New Music, New York

B6r6nice Reynaud

The New Music, New York festival organized -"Collage" musicians, to be found mainly in by The Kitchen Center June 8-19, 1979, was the younger generation, who wish to invaluable in reconsidering the problems raised tegrate in their compositions "impure" by the definition of what is called "New musical environments-e.g., jazz (Garret Music." Judging from the pieces offered dur- List), pop (Laurie Anderson), rock (Rhys ing the event, three main tendencies within Chatham). the diversity of practices emerged, even though the work of a single composer Beyond these divisions, however, the most sometimes reflected more than one tenden- interesting musical form displayed at the cy. The tendencies break down as follows: Festival was "performance music." This notion is ambiguous in music for, in the same -Musicians whose work is based on indeter- way that one can say that all music is minacy or at least on a controlled drift of the "repetitive," all music is "performance" as material during live performance, such as well. Unlike painting and cinema, music is Robert Ashley, David Behrman and Pauline nothing but the live realization of a pre- Oliveros. existing score. If in theatre the relationship -Minimalists who, according to Michael between "score" and performance is rather Nyman in Experimental Music: Cage and ambiguously defined in western culture, with Beyond, have created their music in reaction theatre often viewed as text, the ambiguity to indeterminacy, such as Philip Corner, does not exist in music. In music it is general- Philip Glass, Jon Gibson, and William Heller- DAVID BEHRMAN ly understood that a piece does not exist mann. before its performance: its history is that of

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/pam.1979.0.2.32 by guest on 02 October 2021 its interpretations. This very notion of inter- pretation underlines the position that a traditional musical performance is hermeneutic, and the purpose of each different rendering is to reveal the hidden meaning of the text (the score). This understanding of the score as text can be related to the Judeo-Christian view of text DAVID exemplified by the Kabbalists and the Church Fathers: truth is nothing but the in- ; VAN finite rediscovery of the hidden meanings of the text. It also displays a Borges-like vision - TIEGHEM of eternity as an absolute potentiality (the score) experienced sensually only through the theoretically infinite number of its nearly identical repetitions. In contrast, performance music is based on these two concepts: (1) ship of instruments to musicians. This is in contrast to the classical the refusal of a meaning transcending the physical properties of the tradition which views the instrument mostly as a tool, to serve performance and (2) the emphasis on the uniqueness of the present another text, whose rendering must be completely mastered. Here moment. Improvisation technique, as in jazz, was the first blow also one can see the influence of improvised jazz pieces in which the struck against the classical conception of the score, and the indeter- subject is the relationship of the composeriperformer to his trumpet minacy principle brought by Cage and Fluxus was another. or piano. Numerous performance pieces emphasize the dramatic value and visual aspect of the instruments used. This is more ob- less The traditional conception of the score implied-albeit vious when these instruments are non-conventional, such as the If space is conceived as a precisely-a certain relationship to space. rocking chair that Hellerman rocks in Squeek, or the multiple toys of subjectivity field open to human activity, and music as expression and gadgets manipulated by David van Tieghem in A Man and His property; it only and interiority, then music is denied any spatial Toys. This second kind of musical performance is based on the no- it. This is, within "New passes through space, and eventually fills tion of process, but it also has visual concerns. Music," the conception of such composers as Glass and Steve Reich. Conversely, "performance music" is concerned with the A third kind of performance displays more obvious visual concerns, rediscovery of the spatial characteristics of music, reflecting the in- and the Kitchen Festival provided several examples of it. In some fluence of visual arts. For Corner, for example, music is a bridge be- cases, it was the result of a collaboration between a musician and a tween subjectivity and external space because "you have in a score visual or performance artist-such as trombonist-composer Peter the three dimensions of space: width, depth, plus the fourth dimen- Zummo's and dancer choreographer Stephanie Woodard's con- sion of time." trapuntal solos-or Charles Amirkhanian's concrete tape music ac- companying Carol Law's surrealistic color slides. The rediscovery of space can be performed through purely musical means (as In the thick resonances of Corner's music, or the superim- In other cases the performances were solos dealing with words and posed layers of Phil Niblock's), but it is often connected to a even narrative elements: this sub-category is closer to "music rediscovery of the dramatic role of the instruments and the relation- theatre" as well as to "regular" performance art and uses as a

