodic, but "an agile movement of the hands which seems to be under the control of a brain centre totally different from that which inspires vocal melody" (Bailey p. 97).
g3/ Eco, Umberto: The Open Work (1962), [Cambridge] Harvard University Press 1989.
This is an influential book dealing with the meaning and importance of new performance practise. Italian Eco deals with works by Stockhausen, Berio, Boulez and Pousseur and does not seem to know about American experimentalists. Despite this and the early date of his thoughts in which free improvisation had not begun its recent growth, and furthermore despite the fact that he does not distinguish clearly about what is semantic ambiguity and what is openness for collective creation, his thoughts contain pioneering and essential insights, even if they need to be taken up to date by the reader. The following quotation draws up a general perspective of the history of philosophy and science connected to the open work: "The notion of "possibility" is a philosophical canon which reflects a widespread tendency in contemporary science: the discarding of a static, syllogistic view of order, a corresponding devolution of intellectual authority to personal decision, choice, and social context". (Quoted from Cox and Warner: Audio Culture, NY (Continuum), 2004 which reprints a part of the book over 10 pages. According to the editors, the text reprinted was written in 1959)
g3/ Eno, Brian: "Generating and organising Variety in the Arts, Studio International, nov./dec., 1976. OUB.
Analytical reflections about Cardew: The Great Learning #7" which can be seen in its entirety in Parsons (1994;A2.2) and Nyman (1974;H4). This article also appears with a comment in Eno (1999;H4).
g3/ Eno, Brian: "The Great Learning", A Year - with swollen Appendices. London (Faber and Faber), 1999.
Analytical reflections about Cardew: The Great Learning #7" which can be seen in its entirety in Parsons (1994;A2.2) and Nyman (1974;H4). This article reprints Eno (1976;H4) with an added comment.
g3/ Fritsch, Johannes G.: "Improvisation und Extase", Improvisation - Performance - Szene, Vier Seminarbeiträge und ein Seminarbericht. Hrsg. von Barbera Barthelmes und Johannes Fritsch. Mainz etc. (Schott), 1997. Part of a series: Veröff. des Instituts für neue Musik und Musikerziehung Darmstadt Band 37.
On a very general level, the phenomenon of improvisation is related to concepts from Levi-Strauss: "Improvisation als process escapes alienation much more as any composed work. Any attempt to grasp the phenomenon is encumbered with methodical difficulties to a no lesser degree than those encountered by ethnologists or psychiatrists who seek to describe social and individual processes. The discourse of this method is called "bricolage" by Levi-Strauss, meaning [something like 'playful, hobby-like work']. He who practises this find in his surroundings tools which were not nescessarily designed for the purpose they are now used for. The opposite role is the engineer who creates his whole discourse, language and syntax on his own. The analogy of the engineer to the composer and of the [hobby-like playful worker] to the improvising musician is evident. The improvising musician plays" (p.21).
g3/ Goldstein, Malcom: Sounding the Full Circle. Concerning musical Improvisation and other related matters. (Sheffield), 1988.
Reflections on improvisation as a creative activity. Many good considerations and questions to be thought over.
g3/ Gulda, Friedrich: "Befreiung durch Improvisation /Liberation through Improvisation/Libération par improvisation", The World of Music. Quarterly journal of the International Music Council (UNESCO) in ass. with the Int. Institute for Comparative Music Studies and Documentation, Berlin 13:3. Mainz (Schott), 1971. IMD KB.
This article does not especially deal with free improvisation, but it puts radical viewpoints forward. A well-known classical pianist condemns Western written culture in music which he sees as one-sidedly serving the higher classes, as rationalistic, ethnocentric and producing a counter-creative situation both for music pupils and for musicians.
g3/ Hellhund, Herbert: "Konzept und spontaner Prozess - Zu einigen Strukturprinzipien improvisierter Avantgardemusik", Becker, Peter; Edler, Arnfried; Schneider, Beate (ed.): Zwischen Wissenschaft und Kunst. Mainz (Schott), 1995.
The author views timbre and interaction as more determining for musical gestures and as less codified than those elements of material determining styles. The article was earlier printed in Darmstädter Jazzforum '89 - Beiträge zur Jazzforschung, hrg. von Jost, Ekkehard, Hofheim (Wolke) 1990.
g3/ Hodginson, Tim: "Improvised music and siberian Shamanism" in: Musicworks 66 (special issue: aspects of improvisation), Toronto, fall 1996. LOGOS.
About experiences with preparing playing through peace and silence. Reflections after meeting with shamans. With a French summary.
g3/ Hyder, Ken: "Under the Influence", manus., 1996.
Reflections around the fact that musicians learn from personal models. The author has conducted workshops in which participants worked inusical practise with such models.
g3/ Johnson-Laird, Philip N.: "Jazz improvisation - A theory at the computational level" in: Representing musical structure (ed.: Howell, Peter; West, Robert; Cross, Ian), p. 291-325. Salisbury (Academic Press), 1991. AUB.
Discusses the creative process in modern jazz improvisation on the background of cognitive psychology, focusing on the formal logical ("computational") structures. The author states that the "motif theory", according to which one is solely dealing with a number of elements learned by heart, is not consistent with reality (see also Lewis (1996;G3)). If this theory was correct, an incoherent language practise would result, like if a phrase book were the only point of reference in a foreign language. Language competence must, however, be explained assuming that certain underlying rules have been learned and are employed. The author considers various types of grammar, simple and advanced, which make different demands on the "working memory" of the user. These formal structures are exemplified, and names for types of grammar on this basis are introduced (restricted("weak")/unrestricted ("powerful") - regular/context-free (which is "recursive"). Musical examples dealing with harmony and bass lines are considered. A final discussion concerns the creative process in the light of the algoritm categories "neo-Darwinian" (by chance), "Neo-Lamarcian" (the process is informed by criteria which appeared earlier) and "multi-stage" (the process includes an interaction between advancing and a critical reflection).
g3/ Keller, Max E.: "Improvisation und Engagement", Melos 4, 1973.
Important theoretical article on improvisation and emancipation. Emancipation can take place both for those who play and for those listening/looking on, cf. the [doctrine-like] view in the theatre theory of Bertolt Brecht. It is characteristic for improvised music that noise is treated in a differentiated way and that there is a process in which gestures that have been quoted are worked on in the reactions of the players to each other. Improvisation and composition should be seen as the ends of a continuum - written introductions and spontaneous playing can interact with a good effect in the player's realisation of freedom.
Kowald, Peter (1999): Was da ist: Gedanken über freie Improvisation in der Musik und ihre Strukturierung. In: Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. Mainz (Schott, ISSN 0170-8791) p. 10-13.
A musician's considerations around the flow of improvised music, the possible benefits of applied structures, and the organic whole uniting the mix of known and unknown.
g3/ Kösterke, Doris: "Neue Musik. Gebote der Anarchie. Spielweisen frei improvisierter Musik". Radiomanuskript, around 1996.
Interview, examinations of recordings and thesis on anarchy: 1) Thou shalt feel you share the responsibility for the whole 2)...to master the tightrope walking between individualism without compromise and diffuse opportunism 3) Thou shalt not expect that people and states remain the same... 4) Thou shalt not hide behind value yardsticks. Discussion among other things of for concepts related to improvised music; a platonically inspired concept of form is contrasted to a "hegelian" one which is characterized by "repetition, variation and contrast".
g3/ Lee, David: "Notes Towards a Unified Theory of Chaos and Improvisation or: the autonomy of tiny things", Musicworks 54, autumn, 1992. LOGOS.
Compares the view of improvised music to chaos theory in contrast to simple relations between numbers and geometry. An imaginary example is elaborated on, going into the possible backgrounds for just one note being played in an improvisation.
g3/ Lewis, George E.: "Improvised Music after 1950: Afrological and Eurological Perspectives" Black Music Research Journal 16:1, 91-122, 1996.
The author contrasts the two traditions. Among other things, the "eurological" tradition stresses the freedom of the now and it (often) dissociates itself from the subjective element, whereas the "afrological" stresses tradition to a higher degree and sees the music as a "telling your own story" (p.117).
"The motif theory" is critisized, that is, the common assumption that improvisation (especially in jazz) consists in a reproduction of that which is already known - among other authors, Care, Stockhausen and Dahlhaus have critisized this alleged state of affairs, the two first mentioned having sought creative solutions to this problem as well. Reference is made to Philip Johnson-Laird (see Johnson-Laird (1991;G3). It is argued that hardly everything could be reproduction since somebody would have invented those motifs to be reproduced in the first place; that analyses of improvisations show many phrases only occurring once; and, finally, that too much would have to be learnt by heart in order to make practical sense. The author points to generative grammar as an alternative frame of reference.
g3/ Lutz, Martin: Indblik i den frie ensemble-improvisation. Den frit skabende improvisatoriske proces i en gruppe belyst udfra forskelligt anlagte vinkler. Photocopies, final paper, 1999. AUB.
After a historical retrospect the author undertakes 5 analyses of recorded music dealing with improvisation - "Richtige Dauern" (Right Durations) by Stockhausen with the Stockhausen Ensemble - a recording with Ensemble für Intuitive Musik Weimar - "Eary" with Eddie Prèvost Band, a recording from a free improvisation by the English group Alterations and "Dette er ikke et kort stykke" by Jørgen Plaetner played by an ensemble with the book's author himself. All examples are included on a CD. They are systematically scrutinized for occurences of "Communication I, II and III" - I is concrete musical dialogue, II is a common reaction to an individual idea, III is implied communication showing itself in agreement on, for instance, expression, dynamics, how roles are distributed. These categories prove to be an interesting tool for characterizing various kinds of free improvisation. II can be further differentiated taking into account that individual ideas can be consciously presented to the group, or there can be an individual letting go with a resulting reaction from the others which could be unpredictable and spontaneous. Exactly the dense oscillating process and the interaction between implied concensus and free associations which spread collectively, interspersed with conscious, more formalised forms of dialogic activity seem to characterise the kind of freedom in improvised music which nevertheless assume various characteristic forms, and the analytical model brought forward here allow for doing justice to the individual piece of music with a many-facetted examination.
Along the way, the observations done are summarized in thesis-like formulations on many relevant aspects - aesthetic, psychological, analytical. A classic problem about defining what is spontaneity in music is for instance illuminated like this: "The freer approach and the starting-point, the more naturally spontaneity and innovation combine into a pair and work together. / The less free the approach and the starting-point, the more spontaneity diverges from innovation, and the concepts counteract each other" (p.123). - An important book which can be the basis for much good, illuminating work.
g3/ Munthe, Christian: "Vad är frio improvisation ?", Nutida Musik nr. 2, 1992A.
Elaborates on the thesis that free improvisation is a working method, not a music genre sounding in a recognizable way. It can use idioms, but musicians do not make binding choices. "Single idioms are no longer regarded as prerequisites for the music making but as tools which can in every moment be used or not used" (p.13). The article takes as its starting-point interview made by the author, see also Mnnthe (1990;G2.1). The quotation naively placed over the article by the editors (saying that the will to experiment allegedly is central to freely improvised music) is misleading and expresses exactly the idea which the article has as its central aim to attack! This article exists also in English (see link to European Free Improvisation Pages from my own homepage).
g3/ Munthe, Christian: "What is free improvisation?", 1992B.
See Munthe (1992A;G3). This English version is also on the internet: European Free Improvisation Pages (see link from my own homepage).
g3/ Munthe, Christian: "Fri improviserad musik - en möjlig omöjlighet?", in: gränslöst. Magasin för samtida musik, Sept, 1996.
Puts forward the thesis that free improvisation does not sound in a specific way, in the manner presupposed by the media world implying that styles are identifiable. From this logical consideration the author proceeds: we are dealing with relativism of style [my formulation], not with avantgardism. One might object that such a relativism in itself is relatively avantgardistic!
g3/ Noll, Dietrich J.: Zur Improvisation im deutschen Freejazz. Untersuchungen zur Ästhetik frei improvisierter Klangflächen. Hamburg (Verlag der Musikalienhandlung Karl Dieter Wagner), 1977. Part of a series: Schriftenreihe zur Musik, Bd. 11.KB.
This is an important book which, through precise analytical method, arrives at describing some characteristics often appearing in the musical language of improvised music and which outlines some generally useful analytical and psychological concepts.
Closely related to intensively analysed examples by Gunter Hampel and Albert Mengelsdorff the author develops some analytical concepts for the description of sound textures in free jazz.
Concepts related to repetition and time-perception are discussed (p. 91f). Relating to Husserl, "pointillistic repetition" is defined as a retention phenomenon (p.97). This means that the repetition of small elements that make up a sound texture is perceived as belonging together in an immediate way, as an expansion of the "now" backwards (one might regard this as a, maybe expanded, kind of short-term memory) - this contrasting to "reproduction", in which something is consciously being recollected from something which is seen as the past. This last thing is characteristic of motivic repetition. Whereas expectation relates to reproduction in its various forms such as immediate repetition (reiteration), imitation and variation, retention is to a higher degree something which creates an immediate relation. The mere fact that a motif is perceived as a unity is a retentional phenomenon. And in a number of musical phenomena the two principles are mixed (cf. the table p. 99). The relation of retention to physical time is an interesting object for further studies.
Sound textures are, however, typically purely retentional. Their density can be seen both from a time axis (where traditional rhythms are dissolved) and from the "space" of pitches (in which traditional harmonies are dissolved). Often, parameters appear connected, like fast tempo plus high registers plus strong dynamics plus a loosening of tonal bindings - and the opposites of these concepts and the degrees in between.
Sound textures are divided into types, such as "pointillistic texture", "continuous texture" (where the sound cannot be divided into small particles), "dissociative texture" (where parts are individual and not coordinated), "conventionalised texture" (characterized by a consciously and unconsciously employed style quotation) and "resting texture". Resting texture and dissociative texture are not just descriptive terms, they also indicate psychological and social functions within the ensemble playing.
"Pulse" in jazz theory indicates irregular time phenomena, as distinct from the presence of a "beat" (p.121). One can also, with Dahlhaus, relate to the concepts of "distance melody" and "distance rhythm" which indicate that solely the concrete intervals and time distances are relevant (p. 139f).
A graphic and verbal composition by Gunter Hampel is quoted in extenso (p.129).
Review: Zimmerschied (1978;H4).
g3/ Nunn, Tom: Wisdom of the Impulse. On The Nature of Musical Free Improvisation, (Publ. by author) 1998. To be ordered from: Tom Nunn, 3016 25th Street, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA. Price: 40$. Also on internet: http://www.intuitivemusic.dk/iima/tn.htm
This is one of the rare large scale writings on free improvisation from a music analysis point of view. Preceeded by a chapter overviewing historical developments leading up to the practise of free improvisation itself, the author proposes a remarkable, systematic descriptive terminology for freely improvised music. According to this, the music is characterized by sounding identities, both collective and individual which are formed by impulses and which undergo change in a number of characteristic ways. Among these ways are identification and continuity processes (establiching and maintaining identities, Transitions, of which seven kinds are discussed: "Sudden/unexpected segue", "Pseydo cadential segue", "Climactic segue", "Feature overlap", "Feature change", "Fragmentation" and "Internal Cadence" also "Relational functions" which beyond traditional roles like "solo/accompaniment" and more also may include a polyphonic "sound mass" and that of "catalyst". Though independent of styles, the music may refer to existing styles in a flowing and complex way, and it is highly sensitive to its immediate context. Both "Perception (Continuity Flow)" and "Cumulative Flow Perception" and "Impression (categorical impression / critical impression) influence the listener's experience.
Several additional chapters of a less scientifically rigid nature follow. They deal, among other things, with the threats to listening presented by the noisy modern soundscape, with a model of response processes in free improvisation, with various practical issues (among others, practising; use of instruments/voice; concerts vs. recordings), with reviews (on the basis of a number of examples) and with the language and basic concepts they employ. One chapter reviews approaches of improvisation teaching with nine different teachers; another chapter (among the appendices) presents results from an enquete among musicians. Still another appendix contains improvisation exercises designed by the author, both for solo and ensemble use. They add a practical dimension to the theoretical framework given as the main part of the book.
g3/ Nunn, Tom: "Improvisation with Experimental Musical Instruments", Experimental Musical instruments 8, sept., 1992.
Defines that good improvisation means to find "the edge" where the energy is present. This is often to be found around opposites, as "beginner/master", seen as dealing with having control or not - also: tone/noise, harmonic/textural, dense/thin, fast/slow etc.
g3/ Pignon, Paul: "Langt från jämvikt", in: Nutida Musik. Special issue om improvisation, nr. 2, 1992. KB.
Considerations around termodynamic concepts as a means to describe the creative processes in improvised music. P. 6: "the goal is to evade goals".
g3/ Prevost, Eddie: "The View from Hear", Musics 2, June/July, 1975. LOGOS.
The well-known percussionist from AMM, Eddie Prévost, states some general reflections. He relates free improvisation to the demonstration from the side of recent physics that there is no fixed reality but different, relative views. General parallels are made to social life with its need for fast goods, fast decisions etc. Improvisation makes possible a serious relation to the moment, a relation which is not founded on constraints for effectiveness nor on leisure.
g3/ Prevost, Eddie: "Other windows, other places" in: Resonance. Published by London Musician's Collective vol. 2 nr. 2, summer, 1994.
This text contains excerpts from an early version ot the book No Sound is Innocent: "Improvised music...upsets notions of music as leisure and.. something to be consumed because it fixes on the unrelenting 'now' and is a means of self-realisation...".
g3/ Prevost, Edwin: No Sound is Innocent. AMM and the practice of self-invention. Meta-musical narratives. Essays. Matching Tye, Essex (Copula/Matchless), 1995. AUB.
The reader of this book is taken out into a long journey of personal thoughts and reflections around freely improvised music, founded on the long-standing activity of the author in the group AMM. There are many good formulations from the musician's point of view - for instance: "Speaking and acting in response to another human being is the very essence of human existence. Yet culturally preferred forms accrete, hardening into conventions.... By contrast the meta-musical engagement.. is.. a constant process of re-definition..." (p.80). Contains a bibliography around the group AMM.
g3/ Ratté, Michel: "Réinterpréter l'improvisation musicale: L'improvisation comme forme" in: Musicworks 66 (Special issue: aspects of improvisation), fall. Toronto, 1996. LOGOS.
Prelude to a coming book. The author intends to describe improvisation as an aesthetic form, stressing among other things its irrevocability" and relates to Adorno's concept of "informal music".
g3/ Ratté, Michel: "Improvisation as Form", Resonance 6,1, 1997.
A shorter version of Ratté (1996;G3) in English.
g3/ Sansom, Matthew: Musical Meaning: A qualitative investigation of free improvisation. PhD, University of Surrey, 1997.
This is the dissertation behind Sansom (G3; 2007) - you might see the article for an introduction, but there seems to be some additional aspects to be gathered from the PhD. Anton Ehrenzweig's theory about art perception is discussed. In the author's words, he "understood psychical structures to be contained within art's formal characteristics" (p.75). Abstraction in the arts is not a formal characteristic to be perceived by the conscious mind but rather through a powerful "unconscious depth perception" (p.75). This, in addition to Kristeva's views described in the article Sansom (G3; 2007), informs the author's thoughts on identity formation through improvised music. His "Model of improvisational process" (p.150 ff) appears as an interesting tool for analysing how musicians get involved in playing. It describes the following stages. They are to be imagined as a cumulative, ongoing and cyclic process, involving, in turn:
- awareness (correponding ethical virtue: sensitivity) - response (relevance) - articulation (commitment) - transformation (engagement)
A final chapter connects to music education and music therapy. "Education must ensure that space exists for the human element of musical experience, and therapy must attend to the modalities of communication rooted in pre-verbal experience" (p.187). Donald Winnicott's and Julia Kristeva's concepts of play are discussed here, as being pertinent to the creative, "self-inventing" (Prèvost) playing activity.
g3/ Sarath, Ed: "A new look at improvisation", Journal of Music Theory 40:1, spring, 1996.
The author characterises composition and improvisation respectively by dominance of different time-perceptions. "Inner-directed" (also "vertical") is relevant for improvisation, taking the "now" as its starting-point. The experienced now, "localized present" is supported by an intuitive "overarching present". Composition, on the other hand, can take place in an ongoing building-up process which can be organised ad libitum. And it has its own form of time perception with "cumulative" and "reversible" qualities. The author calls this time perception "expanding temporality". A third kind of time perception which is "retensive-protensive" can in both cases function as a supplement. It represents an immediate feeling for past, present and future. Within "extemporaneous composition", that is, creating music on the spot in previously given forms, this form of time perception is prevalent.
By means of "cognitive event cycles" during improvisation there is a movement between inward and outward activity. Spontaneous ideas and events related to the now arise in the inward phase while the working out of details from these ideas belong to the outward phase. The less predictable the musical process is which "neutralises" probabilities, the more of these "event cycles" take place per time unit and the greater is the "interactive and inventive capacity" of the given music.
Further, the author discusses the significance of "heightened consciousness" and changed self-perception and object perception resulting - one has an immediate experience of being a part of a greater whole. Different forms of improvisation are given attention. Many graphic illustrations make the principles and concepts clear.
The titles of chapters and sections are: I. Temporal directionality in improvisation and composition processes. /Expanding temporality/Inner-directed temporality/Retensive-protensive temporality - II. Inner-directed temporality: the key to spontaneity. /Deconstructing temporal bonds/Cognitive event cycles/Self-reference and transcendence/Heigthened consciousness in discontinous operation/ - III. Improvisation within pre-established formats: jazz and beyond /Deconstruction within referent-based improvisation/The cyclical nature of the referent/ - IV. Solo (unaccompanied) improvisation /Extemporaneous composing in discontinous formats/Extemporaneous composition in continous formats/ - V. Closing thoughts: toward a systems view of the improvisation process.
g3/ Shoup, Wally: "An opinionated Treatise on "Doing it Right" The Improvisor XI, 1996.
