Experimental Music: Varese; Cage and Microtonality

In fact for nearly every occasion that Varese publicly rejected the term, I
can find another source (particularly in his correspondance with funding
sources or presenters) where Varese uses the term without complaint. As to
pretentiousness, Varese's use of pseudo-scientific terminology is unmatched
(Integrales, Hyperprism, Ionisation, Density...). And the quote that Randy
Winchester gives merely shows how Varese transfered the experimentation to
the listener without removing it from the musical situation altogether.

Surprisingly not out of date - with regard to this topic - is the first
chapter of Michael Nyman's 1974 book _Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond_
(Schirmer, due for a second edition next year), which is a 26 page attempt
to define the term. Nyman is extremely careful not to identify the term in
scientific terms, but in terms of Cage's musical division of labor into
composing/performing/listening. Also useful are the notebooks of George
Brecht, published in a reproduction of his manuscripts perhaps five years
ago in Cologne, which include his notes from Cage's class at the New School
for Social Research. Cage's introductory lectures to this course are a real
model of how one might still profitably organize a composition seminar,
beginning with a discussion of acoustical parameters and their musical
(culturally defined) organization.

In the context of this forum it is worth pointing out some connections
between Cage and the microtonal community. It was Cage, for example, who
wrote a letter to Schoenberg on behalf of Ivor Darreg, and who introduced
Darreg to the quarter-tone composer (and sometime Partch patroness) Mildred
Couper (this is someone deserving of research!); further, Cage, more than
once wrote letters or gave references in support of Partch�s work, despite
Partch�s public denouncements of Cage. In Cage�s own music, microtonality
is not a central factor until his very last works, but (off the top of my
head - and ignoring works where noise is the chief factor)) _Atlas
Eclipticalis_, much of the _Song Books_, the violin version of _Cheap
Imitation_, and the scores derived from Thoreau drawings (eg _Renga_) are
explicitly microtonal. HPSCHD - co-composed with Hiller - is a multiple
division extravaganza. The last series of pieces, the **Number** pieces,
includes several with microtonal notations, indicating up to seven levels
of differentiation from 12tet pitches. That Cage did not look at this
material _systematically_ (i.e. as 96tet, for example) is another topic
altogether.

Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl
with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Fri, 6 Dec 1996 08:15 +0100
Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA19501; Wed, 4 Dec 1996 14:15:35 +0100
Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA21038
Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI)
for id FAA24057; Wed, 4 Dec 1996 05:15:32 -0800
Date: Wed, 4 Dec 1996 05:15:32 -0800
Message-Id: <199612041315.PAA26237@info.forthnet.gr>
Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu
Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu