Experimental Music Post-Cage

Experimental Music of the post-Cage Generation

This class will deal with the explosion of
experimental music in the mid-20th century to the
1990s. Experimental music will be explored as
more a method or set of approaches to creating
music than as a genre. We will, over the course
of two semesters, look at music by people born
between 1926 and 1945, and try to follow
trajectories in that incredibly wide-ranging
repertoire. A tentative list of musicians covered
(in one to two week units) will be: Morton
Feldman (1926), Ben Johnston (1926), Cecil Taylor
(1929), Robert Ashley (1930), Ornette Coleman
(1930), Pauline Oliveros (1930), Alvin Lucier
(1931), Eliane Radigue (1932), James Tenney
(1934), Christian Wolff (1934), Alice Coltrane
(1937), Art Ensemble of Chicago (Joseph Jarman
(1937), Roscoe Mitchell (1940)), Maryanne Amacher
(1938), Annea Lockwood (1939), Julius Eastman
(1940), Keith Rowe (1940), Wadada Leo Smith
(1941), George Clinton (1941), Meredith Monk
(1942) and Anthony Braxton (1945). There will be
weekly listening and reading assignments and at
the end of each semester a project based on the
work of one of the musicians studied.

Students should expect to spend approx. $100 on
course supplies and materials.