On personal experiences with microscope pictures as an inspiration. As something leading out of simplified views of reality and into a more complex world.
g3/ Small, Christopher: "No Meanings Without Rules". Improvisation. History, Directions, Practise. "The proceedings of the forum held af the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London on March 31st 1984". London (AIM, Association of Improvising Musicians), 1984. LOGOS.
Improvisation is compared to conversation. Both are practised without consciously following formal rules, however on the background of recognised cultural elements having been made into habits; both have the purpose "to explore, to affirm, to celebrate one's identity, to say 'this is who I really am', and, 'These are the people among whom I really belong' (p.1).
g3/ Smith, LaDonna: "The Moment as Teacher", The Improvisor XI, 1996.
Personal communication on the importance of improvisation by an important American improvisor and organizer - "taking over of the ownership of one's soul".
g3/ Stanyek, Jason: "Articulating Intercultural Free Improvisation: Evan Parker's Synergetics Project", Resonance 7,2, 1999.
Takes as its starting-point a description of a CD release from 1996 with Evan Parker and others. Several essential reflections are made on improvised music as a genre and on its terminology. A slightly revised version from the presentation at the international symposium Improvisation Across Borders, San Diego University. April 1999. With a number of good references to statements from musicians he elaborates on the insight that improvisation is not a fixed idiom but rather a meeting strategy. For Bailey, neutral sounds are important "which don't bring a lot of associations'; what he is after is the 'dehumanization of overhumanized sounds'" (p.45). In the Parker project musicians are presenting their individuality in a more marked form, as it seems. The individuality and history of musicians extend into the present and make individual connections to each other. Evan Parker says about this that "There is a kind of tension to be maintained between total heterogenity (where there is no cheese and pickle sandwich) and total homogenization where all identity markers are flattened out and we arrive at a kind of filtered 'new age - world music' pap. (Like a cheese and picle sandwich in the blender" (p.46). - On Parker's music views, see also Wilson (1999;G1.1).
g3/ Toncitch, Voya (Grancher, Jean-Francois): "Intuition - nouvel Elément d'une Nouvelle Musique". Schweizerische Musikzeitung (Revue Musicale Suisse), no 2. Zürich, 1970. KB.
New music is viewed in relation to classical aesthetic views. According to Aristotle, music imitates human states of consciousness. 'Aleatoric' music delegates some of the creation process to the performer. Thus, the repertory of human states of consciousness which music can represent is expanded. Creative intuition is to a higher degree than in previous times preserved in musical performance. This line of thought is developed by the author by relating to the philosophy of Bergson. It is also viewed as concordant with Hegel's view of artistic manifestations as having a relative nature compared to creative fantasy, even though Hegel did not approve of the theories of Aristotle. - Plurality in the relationship composer-performer and in music culture is seen as two sides of the same issue. The author is a pianist and composer.
g3/ Toncitch, Voya: "Philosophie de la musique contemporaine. Dialectique du son. Contribution a la recherche", Revue de l'Université d'Ottawa vol. 45 no.2, April June, 1975.
Also in: Impressions sur impressionisme, Anuario musical vol. 36, Instituto espanol de musicologia, 1981, Barcelona 1981. Also online: http://www.xs4all.nl/~huygensf/doc/toncitch.html
This article elaborates in length the authors' idea that space and time become relative in modern music. Such a notion was, according to the author, already present in the notion of interval, which could be both horizontal and vertical. One of the examples stated is a work by Danish Per Nørgård, "Tune in" (composed during early seventies). Here, the compositional idea that elements can be at the same time close and far away is unfolded in a group improvisation context.
Mention is also made of the "aleatoric" principle which manifests itself already in interpreters' freedom towards the work.
g3/ Walduck, Jacqueline Sarah: Role-taking in Free Improvisation and collaborative Composition. PhD, City University, Dep. of Music, 1997. Available online through the oline catalogue at British Library, www.bl.uk.
This work deals partly with the author's own practise of "backbone" composition which could be described as deliberately unfinished ones leaving space for further elaboration which may be partly written, partly improvised, by the musicians.
The first part, however, offers a general discussion of the concept of improvisation. It is a sophisticated one going beyond among other seemingly obvious things, the criterion of composition encountered by the author that it allows for "conscious revision", improvisation does not. Instead, it is maintained as a defining characteristic for improvisation that "evaluations take place as the results are heard.
Further, the author describes "player function roles". They may appear a bit formalised for a free improvisation: "solo - counterpart - background - heckle - punctuation - block - contrapart", but they could have some interesting interactional properties.
Another category is ´"Material-generative roles":
"1 Ice-breaking: introducing completely new ideas that become adopted or developed by other players.
2 Contrasting: using or developing ideas that contrast to the main thematic material.
3 Rooting: rooting the structure for example by repetition of a dominant idea.
4 Mediating: connecting ideas from different groups or sets.
5 Dissenting: using a contrasting idea to the dominant material that is not taken up by other group members
6 Supporting: copying ideas of another player. Reiterating one's own idea serves a rooting function." (p.70).
Further, there are the following "modes of interaction" (cf. Globokar (1970;G2.1)):
"1 Homogenous: an overriding characteristic of this mode is the similarity between different parts. The mode occurs in homogenous textures and heterophonous musics.
2 Exchange: a swapping of solistic roles, varying in pace from tightly interlocked to leisurely as if question-and answer.
3 Differentiated: clear differentiation exists between player-function roles. Roles may be static or changing. At the dynamic end of this continuum, with players changing and transforming roles, the mode tends towards the exchange mode" (p.71).
g3/ Williams, Davey: "Notes. Toward a militancy for improvisation", Ear Magazine July/Aug., 1984.
Personal reflections by an important American musician and organiser on improvisationas a model for a free life; a ritual which builds up confidence and cultivates unconscious material.
g3/ Wilson, Peter Niklas: "Multi-mindedness und Transidiomatik", Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. Special issue on improvisation. No. 4, Juli/August, 1999A.
Provides examples of how improvisation and composition can be mixed. The composer Nono had the violinist Gidon Kremer improvise in order to get material for a composition. Kremer was allowed special freedoms in the performance. Allegedly, Scelsi created his compositions by improvising. Miles Davis edited the recorded material from "Bitches' Brew". A number of musicians make samples and work on improvised material. Connection is made to the concept from Evan Parker, 'multi-mindedness' which he has used around improvisation. This concept denotes an important characteristic of improvised music and is suggested by the author as a criterion more effective than the mere fact that something has not been written down which, of course, does not prevent that it could have been fixed. Conversely, music which is written down can also be indeterminate (the New York-school). Concluding remarks are made om pluralism as a possible contemporary basic condition for musical expression: the subject takes a stand to various given ways of expression rather than finding a unified language. On the music views of Parker, see also Stanyek (1999;G3).
g3/ Wilson, Peter Niklas: "Von der Romantik des Jetzt - und ihre Grenzen. Aspekte des Formdenkens in improvisierter Musik", Sanio, Sabine + Scheib, Christian (ed.): Form - Luxus, Kalkül und Abstinenz: Fragen, Thesen und Beiträge zu Erscheinungsweisen aktueller Musik. Saarbrücken (Pfau Verlag), 1999B. IMD.
[On the romanticism of the now - and its limits. Aspects of
form thinking in improvised music]
About the widespread
philosophy of improvised music which concentrates on the moment
and rejects planning in favour of letting form arise during the
process. On systems with rules in compositions by Zorn, by
Braxton and in conducted improvisation as endeavours to get out to the other side of the typical manner
which can evolve consciously of unconsciously.
Also on the element of arranging and composing in CD releases with improvised music and CD releases having been made on the basis of improvised music.
G3.1 IMPROVISED PERFORMANCE PRACTISE RELATED TO EXPERIMENTAL AND NEW WORKS
g3.1/ Earle Brown: The Notation and Performance of New Music. The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 72, No. 2 (1986), pp. 180-201. German version previously published as "Notation und Ausführung neuer Musik" (Notation and Performance of New Music) in Notation neuer Musik. Darmstädter Beiträge IX, Mainz (Schott) 1965. An edited version of a 1964 Darmstadt lecture - published 22 years after. The author views the development of new notations as part of an integral development characterised by "aesthetic and tehnical necessity" (p 180). Serial and aleatoric tendencies which implied a tendency away from subjective control by the composer could be seen as inviting new developments within "the necessary (and complementary) relationship which must exist between the composer, the score, the performer, and the audience, in directions which are also conducive to the composer experiencing his image as sound" (p.183). The composers' image becomes more accurately expressed because it is based on new experiences of the present world. This development could at the same time be seen as moving closer to music of older times having more ambiguity in the notation practise. - Else, topics include a contempletation of oral traditions in jazz and Indian music, instrumental versus electronic music, inspiration from Pollock's paintings, and more.
G4 PSYCHOLOGY
g4/ See also Sarath (1996;G3); Noll (1977;G3); Toncitch (1970;G3); Hagvet (1988;H4); Shoup (1996;G3); Belgrad (1998;G1.1); Wünsch (1991;H3.1); Sansom (1997; g3)g4/ Andreas, Reinhard: Contribution to article "Improvisation" (VII. Musikpsychologie) i Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Finscher, Ludwig ed.), Zweite, neubearbeitete Ausgabe. Kassel etc. (Bärenreiter + Metzler), 1996. HB AUB OUB MKAR MVAR.
On levels of originality within creativity. A model of the musician's mental process connected to "theory of action" is discussed, in which "cognitive coordination" plays a central role in a fluctuation of awareness between conditions set by the context, dispositions, planning of action, motorical coordination and performance of the current operation. Among other things, a kind of inner sketch inside the musician brings about a "complexity reduction" of the task to do all this.
g4/ Batel, Günther: "Free Jazz als intensive Form soziomusikalischer Kommunikation", Neue Zeitschrift für Musik Heft 6, Nov-Dez., 1978.
Good graphical illustrations concerning the way in which harmony scheme and solo is in the focus of the listener in traditional and modern jazz and of the interaction between musicians being on equal terms in free jazz.
g4/ Behne, Ernst: in: Fähndrich, Walter (ed.): Improvisation. 10 Beiträge (beretning fra den int. kongres om fri improvisation og improvisation som holdning, Luzern 1990). Winterthur (Amadeus Verlag), 1990. AUB OUB.
Brings among other things forth a model of presumed intrapsychic activity inside the musician during improvised playing, in which comparisons are made currently and fast decisions taken. Reflections on being among the public - the risk taken when attending improvised music is "written in small letters" on the concert ticket and constitute an attraction.
g4/ Flusser, Elisabeth: Approche du Jeu Musical. Mémoire pour le diplome de musicien-animateur, Chalon sur Saone, 1983. (CBN).
Relates theories about children's game playing in relation to new music - games allow both for a consideration of human development, for considerations of the role played by chance and trial and error in the activity of playing as well as of the needs this can serve. The theories of Piaget concerning playing are commonly known. Another theoretician which in this connection could be even more essential, is Caillois who distinguishes between competition games (for instance, sport), chance games (for instance, card games), imitation games and risk games (fx. gambling; virtuosity in music). Flusser makes reference to Caillois (1971;H4). She also mentions music by CBN.
g4/ Gould, Glenn: "The psychology of improvisation", The Glenn Gould Reader, ed. and w. an introd. by Jim Page,. Toronto, Ontario (Lester & Orpen Dennys Ltd), cop., 1984.
Gould tells the story of how someone once sent a tachistic nonsense poem to American president Truman who "productively misunderstood it" in an inspiring direction. P. 257: "this is the age of the debatable motive, of concern with whether and to what degree our thoughts and our works derive from a conscious industry or result from concealed and unacknowledged desires".
g4/ Hearon, Jim: "Emotion in improvisation", The Improvisor IX, autumn, 1991.
Compares the conventionalised emotional expression in fixed music with the indeterminate and changing situation in freely improvised music - "The emotional content of this music is also indeterminate and improvisatory" (p.21).
g4/ Hengesch, Georges: "Gruppenimprovisation", Musik und Bildung 5, 1973.
Comparisons concerning form and experienced characteristics with composed music, consideration about communication as a game.
g4/ Hovancsek, Mike: "Cognitive disruption Theory", The Improvisor XI, 1996.
Interesting consideration concerning psychology of perception. The author views music as something which can bring productive disturbance into the perception of fixed elements. Techniques relevant for musicians are described!
g4/ Nachmanovitch, Stephen: Free Play. Improvisation in Life and Art. N.Y. (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, a member of Penguin Putnam Inc.), 1990. AUB.
On creativity and its phases: "The sources - The Work - Obstacles and Openings - The fruits", described by an improvising violinist. Good explanations. Swedish translation: Spela Fritt. Improvisation i liv och kunst, Göteborg (Ejeby) 2004.
g4/ Nunn, Tom: "A theoretical framework for free improvisation", The Improvisor XI, 1996.
Communication model. Deals among other things with "contextualization/projection" in a "dissociative flow".
g4/ Riley, Peter: "What happens to time-awareness during improvisation? One Question Postal Multi-interview", Musics 10, nov., 1976.
In total thirty contributions, short and long, illuminating the subject and demonstrating how differently it can be viewed by barious improvisors. Contributions from among others Phillip Wachsmann, Poul Lovens, Evan Parker, John Russell, Lou Gare, Poul Rutherford, Peter Cusack, Steve Beresford.
g4/ Stevens, John: "Face to Face". Sleeve notes to LP Face to
Face, Emanem Records. An extensive quote in Corbett (1995;G5),
note 5, 1973.
Describes a tuning-in procedure for duo playing, consisting in
close listening to the duo sound, then "converse naturally" on.
This is an interesting description of what may happen to
musicians' inside-outside awareness during the first seconds of
an improvisation. It is relevant in the context of discussing the
role of musicians' communication together as Couldry (1995;G1.1)
also does, using concepts of "parallel" or "group voice".
G5 MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
g5 See also Lewis (1996;G3).
g5/ Special issue, Improvisation, Musik und Bildung 5, 1973.
Various contributions and a bibliography of "Improvisation - Creativity II".
g5/ Musik und Gesellschaft (DDR) vol. 35, Nov., 1985. MI.
Various articles by Chr. Kaden (the non-written comprises several things - warning against false opposition composition-improvisation), Hermann Keller (personal considerations), Günther Philipp (see Philipp (1985;F1.1).
g5/ Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. Special issue on improvisation. No. 4, Juli/August, 1999.
Articles notes and review concerning the subject. See Wilson (1999;G3); Meyer (1999;G2.1); Pfleiderer (1999;G5); Biswurm (1999;G2.1); Müller (1999;H2.1); Wilson (1999;H2.1).
g5/ Andersson, Magnus (ed.): Nutida Musik. Special issue om improvisation, nr. 2, 1992. KB.
Various articles on improvisation and related to improvisation by among others Gustafsson (1992;H2.1), Barrett (1992;G3) and Pignon (1992;G5).
g5/ Arom, S; Delalande, F; Ganvert F (ed.):
Special issue, "Les formes de l'improvisation", Analyse Musicale 14:1, jan., 1989.
Includes Globokar (1989;G2.1) in a version which was translated back into French and Boucourechliev (1989;G5), as well as various writings on improvisation with organists, ethnically, historically and pedagogically. There are no analyses of improvisation - and in a preface, the somewhat dubious justification for this (seen in relation to the title of the magazine...) is asserted that this is not at all so relevant, one should rather try to find the underlying rules. There is a table of contents also in English with abstracts. The following issue (1989:2) was allegedly to continue, dealing with improvisation in jazz and in Western classical music, but it contains solely the letter to the editors Mesnage (1989;G5).
g5/ Atton, C.F.: "Some answers to some questions about improvised music", The Improvisor VIII, Winter, 1988-89.
Examines and discusses answers to an enquete about the role of instrumental technique, about how musicians practise and about whether English improvised music has a definite identity. A comparison is made with folk music.
g5/ Atton, Christopher F.: "Improvised Musik: some answers to some questions", Contact. A journal of contemporary musik vol. 33, autumn, 1988. LOGOS.
Identical to Atton (1988;G5), see above.
g5/ Barkin, Elaine: "Workshops in Improvisation in Bali", The Improvisor XI, 1996.
Reports of experiences in teaching free improvisation as we know it to Balinese musicians - among other things, those attending the course posed several basic questions pertinent to this practise.
g5/ Barrett, Richard: "Beröring som blir till ljud", in: Nutida Musik. Special issue on improvisation, nr. 2, 1992. KB.
Considerations addressed to those improvisors who critisize composition. The processual character and the division of labour between composer and performer are dealt with in relation to the author's own activity.
g5/ Benitez, Joaquim M.: "Collective improvisation in contemporary Western art music", Tokumaro, Yosihiko; Yamaguti, Osamu (ed.): The Oral and the literate in music. Tokyo (Academia Music Ltd.), 1986. AUB.
Various considerations - among other things about whether indeterminacy is a compositional method which should consequently be viewed as being different from improvisation - reference is made to Deliege (1971;G5). Without further argumentation it is stated that improvisation in an ideal sense can only be found where there is an oral, not a written tradition. The practise of improvisation groups is seen as a special one in the music ethnological sense: not-written although not belonging to a tradition, since each group creates its own language. Even the improvisation pieces by Stockhausen sound very different when played by other groups than Stockhausen's, he asserts. Various comments to different types of improvisation groups.
g5/ Berg, Erik van den: "Derek Bailey, Extemporisations of a Dutch-phile", Key Notes 22, 2, 1985. LOGOS.
Interview mwith Derek Bailey - dealing among other things with composition seen with a critical, wondering attitude by an improvisor: "To me it represents a somewhat eccentric way of dealing with what is basically an unruly activity - playing music. The oddity, as it strikes me, is that you are making use of a very unsuitable technique for the material it is applied to..." (p.34).
g5/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: "Intuitiv musik. Det skaber nogle spændinger - og det giver samtidig mulighed for at udløse de spændinger", DO*RE*MI 5 (Musikvid. Institut, Kbh.), april, 1990. MI.
Presentation of intuitive music - its special nature, my own relation to this, how to start, what can it develop into, historical and theoretical remarks, among other things on parameter analysis. In a conclusion it is said: "down with stiff hierachies, up with equality of musical parameters".
g5/ Biesenbänder, Volker: "Anders üben, anders hören, anders bewegen. Vom improvisierenden Umgang mit Musik", ringgespräch über gruppenimprovisation LXI, Nov., 1995.
Describes the improvisatory approach as an attitude on can employ also to the performance of composed music: "Genuine improvisation is perhaps just another word for consciousness..." (p.5). Clearly, the author is engaged in both forms.
g5/ Boucourechliev, André: "La musique aleatoire: une apellation incontrolee", Analyse Musicale 14:1, jan., 1989.
Various considerations concerning chance and various aleatoric and indeterminate music. The author who is a composer, thinks that the aim with open forms at the time of writing is to compose those things which cannot be done with fixed notes, further, to counteract rethorical clichees of the composer. With other words, communicative openness is not of current interest to him, and improvisation in performance of music as well as different notations are not really treated as a subject in this article.
g5/ Brinkmann, Reinhold (ed.): Improvisation und neue Musik. Acht Kongressreferate Mainz (Schott), 1979. Part of a series: Veröff des Instituts für neue Musik und Musikerziehung Darmstadt, Bd. 20.AUB IMD KB.
Contributions by Dahlhaus, Globokar, la Motte, Jost, Ritzel, Karkoschka, Fritsch, Hoffmann. See also review under: Engelhardt (1981;G5) as well as some of the individual authors.
g5/ Corbett, John: "Ephemera underscored:
writing around free improvisation" in: Jazz among the discourses
(Gabbard, Krin, ed.), Durham (Duke University Press) 1995.
Various considerations inspired by philosophers Attali, Eco,
Foucault, Kristeva and others, concerning semantics, the role of
repetition, whether improvised music may be viewed as simply
individualistic idioms (see also the critique of the "motif
theory" with Lohnson-Laird (1991;G3)) or rather depending in a
dynamic way on a risk-taking context, and concerning techniques
employed. Many statements from musicians are quoted, some from
unpublished interviews.
One of the authors' close-to-practise observations is for
instance this: "Music.. fluctuates between meaning nothing,
meaning something and being interpreted as meaning
something... The task of naming an improvisation often
involves an element of play, sometimes in the form of a joke that
refers to the ambiguity or absurdity of assigning titles (p.221).
g5/ Cusack, Peter: "Practising" (enquete), Musics March, 1979.
Includes many interesting reflections and descriptions of new kinds of practising, for instance:
"No! I don't practise only very rarely. Yes! I do play a lot.. I've been playing along with records for 20 years and still find it rewarding..." David Toop
"..ever since I stopped regarding 'playing on my own' as practising, I have spent ever increasing portions of my time making MUSIC" William Embling
"...pressures that come from playing in concerts...timing the musical tensions and releases in ways generally understood, by impressing with a degree of technical skill, by observing conventions of presentation like definite beginnings and endings (particularly endings)... at home.. improvisations are much more fragmented... quite often broken off to play a piece, or to have a cup of tea, and then recommenced. Other things done in private include:
musical doodling playing very familiar tunes or sounds without taking any trouble of effort over them...
half playing making background noises while thinking hard about other matters." Peter Cusack
"... I practise mainly the extreme musical ways of expressiveness, that means as loud as possible, as low as possible, as fast as possible, as clear as possible, as high, as deep, etc.... Another part of my practising is to find out new material, new techniques..." Günter Christmann
g5/ Deliege. C.: "Indetermination et improvisation", International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, 2 (2), 1971.
"Indetermination is a state of language and/or of form, improvisation is a form of musical practise", the author states at the beginning of this article. The last thing is seen as a clear consequence of the first in recent music.
Improvisation in recent music history is considered.
