Changing the System: The Music of Christian Wolff

Chase, Stephen

ISBN 10: 0754666808 / ISBN 13: 9780754666806

Published by Ashgate, 2010

About this Item

This is an ex-library book and may have the usual library/used-book markings inside.This book has hardback covers. In good all round condition. Dust jacket in good condition. Please note the Image in this listing is a stock photo and may not match the covers of the actual item,750grams, ISBN:9780754666806.

Seller Inventory # 9736112

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Changing the System: The Music of Christian Wolff
• Publisher: Ashgate
• Publication Date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0754666808
• ISBN 13: 9780754666806
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Weight: 750 grams
• Seller catalogs:
  • Music, Dance, Theatre & Opera

About this title

Synopsis

Christian Wolff is a composer who has followed a distinctive path often at the centre of avant-garde activity working alongside figures such as John Cage, Merce Cunningham, and Cornelius Cardew. In a career spanning sixty years, he has produced a significant and influential body of work that has aimed to address, in a searching and provocative manner, what it means to be an experimental and socially aware artist. This book provides a wide-ranging introduction to a composer often overlooked despite his influence upon many of the major figures in new music since the 1950s from Cage to John Zorn to the new wave of experimentalists across the globe. As the first detailed analysis of the music of this prolific and highly individual composer, Changing the System: The Music of Christian Wolff contains contributions from leading experts in the field of new and experimental music, as well as from performers and composers who have worked with Wolff. The reception of Wolff's music is discussed in relation to the European avant-garde and also within the context of Wolff's association with Cage and Feldman. Music from his earliest compositions of the 1950s, the highly indeterminate scores, the politically-inspired pieces up to the most recent works are discussed in detail, both in relation to their compositional techniques, general aesthetic development, and matters of performance. The particular challenges and aesthetic issues arising from Wolff's idiosyncratic notations and the implications for performers are a central theme. Likewise, the ways in which Wolff's political persuasions - which arguably account for some of the notational methods he chooses - have been worked out through his music, are examined. With a foreword by his close associate Michael Parsons, this is a valuable addition to experimental music literature.

About the Author

Dr Stephen Chase, Independent scholar and composer, UK; Dr Philip Thomas, Senior Lecturer, University of Huddersfield, UK