A CHRONICLE

OF THE

AMERICAN EXPERIMENTAL ARTS

TRADITION

A PUBLICATION

OF

GREYWOLF ARTS INSTITUTE

NEW ARTICLE

If We Could Write for the Symphony, or, We Are All Mozart
Dennis Báthory-Kitsz

What, you say? There are no living Mozarts? So the wisdom goes. But the wisdom is wrong. There are Mozarts. There are thousands of Mozarts. We are all Mozart, or might be.

If we aren’t, it’s not because we’re creatively empty shells. Rather, it’s that we composers don’t have an opportunity to be Mozart—a requirement to be Mozart.

Indeed, none of us (absolutely none of us!) has the chance to “be Bach” or “be Mozart” because we’re not writing new tunes every day, most of the day—even if we could find the time as fully dedicated composers.

[ click here to read entire article (pdf 440kb)]

Click here for Vox Organalis score by James Drew

The American Experimental Arts Tradition has from the beginning been the most original and vital force in our nation’s creative accomplishments. Beginning in the 20^th Century, the American Experimentalists have created some of the most powerful and original works in the world. Now, looking back over the recent decades, it has become well documented that it was mainly our country’s Experimental Tradition that has truly had a profound influence on the artists of both Europe and the Pacific Rim. Interestingly enough, it should also be pointed out that eastern thought underlined much of the Experimentalist’s philosophies.

Several ingredients went into creating our Experimental Tradition. First and foremost, was a passion for invention and a strong sense of individual visions. The Experimentalists did not advocate “schools” of artistic collectivism as found in the European influenced academic world, but followed instead a kind of isolated radical thinking that was fueled by both eastern and western sources.

Although our American Experimental composers, painters, choreographers, etc. have carefully studied and absorbed the works of the great European masters (the entire history), and of course the eastern sources, to be sure, it is the American concept of “inclusion” of many kinds of materials, simultaneously, that would mark the character of a new kind of artistic thinking emerging in the early 20^th Century.

Furthermore, it must be clearly pointed out that many of the so-called experimentalists represent a new classical tradition and that they are closely connected, both formally and aesthetically, to ancient traditions, where sacred intent must traditionally aspire to the high art of classicism.

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The HARMONIC CANON was founded by American composer/ playwright, James Drew, in the late 1990’s, and is dedicated to documenting the American Experimental Arts Tradition.

The Canon is both a chronicle and a forum in which experimental artists can voice their ideas in the form of writings and interviews.

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The American Experimentalists

A CHRONOLOGICAL OVERVIEW

(A Partial List, from 1900 to the present)

Experimentalists	I
Charles Ives Poly-everything Superimpositions Sound masses High/low art music Spatial distribution Tonal/atonal mix	Charles Seeger Primitive studies Electronics Graphic notation	Henry Cowell Tone clusters New sound sources Fractional tones Exotic materials	Edgar Varese Sound masses Percussion Electronics	Carl Ruggles Sound masses 21-tone scale Oblique sounds
Wallingford Riegger Innovative melodic structures Consonance/dissonance mix
Experimentalists	II
Harry Partch Building new instruments 43-tone scale High/low art music Theatre	Conlon Nancarrow Rhythm studies Piano roll music High/low art music	Henry Brant Polyphony of tempi Spatial logistics	Colin McPhee Exotic percussion Balinese influences