A number of works are commented upon - among those the works of Stockhausen in plus-minus notation and Aus den Sieben Tagen. This last collection is seen as representing a maximum of openness, and issues related to identity of the work are discussed. The author is aware that serial thinking is carried on in the plus-minus works, but this has escaped his attention concerning Aus den Sieben Tagen. Litanei from this collection is quoted and commented upon, but apart from this it is not my impression that the author knows the individual texts - the collection is treated as an abstract entity and with reference to a specific performance. Concerning American music a point is made about attitudes of Feldman as reflecting a special American, myth-creating line of thought. Free improvisation is connected to the idea of dissolving art into life (which the author dismisses as naive) and to a pluralist practise which sets heterogenous elements in contrast to each other, a practise which can be traced back to quotation practise with Charles Ives, Mahler, Berio, Stockhausen and others.
g5/ Div.: Special issue Improvisation, Musik und Kommunikation, Heft 1, 1978. Lilienthal/Bremen, ERES Edition, 1978. AUB.
Knill and Klüppelholtz are contributors, among others.
g5/ Durant, Alan: "Improvisation - Arguments After The Fact". Improvisation. History, Directions, Practise. "The proceedings of the forum held af the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London on March 31st 1984". London (AIM, Association of Improvising Musicians), 1984. LOGOS.
Various semantic and historical meanings of "improvisation" are investigated. The author advocates for more concrete description of the genre and how it sounds with musicians. P.8: "How relationships are created and explored in improvisation in the specific form of being mediated through, and created relative to, musical conventions, styles and connotations", he says p.11.
g5/ Eloy, Jean-Claude: Improvisation: Refuge, Utopia or Necessity?, The World of Music 3, 1970. KB.
The article appeared simultaneously in English, German and French. On the difference between improvisation and chance, an interesting ethnological reflection having its background in Bruno Nettl concerning how the decline of folk music and the development of media has made room for a more oral music culture which avantgarde improvisation tends towards. This parallel is made even clearer by tendencies towards breaking down boundaries between genres and between the professional artist and listener, also by the interest in self-built instruments. "The majority of the avantgarde movements which practise spontaneity and oral methods do nothing other than assimilate and adopt, admittedly in multiplying them, those reflexes and behaviours which have at all times most aptly characterized the life of the folklores" - p. 15.
Surprisingly enough, the article concludes with some rather insulting statements concerning an alleged commercial superficiality among musicians - Prozession by Stockhausen is the only example he mentions, and he praises the way in which it makes its material definable. Typical for its time is the author's thesis that new music defines itself negatively as a-tonal and a-metrical - which was later followed by a certain concensus about the special importance of timbre and interaction in improvised music - cf. already karkoschka (1971;G2.1); Keller (1971;G3); Dahlhaus (1979;G3); and further Noglik (1990;G1.1); Hellhund (1995;G3).
g5/ Engelhardt, Jürgen: "Institut für neue Musik und Musikerziehung Darmstadt: Improvisation und neue Musik. Acht kongresreferate. Hrsg. von Reinhold Brinkmann" (review), Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, p. 83, 1981.
Critical review.
g5/ Feiler, Dror: "Improviserad musik", in: Nutida Musik 74:2, p.22, 1989/81. KB.
A note about the improvisation group Lokomotiv Konkret's training practise. Use of parameters like pitches, dynamics, timbre etc. is trained.
g5/ Fähndrich, Walter: "Einige Gedanken zur freien musikalischen Improvisation" in: Neue Musik - Quo Vadis? 17 Perspektiven (ed. Diether de la Motte) (zum 40. Geburtstag des Instituts für neue Musik und Musikerziehung Darmstadt). Mainz (Schott), 1988.
Common reflections. Improvisation is communication between equal participants. It strengthens awareness, preparedness for the inknown, self-confidence, independent thinking.
g5/ Fähndrich, Walter (ed): Improvisation. 10 Beiträge. Winterthur (Amadeus Verlag), 1990. AUB OUB AUB.
Relevant contributions from among others Ernst Behne (1990;G4), Ernst Lichtenhahn (1990;G2.1) and Bert Noglik (1990;G1.1) on the psychology and history of improvisation. From the international congress on free improvisation and improvisation as an attitude, Luzern 1990.
g5/ Fähndrich, Walter (ed): Improvisation II. Mit Originalbeiträgen von Peter Widmer, Christian Kaden, Dorothea Baumann, Eero Tarasti, Bert Noglik, Kjell Keller, Stasa Bader, Ernst Lichtenhagn, Artur Sinom, Kenneth Zuckerman, Joachim Latacz, Konrad Volk. Winterthur (Amadeus), 1994.
Various music ethnological articles and articles about other subjects which can be seen in relation to improvised music. From the international congress on improvisation, Luzern 1994.
g5/ Fähndrich, Walter (ed.): Improvisation III. Mit Beiträgen von Rudolf Frisius, Hans-Christian Schmidt, Max Wechsler, Francois Grosjean, Oswald Wiener, Maria Luise Schulten, Heiner Goebbels, Hans Harder, Thomas Meyer, Penny Boyes Bräm, Thüring Bräm. Winterthur (Amadeus), 1998.
Theme of this book is the importance of clichees / stereotypes in music. Despite this approach which could be so relevant concerning discussion of improvised music, the contributors deal only sporadically with improvised music since 1945. Instead, film music, adjacent other disciplines etc. are treated. - From the international congress on improvisation, Luzern 1998. Review: Wilson (1999;H4).
g5/ Hambræus, Bengt: Twentieth Century Performance Practise. Memories and reflections. Uppsala (Royal Swedish Academy of Music), 1997. Part of a series: Publications issued by The Royal Swedish Academy of Music No.86.KB.
The author discusses the issue of performing rights in those cases in which the music is created collectively and suggests the simple solution which he himself has tested out that a work can be registered collectively with all the names. David Tudor's Five Piano Pieces for David Tudor and other works are discussed. Works by Johnsson, Bengt Emil; Hambræus; Bussotti (Piano Piece...nr. 4) are quoted.
g5/ Hedin, Staffan: "Med Lokomotiv Konkret til Stalingad", in: Nutida Musik 74:2, p.22, 1989/81. KB.
Miscellaneous around this improvisation grup.
g5/ Hoffmann, Niels Fréderic: "Improvisationslehren" in: Brinkmann, Reinhold (ed.): Improvisation und neue Musik. Acht Kongressreferate Mainz (Schott), 1979. Part of a series: Veröff des Instituts für neue Musik und Musikerziehung Darmstadt, Bd. 20.AUB IMD.
Discusses p.135-36 at the end of the book avantgarde music pedagogy with reference to Meyer-Denkmann. The author argues that since an open notation in itself must also yield the possibility to be interpreted on a traditional background, the free working out must take place on the background of stylistic knowledge.
g5/ Jost, Ekkehard: "Über Jazzimprovisation" in: Brinkmann, Reinhold (ed.): Improvisation und neue Musik. Acht Kongressreferate Mainz (Schott), 1979. Part of a series: Veröff des Instituts für neue Musik und Musikerziehung Darmstadt, Bd. 20.AUB IMD.
The author views among other things improvisation in jazz as being more directed towards solo and more self-expressive.
g5/ Jørgensen, Kristoffer: "Kollektiv fri improvisation", Rytmenyt, nov.. Rytmisk Musikkonservatorium, Kbh., 1997.
Discusses "Collective Free Improvisation" and forms of introductions to play from. Quotes CBN and a piece from his own context. "One of the things being so exciting about the genre is that it has so many different expressions. This must be one of the genres giving the greatest possibility for personal expression./.. which takes us to another important aspect about CFI. It can be used to make one more conscious to and develop one's own musical language".
g5/ Jörgensmann, Theo; Weyer, Rolf-Dieter: Kleine Ethik der Improvisation. Essen (Neue Organisation Musik), 1991.
This book does not deal with ethics in the sense of "the right action", but with various observations concerning the nature of improvised music. This music engages the musician personally in the form of awareness to the moment, of reactions to the previous moment and of the development of a personal way to do things. Furthermore, there is an interaction with that which was given. Specific forms of material, form and timbre does not primarily define this music, but rather (p.15): "Balance, velocity and direction of movement".
g5/ Kieseritzky, Herwig von and Schwabe, Matthias: "Fragebogen: Improvisation - Haltung oder Handwerk?" ringgespräch über gruppenimprovisation LXI, Nov., 1995.
Contributions by Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Gerd Lisken, Gesine Mielitz, Malou Bangerter, Günter Heinz, Werner Seitz, Eiko Yamada.
g5/ Kolleritsch, Otto: "Neue Musik und Improvisation", jazzforschung/jazz research 3/4, 172-179. Wien (UE), 1971/72. KB.
Tells the story about interpretation of Earle Brown's "December 1952" coming from Kontarsky (1965;E2), however, without mentioning the name of the piece. - Other than that, the article is a critical review of the current tendencies at that time owards improvisation, seen in contrast to composition.
g5/ Kumpf, Hans: Postserielle Musik und Free Jazz. Wechselwirkungen und Parallelen. Berichte, Analysen, Werkstattsgespräche.Rohdorf (rohdorfer musikverlag rmv 702), 1976, 2.Auflage 1981. AUB.
Considerations about the characteristics of music genrers and their interaction. Sections on "verbal scores" and "graphics". A number of different notations are quoted, of among others Hans-Joachim Hespos, Max E. Keller, Herbert Joos, Alexander von Schlippenbach and Manfred Schoof. A number of sections on various composers of new music and their relation to jazz. "Sun" by Alexander von Schlippenbach is given a closer description in the section "Globe Unity Orchestra". Interviews are with: Vinko globokar, Johannes Fritsch, John Cage, Krysztof Penderecki, Hans Werner Henze, Hans Joachim Hespos, Karlheinz Stockhausen.
The interview with Stockhausen is remarkable, as it attests to his positive experience of improvised jazz solos. See Stockhausen (1976; G2.2) on this matter.
The book also has a section with "disc tests" in which Wolfgang Dauner and Helmut Lachenmann comments on recorded music they hear
g5/ Kühn, Clemens (ed.): Improvisation. Special issue, Musica 38:1, Jan/Febr, 1984. KB.
Various contributions by Trojahn, Manfred; Zimmermann, Walter; Schleuning, Peter; Möllers, Christian; Burbat, Wolf; Heinemann, Rudolf; Simon, Arthur.
Different viewpoints, improvisation in new music - historically - liturgically - ethnologically.
g5/ Kösterke, Doris: ringgespräch über gruppenimprovisation, April, 1997.
On personal inspirations from improvised music, various considerations.
g5/ Lisken, Gerd: "Freie Improvisation - ein Traum?", ringgespräch über gruppenimprovisation, April, 1997.
Free improvisation is the ideal, even though it can be difficult to realise without anybody dominating, etc. The more homogenous factors in a group and the stronger they are ("improvisation experience, cultural background, intention", p.27) - the easier will be the situation of just playing with no discussion afterwards.
g5/ Lockhead, Judy: "Performance Practise in the Indeterminate Works of John Cage", Performance Practise Review 7, issue 2, Fall, 1994.
The author asserts that unwritten stylistic rules around the indeterminate works of Cage exist, cf. a statement from Cage to the effect that freedom is only meaningful for individuals who have the right disciplin. The pianist David Tudor was of importance to this music. The author presents a list of selected recordings (Variations I - III + Fontana Mix) and observes that their lengths differ widely. Also, a rudimentary analysis of a recording of Variations II is presented and it is maintained that sounds in this are very characteristic of the repertory in question.
g5/ Moodie, Lee: "Is there such a thing as Women's improvisation?" in: Resonance. Published by London Musician's Collective vol. 3, nr. 2, summer, 1995.
Among other things a discussion of a possible therapeutic quality of improvised music and of the characteristics of improvised music.
g5/ Napolitano, Ernesto; Tonietti, Tito: "Il concerto e morto (note sull' improvvisazione)", Nuove Rivista Musicale Italiana vol. 8 p. 394-99, 1974. KB.
Various considerations - Stockhausens performances of Aus den Sieben Tagen, Globokar and the Nuova Consonanza group are mentioned. A graphic scheme illustrates how improvisation is seen as mediating between academism and spontaneity as well as between form and that which is irrational.
g5/ Noglik, Bert: "Musikalische Improvisation als Aktion in Zeit und Raum", i Fähndrich, Walter (ed.): Improvisation II. Mit Originalbeiträgen von Peter Widmer, Christian Kaden, Dorothea Baumann, Eero Tarasti, Bert Noglik, Kjell Keller, Stasa Bader, Ernst Lichtenhagn, Artur Sinom, Kenneth Zuckerman, Joachim Latacz, Konrad Volk. Winterthur (Amadeus), 1994.
Various considerations around time and space as basic conditions for improvised music, with perspectives to the history of improvised music.
g5/ Oliveros, Pauline: "Space is the Place. Quantenimprovisation: Die kybernetische Gegenwart", MusikTexte 80, 1999.
Considerations on improvisation.
g5/ Prevost, Eddie: "The aesthetic Priority of Improvisation: a Lecture", Contact. A journal of contemporary music no. 25, autumn, 1982. LOGOS.
Discusses problems connected to the existence of free improvisation as an independent music form surrounded by other kinds of cultural habits.
g5/ Prevost, Eddie: "Commentary on the Proceedings", in: Improvisation. History, Directions, Practise. London (AIM, Association of Improvising Musicians), 1984. LOGOS.
A personal summarising of the debate and a commentary. To a higher degree than Alan Durant, Prèvost thinks that free improvisations have properties in common. This can be seen as a special non-verbal way of expression, a "mobile idiom" (p.11) which consciously keeps away from becoming fixed idioms but which have a common identity in the practical acquaintance with musicians and the public of the genre. A further aspect touched upon in the debate was the much less fixing of details of compositions of the seventeenth century, a role for composiiton comparable to that of Christian Wolff (who took also part in the debate).
g5/ Prevost, Eddie (ed.): Improvisation. History, Directions, Practise. The proceedings of the forum held af the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London on March 31st 1984. London (AIM, Association of Improvising Musicians), 1984. LOGOS.
g5/ Richards, Sam: Sonic Harvest. Towards musical democracy. Guernsey, Channel Islands (The Guernsey Press Co. Ltd.), 1992.
Autobiography. The author is composer and musician and has interests as well in folk music as in experimental and improvised music. He likes both the innovative element in new music and the accessibility of folk music to everybody. Among other music, a good deal of anglo-saxon experimental music by Cage, Brown, Cardew and others is dealt with in the course of the book - it can almost serve as an introduction to this music.
g5/ Speicher, Martin: Note i koncert-indbydelse, MIB Bremen, 3/2, 1998.
Testifies to the fascination of the ongoing exploration of the tension between composition and improvisation: "The special thing about the musical transformation of Erdtöne III is not that this is one more form of mixing composed and improvised structures, but an "optional" music which in a new and unaccustomed way improvises the composition and composes the improvisation..The special characteristic of freely improvised music as a process of production lies among other places in the immediate asynchronicity of the occurrences (in contrast to the exact calculation of harmonies in a composition)".
g5/ Trasher, Glen: Interview med Logos-Duo (MoniekDarge and Godfried-Willem Raes), (Low Life Nr. 16, Atlanta, USA), logos-blad vol. 12, nr. 12, 1990.
Belgian Logos-Duo existed since 1968 and is influential by having built up the Logos organisation for experimental, improvised music. This interview deals among other things with the concept of freedom in free improvisation. For Godfried-Willem Raes, the challenge consists of working on the limits, and from this follows for him that improvisation is less free than composition. For Moniek Darge, however, the freedom consists in the possibility of having positive surprises together with others.
g5/ Wachsmann, Philipp: "Project: improvisation and rehearsal - behaviour and intervals", Musics 4, 1975.
General reflections on the basis of language theory (communication chains are considered in several ways), dealing also with the psychology of listening and, as it seems, suggests a practical testing out of the multitude of possibilities.
g5/ Wilson, Peter Niklas: "Wider das "tödliche Gleichmass". John Cage, der Jazz und improvisierte Musik jenseits des Jazz", MusikTexte 40/41, August, 1991.
On the influence of John Cage on improvised music despite the fact that it did not interest him.
g5/ Wilson, Peter Niklas: "Improvisation. 16 Stichworte zu einer flüchtigen Kunst", Lettre International 67, Frühjahr, 1998.
Critisises chliches in the understanding of common concepts like "expression", "instant composing" and more and seek to characterise improvised music from various keywords. The author states, however, himself a cliché concerning "guided improvisation" which is characterized as "so often a stale compromise". See, however, the later writings Wilson (1999;G1.1) and Wilson (1999B;G3) which turn to a differentiated treatment of this theme, even with this article being reprinted in an unchanged form in (1999;G1.1) - in the latter book there is even a chapter on "rule systems for improvisation".
H1 GENERAL ACCOUNTS OF MUSIC HISTORY, DEALING THOROGHLY WITH THEMES CONCERNING NEW NOTATION FORMS AND/OR IMPROVISATION
h1/ Seee also Feisst (1997;G1.1);Landy (1991;H4);Nyman (1974;H4),
h1/ Bosseur, Dominique et Jean-Yves: Revolutions Musicales. La musique contemporaine depuis 1945. Préface de Francois Aubral. Paris (Editions Le Sycomore), 1979. DR IMD.
Music history book which also provides information about
experimental directions, inclusive of open composition in its
various forms.
Several chapters are devoted to information and discussion concerning works with new notations and performance practise. "V.De la musique serielle à l'oevre mobile", "VI. Ouverture et indétermination", and "XV. Vers la création collective".
VI contains a good comparative analysis of the different compositional approaches of Cage, Brown and Feldman and an excellent, detailed analysis of "Play" by Christian Wolff (from Prose Pieces) which is also quoted in French translation in its entirety. This chapter also has a fine general discussion about verbal notation.
For 1, 2 or 3 people" by Wolff is quoted, Piano concerto and Cartridge Music by Cage, December 1952 by Earle Brown and Projection IV by Feldman. The following composers also receive mention:
Stockhausen,
Berio,
Boulez (3.sonate quoted),
Pousseur (Mobile quoted),
Luis de Pablo,
André Boucourechliev (Archipel IV quoted),
Edison Denisov,
Haubenstock-Ramati,
Logothetis,
Kagel (Diaphonie quoted on page 121),
Luc Ferrari,
costin Miereanu,
Jean-Yves Bosseur,
Pierre Marietan,
Cardew (Treatise quoted),
Patrik Mestral,
Scratch Orchestra,
Frederic Rzewski.
New ed.: Cinquième édition revue et complétée
(Collection MUSIQUE OUVERTE dirigée par Jean-Yves Bosseur et
Pierre Michel), Minerve 1999.
h1/ Brindle, Reginald Smith: The New Music: The Avant-garde since 1945 (1975). Oxford (Oxford University Press), 1986 (sec.ed). HB AUB AUM OUB DKDM MKAR KB IMD SB.
Provides excellent descriptions of experimental teendencies in music history which have relations to improvsation and new notations - with a wealth of notation examples. An advanced account which is, however, at the same time easy to read. In the chapter "Indeterminacy, Chance and Aleatory Music" p.60-81, Anglo-saxon and Central European music receives comparative description along the way through history, and indeterminacy with regard to time, pitches and form etc. is treated throughly and systematically. The difference between radical indeterminacy in Anglo-saxon music with Feldman and others and the more directional tendency (emotional according to Brindle) are outlined in a concrete comparison. Various possibilities of outlining notations covering pitches and time appear clearly from examples by Feldman, Ligeti, Stockhausen, Berio and Bedford. Indetermination with regard to form is examined with an original view of the importance of visual art as an inspiration; this is discussed in relation to exx. by Stockhausen, Haubenstock-Ramati and Brown. Finally, indeterminacy regarding "expression" and "material means" is mentioned with an example by Paolo Renosto and further exx. by Cage mentioned in the text. composiiton which outlines a process is mentioned by means of Stockhausen's Prozession I in plus-minus notation as an example. Brindle accounts for the meaning of the signs, and one can safely disregard his objections concerning Prozession in case one wishes to understand the special possibilities of this notation form. As it seems, objections deal with an alleged difficulty of imitating a recording when one plays a different instrument, which is in any case not relevant for the ensuing works in plus-minus notation. The chapter "Improvisation - Graphic Scores - Text Scores" p.81-99 goes on to discuss works with greater degrees of freedom. Problems with realising or circumventing improvisation in practise are discussed; notational examples by Berio, Brown, Stockhausen and Englert are stated. Group improvisation, a new phenomenon in this author's context when the book was written, is commented. There follow exx of notations employing individual sign systems (Donatoni, Cardew) and of graphic notations of the free kind which are meant especially to stimulate the musician's own inventiveness, with exx by Smith Brindle, Brown, J.Levine, Logothetis, Buonomo, Kayn, Cage and Berberian. Stockhausen is here represented by an excerpt from Kontakte containing an aural score. Verbally notated music is treated as the last variant, represented by Stockhausen and Kagel. Together with the Brown - example p.84 one has here a small, but useful example collection concerning this notation form. - The chapter "Notation" concentrate on how composers can loosen up a too great fixation on details, and the list "Some New Notation Symbols" in the back of the book can supplement this. - Finally it can be mentioned that the chapter "Colour" could have a certain, special relevance for improvised music.
Page numbers match each other in old and new edition. The small size of the book may have contributed to its cheap price, but illustrations have sometimes become exceedingly small. They can, however, be enlarged in a photo copying machine. This book has been translated into Japanese. - Review: Lekfeldt (1977;H4).
h1/ Cope, David: New Directions in Music (1971), Third Printing. Dubuque, Iowa (Wm.C.Brown Company Publishers), 1972. KB.