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/pam.1979.0.2.32 by guest on 02 October 2021 co Charlemagne Palestine's show was also N rather problematic. In contrast to Anderson and Kroesen, he is not primarily a perform- 0 ance artist but a composer who, in addition to his concerts, gives performances (mostly without music). There is, of course, a relationship between the two and the pro- gressively more obvious dramatization of Charlemagne's music is paralleled by the dramatization of his persona as a performer. The sole subject of his performances and video tapes is the narcissistic mise-en-scene of his narcissism, and he is usually quite good at that, with his acute sense of live improvisation. But I didn't like his appearance at the Kitchen, perhaps because the darkness was not as total as necessary to create an atmosphere of quasi-magical "ter- ror," or because the audience, not mentally prepared for such a performance between five different shows, responded poorly, and was consequently incapable of behaving as a mirror/accomplice for the brilliant self of the performer. Performance being a "syncretic" art, the PAULINE OLIVEROS most successful ones were a mixture of the previous categories. For example, Robert Ashley's Woltman (created in 1964) was a piece of music theatre with partially improvised electronic feedback. Dressed in a classic suit, Ashley emitted long shouts in a PETER microphone on the front of the stage, giving medium the body of the composer/performer. Unfortunately the 15-20 every appearance of contained distrets minutes scheduled for every composer was too short for enjoying GORDON while "Blue" Gene Tyranny in the this kind of performance. Performance Art Magazine 1 described background played expressionistically on an Laurie Anderson's performance, Americans latest on the Move, and electronic keyboard. The tension created by the excerpts one could see at the Festival were nearly as good as the the piece was nearly unbearable-it sug- whole piece. I would like to be able to make the same statement gested a real drama while being wordless. about Jill Kroesen whose previous performances I liked very much, but she seemed rather uncomfortable in the Festival situation. David Behrman's Touchtones explored quite

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/pam.1979.0.2.32 by guest on 02 October 2021 successfully the subtle reactions of elec- achievement of mathematics, the ontological tronic circuits to live "noises" caused by Ar- truth of numeric patterns, while at the same thur Stidfole. Alvin Lucier's Work in Progress time being able to express an individual's for Amplified Piano was unfortunately received feelings and imperfections. Performance by the Kitchen audience (perhaps bored by techniques reconsider the problem by using its minimalist evenness), but I found it a chance, error, and/or improvisation to disrupt quite interesting and even moving piece. or to enrich musical pieces produced by Visually it consisted of what I would call an mathematical or electronic devices. The use "animated sculpture": the juxtaposition of of the human voice when non-classically the stylized statue of a man's head to the trained-consequently a less reliable instru- body of the performer at the piano (George ment in the classical sense-fills this need Barth). Musically it combined scales slowly for error and imperfection. Pauline Oliveros's played to their barely audible feedback, like a piece, The Tuning Meditation, was a good ex- mist invading a landscape. ample: she simply asked the members of the

Performance Music: (1) The refusal of a meaning transcending the physical properties of the performance. (2) The emphasis on the uniqueness of the PERFORMANCE present moment. BY ARTISTS EDITED By AA BRONSON AND PEGGY GALE Phil Corner's Gamelan: Italy Revisited-l audience to sing sustained tones while * NFORMATIOON NBY Vito Acconci, Marina (Regolato) created a sense of deep space not Abramosic, Laurie Anderson, Ben d'Amnagnac, Joseph breathing. People's voices rose, were y Daniel Buren, COUM, Gathie Falk, General Idea only through its music but by the remoteness modulated together like a tide, and Luigi Ontani, Charlemagne Palestine, Reindeer Werk, faded out Clive Robertson, Ulriche Rosenbach, Tom Sherman and of the instrumentalist, hidden in a room spontaneously, creating an unexpected separated * CRITICAL COMMENTARIES BY: Bruce Barber, from the performance space polyphony. Charlie Morrow, obsessed with MadaGloria Biccocki, Fuio Salvadon, Kenneth where the audience was sitting in darkness. numbers and chanting, performing alone, Coutts-Seit, Peter Frank, Rosalee Goldberg, Dick Higgins Bill Jonesirdele Lister, Gistind Nabakoreski Whereas the heavy texture of two tapes by mixing breathing, experimental singing, a Chantal Pontbriand, and others. Phil Niblock-Four Ar AN IMPORTANT BIBLIOGRAPHY: over,400 entries at Arthurs and Two Octaves meditative state and narrative chat with the hooks, magrain articles and catalogues on peror. and A Fifth-played simultaneously, it was audience, represented perhaps the epitome mance by artists fom 198 to 1978. An invaluable combined with live improvisations of two in- of this kind of performance-an intelligent Edition: 2000 copies strumentalists (Joe Celli on oboe and Arthur synthesis. Formsat: 320 pp.8 in.x 10 112 i, Stidfole on bassoon) fighting to produce sus- PrT 0n8d00 tained topes similar to the ones prerecorded on tape. B6r6nice Reynaud produces AM ARERPGL 21 WVdS -11 (cc-daM5. 1W52 It has been music's aspiration-since the Bi- programs for French radio. ble, since Plato-to reach the perfect

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