Experimental classical music: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 16:03, 30 January 2007

Revision as of 17:00, 30 January 2007

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{{for|experimental [[rock music]]|experimental rock}}

'''Experimental music''' is any [[music]] that challenges the commonly accepted notions of [[definition of music|what music is]]. There is an overlap with [[avant-garde]] music. [[John Cage]] was a pioneer in experimental music and defined and gave credibility to the form. [[David Cope]] (Cope, 1997), describes experimental music as that, "which represents a refusal to accept the status quo." (Cope, 1997{cn}[page number, please])

[[Michael Nyman]] (1974) uses the term "experimental" to describe the work of American modernist composers ([[John Cage]], [[Christian Wolff]], [[Earle Brown]], [[Meredith Monk]], [[Malcolm Goldstein]], [[Morton Feldman]], [[Terry Riley]], [[La Monte Young]], [[Philip Glass]], [[Steve Reich]], etc.) as opposed to the European avant-garde at the time ([[Karlheinz Stockhausen]], [[Pierre Boulez]], [[Iannis Xenakis]]). The "experiment" in this case is not whether a piece succeeds or fails, but is in the fact that the outcome of the piece is uncertain or unforeseeable (Cage 1961).