Treats experimental music from relevant points of view, as can be seen from titles as "Instrument exploration", "Multimedia", "Improvisation", "Indeterminacy", "Antimusic and return". P. 55f there is a discussion of the way in which free graphic notation is transformed from picturs to sound in one of the author's own projects, on the general parameters space and time, the importance of complexity for the experience of parallellism, and more. The chapter on improvisation shows the author in good shape for discussing the role of interpretation in all kind of music, for instance when Beethoven wrote "ritardando". Here, also some improvisation groups are mentioned: New Music Ensemble; Musica Elettronica Viva; Univ. of Illinois Chamber Players; Improvisation Chamber Ensemble (UCLA; Lukas Foss); AMM; MW2. Efter the chapters there bibliographical sections, "Further Readings and Works". The book provides insight into a number of American composers that are not especially known in Europe, and a section with "biographical data" at the end of the book tilsidst supports this informative aspect. A special curiosity is the fact that Paul Ignace's "It is" for orchestrar dating from 1946 is reprented (p.11, mention p.10) - it consists of just a simple, constructivistically looking drawing and seems to hold a record as the first open notation of its kind. Ignace was when the book was written still active as a composer of multimedia-like orientation (among other things he received a commission for symphony orchestra probably on the background of more traditional expectations) - however, his first work of this kind was, as is apparent, long before Fluxus of the sixties. - Review: Möllers (1978;H4).
h1/ Gieseler, Walter: Komposition im 20. Jahrhundert. Details - Zusammenhänge. Ed. Moeck, Nr. 4015, 1975. AUB OUB IMD SB KB.
Book with an abundance of interesting notation examples, some of which also in colours. As a music history book however problematic, because the important american part of the development is not viewed on its own background. Extensive sections with indexes and bibliographical information related to the many examples.
h1/ Maegaard, Jan: Musikalsk modernisme. Stig Vendelkær/Wilhelm Hansen, 1964/1971. DKDM AUB MKAR NJMK MKAR EM OUB SB.
This is still the Danish music history book to refer to in case new notations must also be dealt with. Despite its age it puts forward very sharp and useful analytical viewpoints concerning ambiguity in music and provides strategically selected notation examples with comments.
h1/ Schwartz, Elliot; Godfrey, Daniel: Music since 1945. Issues, Material, and Literature, N.Y.(Schirmer) 1993.
The analytical, thoughtful approach of this music history book is already a bit apparent from its subtitle. Authors avoid effectively the dangers of an amorphous, anecdotical approch by presenting useful systematic discussions along the way for instance, "Texture, Mass and Density", "Collage and quotation", and much more.For the present focus, two chapters are the important ones: "New views of Performance, Space, Ritual and Play", and "Notation, Improvisation, and Composition".
The first one discusses the concept of music over six pages as a game and says among other things: "The game playing aspect of new music grow out of the nature of performance itself: human beings with certain interests or skills, goals to achieve, and the pressures of time and coordination. Though these considerations have always been present in the realization and interpretation of a musical "object", they can now become the object" (p.312). It quotes extensive examples from David Bedford (Fun for all the family 1970, board game) and Barney Childs (Any Five, 1967, a cue based piece). It deals also with composers Charles Hamm and Henri Pousseur. Chr. Wolff's Duet II for horn and piano is quoted later in the "notation, improvisation and composition" chapter. Curiously enough, the American composer who is so often considered the "father" of game pieces, John Zorn, is not mentioned, despite the fact that the very concept of "game pieces" is explicitly used. Also a conducted piece by Pauline Oliveros from 1977 with hand cues (To Valerie Solanas) was quoted in the previous "Ritual" section of the book. An additional example commented upon in detail is found in the ensueing chapter, "Pieces for Study III" "Failing" by Tom Johnson (1970).
"Notation, Improvisation, and Composition" is an excellent introduction over 22 pages to the various functions and roles of notation in new music. The issue is thrown into relief by mentioning practises outside recent classical Western music; examples are given of quite different kinds of focus notation may seek to define; functions of notation as an instrument of development of ideas for the composer and of being a "visually stimulating object" are further discussed. The section "An instrument of control" discusses notation in a praiseworthy way from an updated perspective, juztaposing Ferneyhough's well known use of traditional notation in very demanding, detailed ways, with notations giving degrees of freedom, as by Earle Brown and others. Here, there is also a direct comparison between a phrase notated traditionally and in spatial notation (p.407). The following remarks are added:
"All of these notations, since they reflect a work's stylistic priorities, influence the psychological attitude that a performer brings to the music. A notational style inevitably sends a message, in essence, defining the perrformer's "job." Here are three such messages: (1) You must articulate numerical truths with great precision: (2) You must make it clear that you are wrestling with overwhelming difficulties. (3) You are to project a spirit of carefree, improvisatory fluidity. Perhaps this larger message, whatever it may be, supersedes individual symbols and their meanings. Though the two versions of Example 19.8 indicate essentially the same pitches and durations, each version would project a different intensity and value in performance."
Finally, the relation between improvisation and composition is discussed, referring to notation as "the ingredient that allows the deliberate suspension of time" (p.415).
In this chapter, notations by Robert Ashley, Ben Johnston, William Duckworth, Sylvano Bussotti, Earle Brown, Stuart Saunders Smith, Brian Ferneyhough, Morton Feldman, Krzystof Penderecki, György Ligeti, George Crumb, Elliott Schwartz, David Bedford, John Cage, Cornelius Cardew and Christian Wolff are quoted and still more composers are mentioned. Cardew's Treatise is mentioned p.413 (although not illustrated).
Additionally, various illustrations of experimental notations may be found passim in the book.
It is to be regretted that despite such informative texts and illustrations, experimentally notated works are so sparsely represented in the four "Pieces for Study" chapters. Text parts deal so adaequately with new notation and performance practise of experimental music, while "pieces for study" parts seem to reflect a more conservative spirit and the habits of institutions (maybe of yesterday this was written in 2008). To take the book's inspiring potential to full advantage one must use additional sources and work editions (as ever, of course ; ). Last, it might be relevant to let the reader know what might already be apparent from the listings of composers above, that the outlook on composers of new music is mainly an American one - perhaps refreshingly so for Europeans. The other way round, one could wonder how such a composer like Vinko Globokar (Slovenia/FR) and a music history writer like Leigh Landy (UK) could really be unknown to the authors. It's good to learn from each other.
h1/ Sutherland, Roger: New Perspectives in Music. London (Sun TavernFields) (Skaffes fra: Anthony, tlf. fra DK 0044 171 790 4267), 1994. AUB AUM OUB.
Music history book on experimental tendencies. The chapter "Graphics and indeterminacy" deals with the New York School (Feldman, Cage, Brown, Wolff), including the important, previously often neglected, role played by Wolff in introducing composition taking the communication between players as a structural basis. A number of European works are also treated in this chapter. The chapter "Improvised Music" continues the tendency to investigate improvisation from the context of composed music, but also imortant groups like AMM, Nuova Consonanza and Musica Elettronica Viva are mentioned. The relevant development of Stockhausen, including the plus-minus-notation, is traced on to the text collections (1968 and 1970;A1), and also recordings receive commenting. Both the Scratch Orchestra as such with its special genres and related compositions by Cardew and others are mentioned here.
The last pages of this chapter are dedicated to a panorama of "avantgarde/jazz fusions" as it has taken place in many groups. The chapter "Intermedia" and "Sound-sculptures and invented instruments" can also be mentioned. 16 pages with small short-biographies of composers and various biblio- and discographical sections. - Review: Lekfeldt (2000;H4).
H2.1 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL LITERATURE
THIS LIST IS BASED ON: Writings used and reference works of special interest are put here.
h2.1/ See also Cope (1972;H1); Cope (1976;E1); Davies (1986;E1); Drees (G2.1); ous (1973;H2.1); Couldry (1995;G1.1); Dean (1992;G1.1); Bull (1987;H2.2);Müller (1994;G1.1);Feisst (1997;G1.1), Landolt (1993;G2.1). See also the "General introductory remarks" at the beginning of appendix part.
h2.1/ RILM abstracts of music literature. New York, 1967-95. OUB.
The subject "improvisation" was searched for and various further specifications of this which appeared relevant were reviewed. After 1995 the search was carried on electronically.
h2.1/ Anonymous: Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt. Informationszentrum für zeitgenössische Musik. Various catalogues. Pfungstadt (Jakob Helene KG), 1966ff.
Katalog der Abteilung Noten (1966); Noten-Katalog Nachträge (1967;1968); Katalog Bücher - Periodica (1970); Bibliothek Nachtrag (1969/70;1971/73;1974/75;1978/79).
These catalogues can also be used as a general reference work which provides year of birth for composers and a number of works - the sections of printed music is by far the biggest. There are also lists of publishing houses.
h2.1/ Anonymous: Musik und Bildung 5, 1973.
Bibliography over "Improvisation in Music and Music Education - Creativity II" (in German).
h2.1/ Anonymous: International Directory of Contemporary Music 1996-97. Composers. NY (Contemporary Music International Information Service), 1996. MKAR.
Manuscript works as well as publications. The book was created in cooperation with the French bibliotheque Internationale de Musique Contemporaine (now Bibliotheque Bozidar Kantuser, situated at Conservatoire Superieur de Paris).
h2.1/ Anonymous: International Directory of Contemporary Music 1996-97. Instrumentation. NY (Contemporary Music International Information Service), 1996. MKAR.
Both manuscript works and publications. Includes a category of "Undetermined instrumentation".
h2.1/ Anonymous (Egon Kraus): Musik und Bildung 5, 1970.
Bibliography of "Improvisation in Music and Music Education - Creativity" (in German). To a large extent dominated by writings dating before the recent improvisation movement. Source of revelation of the author's identity: Noll (1973;G2.1).
h2.1/ Gustafsson, Mats; Munthe, Christian; Strid, Raymond: "En guide till musiken", in: Nutida Musik. Special issue on improvisation, nr. 2, 1992. KB.
Discografical article with short characteristics stressing historical matters, especially of LPs. With lists of distributors / shops and record companies with addresses.
h2.1 / Martinelli, Fransesco: Joëlle Léandre Discography, Italy (Vivaldi e Bandecchi) 2002.
Around 175 CD productions are indexed and commented, along with bibliographical and other information
h2.1/ May, James D.: Avant-Garde choral Music. An Annotated Selected Bibliography. Metuchen, N.J. (The Scarecrow Press, Inc.), 1977. MKAR.
Published works. Among other things, "description of the avant-garde techniques and idioms used in the composition" are included in each entry - for instance, "graphic notation of pitch, rhythm; ad libitum entrances, pitches; unconventional use of piano; speaking" (fra the description of "The Evening Draws in" by George Self (Wien, UE 15423). Prices at the time of publication are stated, as well as year of publication. "Unison choir" and "Speaking chorus" can also be found as categories in addition to the more traditional instrumentations. With its compact characterisations of typical traits in the works this book is extremely informative and could serve as a model for future works of this kind.
h2.1/ Müller, Markus: "There is no place like home. Improvisation und ihre Dokumentation auf Tonträgern", Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. Special issue on improvisation. No. 4, Juli/August, 1999.
About the historical development in publishing improvised music on record, especially seen from the side of jazz. Describes some occasions at which FMP received much attention: Cecil Taylor-concerts in Berlin 1988, Schlippenbach-Trio CD release 1990. Various informations on different labels, among other things about their founders and nationalities.
h2.1/ Møllerhøj, Klaus: Niels Viggo Bentzons Kompositioner. En fortegnelse over værkerne med opusnummer. Det Kongelige Bibliotek/Edition Wilhelm Hansen, Kbh., 1980.
From the publishing house there is also a list in a more sparse format with later addenda.
h2.1/ Noll, Günther: "Bibliographie zur Improvisation", i Stumme, Wolfgang (ed.): Über Improvisation. Mit Beiträgen von Elly Basic, Zagreb - Cesar Bresgen, Salzburg - Rainer Glen Buschmann, Dortmund - Lilli Friedemann, Hamburg - Hans Haselböck, Wien - Erhard Karkoschka, Stuttgart - Alfred Koerppen, Hannover - Günther Noll, Bonn - Wolfgang Stumme, Essen. Mainz (Schott), 1973. Part of a series: Bausteine für Musikerziehung und Musikpflege B21.OUB.
To a large extent containing writings from before 1970. However, it includes also a number of articles of recent interest at the time of publication from an array of magazines on music education and other subjects.
h2.1/ Thomas, Roger: "Pre-Avant. Roger Thomas offers a short, incomplete and highly prejudiced history of writing about improvised and avant-garde music in the UK (his words not ours!)", Avant. Jazz, improvised and contemporary classical music 9, autumn, 1998.
About magazines dealing in English with improvised music, from the seventies and on. Impetus, Musics, Collusion, East Midlands Musician's Collectives publikationer, Contact, The Wire are commented upon. It is stated as a conclusion that two ways of treating the music exist, one specialised and one oriented towards a broad view.
h2.1/ Wilson, Peter Niklas: "Sedimente des flüchtigen Klangs. Empfehlenswerte Bücher zu improvisierter Musik - eine subjektive Auswahl", Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. Special issue on improvisation. No. 4, Juli/August, 1999.
Mentions Bailey (1992;G1.1), Prevost (1995;G3), Noglik (1990;G1.1), Corbett (1994;G2.1), Wyss/Landolt (1993;G1.1), Nett/Russell, Paul Berliner and more. The author views writings on improvisation in other art forms and music ethnological literature as an inspiration for openings of the discussion on improvised music in the strict sense.
H2.1.1 PUBLISHERS' CATALOGUES
THIS LIST IS BASED ON: A collection of catalogues seeking to include the most important and relevant publishers.
h2.1.1/ Anonymous: John Cage. Catalogue. Frankfurt/M (Edition Peters), 1962.
h2.1.1/ Anonymous: Oxford Music and Books on Music. Complete list. (Oxford University Press), 1973.
h2.1.1/ Anonymous: Edition Modern. Verlagskatalog/General Catalog (u.år). - Edition Modern & Tre Media. Verlagskatalog/General Catalogue 1998 - Various loose sheets with Neuerscheinungen/New Publications, received 1999, 1985(approx.)ff/1998.
Duration is stated for each work, and by observing this, one can find relevant, differently notated works which might be characterized as "var.".
h2.1.1/ Anonymous: Music of Our Time. Schott general catalogue. Mainz et al. (Schott), 1996.
A discouraging experience from one of the largest publishing houses. A large catalogue with alphabetical and meticously subdivided systematic divisions. Variable instrumentations are, however, not at all to be found here, and the relevant series "Schott Workshop" including its composers (for instance Detoni; Hoch; some music by Regner) are partly totally omitted. This in spite of the declaration in the preface: "in it, you'll find a comprehensive listing of the music of all our composers". See Anonymous (Schott Workshop...;A2.2). Graphic works by Moran, Robert, are included, taken over from the publishing house Ars Viva. Here, it is misleadingly stated that "L'apres-midi du Dracoula" is for "big orchestra", while the original designation is: "for sound-producing instruments".
h2.1.1/ Anonymous: 12. Gemischter Chor 1999/2000. Special catalogue from Schott. Mainz et al. (Schott), 1999.
Again a variable work is seen to receive an unfair treatment. A test sample shows that Regner: Chorstudien is mentioned here, but as SATB, while the composer's indication for the studies no. 1-4 exactly suggest divisions ad lib which can also obey other criteria. See Anonymous (Schott Workshop...;A2.2).
h2.1.1/ Anonym: Musik der neuen Generation. Forlagskatalog Universal Edition, 1972.
h2.1.1/ Anonymous: Universal Edition Katalog 1999/2000. Wien, 1999.
The fact nonwithstanding that this is the catalogue of one of the largest European publishing houses which has published the music of composers like Stockhausen and Logothetis for variable instrumentations and in which Haubenstock-Ramati was even employed as an editor, it unfortunately illustrates the chaotic situation one must be prepared to encounter concerning works in variable instrumentation. The catalogue is systematically divided into instrumentations. "Chamber music in various instrumentations" contain some, but not all, of the relevant works. Thus not a single work by Haubenstock-Ramati con be found here, although Catch für 1 oder 2 Klaviere (P.8) and Multiple VI für 2 Spieler: 1 Streich- und 1 Blechblasinstrument (P. 35) are mentioned elsewhere. - In return, Aus den Sieben Tagen by Stockhausen appear many places in the catalogue, but in an arbitrary way: under "cembalo" but not under "organ"; under solo violin and 2 violins, but not for more than two violins - etc. etc. An alfabethical list of composers is included, although this is not mentioned in the index.
h2.1.1/ Anonymous: 15. Ensemble-Musik vom Quartett zum Orchester 2000. Forlagskatalog from Schott. Mainz et al. (Schott), 2000.
Includes categories with "variable instrumentation" dealing with older music which can be played by different instruments, as well as music (for instance string quartet) the instrumentation of which is not variable. Test samples show that Detoni and Hoch from the relevant series "Schott Workshop" have been included. See Anonymous (Schott Workshop...;A2.2.
h2.1.1/ Anonymous: Catalogue Edition Peters Frankfurt/Main. Frankfurt, 2000.
Selected works - for instance, Edges by Chr. Wolff is not included but is available anyway, I was told in a mail summer 2000. A relevant section with "works in variable instrumentation" exists.
h2.1.1/ Smith, Sylvia (ed.): Smith Publications - Sonic Art Editions. 1992 Catalog of Music, 1992.
Includes differently notated music by Smith, Stuart Saunders; Brün, Herbert and Oliveros, Pauline.
h2.1.1/ Steinauer, Mathias; Wohlhauser, René (ed.): Adesso. Zeitgenössische Musik verlagsunabhängiger Komponistinnen und Komponisten. Partituren - Tonträger - aufführungsmaterial. Katalog 1999/2001, 1999.
Includes a section with "Improvisationskonzepte/variable Besetzungen" by Flammer, Ernst H.; Glaus, Daniel; Koblenz, Babette; Mäder, Urban; Ott, Daniel; Rzewski, Frederic; Stäbler, Gerhard; Steinauer, Mathias; Stockhausen, Karlheinz; Zimmermann, Walter. Adesso, CH-6958 Cortiasca, Schweiz - email: adesso@bluewin.ch.
h2.1.1./ Matthei, Renate: Noten/Sheet Music. Komponistinnen/Women Composers 1996/97. Furore Edition 300, 1996.
Includes a section with "Modernes Ensemble/Variable Besetzungen. Modern Ensemble/Various Scorings" with various composers.
H2.2 BIOGRAPHICAL LITERATURE
THIS LIST IS BASED ON: some biographical reference works used for working out A2.1.
h2.2/ Bull, Storm: Contemporary Composers. Metuchen, NJ & London, 1987. AUB (vol. I, III).
An efficient detective's tool in the field of experimental composers, both American and European, which has contributed many data for the A2.1 list not found elsewhere. Measured by the number of composers covered, this is the most comprehensive reference work I have seen. They are characterized by nationality, years and as to which of the indexes etc. used that list them - and from those indexes, literature on the composers in question can be traced. Two earlier volumes exist: I, 1964 and II, 1974. Volume III makes some references back to earlier volumes for additional information.
h2.2/ Cummings, David M. (ed.): The International Who's Who in Music, fifteenth ed. 1996/97. Cambridge (Int. Biographical Centre), 1996. KB.
An earlier 1980 edition was also used.
h2.2/ Hester, Hanns-Werner; Sparrer, Walter-Wolfgang (ed.): Komponisten der Gegenwart. München (ed. text+kritik), 1992ff. AUB OUB.
Loose leaves to be subscribed to.
h2.2/ Morton, Brian and Collins, Pamela (ed.): Contemporary Composers. With a preface by Brian Freneyhough. London/Chicago (St. James Press), 1992. AUM AUB OUB.
A selective book. In return, articles are full-bodied and have good bibliographic content.
h2.2/ Sadie, Stanley (ed.): The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. London (Macmillan Publishers Ltd.), 1980. AUM.
Of modest relevance to the subjects dealt with here, but it has been used.
h2.2/ Vinton (ed.): Dictionary of Twentieth Century Music. London, 1974. MKAR AEST IMD OUB SB AUB.
A good American reference work with a good coverage of experimental music.
H3.1 MUSIC THERAPY LITERATURE
THIS LIST IS BASED ON: A selection of references to the discussion in the text of music therapy and improvised music.
h3.1/ See also Oliveros (1971;A2.2); Belgrad (1998;G1.1) as well as the category G4.
h3.1/ Becker, Maria: "Musikbegriff"in: Decker-Voigt, H-H; Knill, P.J.; Weymann, E. (ed.):
Lexikon Musiktherapie. Göttingen mm. (Verlag für Psychologie), 1996.
Discusses the concept of music in relation to the tradition of classical works and to the very different conceptions of music which different schools of music therapy have: "Understandings of music as a drug, music as a magical-mystical power, as working agent for emotional and vegetative processes, as method or means of communication, as artistic medium of expression, as a specific structuring of spirituality, as a presentatively organised system of symbols etc." (p. 232).
h3.1/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: "En videnskabsteoretisk model af musikkens rolle i musikterapi", manus., 1984.
About the difference between psychological and musical viewpoints. Seen from the human being and the psychological dimension, improvised music reflects the psychic process and thus emerges, as it seems, "just by itself" and it is thus non-repeatable. Seen from the medium of music however, music only arises through a certain labor being done and a resistance having been overcome - and the improvisation demonstrates that there exist musical possibilities of a general nature which could in principle be found again.
h3.1/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: Review of Dietmut Niedecken: Einsätze. Musik og Terapi nr. 2, 1988.
Themes include the history of improvised music and the relation between culture and therapy. Max E. Keller: Psychogramm (1971) is quoted in extenso.
h3.1/ Bruscia, Kenneth E.: Improvisational Models of Music Therapy. Springfield, Ill. (Charles E. Thomas), 1987. AUB.
Provides encyclopaedic, concise examinations of various schools of improvisatory music therapy. Puts forward "improvisation assessment profiles", a detailed method for analysis which includes operation on a level of musical analysis, observing musical parameters. Important work. See also Bruscia (1994;H3.1) with a Norwegian translation of the section dealing with method of analysis.
h3.1/ Bruscia, Kenneth E.: IAP - Improvisation Assessment Profiles. Kartlegging gjennom musikkterapeutisk improvisasjon. Oversettelse, introduksjon og kommentarer av Brynjulf Stige og Bente Østergaard. Sandane (Høgskulutdanninga på Sandane, N-6860 Sandane, Norge), 1994.
