Concepts
Antimusic - A concept composition which actively renounces or even seeks to deliberately damage some or all of the perceived icons of traditional music, including concert forms and conventions, instruments, performers, audiences, or venues, etc. Blurring of the distinction between audience and performer; forced audience participation; and Danger music are some examples. Also sometimes referred to as anti-iconic music.
Indeterminate music - Related to 'chance music' (one of Cage's terms). Music in which the composer introduces the elements of chance or unpredictability with regard to either the composition or its performance. This term is used by experimental composers, performers and scholars working in experimental music in the United States, Britain, and in other countries influenced by Cagean aesthetics. Not to be confused with aleatoric music, a term coined by Werner Meyer-Eppler and used by Boulez and other composers of the avant-garde (in Europe) to refer to a strictly limited form of indeterminacy, also called "controlled chance". As this distinction was misunderstood, the term is often (and somewhat inaccurately) used interchangeably with, or in place of, "indeterminacy".
Minimalism - An approach to music which strips musical forms down to a few very small (minimal) elements. In extreme form it may border on antimusic, with pieces consisting entirely of silence, a single event; or an exact repetition of a simple phrase for an extended period of time ( ""). More commonly it refers to music composed of layered repetitions of small figures in which the natural progression of the repetitions exposes relationships not usually the focus of traditional composition (such as phase shifts).
Concepts shared with avant-garde music - There are many ideas broadly utilized by experimental musicians which are not, however, strictly experimental music concepts, having seen significant application prior to the advent of experimental music, particularly by the avant garde. Examples include:
- *Extended techniques Instrumental or vocal performance techniques that step outside (ofter far outside) conventional performance techniques.
- *Graphic notation - Music which is written in the form of diagrams or drawings rather than using “conventional” notation (with staves, clefs, notes, etc).
- *Microtones and Macrotones A microtone is a pitch interval that is smaller than a semitone; a macrotone is an interval larger than a semitone. Examples of microtones include quarter tones and intervals even smaller. Composers have, for example, divided the octave into 22, 31, 43, 53, 72, etc. microtones, either equally or unequally, and then used this scale as a basis for composition. Macro tones may include intervals such as whole tones, but more generally refer to systems in which the intervals do not fall into the standard intervals of western 12-tone equal temperament; for example, the pentatonic slendro scale of the Indonesian gamelan.
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