Experimental music is a term introduced by
composer John Cage in 1955. Cage defined "an experimental action is
one the outcome of which is not foreseen" (Cage 1961, 39), and he was
specifically interested in completed works that performed an
unpredictable action (Mauceri 1997).
In a broader sense, it is also used to mean any music that challenges
the commonly accepted notions of what music is. David Cope describes
experimental music as that, "which represents a refusal to accept the
status quo" (Cope, 1997).
Michael Nyman (1974) uses the term "experimental" to describe the work
of American composers (John Cage, Christian Wolff, Earle Brown,
Meredith Monk, Malcolm Goldstein, Morton Feldman, Terry Riley, La
Monte Young, Philip Glass, John Cale, Steve Reich, etc.) as opposed to
the European avant-garde at the time (Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre
Boulez, Iannis Xenakis). The word "experimental" in the former cases
"is apt, providing it is understood not as descriptive of an act to be
later judged in terms of success or failure, but simply as of an act
the outcome of which is unknown" (Cage 1961).
According to David Nicholls, "...very generally, avant-garde music can
be viewed as occupying an extreme position within the tradition, while
experimental music lies outside it" (Nicholls 1998). That tradition is the inheritance of common-practice Western art music,
with its concern for increased technical complexity, historical
inheritance, composer intention and other features. In general, and at
least originally, experimental music took its inspiration from
non-Western sources and from varying times. It may take its
inspiration (directly in terms of generating systems) from other
media; practitioners may or may not be professionals in the
traditional sense of the word, although they may still be trained in
their work and adept at it.
Leonard B. Meyer, on the other hand, includes under "experimental
music" composers such as Berio, Boulez, and Stockhausen, as well as
the techniques of "total serialism" (Meyer 1994), holding that "there is no single, or even pre-eminent, experimental
music, but rather a plethora of different methods and kinds" (Meyer
1994).
As with other edge forms that push the limits of a particular form of
expression, there is little agreement as to the boundaries of
experimental music, even amongst its practitioners. On the one hand,
some experimental music is an extension of traditional music, adding
unconventional instruments, modifications to instruments, noises, and
other novelties to compositions. At the other extreme, there are
performances that most listeners would not characterize as music at
all.
While much discussion of experimental music centers on definitional
issues and its validity as a musical form, the most frequently
performed experimental music is entertaining and, at its best, can
lead the listener to question core assumptions about the nature of
music.
The term "experimental music" was used contemporaneously for
electronic music, particularly in the early musique concrète work of
Schaeffer and Henry in France (Vignal 2003) and in the
Experimental Studios at the University of Illinois, run by Lejaren
Hiller. "Experimental" electronic composition may be
"experimental" in the sense used in Nyman (for instance, Cage,
Cartridge Music or the early work of Alvin Lucier); it may also lie
more comfortably with the avant garde.
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