Norwegian re-edition of the author's analytical profiles first presented in the book Improvisational Models of Music Therapy. The author's preface, however, is in English and contains some important later comments.
h3.1/ Deuter, Martin: "Polaritätsverhältnisse. Zu einer musikalisch-psychologischen Benennung der Improvisation", in: Vermittlungen..musically speaking. Special issue of Einblicke (hrsg. BVM, Berufverband der Musiktherapeutinnen und Musiktherapeuten in Deutschland e.V.). Zum Improvisationsunterricht im Musiktherapiestudium / On Improvisation Training in Music Therapy Training, Heft 12, November, Manus, 2001.
The concept of polarity is discussed - that is, opposites having a dynamic relation, as poles, to each other. This is relevant for both psychological interpretation of music and as a viewpoint for the analysis of musical parameters seen as continua - thus it integrates psychological and musical considerations
h3.1/ Friedman, Stanley M.: "Et aspekt af musikkens struktur. En studie i regressive transformationer af musikalske temaer" (1960), Nordisk Tidsskrift for musikkterapi 5,2, 1996.
Mentions the issue of the independent significance of aesthetics in a music therapy context. P.100: "... a growing realisation that studies of contents cannot alone form the basis for a psychoanalytical theory on aesthetics" - in the conclusion it is said that the feeling of mastering a conflict is experienced by the ego as an aesthetic enjoyment. An interesting "close-up" interpretation of the aesthetic phenomenon.
h3.1/ Hegi, Fritz: Improvisation und Musiktherapie. Möglichkeiten und Wirkungen von freier Musik Paderborn (1986), 4. Aufl., 1993. AUB AUM.
Chapters on the elements of music and with examples from music therapy practise. The last chapter is a large collection of exercises which can be used both for developmental / therapeutic work and for the traning of playing practise. Exercises range from innocent ones to a few rather confronting ones with which one will do well to proceed with caution. There are exercises without sound with breathing, movement and energy. The musical exercises can get the playing started by metaphorical suggestions, relay races with other forms of expression, games with rules, voice exercises and much more. In the category "forms" among other places many original suggestions can be found which can lead to playing with awareness and to a differentiated sound.
h3.1/ Holck, Ulla S.: "Intuitiv musikterapimusik" in: Vestergaard, Bodil; Pedersen,Jane; Holck, Ulla S.: Forandringens vandring. Projektrapport [paper written during the study of music therapy], AAU 1985 p. 16-20, 1985. AUM.
The music is described as characterised by here-and-now, therefore well suited for processes in which psychic symbols are worked upon: "During playing we can associate and experience freely... in improvised music there are no rules as to how "one" expresses oneself... at the same time, I <can> be in contact with deeper, unconscious layers within myself and be in contact with the therapist. These are some very special properties of improvised, intuitive music resulting in that this medium, as we see it, is the best one in which to work with the symbols.. the importance of being able to make regressions.. Intuitive music is especially well-suited here, because it directly stimulates fantasy".
h3.1/ Jørgensen, Anne Møller: Den terapeutiske relation - set fra terapeutens side. Final paper. AAU, 1986.
P. 63: "I see.. intuitive music as a synthesis - a composite realisation in a spontaneous expression.. I would like to underline that I regard intuitive music as a rare jewel in the improvisation. But exactly this can to a high degree be a point of transformation".
h3.1/ Kapteina, Hartmut: "Über das musikpädagogische in der Musiktherapie", Ringgespräch über gruppenimprovisation LVI, Dez., 1992.
h3.1/ Kapteina, Hartmut: "Improvisationsbewegung" in: Decker-Voigt, H-H; Knill, P.J.; Weymann, E. (ed.): Lexikon Musiktherapie. Göttingen mm. (Verlag für Psychologie), 1996.
Describes improvisation in new music and in music therapy within a classical music history context - concerning general basic development of musical material and the view of music of John Cage. The recent development of improvisation groups from the seventies and on is not included.
h3.1/ Langenberg, Mechtild: Vom Handeln zum Be-Handeln. Darstellung besonderer Merkmale der musiktherapeutischen Behandlungssituation im Zusammenhang mit der freien Improvisation (Diss.). Stuttgart/NY (Fischer), 1988. Part of a series: Heidelberger Schriften zur Musiktherapie, 3.
Among other things a discussion of form concepts in modern music and their relevance in relation to music therapy.
h3.1/ Lenz, Martin; Tüpker, Rosemarie: Wege zur musiktherapeutischen Improvisation. Münster (LIT), 1998. Part of a series: Materialien zur Musiktherapie (Tüpker, Rosemarie ed.) Band 4.
Lenz: the relation between new music (one of the roads leading to music therapy improvisation) and music therapy is discussed, taking Aus den Sieben Tagen as an example (p.38-41). Ideas for playing rules in group music therapy.
Tüpker: discusses in the chapter "Konzertante Improvisation" the benefits of also playing improvised music at concerts for music therapy practioners and provide practical advice for such activity.
h3.1/ Niedecken, Dietmut: Einsätze. Material und Beziehungsfigur im musikalischen Produzieren. Hamburg (VSA-Verlag), 1986. AUM AUB.
Psychological / musicological dissertation. Deals among other issues with the history of improvised music and the relation between culture and therapy. A review attempting to abstract from the book by Bergstrøm-Nielsen
h3.1/ Næss, Tom: Lyd og vekst. Nesoddtangen (Musikkpedagogisk Forlag), 1989. AUB.
Describes improvisation in music therapy with different target groups. P. 87-90 good exercises suitable for intuitive improvisation. Review by Holm (1991;H4).
h3.1/ Pavlicevic Mercedes: Music Therapy in Context. Music, meaning and Relationship.. London (Jessica Kingsley Publ. Ltd.), 1997.
Deals with the music philosophy and language theory context of music therapy. Makes reference to among other things anglo-saxon language theory and demonstrate in so doing that the way in music provides meaning is not given in advance but is "negotiated" between the parts (p. 31).
h3.1/ Pedersen, Inge Nygaard and Scheiby, Benedikte Barth: Musikterapeut - Musik - Klient. Erfaringsmateriale fra den 2-årige musikterapiuddannelse i Herdecke 1978-80. Med kassettebånd. Specielt ang. musikanalyse samt grafisk notation: p. 89-101 and 155-63. Aalborg Universitetsforlag, 1981. MKAR.
Discussion of methods of analysis of improvised music, including the method of Ernst Kurth. A graphic score over a recorded example.
h3.1/ Ruud, Even: Musikk som kommunikasjon og samhandling. Teoretiske perspektiv på musikkterapien. Larvik (Solum Forlag), 1990.
Includes among other things a broad overview of music therapy through history.
h3.1/ Ruud, Even: Improvisation, communication and culture. Gilsum, New Haven (Barcelona Publishers), 1998. AUM.
Collection of essays. Treats music and improvisationpractise in a broad perspective seen from psychological and antropological points of view.
h3.1/ Scheiby, Benedikte: Foredrag om musikterapi [lecture on music therapy], Birkerød Bibliotek 24/4, MS, 1984.
Characterises different traditions of music therapy and the music form they utilise. The psychodramatic direction utilising free improvisation thus becomes an "avantgarde" music therapy.
h3.1/ Stige, Brynjulf: "Om Improvisational Assessment Profiles (IAP). Del I: Grunnlagsproblemer", Nordisk Tidsskrift for musikkterapi 4,2, 1995.
h3.1/ Stige, Brynjulf: "Om Improvisational Assessment Profiles (IAP). Del II: Klinisk og forskningsmessig relevans", Nordisk Tidsskrift for musikkterapi 5,1, 1996.
h3.1/ Stige, Brynjulf: Aesthetic Practises in Music Therapy. Nordic Journal of Music Therapy vol. 7, no.2, 1998.
Summary of the author: "The aesthetic aspects and dimensions of music therapy practise have to a surprisingly small degree been a part of the music therapy discourse. In this article I discuss some suggestions why this has been so. Also some of the statements that have been given in the literature on the relationship between music therapy, art and aesthetics will be discussed. Problems related to essentialism are illuminated. Towards the end of the article I suggest that the concepts 'polyphonic dialogue' (Bakthin) and 'aesthetic practise' (derived from Wittgenstein) might be helpful for the integration of aesthetic reflectivity into the practise and theory of music theory".
h3.1/ Stige, Brynjulf and Østergaard, Bente: "Introduktion til Kartleggning gjennom musikkterapeutisk improvisation - IAP", Musik og Terapi 21, 2, 1994.
h3.1/ Søgaard, Elise Haich and Sørensen, Torben Egelund: Musikken i centrum. Projektopgave [paper written during music therapy study], 5.sem, 1987.
Among other things a summary of Bailey (1992;G1.1)and dealing with the music of Stockhausen, including an analysis of a recording of "Intensity" from Aus den Sieben Tagen.
h3.1/ Wünsch, Christoph: "Musizieren als spontan gestaltetes Klangereignis. Zur phänomenologischen Betrachtung improvisierter Musik", Musiktherapeutische Umschau vol. 12, 1991. AUB.
Various considerations about improvisation seen in relation to composition and spoken language, time concepts and more (including memorising and analytical listening) and in relation to the repertory of possibilities which players have - among other things, the expansion of "passive" into "active" repertory is seen as a potential. Concepts reviewed by the author are collected into a graphical model at the end of the article.
H3.2. WRITINGS RELATED TO THE TEACHING OF INTUITIVE MUSIC AND GRAPHIC NOTATION AT AALBORG UNIVERSITY AND OTHER PLACES
THIS LIST IS BASED ON: My own activity as a teacher. Some works by students and colleagues.
h3.2 See also Bergstrøm-Nielsen (1900ffA;F1.1) and (1990ffb;F1.1).
h3.2/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: "Om mine tolkninger af de kliniske improvisationer" and "en diskussion af undersøgelsesresultaterne..." in Lund, Grethe: Skizofreni og musik Aalborg Universitetsforlag, 1988. EM.
Presents and comments a method of interpreting improvised music. With examples, among others an aural score.
h3.2/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: "Intuitiv musik and grafisk notation som universitetsdiscipliner. Om nogle færdighedsfag ved Musikterapistudiet på Aalborg Universitetscenter". Dansk Musiktidsskrift 6, 1988/89.
Freely improvised music and graphic notation (aural scores) as teaching subjects at the music therapy education in Aalborg, Denmark, are described. Examples from student's works, scores to improvise from as well as aural scores, are quoted. Historical and philosophical perspectives are discussed.
h3.2/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: "Intuitiv musik på Aalborg Universitetscenter". Levande Musikk. Nordisk Musikkterapikonferanse 1991. Sandane (Høgskulutdanninga på Sandane), 1991. AUB AUM.
Intuitive music teaching at Musik Therapy, Aalborg University, is described in a short form with examples.
h3.2/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: "Graafinen notaatio apuvälineenä musiikkiterapian improvisaatioiden kuvaamisessa ja analysoinnissa", Musiikkiterapia 3, 1992.
Presents graphic notation as the making of listening scores to memorise or analyse improvised music therapy processes, capturing also those aspects the usual music notation would not cover. An example in some detail is shown, the music taken from a well known Nordoff/Robbins recording. Training method, involving graphic brainstorms, using coordinative systems and other frameworks, interpretative method including working on specifically musical counter-transference and special graphic exercises are outlined. Work by students at Aalborg University, Denmark, is quoted. General perspectives including relations to music analysis in musicology and to the history, epistemology and cultural status of musical notation is discussed. Short version in Finnish of the article printed in Bergstrøm-Nielsen (1993;H3.2).
h3.2/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: "Intuitiv musik på Aalborg Universitetscenter", Musik og Terapi vol. 19 nr 2, 1992.
Rendering of the Danish article Bergstrøm-Nielsen (1991;H3.2) with some disturbing changes.
h3.2/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: Grafisk notation. Om metodiske øvelser i at lave lyttepartiturer. Manus, 1992ffA. OUB.
Textbook to be used along with training the practise of graphic notation (in Danish). Descriptions of mothod; bibliography; collection of examples.
h3.2/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: Graphic Notation. Systematic Exercises for making listening scores. Photo-copied, 1992ffB. OUB.
Texbook to be used along with training the practise of graphic notation. Describes method; exercises; bibliography; collection of examples.
h3.2/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: "Graphic Notation as a Tool in Describing and Analysing Music Therapy Improvisations", Music Therapy. The Journal of the American Association for Music Therapy, vol. 12, nr. 1, 1993 (udg. 1995). AUM(grøn mappe).
Presents graphic notation as the making of listening scores to memorise or analyse improvised music therapy processes, capturing also those aspects the usual music notation would not cover. An example in some detail is shown, the music taken from a well known Nordoff/Robbins recording. Training method, involving graphic brainstorms, using coordinative systems and other frameworks, interpretative method including working on specifically musical counter-transference and special graphic exercises are outlined. Work by students at Aalborg University, Denmark, is quoted. General perspectives including relations to music analysis in musicology and to the history, epistemology and cultural status of musical notation is discussed.
h3.2/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: "From a Music Therapist's Diary 3/12 1996 - 2/12 1997. (Work with mentally retarded people. A Selection of graphic sketches). Manuscript, 1998.
h3.2/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: "Intuitiv musik og grafisk notation. Om to musikrelaterede fag på musikterapistudiet og deres teoretiske baglande". Col Legno 1, 1999a.
Danish edition of Bergstrøm-Nielsen (1999b;H3.2).
h3.2/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: "Intuitive Music and Graphic Notation. Two Musical Training Disciplines within Music Therapy Education and their Theoretical Backgrounds" Col Legno 1, 1999b. Part of a series: Musik Therapy Monographs from Aalborg University (DK) #1.
Describes subjects existing at Aalborg University since the middle eighties. "Intuitive Music" trains free improvisation through exercises including group-dynamic exercises, awareness exercises and parameter exercises. Students also create open compositions. "Graphic notation" concerns aural scores. Students' works are quoted. The writer discusses the theoretical context and advocates for giving more attention to music as the medium in which music therapy takes place and refers to language theory and Jakobson. Concerning Col Legno: see J1.1.
h3.2/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: Contribution to: Aigen, Ken and Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: "Dialogues on the study of "Edward", in: Nordisk Tidsskrift 8, 1, 1999c.
A graphic notation with comments.
h3.2/ Dammeyer Fønsbo, Charlotte: På tværs af grænser - et speciale om musikterapeutisk behandling af traumatiserede flygtningebørn. Speciale i musikterapi. Manus., Aalborg Universitet, 1998.
Graphic notation form part of a case analysis. The author mentions two reasons for using them: practical considerations related to the desirability for the reader to be able to read and understand the paper without the video- and audio recordings being the basis of the study. Also, by means of graphic notation it is "possible both to describe the phenomenon as it appears in its entirety and at the same time to illustrate "how a phenomenon was experienced by the observer..." (p.88).
h3.2/ Jensen, Bent: Om at finde vej til et hul i muren. Terapeutisk progression i musikterapi med skizofrene, belyst ud fra patient-terapeut-relationen, analyse af den musikalske interaktion og fortolkning af modoverføring. Manuscript, Aalborg University (final paper), 1998.
Graphic notation is part of a large, complex analysis of the improvisations of a schizophrenic patient. Four planches in colour with elaborate notations. Also black and white renderings of one of the therapist's (=the author's) immediate graphic sketches and of the immediate graphic sketches made by the patient of the same process. - The author notates details of the music with graphic symbols and use at the same time the notations as whole pictures to facilitate associations and thus deepen the reflection.
h3.2/ Jønch-Clausen, Mikkel: "Intuitiv musik", Prima Vista (Det Fynske Musikkons.), 1. årg. nr. 4, sept, 1994.
Play as if it were improvised, listen to yourself and others - That's what we are to learn - and intuitive music has shown itself to be a short cut!".
h3.2/ Langenbach, Michael: "Zur körpernahen Qualität von Musik und Musiktherapie und der Angemessenheit ihrer graphischen Notation", Musiktherapeutische Umschau 19, p.17-29, 1998.
From the English summary by the author: "The corporeal quality of music provides an important way of expressing presymbolic and preverbal ways of experience... It is argued that graphic notation of improvisations in music therapy is best suited among other ways of musical notation to catch this corporeal quality of music". The activities of CBN are mentioned.
h3.2/ Mahns, Wolfgang: Symbolbildungen in der analytischen Kindermusiktherapie. Eine qualitative Studie über die Bedeutung der musikalischen Improvisation in der Musiktherapie mit Schulkindern. Ph.D.-afhandling. Manus., Aalborg Universitet, 1998. AUM KB.
The section "Die musiktherapeutische Improvisation als Forschungsgegenstand" (Musical improvisaiton as an object for research) is a comparative discussion of 13 models of analysis of improvised music in music therapy. The model of CBN is seen as especially oriented towards therapeutical action and towards supervision. Other authors of models are Nordoff/Robbins, Alvin, Priestly, Gertrud Orff, Ruud, Bruscia, Tüpker, Colin Lee, Friis-Zimmermann, Langenberg, Niedecken and Nygaard Pedersen/Bonde.
h3.2/ Matras, Margretha (MAMA): Lyd. Weekend-rapport. Fra kursus på Kunstskolen Odsherred. Fotokopieret, 1996. AUM.
A course in visual work including intuitive music / graphic notation with Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen is described and summarised. Own works from it are shown.
H4. MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS
THIS LIST IS BASED ON: This is a residue category for various literature mentioned in the text part or from a writing, but not belonging any other place in the classification.
h4/ Andréani, Evelyne: "Musica Viva", musique en jeu 6 (special issue "sur l'improvisation"), marts, 1972.
On new music and its social isolation; considerations about "non-oevre" and improvisation as strategies for renewal and about conscious use of style as the pragmatic escape.
h4/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: Undersøgelser omkring eksperimentbegrebet og eksperimentets rolle i vestlig kunstmusik efter 1945. [Investigations around the Role and Concept of Experiment in Western Art Music since 1945] Manus., 1979. Kbh.s Universitet, specialebiblioteket (bestilles via REX). MA thesis.
SHORT VERSION: Central European and Anglo-saxon ways of experimenting with music are reviewed, considering a number of examples; characteristic differencies of attitude are discussed and analysed. In a concluding chapter, among other things new pedagogical and meditative functions of the music are considered.
LONG VERSION: The author attempts to analyse and define the concepts new music, modern music, contemporary music, experimental music and modernist music. The concept of musical experimentation is seen as having its basis from Cage 1955 and to have become generally influential. - Two main tendencies are reviewed with detailed examples employing a theoretical model which looks for characteristics both of a inner-oriented analytical kind as well as of an outer-oriented socially / functionally definable kind. Anglo-saxon indeterminate music, the independent nature of which has been neglected in Central European literature, is examined from its start in the individualism of the fifthies which was often characterised by critical attitudes towards common tendencies in society and having offshoots in happenings/Fluxus and, in England, in the Scratch Orchestra. Generally, an "externalization" of musical, emancipative tendencies have taken place. - Serial music in Central Europe is characterised, in addition to so being through the examples reviewed, by means of concepts taken from contemporary theoretical sources, and the contemporary interest in compositional craft as well as in perceptional qualities of the music is pointed out. Continuity between serial and post-serial appears; there is, generally seen, a more exact and planning attitude of "basic research" compared to Anglo-Saxon music. - The compositional method of indeterminate music is characterised as primarily CAUSING variation, whereas music oriented towards "basic research" primarily is CONTROLLING variation. Both these orientations are seen as a "free programming", as opposed to traditional concepts of form and of the musical work. - The dissimination of new psychological and social functions of the music within both areas can be exemplified by meditative attitudes and by process-orientated, experimental methods of music education. - As a conclusion it is suggested that experiment in music exists both as a permanent, researching activity and as
a means to arrive at new, relatively stable fixed places. A more detailed summmary [in Danish] in "Ny musik som eksperiment og alternativ", Dansk Musiktidsskrift, maj 1981.
h4/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: To musikalske eventyrere. Cage og Stockhausen. Århus(PubliMus), 1986. AUB AUM NJMK MKAR (legio) GLHB FRBMB.
h4/ Brouwer, Leo: "L'improvisation aléatoire", in: Les cahiers du CIREM (Centre international de recherches en esthetique musicale), special issue: "Musique et aleatoire(s), numero 18-19,. Rouen, 1990(dec.)-1991(mars).
The author, who is a grand old man in new Cuban music, views the openness in new music on the background of exact science which entailed a mental climate characterised by analysis/synthesis in which inspiration must be found again on new grounds. Quotes own music for solo guitar.
h4/ Caillois, R.: Les Jeux et Les Hommes. Paris (Gallimard), 1971.
On game theory (competetive games, imitation games, risk games). Mentioned by Flusser (1983;G4) and by Mesnage (1989;G5). OUB has a German edition from 1982 (Die Spiele und die Menschen).
h4/ Dirkinck-Holmfeld, Gregers: "Løvebrølet er forstummet". Nekrolog [obituary] over Niels Viggo Bentzon, Ekstra Bladet, 26. april, 2000.
h4/ Fabricius, Jesper and Rasmussen, Jesper (ed.): Pist Protta nr. 13. (Forlaget Space Poetry, 1986.
h4/ Griffiths, Paul: Modern Music and After. Directions since 1945. N.Y. (Oxford University Press), 1995.
General book on the history of art music. Reworked from first edition 1981 and expanded. Improvisation and new notation forms are not treated in a thorough way as by authors like Brindle and Sutherland. The book includes some remarks on improvisation which are so different that one can wonder at the fact that they have been put forward by the same person! In one of them, specific problems with musicians and the public towards improvisation as something new and foreign to them are commented upon (p.204f). In another remark by the author, the attitude of Pauline Oliveros is interpreted as manifesting female values (p. 249) because her music is "open to improvisation and participation", whereas the monopoly of the composer on the creation of new things and the placing of the public into a more "receptive" role is seen as a one-sided, male way of being. A warning to the reader is due concerning the incorrect statement that seems to appear in the book saying that December 52 by Earle Brown includes no playing instruction (see the text about Brown (1961;A1)).
h4/ Grout, Donald Jay and Palisca, Claude V.: A History of Western Music. 5th ed. Donald Jay Grout and Claude V. Palisca. New York (W.W. Norton), 1996.
h4/ Hagtvet, Bente Eriksen: Skriftsprogs udvikling gennem leg. Gyldendal, 1988?.
Provides examples of experimental stages in children's writing before they have fully learned conventional writing.
h4/ Karkoschka, Erhard: Telephone conversation 28/6, 2000A.
h4/ Karkoschka, Erhard: Conversation in Stuttgart, 10/7, 2000B.
h4/ Landy, Leigh: What's the Matter with Today's Experimental Music? Organized Sound Too Rarely Heard. Singapore (Harwood Academic Publishers, Switzerland), 1991. AUB.
Provides a fairly substantial introduction to parameter-theory, among other matters. Short, concise analysis of among other works Ligeti: 10 pieces for wind quintet (1969), Berio: Sequenza III and Wolff: In Between Pieces. This book is for the thoughtful new music listener! - Review by Shere (1993;H4).
h4/ Lekfeldt, Jørgen: "Anmeldelse: To bøger om ny musik" i bladet, november 1977. KB.
Madison Music (1976) by the author is quoted in extenso with a short comment. Organum by the author (1977) is quoted. - Brindle (1986;H1) and Gieseler (1975;H1) are reviewed. No continuation since the magazine ended after this issue.
h4/ Lekfeldt, Jørgen: Review of Sutherland (1994;H1), in: Dansk Musiktidsskrift 75:1, august, 2000/01.
The reviewer throws the book into relief by contrasting it to, among others, Brindle (1986;H1) which emphasises analysis and notated examples and the approach orientated towards history of ideas and music analysis characterising Maegaard (1964/71;H1). He welcomes this book as a source of information about, among other things, the last decades of the 20th century, concerning improvised music among other things. The basic attitude of Sutherland is that of the listener which has as a consequence that the book is well-suited for the common reader, also that sound and timbre is viewed as the central thing, this providing a good survey of the whole century and a good balance between Central Europe and the rest of the world. On the critical side it is mentioned that the very detailed way of description also leads to some tiring repetitions for the reader as well as to contradictions and to information on related issues being scattered around the book.
h4/ Metzger, Heinz-Klaus: "Versuch über prärevolutionäre Musik"/"Essay on prerevolutionary music", booklet for Music Before Revolution, EMI 1, C165-28954/7, 1972. DR IMD.
Thorough mention of December 1952 by Earle Brown among other works with long quotations from the performance instructions and using additional information gathered as a participating musician and as a journalist. P.4 from the start of the English version of the article (pages have no numbers) he says: "While at work on the Folio sequence, and in immediate experimental connection with the problems of drafting it, Brown had even conceived a few three-dimensional notation projects: a pertinent linear perspective diagram, obviously the starting point for the composition of November 1952, is reproduced in the album's prefatory Note, while a perfectly realisable spherical one remained unexecuted. Just as Varèse in his time was the unerring prognostician of coming sound-technologies, so Brown must be recognised as the most dependable prophet of the principal innovations in musical notation". In a note here Metzger thinks Brown broke his own rules during the recording work: the score allows all sound-producing means to be used, but he was nevertheless against an idea about realising it with electronic sounds. And during rehearsals he vigorously encouraged the musicians to react to each other and to develop on the sound material. The conductor were to influence musicians by conducting in November and December 1952. Metzger thinks that what is heard on the record consequntly must be regarded partly as a revision of the pieces.- Note numbers in German and English version are not the same (due to less translations in the English one).
h4/ Morgan, Robert P.: Twentieth-Century Musik: a history of musical style in modern Europe and America. N.Y/London (Norton), 1990. Part of a series: The Norton Introduction to music history..
Reviews new notation practises related to the New York School and to "Indeterminacy in European Music".
h4/ Möllers, Christian: "David H. Cope: New Directions in Music", Melos/NZ 4:4 p.360, 1978. KB.
Review of Cope (1972;H1).
h4/ Nyman, Michael: Experimental Music. Cage and beyond. Cambridge (Cambridge University Press), 1974 - sec ed.(with a foreword by Brian Eno) 1999. DKDM AUB HB SB KB.
Essential book on anglo-saxon experimental music with many illustrations and informations. Also many text quotes (unfortunately, many of them with no source indicated). The author was himself a part of this music's London environment. P. 127-138 deal with Musica Elettronica Viva, the improvising group AMM and with the Scratch Orchestra.
h4/ Olsson, Lesley: Booklet of MUX Trio, AufRuhr Records ART CD 004, 1996.
Source material concerning the Documenta Exhibition mentioned under K1.2.
h4/ Rasmussen, Karl Aage: "Musik i det 20. århundrede I" i Sørensen, Søren and Marschner, Bo (ed.): Gads Musikhistorie. Odense (Gad), 1990.
h4/ Reich, Wieland: "Neue Musik als taktiles und kinästhetisches Abendteuer", MusikTexte 80, 1999.
Review of Meyer-Denkmann (1998;F1.1).
h4/ Satprem: Sri Aurobindo or The Adventure of Consciousness (1968). Transl. from the French by Tehmi.Pondicherry (Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press), 1973.
The yoga philosophy book that inspired Stockhausen to write Aus den Sieben Tagen / From the Seven Days.
h4/ Scheib, Christian: "Annäherung an das Utopische. Bücher zur improvisierten Musik von Sabine Feisst und Peter Niklas Wilson, MusikTexte 84, Mai 2000", 2000.
Review of Feisst (1997;G1.1) and Wilson (1999;G1.1). Provides characterisations of the two books and throws them into relief relating them to each other.
h4/ Schnebel, Dieter: MO-NO. Musik zum Lesen. Music to read. Köln (DuMont) 1969.
Graphic music notations for reading only, or "more precisely: for a reader", as the author states in Schnebel (1972; C2). The music is to take place in the listener's imagination.
h4/ Schwabe, Mathias: "Buchbesprechung. Michael Vetter: Pianissimo", in: ringgespräch über gruppenimprovisation, april, 1997.
Review of Vetter (1996;A2.2). A good formulation concerning his aim with different notation: "It can be said about several playing rules that they aim at a very concretely thought-out piece of music which, however, has not been written down in notes but in words, because the author, in his own words "generally would like not to notate sequences of tones, but general qualities of musical action"".
h4/ Shere, Charles: "Book Reviews: Twentieth Century-- "What's Wrong with Today's Experimental Music? Organized Sound Too Rarely Heard" by Leigh Landy" Notes - Quarterly Journal of the Music Library association 50:2, Dec., 1993.
h4/ Toftdahl, Ole and Gunge, Bo: "Verden, musikken og danskerne. Sommerkursus 16.august - 22. august". Testrup Højskole, 1999.
Small print which under "Lectures" mention: "Per Nørgård, composer and Ivan Hansen, musician: "Sun and moon" - Drum music of Nørgård. Ensemble playing for beginners and virtuosos".
h4/ Tozzi, Wolfgang: Review of Noglik: Klangspuren, Jazzforschung/Jazz research 23, 1991. KB.
Reviews Noglik (1990;G1.1).
h4/ Weid, Jean-Noël von der: La musique du XXe Siècle. Avant-propos de Mauricio Kagel. Edition Revue et augmentée. Paris (Hachette/Pluriel, 43, Quai de Grenouille), 1997. Part of a series: Collection Pluriel fondée par Georges Liébet et dirigée par Pierre Wallard.AUB.
h4/ Welsch, John P.: The Music of Stuart Sanders Smith. Westport, Conn./London (Grenwood Press), 1995. Part of a series: Contributions to the Study of Music and Dance Number 38. Profiles of American Composers. AUB.
Works by Smith (f. 1948 - the periode dealt with here is 1970-90) among which many being of a variable kind and with elaborate, alternative notations, are introduced and commented/analysed. Some require also scenic action. They are put into perspective by being related to other, mostly but not soly, American composers, among others from the New York School. Quotes notations from among others Brün, Cage (Th.Piece), Maciunas, Randolph Coleman. With bibliography and discography. Preface by Milton Babbitt.
h4/ Wilson, Peter Niklas: review of Fähndrich (1998;G5), Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. Special issue on improvisation. No. 4, Juli/August, 1999.
h4/ Zimmerschied, Dieter: "Dietrich J. Noll: Zur Improvisation im deutschen Free Jazz", Melos/NZ 4:6 p.559, 1978. KB.
Review of Noll (1977;G3).
THIS LIST IS BASED ON: A non-comprehensive collection of examples. Centered around material existing at AUB and AUM. Supplemented with own buyings and with information from DISØ (Diskotekets Søgesystem, Danmarks Radio [database of Danish Radio's discotheque]).
Concerning diskographical matters, see also Couldry (1995;G1.1); Dean (1992;G1.1); Levaillant (1981;G1.1); Sutherland (1994;H1).
See also the Musings collection of approx. 240 reviews from 1995-1999. http://www.intuitivemusic.dk/iima/ms_rc.htm
I1. VARIABLE WORKS AND MUSIC PLAYED FROM RECIPES
i1/ Brown, Earle: Concert performance and rehearsal of December 1952, Played by The International Chamber Enxemble Darmstadt (Internationales Kammerensemble Darmstadt), conducted by Earle Brown, 23th July 1964. Includes all the instructions and front page of the publication. http://www.ubu.com/sound/brown.html
i1/ "Listen, feetpackets!" (Feetpackets: Collins, Charlie; Wilkinson, Alan; Walmark, Geoff; Lambert, Ross; Beck, Mike; Welch, Linda Lee). CD Discus DISC 1 CD, 1989.
Compositions with space for improvisation. Booklet with quotations from the compositions.
i1/ Assessments and Translations (Vallribera, Josep - gesto-grafia; Moore, Tony - cello). CD Matchless MRCD28, 1995.
"This recording is an interpretation of four scores with variations conceived during a collaboration between artist Josep Vallribera and myself", it is said.
i1/ Aus den Sieben Tagen (Stockhausen, Karlheinz/ Alings, Alfred; Alsina, Carlos R.; Bojé, Harald; Jenny-Clark, Jean-Francois; Fritsch, Johannes G.; Drouet, Jean-Pierre; Gehlhaar, Rolf; Kontarsky, Alois; Portal, Michel; Globokar, Vinko; Stockhausen, Karlheinz;). CD Stockhausen Complete Edition CD 14A-G, 1993.
7 CDs. Re-release of the LP edition, recorded 1969. Includes a booklet which among other things reprionts almost the complete material for performance. Unfortunately references to more recordings cannot be given here, nonwithstanding that this could be desirable and instructive. Some pieces are here, however, recorded in several versions with the same musicians.
i1/ Ausbruch der Klänge (Ensemble für Intuitive Musik Weimar). CD, 1995.
Improvised music over the four elements (fire-water-earth-air). A unusual recording made at a World Music festival in Mexico with several thousand listeners. To be ordered from: EFIM c/o Michael von Hintzenstern, Paul-Schneider-Strasse 26, D-99423 Weimar, Germany.
i1/ Blue Goo Park (Joëlle Léandre(double bass, voice) & Rüdiger Carl(accordion,clarinet,voice)). CD Free Music Production FMP CD 52, 1992.
Music cultivating playful relations to various known music genres.
i1/ Chr. Wolff. For Ruth Crawford (Wolff, Christian: bla. Edges). CD hat ART CD 6156 HAT HUT Records Ltd, 4106 Therwil, Switzerland, 1994.
Edges (1969) is a classic composition for intuitive performance. An English ensemble does homage to this piece by being named after it! The piece consists in a number of symbols spread out on a page, each mening a specific sound quality. As I understand the piece, they should ideally all be taken into consideration simultaneously by the players. This is extremely demanding and yet wonderfully non-directive.
i1/ Cultural Bagage (Burn, Chris). CD Acta 5, Acta Records, 28 Aylmer Road, London W12 9LQ, England (Tel. +44 181 740 1349), 1990.
Improvised playing - several compositions by Burn are described in the booklet.
i1/ Différences; Sequenza III... (Berio, Luciano: Sequenza III (1968) (Cathy Berberian)). CD Philips (Silver Line Classics) 426 662-2, 1990.
Vocal music, "stream of consciousness".
i1/ Earle Brown: Four Systems (Brown, Earle: Four Systems - Brown, Earle: Folio II. A collection of graphic and concept pieces (1970, 1991, 1993)). CD hat ART CD 6147 (Hat Hut Records, CH-4106 Therwil, Schweiz), 1994.
i1/ Experimental Music from Denmark '96 (The Sound of Choice Ensemble; Duo Resonante; Magieres, Olga; Vester, Kristian; Vincze, Ivan; Bergstr¢m-Nielsen, Carl; Lekfeldt, J¢rgen; Winther, Niels; Irgens-M¢ller, Christer; Olson, Vagn; Gorm, S¢ren; Lunding, Rasmus B; Transformer Olie; Pere O. J¢rgens). CD MXPCD 0296, 1996.
Includes a booklet with the article "Some experimental developments on the background of Danish "Contemporary Classical" music life" by Bergstr¢m-Nielsen.
i1/ Fancy Dancer (Siwula, Blaise: A graphic score inspired by the native fancy dancers. McAdden, Bruce(flutes); Whitlarge, Leopanar (flugel horn/flutes); Keene, Richard (sop.sax/oboe&flutes); Siwula, Blaise(alto sax/coarinets/flutes/percussion); Miano, Tonino(prepared piano); Rowe, Tim(perc); Onserud, Hal(bass); Krall, Jackson(perc); Siwula, Barbera(written&spoken word)). CD c/o bbrjsiwula@earthlink.net , 1995.
i1/ Fish of the Week (Beresford, Steve). CD - SCATTER, 30 Carnavon Street, Glasgow G3 6HS, Scotland (UK) Tel/fax +44 141 353 2563. Scatter 05:CD, 1996.
Exhilarating, colourful improvised playing with among other things Beresford's pluralist piano playing. This composition is a game in which each movement has some fixed parts and open spaces for free improvisation. At any time, performers have the option to ring a bicycle bell and activate a "random date" system of duos for a certain time.
i1/ Ghost Notes (IST: Davies, Rhodri; Wastell, Mark; Fell, Simon H. Musik af: Bergstr¢m-Nielsen, Carl; Constatinou, Stace; Durrant, Phil; Fell, Simon H.; Puw, Guto Pryderi; Wastell, Mark samt improvisationer af IST). CD BF28, 1998.
Various compositions including space for improvisation, most of them elaborate ones, as well as free improvisations.
i1/ Graphic Music (Haubenstock-Ramati, Roman). CD hat(now)ART 101 (Hat Hut Records, 4106 Therwil, Switzerland), 1997.
A valuable CD with both good music and good graphic illustrations from the works - 2 things in one! Haubenstock-Ramati is one of the pioneers of different notation. Includes Décisions (1959/61). Graphic composition in 16 parts for unspecified sound sources and Alone I (1965) for unspecified low instruments.
i1/ HUMLEBIER (Bergstr¢m-Nielsen, Carl). MC (Samfundet til Udgivelse af Dansk Musik SUDM S004), 1991.
Electronic music, moves within static textures. Recorded as improvisations with a sequencer containg pre-programmed material.
i1/ John Zorn - Cobra (Zorn, John: Cobra). CD hatART CD 2-6040 (2 CD's), 1991 (1985). Re-released as hatOLOGY 2-580.
Recordings of John Zorn's cult-creating game piece Cobra. The booklet gives valuable documentation both by giving a detailed quote from the performance instruction and by placing the piece into a historical context.
i1/ John Zorn's Cobra Live at the Knitting Factory (Zorn, John: Cobra). CD Knitting Factory Works KFW 124, 1995.
i1/ Zorn, John: Archery. TZADIK TZ 7316-4 (3 CDs).
A game piece from 1979, released in three versions with comprehensive notes by Zorn and documentation around the coming into being of this work, including all the sketches. The finished work is also cited in extenso, but in such small print that heavy enlargement is required in order to read it.
i1/ MagnifiCathy: The many voices of Cathy Berberian (Berberian: Stripsody; Cage mv.). CD WER 60054-50, 1988.
i1/ Mats Gustafsson & NU-ensemblen: Hidros One. - Axel Dörner, tr; Günter Christmann trb, vcl; Per-Åke Holmlander tba, cimbasso, aluminium tube; Mats Gustafsson saxofoner, fluteophone, French flageolet, dir; Fredrik Ljungkvist saxofoner, cl; Fred Lonberg-Holm vcl; Sten Sandell pft, org; Barry Guy cb; Raymond Strid perc (Gustafsson, Mats). Caprice CAP 21566, 1999.
So to speak a jazz symphony without jazz. Much of the music may sound freely improvised, but one can discern the hand of the composer in developments taking place over long time - and in "jazz symphonic" elements like ostinatoes which several times develop towards a climax. The booklet provides some small examples of notations.
i1/ Music & Graphic. Organ improvisation. Hommage à Cage, Haubenstock-Ramati, Ligeti, Matsuhita, Vetter. Zsigmond Szothmáry, organ (). CD Wergo 60119-50, 1988.
i1/ Mux Trio (Brün, Herbert; Olsson, Leslie; Pyras; Vorfeld; Smith, Stuart S). CD AufRuhr Records ART CD 004, 1996.
Free improvisation + works by the performers as well as by Brün and Smith.
i1/ Ny dansk musik live (Bergstr¢m-Nielsen, Carl: Postkort-Musik (1976) (Vestjysk Kammerensemble)). MC - Samfundet til udg. af dansk musik, SUDM 006, 1982.
Music containg improvisation played by a large ensemble of classical musicians.
i1/ Pianissimo (Vetter, Michael). CD, 1997.
CD accompanying the collection of verbally notated pieces Vetter (1996;A2.2).
I1/ Soundplay 99. Creative Music Festival in Kawamoto (Koroi, Kinu: Improvisation; Okabe, Haruhiko: Improvisation - #1-2; Terauchi, Daisuke: Tenbin; Wakao, Yu: Improvisation; Nagahata, Koji + Okabe, Haruhiko: Improvisation; Stockhausen, Karlheinz: Unanimity (from For Times to Come; 2 versions); Bergstr¢m-Nielsen, Carl: Individualistic Lottery). CD Mesostics MESCD 0008, 1999.
i1/ Spiral (Stockhausen, Karlheinz: Spiral (Michael Vetter)). CD, Stockhausen Complete Edition, 1996 ca.
Very fascinating new recording of this work in "plus-minus"-notation. So many forms of vocal expression are touched upon.
i1/ The New York School (Brown, Earle: Folio; Cage, John: Variations 1; Cage, John: For prepared Piano; Wolff, Chr: For 1, 2 or 3 People). CD hat ART CD 6101 (Hat Hut Records, CH-4106 Therwil, Schweiz), 1992.
i1/ The New York School 2 (Brown/Feldman/Cage/Wolff). CD hat ART CD 6146 (Hat Hut Records, CH-4106 Therwil, Schweiz), 1992.
Includes The King of Denmark af Feldman. Booklet with articles.
i1/ The New York School 3 (Brown, Earle: Folio II having more than one movement and each having more than one version; Wolff, Chr: Edges x 2; Cage, John: Variations III x 2; Feldman, Morton: Give my regards to Eigth Street (1968)). CD Hat ART CD 6176, 1994.
Contains several important indeterminate works: Folio II by Earle Brown, Edges by Chr. Wolff (2 recordings), Variations III by Cage (2 recordings). In addition, a nice text part with illustrations and articles.
i1/ The Soegaard ensemble. Chronox (S¢egaard, Fredrik - bl.a.: Position: Horizontal - Position: Vertical - Position (live version)). CD LEO LAB CD 040, 1998.
Two versions of the same piece - which, in its turn, divides into two, that is, the same elements are employed either in sequence or simultaneously.
i1/ Wheels Within Wheels (Bardo State Orchestra (Dvorak, Jim(tr,pocket tr,voice,whistles,perc); Hyder, Ken(drums,perc,khoomei & kargiran vocals); Mattos, Marcio(double bass,cello,electronics,perc)) & Tibetan Buddhist Monks of the Schechen Tennyid Dhargyeling Monastery, Nepal). CD Impetus IMP CD 19527, 1996.
I2. FREE IMPROVISATIONS
See also Wheels within Wheels (1996;I1); Ghost Notes (1998; I1); Soundplay 99 (1999;I1); MUX Trio (1996;I1)
i2/ 'Live' Eddie Prévost Band 1977 Vols 1&2 (Prévost/Mattos/Gold/Hawkins). CD Matchless MRCD01/02, 1993 (genudgivelse fra 1977).
Free jazz when it is free! Reissue on CD of material from 1977.
i2/ Company 91 (Zorn/Robert/Buckethead/Rogers/Mackness/Lovens/Bailey/Thomas/Balanescu). CD, 1991.
One of many records from Derek Bailey's annual improv festival "Company Week". Bailey puts musicians together in ever changing combinations, many meeting each other for the first time.
i2/ Denmark's Intuitive Music Conference 1998. Improvisations at the Echo Tower, Växjö, Sweden (Carl Bergstr¢m-Nielsen, Frank Hiesler, Helene Jerg, Henrik Ehland Rasmussen, Johan Toft, Ivan Vincze, Kumi Wakao). CD Mesostics MESCD-0006, 1998.
i2/ Denmark's Intuitive Music Conference 1997 (Bech-Nielsen, Claus; Bergstr¢m-Nielsen, Carl; Hiesler, Frank; Jerg, Helene; Mogensen, René; Munk-Madsen, Nisima; Pischinger, Gerhard; Rasmussen, Henrik; Rizzi, Robert Cole; Toft, Johan; Vincze, Ivan; Wakao, Kumi). CD Av-Art DIMC 001, 1997.
