Extended Duration in Music

This course investigates the relationship between
live music performance of extended duration and
sound-oriented installation art. Taking Erik
Satie's "Vexations" (1893) and "Musique
d'Ameublement" (1920) as points of departure, we
will analyze 1950s and 60s Happening, Fluxus, and
Conceptual Art pieces as in regards to the time
structures they establish. This shall help to
understand the milieu in which the first sound
installations by Maryanne Amacher and Max Neuhaus
were perceived (1967). Focusing on the listener's
perspective and the aesthetic implications of a
revised (or abandoned) work concept, we will try
to reconstruct the scandal that these early
examples of sound installation art posed for
audiences both from the music and the art world.
Finally, the course addresses more recent examples
of conceptual music and sound installation art
that transcendents the notion of a perceiver who
can actually experience the piece in its full
temporal expansion.

Open to graduate students from all schools and
programs who are comfortable reading music and
reading and writing theory.