Cage, Sun Ra, Musique Concrete, Noise

As a parallel to the emergence of the American
Experimental Tradition, and its "uprising" in the
music of Cage and following, we will study the
revolutionary works of Sun Ra (growing from and
away from jazz) and the founding of Musique
Concrete in France. The second part of the class
will look at the simultaneous explosion of "noise"
in the waves of recordings originating from points
spread out over the globe (what Michael Denning
has called a "noise uprising"). Together these
four points of contact (Cage, Sun Ra, Musique
Concrete, and the edges of a world popular music)
allow for the fanning out and diversity of
expeirmental music from the second half of the
20th century to today.

Music reading skill is not necessary, but some
familiarity with experimental music would be
useful.