Improvisations with a large group.
i2/ Dynamics of the Impromptu (1973/74) (Bailey, Derek; Stevens, John; Watts, Trevor). CD Entropy Stereo ESR 004 (http://www.ews.cen.uiuc.edu/~khoury/, 1998.
Pluralist music from the pioneer time in English improvised music. The notes are interesting from a music history point of view.
i2/ European Chaos String Quintet (European Chaos String Quintet/ Andrés, Susanna(vl); Boeschoten, Karel(vl); Gattiker, David(vcl); Koivukoski, Karri(vla); Schneider, Beat(vcl)). CD FOR FOUR EARS CD 410 (FOR 4 EARS Records, Steinechtsweg 16, CH-4452 Itingen), 1993.
Improvised music, pluralistic in a very progressive way. It can sound very traditional, quote from classical works and yet it moves seemingly effortlessly through different universes.
i2/ For Four Rooms. Raummusik für sechs Kontrabässe (Ensemble Sondarc: Wolff, Georg; Hoffmann, Heinz-Peter; Frisch, Johannes; Morgenstern, Jürgen; Hammerschmidt, Jürgen; Phillipp, Ulrich). CD For 4 Ears CD 823, 1996.
This music has been recorded at four different locations with very different acoustic.
i2/ Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza (Mario Bertoncini; Walter Branchi; Franco Evangelisti; John Heineman; Roland Kayn; Egisto Macchi; Ennio Morricone; Giovanni Piazza; Jesus Villa Rojo; Frederic Rzewski). CD Ed. RZ 1009, 1992.
Re-release of recordings 1967-75.
i2/ Infinite blueness (Anker/Friis/Poulsen). CD Av-Art Records, 1996.
Freely improvised music.
i2/ Klangbilder (Davies, Hugh; Hans-Karsten Raecke). CD (KLANGWERKSTATT Edition c/o Raecke,
Schwanenstrasse 31, D-68259 Mannheim), 1994.
Sensitive and dynamic solo and duo improvisations on specially made instruments. To be ordered from: KLANGWERKSTATT edition, c/o Raecke, Schwanenstr. 31, D-68259 Mannheim.
i2/ Linien (European Chaos String Quintet: Gattiker, David; Boeschoten, Karel; Schneider, Beat; Andres, Susanna; Koivukoski, Karri). CD FOR FOUR EARS CD 718 (FOR 4 EARS Records, Steinechtsweg 16, CH-4452 Itingen), 1996.
This CD also features a trombonist playing with the string quintet. Even if one prefers the quintet on its own, this CD is also commendable since it features also a track as well as long passages with the quintet only, playing music which is subtly different from the first CD.
i2/ Maxwells Dämon - Nefastismaschine (Ulrich Böttcher/Uwe Buhrdorf/Ulrich Phillipp). CD Hybrid CD 12, 1996.
Pointillistic music. Many shades of sensitively changing sound.
i2/ No World (Trio) Improvisations (Celli, Joseph; Kim, Jin Hi m.fl). CD O.O.DISCS #4, 1992.
i2/ Recent Croaks (Martin Klapper(amplified opjects, electronics, toys, tapes);Roger Turner (old Amati drum set, certain prcussion and toy piano)). CD Acta 11, 1997.
Klapper lives in Danmark and is known internationally for his special collection of instruments consisting of playthings and amplified objects.
i2/ Relay III - Random Play (Allen, Sarah; Beins, Burkhard; Bisset, John; Edwards, John; Ferrar, Suzanna; Fowler, Dave; Kallin, Ivor; Kraabel, Caroline; Moses, Lester; Nicols, Maggie; Prevost, Eddie; Wilkinson, Alan; Hayward, Charles). CD 2:13 Music CD001 (c/o John Bisset, 26 Gibson Gardens London N16 7HB), 1996.
i2/ Resonance 5.1 (Sainkho & Otomo Yoshide: Improvisation; Bob Ostertag & Phil Minton: Improvisation mm.). CD h¢rende til tidsskriftet Resonance 5,1, 1996.
Exemplifies the recent use of sampling in improvisation.
i2/ Senza Misura (Das Erste Improvisierende Streichorchester). Lutz Wernicke, Weisestr. 56 D-12049 Berlin, eis@lutz-wernicke.de, 1999.
i2/ Solo Piano Improvisations (Niels Viggo Bentzon). CD Av-Art AACD 1004, 1996.
The first CD devoted to NVB as an improvisor. Includes both a long series with short "Fragments" and longer takes.
i2/ Synergetics - Phonomanie III (Parker, Evan(saxofoner); Hi Kim, Jin(komungo); Lewis, George(tronbone & computer); Lipere, Thebe(imbumbu & percussion); Mariani, Carlo(launeddas); Namchylak, Sainkho(voice); Prati, Walter(electronics); Vecchi, Marco "Bill"(electronics); Yoshizawa, Motoharu(bass & voice)). CD Leo Records LR 239/40, 1996.
I have here considered that such arranged elements in this music festival as to have sets centered around and introduced by a soloist belongs to programme planning, so that one can regard the music as freely improvised.
i2/ Transmutating (LaDonna Smith/Davey Williams). CD Trans Museq CD 001, 1993.
Duos and solos played by a central duo in American improvised music.
i2/ Up your sleeve (Alterations). CD (copy of the LP !Quarz 006, only at AUM), 1980.
English group, masters of playing with sounds and styles.
APPENDIX J: ELECTRONIC ADRESSES AND RELATED
J1.1: SELECTED INTERNET ADDRESSES
[please take care, very old department]THIS LIST IS BASED ON: aims solely at showing a few strategic places and some sites mentioned in this text. Via links, it should be possible to get on well. Specially interested readers can mail me (see my homepage!) and get additional information.
My own homepage:
http://www.intuitivemusic.dk
At my own site among other matters, full-text articles and Quotation of the Month with occasional links of current interest.
Aalborg Universitetsbibliotek, AUB:
www.aub.aau.dk
Among other things, access to the library's database Primo.
Some important tips: using the keywords INTUITIV MUSIK or GRAFISK NOTATION or IMPROVISATIONSMUSIK freetext searches are possible, showing what is currently there about the subjects of intuitive music, graphic notation and improvised music. - Should anyone wish to search under my name, then please note that my farther had the same name, but he published Danish literature.
REX, database of The Royal Library:
www.kb.dk/
Statsbiblioteket [State Library] in Århus:
www.statsbiblioteket.dk
ODIN, database of Odense University Library:
www.sdu.dk/oub/
www.bibliotek.dk gives general acces to verify and to ordering [to Danish libraries only] literature from the totality of Danish libraries.
British Library: www.bl.uk
Staatsbibliothek Berlin: http://www.sbb.spk-berlin.de/
Universitätsbibliotek Wien: http://ub.univie.ac.at/
Scribing Sound Collection:
www.uakron.edu/ssma/exhibit/exhibit-intro.shtml
[sorry, extinct]Text about the Notation Exhibition Scribing Sound. This can be seen in its totality in the note here (41).
Swedish Music Information Center:
http://www.mic.stim.se
J1.2: ON BRIAN ENO'S OBLIQUE STRATEGIES ON THE INTERNET
THIS LIST IS BASED ON: Internet search (AltaVista) on the name.
At these two sites:
www.nashville.net/~bryrock/eno/oblique.html
www.topix.com/~sean/Oblique.htm
- one can "draw cards" and read the original texts.
Gregory Acker: The History of Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies (critically accounting for historical facts)
www.hyperreal.org/music/artists/brian_eno/osfaq2.html
J2: CD-ROM
THIS LIST IS BASED ON: what I came across - no special search.
Includes Collected Papers fra European Congress of Musik Therapy, Leuven 1998. Here also Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: "Graphic Notation: How to Map the Landscape of Musical Improvisations", Info CD Rom II, Institut für Musiktherapie, Universität Witten/Herdecke, 1999.
Examples are quoted and principles explained.
APPENDIX K: EXHIBITIONS OF NEW NOTATIONS AND THEIR CATALOGUES
THIS LIST IS BASED ON: Davies (1986B;E1) and my own additions on basis of the material reviewed etc.
a) Copied from Davies (1986B;E1):
Selected List of Previous Exhibitions of Musical Notation
Organisers' names and printed catalogues (*) are given where known.
Bäcker, Inge, *Sehen um zu hören - Objekte und Konzerte zur visuellen Musik der 60-er Jahre, Düsseldorf, 1975.
Bosseur, Jean-Yves, Les Musicians, les Peintres, les Poetes et leurs Partitions. Brussels, 1976.
Bryars, Gavin & Tilbury, John, Mapping the New Music. New Arts Laboratory, London, 1969.
Busine, Laurent, *L'Oeil Musicien: les Ecritures et les Images de la Musique, Charleroi, 1985.
Haubenstock-Ramati, Roman, Musikalische Graphik, (festival), Donaueschingen, 1959.
Ogdon, Will, *John Cage: Musical Messages, University of California at San Diego, 1980.
Pinder, David, *Look! Hear? The Graphic World of New Music, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1972.
Regan, Michael, *Printed Scores of Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage, Middlesborough, n.d. (?1974).
Smith, Sylvia, Scribing Sound (I), New Music America (festival), Hartford, Conn., 1984. Se tekst herom i note til kategori J1.1.
Smith, Sylvia, Scribing Sound (II), New Music America (festival), Houston, Texas, 1986.
Contemporary Music Scores, Baltimore Museum of Art, 1973.
Drawings of Music and Dance, [Canadian tour], 1979-80.
Earworks: an Exhibition of Musical Scores and Sound Art, New York, 1983.
Ecriture musicale, Pompidou Centre, Paris, 1977.
Ecritures musicales, Festival d'Automne, Paris, 1979.
Eye Scores [touring exhibition in USA and Europe], 1976-80.
Graphic Music, Rome, 1972.
[International Conference on New Music Notation, Ghent, 1974].
Musical Scores, Milwaukee, 1976.
Music Notation, Buffalo, 1971.
Scores and Notations, Long Island City, N.Y., 1979.
Solid Scores, New York, 1979.
Sound on Paper: Musical Notation in Japan, New York, 1981.
[various other exibitions before 1975 including Berne, Bremen, Florence, New York, Palermo, Paris, Vienna, Zürich, etc.]
b) Some additional exhibitions and catalogues
[Haubenstock-Ramati, Roman]: musikalische graphik. Donaueschinger Musiktage, 1959. Catalogue: see Haubenstock-Ramati (1959;E2). Boulez, Haubenstock-Ramati, Stockhausen, Webern, Berio, Kagel, Bussotti, Earle Brown, Cage, Gottfried Michael Koenig, Bo Nilsson were represented according to the catalogue.
Sources: Drew m.fl. (1986;E1), Brunner et al. (1974;E1), Olsson (1996;H4) og Hoch (1992;E1) as well as fax af 20th May 2000 from Hugh Davies.
Logothetis und die anderen. Galerie Maerz, Linz (Austria), 1992.
Anonymous (ed.): Logothetis-Zyklys. Konzerte zur Logothetis-Ausstellung vom 20.3.97 - 20.4.97 im Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Museumstr. 52, 1997 (Anonymous (1997;E2)).
Program articles by Matthias Henke (among other things a changed and shorter version of Henke (1996;E2)), Christoph Jäggin og Max E. Keller. Illustrations, Kurzbiographie, Kleine Werkauswahl.
Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: Grafisk notation i ny dansk musik. Dansk Komponistforening, Biennale 1992 (festival), København. On tour, especially in Denmark, the following years. Can be lent free of charge from Danish Composers' Society.
Das Schriftbild der Musik. Ausstellung im Helmhaus Zürich. Eine Veranstaltung der Präsidialabteilung im Rahmen der Junifestwochen 1974. Konzept Armin Brunner, Fritz Muggler. Catalogue: Brunner et al. (1974;E1)
k/ Musique et Graphisme. Issy-les-Moulineaux du 14 au 21 février 1983, dans le cadre de l’Atelier Musical dirigé alors par Sylvie Drouin. http://www.paalabres.org/article-de-reference/musique-et-graphisme-1983-ensemble-aleph/ Retrieved 2.January 2018.
Works depicted in the catalogue by: M.Kagel, B.Nilson, F.Miroglio, A.Boucourechliev, Kayne, Earle Brown, B.Maderna, S.Bussotti, D.Lustgarten, B.Maderna, K.Stockhausen, A.Logothétis, P.de Haas, R.Haubenstock-Ramati, Penderecki, L.Schidlowsky, Mauricio Kagel, A Peschek, Ligeti, Netty Simons, J.Cage, Beurle, T.Bruynel, P.Castaldi, H.Stahmer. A number of additional composers and works are listed. They may be retrieved in the catalogue: Drouin (1983;E1)
Eye Music. The graphic art of new musical notation. Serpentine Gallery, Kensington Gardens, London W2 + turné. Catalogue: Drew et al. (1986:E1).
Graphic Scores by Ichiyanagi Toshi January 16(Tues.)- 28(Sun.), 2001, Art Space G, Aichi Arts Center (Japan). In cooporation with KONDO Yasuyo. (http://www.aac.pref.aichi.jp/english/bunjyo/event/PReport-e/00/00-12gs.html)
Internationale Musikgraphik (katalog). Galerie Schaller, Marienstrase 3, 7000 Stuttgart 1.
Musi-graphics. ARC 2 musée d'art moderne, Paris. 17/2 - 12/4 1977. Exhibition Catalogue.
Musik-graphisch: graphische Partituren, Musikbilder, neue Instrumente, Computergraphik. Musikwerkstatt, Mannheim, 1993 (?). (Folder being sold, limited edition of 77 examples; works by Fessmann, Klaus; Försch, Ferdinand, Jentsch, Wilfred; Karkoschka, Erhard; Logothetis, Anestis; Raecke, Hans-Karsten; Wehinger, Rainer).
Olson, Lesley og Smith, Sylvia: Notations 1952-1992, Documenta IX, Kassel.
Schidlowsky, Leon. Catalogue: Musikalische Graphik (44 p.), 1979. Staatsgalerie Stuttgart (Konrad-Adenauer-Str. 30-32, Stuttgart)
Vom Klang der Bilder. Catalogue: Maur (1985;E3).
Vom Klang der Bilder. Die Musik in der Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts. Programmheft zu den Konzerten in der Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, 1985. Deals only to a limited extent with issues of notation.
APPENDIX L: EDDIE PRÈVOST ON THE ASSOCIATION OF IMPROVISING MUSICIANS
From: Carl Bergstroem-Nielsen (DK)
To: Eddie Prevost
Subject: AIM and history...
Date: 26. april 1999
Dear Eddie,
I got into touch with Chris Atton in Edinburgh who sent me copies of the AIM booklets, "History, Practise, Directions" as well as "The Educative Potential in Improvised Music". Interesting reading.
Could you tell me, please - were the discussions which were quoted in the latter directly fore-running the forming of Community Music and maybe other endeavours of that kind, as LMC workshops ?
yours, Carl Bergstroem-Nielsen
From: Edwin Prevost
To: Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen
Subject: AIM
Date: 4. maj 1999 19:21
Dear Carl
Sorry to take so long to reply to your interesting question about AIM and other related initiatives. I have been away from home for a while. With regard to Community Music. First, I have to ask if you are talking about the workshop initiative which took John Stevens' book -Search and Reflect - as its guide. If so, then the AIM initiative was completely separate from Community Music. And, many of the improvising musicians felt excluded from the Community Music project. If we are talking about the same thing then maybe if you need an appreciation of this issue you should formulate more questions and ask a wider range of people. Although AIM was a project outside of the LMC - which at that time had run into a very low condition. Many of the key people in AIM were active in the first LMC activities and more recently in the current span of its existence. Certainly the LMC improvisation workshops that ran for a year of so in the early to mid. 90's was much more in keeping with the idea that came through AIM than the Community Music project. The LMC workshops were much more diverse in their approaches. Whereas many of the people who ran Community Music workshops were not mainstream improvisers and most have now left the scene. Some people would say that they were never part of it. This is a complicated question and has much to do with opportunism arising out of government projects that were (allegedly) intended to help create work for unemployed young people. AIM never got funds to develop any of its programmes. It was very active for about a year or so in trying to explain and promote the aesthetic of improvisation. Although I was AIM's chairman for its short existence, it may be a good idea for you to talk to other participants to get a clearer picture of what was happening.
I hope this reply helps. And, please do not worry about asking more questions of me.
Best wishes
Eddie
APPENDIX M: A SHORTLIST OF RECOMMENDED WRITINGS
for collectors, librarians, students writing final papers etc! It includes entries having been stated earlier in this text, however, without the abstracting and commenting texts.
1) STANDARD WORKS ETC.:
a1/ Berio, Luciano: Sequenza III for a woman's voice. Wien (UE 13723), 1968. DKDM+D NJMK AUB MKAR IMD EM OUB KB SB.
a1/ Brown, Earle: December 1952 fra "Folio". N.Y. (Associated Music Publishers, nr. AMP 96 124-3), 1961. AUB AUM OUB
a1/ Cage, John: Variations III. For one or any number of people performing any actions. N.Y. (Henmar Press/Ed. Peters nr. 6797), 1963. AUM MKAR OUB IMD AUB.
(_a1)/ Cardew, Cornelius: Treatise (1963-67), Buffalo (Gallery
Upstairs Press) 1967.
Cardew's tour-de-force with a special form of free graphic
notations which by their visual language seek to let the
spectator find his or her own interpretation. At the time of
creating this, Cardew was employed as a draughtsman. Background
information inclusive of performances in Cardew (1971;E2);
mention in Schwartz et al. (1993;H1); detailed treatment in
Trescher (2000;E2),Polaschegg (2007;G1.1 - see appendix) and Dennis (1991;G2.1); introducing mention in Sutherland (1994;H1).
a1/ Detoni, Dubravko: Graphik IV für 4 bis 12 beliebige Instrumente. Spielpartitur (Graphik). London/N.Y. (Schott), 1972. Part of a series: Schott Workshop nr. 8.AUB OUB KB
a1/ Feldman, Morton: Projection I for cello solo. New York (Peters), 1950/51. AUB IMD.
a1/ Haubenstock-Ramati, Roman: Mobile für Shakespeare. For stemme og 6 instrumenter (1959). UE, 1961. MKAR IMD KB AUB.
a1/ Ichiyanagi, Toshin: Sapporo. N.Y (Ed. Peters), 1963. OUB AUM AUB.
a1/ Logothetis, Anesthis: Grafische Notationen. München (Edition Modern - ny adr.: Rhodter Strasse 26, D-76185 Karlsruhe), 1961. AUM AUB KB IMD OUB.
a1/ Stockhausen, Karlheinz: Aus den Sieben Tagen. Wien (Universal Edition UE 14790. Fransk udgave: UE14790F), 1968. AUB KB SB IMD OUB.
a1/ Stockhausen, Karlheinz: Für kommende Zeiten. 17 Texte für Intuitive Musik. Kürten (Stockhausen-Verlag), 1970. AUB SB (dog ej udlån) IMD OUB KB.
a1/ Wolff, Christian: Edges. New York (Edition Peters nr. 66315), 1969 (cop). AUM AUB IMD
a1/ Wolff, Christian: Burdocks for one or more orchestras; any number of players; any instruments or sound sources (but there are places which require specific pitches to be played). New York (Edition Peters nr. 66313), 1971. AUM KB IMD.
a2.2/ Johnson, Roger (ed.): Scores. An anthology of New Music. USA (Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.), 1981. LOGOS.
e1/ Karkoschka, Erhard: Das Schriftbild der neuen Musik. Bestandaufnahme neuer Notationssymbole. Anleitung zu deren Deutung, Realisation und Kritik. Celle (Ed. Moeck Nr. 4010), 1966. DKDM NJMK MKAR OUB AEST EM KB IMD SB AUB.
e1/ Kowal, Roman: "New Jazz and some problems of its notation", jazzforschung/jazz research 3/4, 180-193. Wien (UE), 1971/72. KB.
g1.1/ Bailey, Derek: Improvisation. Its Nature and practice in Music. Dorchester (The Brit. Libr. Nat. Sound Arch.), 1992. AUM AUB OUB SB.
g1.1/ Couldry, Nick: Turning the musical table. Improvisation in Britain 1965-1990. Basingstoke, Hampshire, 1995. Part of a series: Rubberneck nr. 19.
g1.1/ Feisst, Sabine: Der Begriff 'Improvisation' in der neuen Musik (Diss., Berlin, Freie Universität 1995). Sinzig (Studio, Verlag Schewe), 1997. Part of a series: Berliner Musik Studien 14.SB IMD AUB.
g1.1/ Ferand, Ernst: "Improvisation", die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Lexikon), 1957. DKDM NJMK AEST MKAR.
g1.1/ Frisius, Rudolf: Bidrag til art. "Improvisation" (bla. om improv. og improv.pæd. i 1900-tallet) i Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Finscher, Ludwig ed.), Zweite, neubearbeitete Ausgabe. Kassel etc. (Bärenreiter + Metzler), 1996. HB AUB OUB MKAR MVAR KB.
g1.1/ Müller, Hermann-Christoph: Zur Theorie und Praxis indeterminierter Musik. Aufführungspraxis zwischen Experiment und Improvisation. Regensburg (Gustav Bosse Verlag), 1994. Part of a series: Kölner Beiträge zur Musikforschung (Niemöller, Klaus Wolfgang ed.) Band 179.SB IMD AUB.
g1.1/ Noglik, Bert: "Improvisation als kulturelle Herausforderung. Zu Spielhaltungen, Specifika der Rezeption und zur sozialen Relevanz frei improvisierter Musik", i Fähndrich, Walter (ed.): Improvisation. 10 Beiträge (Beretning fra int. kongres om fri improvisation og improvisation som holdning, Luzern 1990). Winterthur (Amadeus Verlag), 1990. AUB OUB.
g3/ Brown, Earle: Artikel på engelsk i Darmstädter Beiträge X (Form in der neuen Musik) (p. 57-69). Mainz (Schott), 1966. OUB MKAR KB SB AEST IMD EM.
g3/ Noll, Dietrich J.: Zur Improvisation im deutschen Freejazz. Untersuchungen zur Ästhetik frei improvisierter Klangflächen. Hamburg (Verlag der Musikalienhandlung Karl Dieter Wagner), 1977. Part of a series: Schriftenreihe zur Musik, Bd. 11.KB.
g3/ Prevost, Edwin: No Sound is Innocent. AMM and the practice of self-invention. Meta-musical narratives. Essays. Matching Tye, Essex (Copula/Matchless), 1995. AUB.
g3/ Sarath, Ed: "A new look at improvisation", Journal of Music Theory 40:1, spring, 1996.
h1/ Brindle, Reginald Smith: The New Music: The Avant-garde since 1945 (1975). Oxford (Oxford University Press), 1986 (sec.ed). HB AUB AUM OUB DKDM MKAR KB IMD SB.
h1/ Gieseler, Walter: Komposition im 20. Jahrhundert. Details - Zusammenhänge. Ed. Moeck, Nr. 4015, 1975. AUB OUB IMD SB KB.
h1/ Maegaard, Jan: Musikalsk modernisme. Stig Vendelkær/Wilhelm Hansen, 1964/1971. DKDM AUB MKAR NJMK MKAR EM OUB SB.
h1/ Sutherland, Roger: New Perspectives in Music. London (Sun TavernFields) (Skaffes fra: Anthony, tlf. fra DK 0044 171 790 4267), 1994. AUB AUM OUB.
h2.2/ Bull, Storm: Contemporary Composers. Metuchen, NJ & London, 1987. AUB.