Experimentalists	III
John Cage Eastern influences Percussion Prepared piano Objects as instruments Indeterminacy	Morton Feldman Form by density and dynamics Graphic notations	Earle Brown Fixed details/open form Large sound complexes	Lou Harrison Tunings Exotic percussions Eastern influence	Christian Wolff Composition as actions
Merce Cunningham New dance New contexts	Louise Nevelson Controlled fragments Box constructions	Jackson Pollack Action painting Conflicting fields Massive fields of colour and texture	Franz Kline Abstractions Large advancing shapes	Robert Rauschenberg Collage process Print process Found object constructions
Joseph Cornell Mystery boxes Controlled fragments Experimental films	Allan Kaprow Environments/happenings Assemblages moving in space	Phillip Gustin Abstraction processes Pre-Pop figurations in extremis	Mark Rothko Abstract Expressionist Colour masses	Barnett Newman Abstractions Reduction processes Color fields
Experimentalists	IV
Donald Martino Innovative notations Jazz influences Theatre	Mel Powell Electronics Sound masses Jazz influences	James Drew New theatre, opera, ballet forms Combination tones High/low art music Exotic percussion	Robert Ashley New theatre concepts High/low art music Electronics/video	Robert Sheff Spoken word High/low art music
Gordon Mumma Electronics/dance	Steve Reich Percussion Ethnic/jazz sources Repetition processes	Bertram Turetzky Improvisation High/low art music Music as action Spoken word	Philip Krumm Electronics Poets/theatre	LaMonte Young Static Loops Theatre
George Brecht Text as music Suspense poems	Pauline Oliveros Drones Accordions Music of formants	Lucia Dlugoszewski Timbre piano Ladder harps Music for dance	Orlando Jacinto Garcia Exotic orchestration Latin American influences	Kenneth Gaburo Electronics Text language
Paul Dresher Electronics Theatre High/low art music	Humphrey Evans III Orchestra innovations Notational developments	Robert Dick Multi-layered sound-spaces Microtonal developments Electronic/video Invents new instruments	Lin Emery Mechanized puppets Metals dancers Kinetic abstractions	Roger Cooke Extensive improvisation Expanded colouristics High/low art
George Crumb Explorer of color development of music notations exotic instruments developments in rhythmic procedures.	George Rochberg Music notation experiments mixing older tonal styles with modern developments.

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The Harmonic Canon

Forum

NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND

-- Jacopo Drew

During the last 20 years my music has developed into a process of parallel constructions. This is particularly true of my theatre music where the

parallel process is much more obvious, because it involves three distinct forces.

First of all, the music, which exists mostly parallel to the drama, nevertheless compliments the over-all shape of what is happening on stage. In other words, the actor’s dialogue progresses in a series of open forms in contrast to the music, which is revealed in a series of closed forms. These alternating or superimposed constructions make possible both a parallel process and a synthesis.

The formal thinking here is similar to the Stravinsky/Balanchine or Cage/Cunningham ballets, but differs drastically because I include dialogue. I want to add, however, that not ALL of my theatre music follows the parallel process – my ballet, GIGGLES, for example, is unabashedly program music. Music singing to feet.

I learned most about theatre from my mentors: John Cage,

who first pointed out to me, that I WAS doing theatre;

Mark Rothko, who taught me that the Holy in Art was abstract;

de Chirico, who created EMPTY PLAZA THEATRES;

Richard (Lord) Buckley, who saw that theatre spaces existed EVERYWHERE; Wallingford Riegger, who instructed me about the obligation required of classicism.

In my operatheater works, I employ a sub-harmonic process by which

to guide the singers, because they have very FEW notated pitches.

Basically, this is a gravitational process. There is ALWAYS an accompaniment of guiding pitches available to the singers which allows them to naturally and freely select pitches to gravitate to within the harmonic framework of whatever music is sounding at the exact moment. The singers are ACOUSTICALLY drawn to their “guides.” Yaaaa, Pythagoras!

FINDING THEIR “OWN” pitches is always an EMOTIONALLY

DRAMATIC decision. It is much different than following a notated

map. I believe this process results in approaching a SACRED

THEATRE.

IT IS THE ACTOR’S REACTION TO THE

RITUAL, NOT ACTED.

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Call for Contributions

Experimental artists worldwide are invited to contribute both current and historical information to the Harmonic Canon in the form of articles, interviews, and photographs. For submission information, please email jacopodrew@greywolf-artistry.com.