Let Playing Be Composition and Composition Playing: 1969–1974
Let Playing Be Composition and Composition Playing: 1969–1974
This chapter marks another threshold in Wolff's musical career: Burdocks. Drawing performative techniques from the improvisatory Scratch Orchestra and heterophonic textures inspired by an African field recording, Burdocks was Wolff's first work intended for a large ensemble. It was his first multimovement work in which each movement had distinctly different instructions on how and what to play. And it was his longest in actual (not just conceptual) performance. In addition, Wolff also had to contend with competing political ideologies between his two mentors, John Cage and Cornelius Cardew, the founder of the Scratch Orchestra. Yet the chapter argues that Wolff's musical “transitional point” came not so much in Burdocks or political intent, but in a new approach to melody that began with a series of piano pieces he wrote in 1969–1970.
Keywords: Burdocks, Scratch Orchestra, John Cage, Cornelius Cardrew, political ideologies, political music
Illinois Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.