2) FURTHER RECOMMENDATIONS:
a2.2/ (Hobbs, Christian): Verbal Anthology. London (Experimental Music Catalogue), 1972. KB.
a2.2/ Cage, John (ed.): Notations. New York (Something Else Press), 1969. DKDM AEST IMD KB.
a2.2/ Cardew (ed.): Scratch Music. MIT Press (MIT 239 Music), 1974.
a2.2/ Vetter, Michael: Pianissimo. Improvisieren am Klavier. Eine Rezeptsammlung. Zürich/Mainz (Atlantis Musikbuch-Verlag), 1996. AUB.
f1.1/ Oliveros, Pauline: Sonic Meditations (1971). Baltimore (Smith Publications), 1974. AUB.
f1.1/ Spahlinger, Mathias: Vorschläge. Konzepte zur Ver(über)flüssigung des Komponisten. Wien (UE) no. 20070, 1993. Part of a series: Rote Reihe.
f2/ Reimers, Lennart (ed.): Kreativ musikundervisning. Stockholm (Edition Reimers AB), 1977.
g1.1/ Jost, Ekkehard: Europas Jazz 1960-80. Frankfurt/M (Fischer Taschenbuch), 1987. AUB.
g1.1/ Wilson, Peter Niklas: Hear & Now. Hofheim (Wolke Verlag), 1999. AUB.
g2.1/ Globokar, Vinko: "Vom Reagieren", Melos 2, 1971.
g2.1/ Karkoschka, Erhard: "Aspekte der Gruppenimprovisation", Melos 1, 1971.
g2.2/ Stockhausen, Karlheinz: "Fragen und Antworten zur intuitiven Musik", Texte IV, p. 130-144. Köln (DuMont), 1978. AUB KB OUB.
g2.2/ Stockhausen, Karlheinz: "Questions and answers to intuitive music", in: Stockhausen Complete Editon, booklet with CD 14A-G. Köln (DuMont), 1993B. AUB OUB.
g5/ Brinkmann, Reinhold (ed.): Improvisation und neue Musik. Acht Kongressreferate Mainz (Schott), 1979. Part of a series: Veröff des Instituts für neue Musik und Musikerziehung Darmstadt, Bd. 20.AUB IMD KB.
3) MY OWN WORKS AND WRITINGS:
a2.2/ Plaetner, Jørgen and Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: improvisationskalender I-III. Kbh. (Samfundet til Udgivelse af Dansk Musik), 1996. AUB AUM OUB.
a2.2/ Pressing, Jeff (ed.): Compositions for Improvisors: An
Australian perspective, 1994.
An anthology comprising works by 32 Australian composers,
having been composed between 1965 and 1994 (with one precursor
from 1841). A historical note by the editors about improvisation
precedes the collection, and a compilation of biographical CV
notes on the contributors is to be found at the end.
As for notation forms that can be discerned htere, there are
traditionally notated sheet music and arrangements presupposing
soloing in usual ways, texts (both as describing performance
set-up and as playing instructions as well as of a more purely
literary kind), free graphics and symbols used as elements of
other kinds of scores, mobiles, cue-systems, spatial notation and
aleatoric microstructures.
As the editor explains, it covers both mainstream and
experimental tendencies. Generally, focus is on composition forms
having a high rate of prescribing details. The variety of forms
and the prescence of many original ideas may, however, make it
an inspiring book for both musicians, composers and those who
study composition/notation.
e2/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: "Sprog som musikalsk notation. En undersøgelse af verbal notation og dens forudsætninger med særligt henblik på Stockhausens Aus den Sieben Tagen og Für kommende Zeiten", Col Legno nr.1, 1998. MKAR.
f1.1/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: Intuitiv musik - en mini-håndbog. Målgruppe "unge og voksne". Manus, 1990ffA. OUB AUM KB.
f1.1/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: Intuitive Music - a Mini-Handbook. Photo-copied, 1990ffb. OUB AUM KB.
English version of Bergstrøm-Nielsen (1990ff;F1.1).
g2.2/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: "Festlegen, Umreissen, Andeuten, Hervorrufen. Analytisches zu den Textkompositionen Stockhausens", MusikTexte 72, nov., 1997. OUB.
h3.2/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: "Intuitiv musik og grafisk notation. Om to musikrelaterede fag på musikterapistudiet og deres teoretiske baglande". Col Legno 1, 1999A.
h3.2/ Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl: "Intuitive Music and Graphic Notation. Two Musical Training Disciplines within Music Therapy Education and their Theoretical Backgrounds" Col Legno 1, 1999B. Part of a series: Musik Therapy Monographs from Aalborg University (DK) #1.
***
1. Concerning the demarcation: the choice of these years which are inclusive is partly due to practical considerations and has also a background in the traditional view of new and experimental music as something which arose after the Second World War. One example of relevant activity can be found already in 1946, see Cope (1972;H1) on Paul Ignace. - A few writings from before 1945 having special relevance for this period's repertory, activity and theory have been included, as well as certain writings dealing with relevant historical backgrounds. Of writings first printed in 2000 or later, reviews of material within the boundary and an obituary have been included, further the retrospective article Bell (2000;G2.1) which provides a general framework for a number of other writings dealing with its theme, Trescher (2000;E2) without which Cardew (1967;A1) would lack a weighty commentary, some publisher's catalogues, the clearing-up correspondance Watts (2002;G2.1) and Martinelli (2002:H2.1) which lists material lying mostly within the relevant period. - In 2000 and on, relevant literature keeps appearing of which I shall remain silent here. I think there are reasons to be optimistic - it seems that in the new century one will have good opportunities for orientation in the parts of music history in which my themes belong.
2. Bergstrøm-Nielsen (1975;G1) (se explanation of the codes below under "presentation of the classification"!) is an earlier work on the subject of improvisation in new music from the time of my studies. My MA thesis Bergstrøm-Nielsen (1979;H4) dealing with the concept and role of experiment in new music, has been relevant as circumscribing a field of which the present subject is a part.
3. A Polish work could only be summarised here thanks to the fact that I heard the author comment on it in English and wrote notes.
4. Not many writings from the field of music ethnology have been included, because I did not find many relevant ones. Of course, this could change in future - maybe Eloy (1970;G5) gives a hint of the possibilities.
5. Excursion about the different forms of paper publishing: George Brecht's Water Yam (Brecht (1963/66;A2.2) and Eno's Oblique Strategies (Eno (1979;A2.2) were each published on loose sheets in a box. Swedish Ingvar Lidholms Stamp Music (1971 - not mentioned in this bibliography) was published on a postage stamp, as well as in a printed edition including a written-out version (Ed. Wilhelm Hansen, Stockholm). If one were to refer in a bibliographically correct way to the original, reference might have to be made to a catalogue of stamps! - The fact that a differently notated work was issued on a postage stamp shows that the tendency to revise music notation was strong at the outset and was noticed in wider circles. The stamp edition was accompanied by "a large number of" improvised versions in radio and on LP, the printed edition states.
6. A borderline case included here is for instance Pedersen (1995;F3) which states among other things rhythmic figures followed by "etc.", to be continued by the performer, and some verbal instructions like "spread out--more together". Likewise, the employing by some Polish composers of new notational signs and aleatoric procedures under A2.1 i 70-erne, since new notation forms play an essential role, even if the freedom is to a great degree restricted to details. Borderline cases not included are for instance works employing new notations and degrees of freedom restricted to so-called "optical notaiton", that is, notes without bar lines and ryhthmic values - a notation form having found a certain common use. Scores created solely in order to be read, not performed, also exist, but lie outside the scope of this text - a well-known one is for instance Dieter Schnebels MO-NO - Musik zum Lesen, Köln (DuMont), 1969.
7. This is to be distinguished from realisation scores which lies outside the scope of this text.
8. To an eminent degree, this is the case with Earle Brown's famous December '52 - the graphic representation to play from has been quoted in a large number of music history books and elsewhere. The original edition including performance instructions and introductory remarks can, however, be difficult to acquire.
An official request from Odense University Library in 1994 lead to the answer from British Library that they did not think they could lend out the material, even not for reading room use, without a written "copyright waiver" from the publisher. It seems they (maybe mistakenly) thought it was material for hire. At Aalborg University's AUM og AUB (see beginning of appendix part concerning these abbreviations) it has been acquired in the regular way, but the waiting time amounted to more than a year.
See the general mention of the work under appendix A1 and the special category G2.4 concerning this work.
9. The Royal Library/Edition Wilhelm Hansen published a list of all Bentzon's works till 1980 - see Møllerhøj (1980;H2.1). The words "graphic notation" appear here for the first time in 1961 but is here only used to describe a sprechgesang-like use of not totally fixed pitches. From 1965 and on it appears frequently. In some cases the works could be played by others; an exemple of something being closer to a sketch for the composer's own use (he was also a pianist) is "Montmartrekoncert".
10. My kowledge of this comes from participation in the so-called "Orpheus-group" in Copenhagen around this improvisation practice, approx. 1975-76.
11. See more in the special Zorn-category G2.3.
12. Zorn (1986;I) and Beresford (1996;I).
13. Zorn (1986;D1), Beresford (1993;D1). An excerpt from Cobra has been printed in Lange (1991;G2.3).
14. Sketch-like use of graphic notation was mentioned before under Niels Viggo Bentzon - see the first footnote in the present section. Also saxophonist Peter Brötzmann seems to practise something comparable, judging from the description "grafisch notierten Minimalvorlagen" [graphically notated minimal recipes] in Jost (1987;G2.1).
15. The compositions in Burn (1990;I1) and Feetpackets (1989;I1) yield further examples.
16. See also about the "print on demand" - publications in the text above, under category A. This is a possible solution to at least one aspect of the market problem, the economical one.
17. Maybe it is no coincidence (even if it can appear ironical in this context) that the two first mentioned books include the words "guide" and "guidebook" in their subtitles. Stone stresses the ambition to create standards and he even seeks to present his book as an especially authentic one, since its contents follow decisions at an international conference on notation in 1974 - one more instance of an ironic fact not intended by the author, seen in the light of the present examination.
18. Different notations and a development away from exact synchronisation in all details are related to new concepts of musical material. Cole (1974;E1) provides a funny metaphorical illustration of this: p.151f: "From the avant-garde comes the idea that notation can evolve in the direction of freedom as well as in the direction of greater control. This development was foreshadowed in the harmonic advances of the early twentieth century, when situations were thrown up in which the running of parts in exact timetables was no longer a strict nescessity. It was the necessity of avoiding discord that made exact synchronization into a vital organizing principle. (In the same way - trains have to run to a timetable partly because they must not be allowed to collide. Make trains of soft rubber, and the timetables can be relaxed).
19. This debate spread over 3 magazines and 2 countries, due to the circumstances: the first contribution appeared in the general Dansk Musiktidsskrift, the next in Organist-Bladet [Organists' magazine] since the subject was organ music, and it was concluded in Swedish Nutida Musik, which at that time was preparing (or got the idea for?) a special issue on notation.
20. Conversation, London 17/4 1990.
21. The congress in Luzern 1990 mentioned in the title of Noglik (1990A).
22. Wilson (1999;G1.1) p. 37: "Als "teutonisch" empfanden britische Improvisatioren die massiven Klangsalven eines Peter Brötzmann...Die britische Improvisationsmusik hingegen, wie sie Musiker wie Derek Bailey, John Stevens, Evan Parker, Tony Oxley praktizierten, vielfach verhaltener, fragiler, transparenter, fragmentierter, weniger direkt emotional".
23. This text appears in German translation in Metzger (1972;H4), note 48.
24. One could imagine that Kontarsky might have regarded the introduction and performance instructions in the publication as too vague and philosophical to give him concrete ideas of what to play. Maconie (1976;G2.2 p.254) quotes a report about a discussion with Stockhausen on how to interpret the statement "play a vibration in the rhythm of the universe". To begin with he could not think of anything appropriate to play, but more concrete propositions from Stockhausen inspired him. - Kolleritsch (1971/72;G5) also reports of Kontarsky's experience, however without mentioning that the work is December 1952. A student played his version for him employing what Kontarsky saw as a not very meaningful sequence of "tones, clusters and figures" and insisted on doing it in his own way. Kontarsky thought one should employ a strict reduction of the musical material to do justice to the graphics and would have been inclined to make a written-out version. He was surprised to see the performance instructions at a later time and believed the student's attitude had been in accordance with Brown's.
25. Logothetis (1972;E2) sees the work as a non-comittal stimulus for improvisation and defines his own "polymorphous composition" in contrast to this. It could have been at the least equally justified, however, to read this notion into the introductory and instructing texts by Brown.
26. Cf. Richards (1992;G5) p. 58: "Most musicians at the time wouldn't have known what to do with it, despite some helpful rules from the somposer".
27. Metzger claims (note 49) that Brown's realisation of December 1952 on the 1972 LP recording has to be seen as involving a revision of the original instructions.
28. At a workshop at the Copenhagen Conservatory of Music at the beginning of the 1980's with this author participating, the pianist yvar Mikashoff instructed December 1952 and prescribed that musicians read and played each element in a sequence of his or her own choice, and there was no conducting. Mikashoff lived in New york and had contact to composers of the New York school. To him, and possibly a good deal of others, the systematic method seemed central. Meyer-Denkmann (1998;F1.3) interprets the symbols of the picture on an exact basis concerning musical parameters, but allows for the making of versions beforehand - which is not really allowed - or improvise, if one can. It would be desirable to collect information about a wider number of performances and instances of instruction of the piece in educational contexts.
29. Even if Wolff's name (along with other composers mentioned) does not appear in the index, there is a passage p. 144-46 dealing with him. Also a number of other works is quoted around the book (mentioned by their titles in the index).
30. Derek Bailey ((1992;G1.1) p.x attempts to distinguish between "speculation" and "theory": "Among improvising musicians there is endless speculation about its nature but only an academic would have the temerity to mount a theory of improvisation". However, in practise, formulating theories seem a popular activity. Even for academic philosophers it is still true that a final, comprehensive and durable truth cannot be reached with any certainty, but, being aware of this fact, attempts are made anyway.
31. Cf. Brown (1966;G1.1) p. 58: "Considering the developments which have taken place in extending the physical parameters of sound within recent years it seems reasonable to consider the potential of the human mind ... to consciously extend it further into the actual generation of the work seems to me to be an inevitable and important step; a step which not only expands the potential of the "environment" of relationships (the work) but also the communicative potential, its inherent multiplicity of "meaning". Rather than diminish the responsibility of the composer or anyone else, it expands and intensifies all of the dimensions of creating and perceiving."
32. Mentioned in Wilson (1999;G1.1) p. 120, interview: "Das, wo ich den Unterschied zwischen Improvisation und anderen Methoden, Musik zu erzeugen, betonen würde, ist der "mehrgeistige Charakter" ("multi-minded nature") kollektiver Improvisation. Das ist eine viel wichtigere Unterscheidung als die, ob etwas vorab notiert ist oder nicht" [Where I would like to underline the difference between improvisation and other music producing methods is the "multi-minded nature" of collective improvisation. This distinction is much more important as whether something has been notated in advance or not - transl. by CBN]. Wilson comments on the concept in a general context of pluralism (1999A;G3). But as early af (1966), Brown introduced this notion: "Each decision and development is essentially mind-full but so full of minds that the subtleties become impenetrable in terms of any one rationale" (p.57) - cf. p.59: "Synergism is defined as: "Cooperative action of discrete agencies such that the total effect is greater than the sum of the two effects taken independently". Furthermore, Brown comments the notion in a most beautyful way thus: "It is not possible, given any degree of optimism and generosity in regard to people in general, to set a time limit on creative reflection or a limitation on the number of people involved in the creation..." (p. 61).
33. Cf. also the criticism of such a notion in Denly (1992), Brownell (1994) and Wilson (1998;G5), item number 2.
34. A musician's statement circumscribing the same things examined by Sarath can be found in Bailey (1992;G1.1) p. 111f: "...there is a forward-looking imagination which, while mainly concerned with the moment, will prepare for later possibilities. Rather in the way that memory works, perhaps, a piece can be criss-crossed with connections and correspondences which govern the selection and re-selection of / events as well as guiding the over-all pacing of the piece. Simultaneously, events remembered and events anticipated can act on the present moment".
35. The topics of notation and improvisation are often treated in a highly careless and unqualified way, and in some cases writers are even silent about their existence.
Rasmussen (1990;H4) who is in other respects a visionary writer confines his dealing with notation to one single page dealing misleadingly with Penderecki, as if there were no general tendency, and improvisation is not mentioned at all.
Weid (1997;H4) has a small chapter on notation in which a (more or less seriously meant?) classification is presented, but with no examples. Grout (1996;H4) mentions the New York-school for which new notations were of crucial importance, but the reader is not informed about them, neither from the text nor from illustrations. This is all the more grotesque considering the fact that both the last mentioned books have many illustrations. Without notation examples the reader can hardly become introduced to the subject. These authors make it difficult or impossible to imagine what new notations are like, and one could see this as resulting from an ambivalent approach signalising that they feel obliged to mention their composers in some way, although they do not personally like them. Finally, Griffiths (1995;H4) discusses the significance of improvisation with the reader a few places, but those phenomena and tendencies forming the historical background are not described in the book.
36. At a more modest scale one can mention Morgan (1990;H4) which does not deal with notation and improvisation in a comprehensive way but, however, gives a number of notation examples. Here, also my own Bergstrøm-Nielsen (1981;H4) can be mentioned, describing my view of recent music history. Landy (1991;H4) provides a good outlook through selected analyses and use of parameter description.
37. Dialectically, this book could be of interest to musicians and listerners to improvised music also outside of music therapy.
38. With a formulation very much to the point, Friedemann warns against "looking through" the music in Stumme (1973;G2.1).
39. Concerning addresses etc., see the CD guide on my homepage - URL to be found under J.
40. At the time of my working with this in April 2000, only information on materials up to approx. 1996 was available - it might thus be possible to find more material from these last years.
41. SCRIBING SOUND
an exhibition of music notations (1952 - 1984)
Sylvia Smith, curator
There arose in the 1950s, for a variety of social, artistic, and philosophical reasons, the interest in creating musical situations for which 'traditional' Western music notation was not suited. The new musical concerns were various. There was the desire to use a greater range of sounds and sound relationships, and to establish different degrees of collaboration between composer and performer. While some of these innovations were notated within 'traditional' notation or modifications of it, others required a complete break with notations of the past.
The sixty-five notational examples in SCRIBING SOUND should be thought of as a collection and not a category. A category, by its very nature, is perceived as a single kind or type of which there are numerous examples. Categorization distorts reality by emphasizing the similarities among its examples and masking the differences. Unfortunately, terms like 'graphic notation' have been applied loosely to any music notation out of the ordinary. What creates the illusion of a category of 'graphic notation' is their common departure from 'traditional' notation. But here the similarity ends. One of the purposes of SCRIBING SOUND is to demonstrate just how dissimilar from each other most new notations are. Even scores that may appear similar may actually be extremely different in their notative function as different notative systems can use the same symbols in much the same way that different languages can use some of the same letters in their alphabets.
Musicians and audience members often ask why traditional notation cannot be used for any musical situation. They seem unaware that what is commonly called 'traditional' notation is a collective abstraction (or category) involving many different notational concepts that have evolved over the centuries as new musical and technical ideas demanded their invention.
Notation is a functional matter, but has always had social and political implications as well. Uncomfortable with the coexistence of a multitude of notations, many scholars, musicians, and composers are calling for notational standardization. They see our present state of notational diversity as a reflection of mere confusion. Why not codify (further categorize) notational symbols and techniques for the sake of convenience, communication, and accessibility. But at the same time codification allows convenience and communication, it also limits the primary function of art--the exploration and expansion of our consciousness. To standardize notation is to standardize patterns of thought and the parameters of creativity. Our present abundance of notations is as it should be. It makes our differences more clear.
Top of page...
2000- addenda
Carl Bergstroem-Nielsen's Intuitive Music homepage
Contact Carl Bergstroem-Nielsen ...