Concurrently in music, composers like Schoenberg, Webern, and Berg, were re-exploring the compositional process, resulting in the development of the twelve-tone method. This new method of composition was Arnold Schoenberg’s attempt to eliminate the conscious will in art and finding a new common language to replace tonality. These explorations led to various methods of composition that included ordered and unordered rows of pitches of various lengths that could manifest as an inversion, retrograde, retrograde inversion, or as hexachords. “The goal of the twelve-one was comprehensibility, by which… the ability of the mind to grasp the logic of musical development.” Serialism, like Dada, focused on the process of creation rather than the aesthetic
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“Instead of notating exact rhythmic values he specified the relative duration of events or actions within a precisely delineated time grid. This allowed him to treat traditionally musical and theatrical actions in similar ways and allowed performers to execute them with similar precision.” The length of the score is 10 pages with 41 events, such as radio frequencies and actions with whistles, notated in complete detail. Though some elements are left up to the performer to decide exact timings for all actions are indicated. The score itself is meant to be mounted and displayed as a poster during the performance (Fig. …show more content…
3: Excerpt from John Cages Water Music. Final page. The 10 pages are meant to be combines and displayed in full view of the audience.
Source: Cage, John. Water Music. 1952. Henmar Press, Inc.
Heile, Bjorn. "Ch.16 Toward a Theory of Experimental Music Theatre." The Oxford Handbook of Sound and
Image in Western Art.340. Print.
After the 1950’s John Cage began integrating elements of chance in both his compositional process and the performance of the works. His attempts to eliminate free will in the process, and “his structurelessness and aleatoric music contributed to the demise of strict musical forms.” The avoidance of predetermination and search for a new language echo the traditions of Dada and form the basis of all subsequent experimental music theatre. Like Cage, composers after him, such as Dieter Schnebel, Mauricio Kagel, and Georges Aperghis, sought to expand the visual aspect of music theatre by using language to notate musical and non-musical actions or events, and further minimizing the distinction between musical and theatrical
“Instead of notating exact rhythmic values he specified the relative duration of events or actions within a precisely delineated time grid. This allowed him to treat traditionally musical and theatrical actions in similar ways and allowed performers to execute them with similar precision.” The length of the score is 10 pages with 41 events, such as radio frequencies and actions with whistles, notated in complete detail. Though some elements are left up to the performer to decide exact timings for all actions are indicated. The score itself is meant to be mounted and displayed as a poster during the performance (Fig. …show more content…
3: Excerpt from John Cages Water Music. Final page. The 10 pages are meant to be combines and displayed in full view of the audience.
Source: Cage, John. Water Music. 1952. Henmar Press, Inc.
Heile, Bjorn. "Ch.16 Toward a Theory of Experimental Music Theatre." The Oxford Handbook of Sound and
Image in Western Art.340. Print.
After the 1950’s John Cage began integrating elements of chance in both his compositional process and the performance of the works. His attempts to eliminate free will in the process, and “his structurelessness and aleatoric music contributed to the demise of strict musical forms.” The avoidance of predetermination and search for a new language echo the traditions of Dada and form the basis of all subsequent experimental music theatre. Like Cage, composers after him, such as Dieter Schnebel, Mauricio Kagel, and Georges Aperghis, sought to expand the visual aspect of music theatre by using language to notate musical and non-musical actions or events, and further minimizing the distinction between musical and theatrical