lO4 Chapter SixFantastique, I made up my mind. I insisted thatmy work be unrehearsed (there wouldn't havebeen much anyway, as those things go) and thatI would bring score and parts the night of theconcert. Imagine the shock when the conductorand players opened their music to find the workthat they had performed the night before . . . butthey performed it, much to the anger and horrorof the audience and reviewers. They were angry,of course, not at the sounds but at my plagiarism(legal, according to copyright laws) but fewrealized they listened to the sounds in anentirely new way-something very good, verycreative, in my way of thinking. No, I did notreceive money for my endeavor! (The work, bythe way, was titled Symphonie Fantastique No. 2.)(letter to the author)Yehuda Yannay's Houdini's N inth (1970) representsexperimental theater quite representative of thisgerue. Bemard Jacobson characterizes one performancein this excerpt froret Stereo Reoiew:A man cycled onto the stage, put a record of the(Beethoven) Choral Symphony finale on a phonograptuand proceeded to mix some kind ofculinary concoction onto the surface of theactual disc, with bizarre effects on the sound.This was interwoven with an episode involvinga double-bass player in a sort of straitjacket, anddominating the proceedings was a projection ofan incredibly stupid poem published inDwight'slournal of Music, Boston, on December 17, 1870.It was in honor of Beethoven's centenary, andtook a very encouraging view of his affliction ofdeafness: "A price how small," it cheerilyinformed him, "for privilege how great, ,/ Whenthy locked sense groped upward and there /The shining ladder reaching through the air."$acobson 1970)Encouraged by the words of social philosophersMarshall Mcluhan and R. Buckminster Fuller, and hisown studies with Eastern philosopher Suzuki, JohnCage developed a personal philosophy expressed inhis sweeping statement, tHis works encompass most of the experime--tdl-conceptsof the past sixty years: electronic, improvisatory,indeterminate, exploratory, and experimental (Bom1974; Cage 1969, 1973; Kostelanetz 1968, 1970). FromCage's work in the 1930s, when he originated the preparedpiano, to his extension of multimedia happenings,he remained the remarkable enigma (Kostelanetz1967,1980). Cage's ideas and works €unuse, startle,antagonize, and somehow also encourage the worldsof music, dance, and art. If change be the mark ofgreatness, then ]ohn Cage has surely reached this pinnacle.Nothing in music will surely be the same afterhim (Cage 1957,1982; Duckworth 1995).Aside from Cage, no other composer has achievedthe shock value of, and relevance to, experimentalism,except perhaps La Monte Young. In particular, hisComposition 1960 #3, the duration of which isannounced and the audience told to do whatever theywish for the remainder of the compositiory and Composition1960 #6, where the performers stare and reactexactly as if they were the audiencg represent excellentexamples of experimental music.Critics of these and other experimentalists addressthemselves to the pointless philosophies implied(Byron 1975).To these, I. A. MacKenzie has replied:Art is imitation, repetitiory memory or rejectionof life. Nothing is created by mary just recreated:a storeroom to collect the bits and pieces of thewho"le he feels worthy of saving, to be brought tolife again whenever the need occurs, but neveras good as the original. Art exists only as a refugeagainst new experience, un-recreated expe'rience with reality: second-hand living. Theterms "musician," "painteg" "wtiteq" merelybreak these limitations down further for easierconstruction, assimilation, and comfort. I amnone of these. I am not an artist. I do not imitate,or need of developing a memory with art, for athousand million possibilities of the present confrontme, and I don't want that number diminishedby one. I am a mapmaker, a suggester ofpossible routes for those interested in experienceswith what has already been createdeverything.I am similar to the "artist" in that Ido not create, dissimilar with him in that I do notpretend to. Untouched by style, convenience, ortradition, the elements I observe (not manipulate)I discovered, but only for myself and mydiscovery has style, convenience just as yours. Ido nothing that anyone else could not do easilyand do not pretend to. I only give directionswhen someone wishes them and would beh"ppy to stop anytime . . . Everything exists:why should I mechanically alter one thing intoanother, one thought into another? All exists, it ismuch more to find the original. (Cope1970,p.2)New experiments are necessary, important, andcontribute to the arts. Cage speaks of this in A Ywfrom Monday; " Art's in process of coming into its owrulife." and "We used to have the artist up on a pedestalNow he's no more extraordinary than we are." (Cage1967 , p.6) Tristan Tzara adds: "Art is not the most precious manifestation of life. Art has not the celestial aruiuniversal value that people like to attribute to it. Life iefar more interesting." (Motherwell195L, p.2a$ These
Experimentalism L05rriews extend our definitions of music to include dangermusic, concepfualism, biomusic, and soundscapes(Byron L975; Palmer 1981; Partch \973; Prfvost L995;Schafer 1974).DnNcen MusrcThe history of danger music includes Paul Noug6'sMusic Is Dangerous (Noug6 1973). As Noug6 points out,while we may use music for relaxatiory forgetting, orpleasure it . . . "probably entails serious consequences"(Noug6 1973). This book describes many accounts ofunfortunate encounters with the dangers of music:Sometimes we find peculiar stories in a newspaper.A few weeks ago, a young American wenthome after coming out of a performance of Thnnhauser,and killed himself; not without havingfirst written a note in which he explained thatwhere Thnnhauser had weakened, he, yes he,would set a better example of courage and grandeur.(Noug61973)More recent danger music involves more directconflict with performers or spectators (Johnson 1980).For example, the score to Nam June Paik's DangerMusic for Dick Higgins reads: "Creep into the Vagina ofa Living Whale" (Cage 1969). Figure 6.1 shows Paikduring a1962 Fluxus performance.The visual arts have had direct influence on dangermusic. The artist Ayo for example, has created a numberof finger boxes each containing an unknown object.Viewers experience the art by placing their fingers intothese small creations, some of which contain felt, fur,and similar benign objects. Some pf the boxes, however,contain razor blades, broken glass, and pocketknives.Though blood has spilled during danger musicperformances, violence seldom occurs as a direct consequenceof composer intention (Higgins L966). Accidentsoften are welcomed, however. Such was the casewith two happenings tn 1962. The first involved asomewhat bloodied Robert Whitman at BenningtonCollege. The second saw a woman spectator/performerat an Al Hansen happening fall from a windowdown a number of stories and eventually through aglass roof.Robert Ashley's Wolfman (L964) exemplifies dangermusic. This work includes prerecorded tape with avoice screaming througha microphone creatingfeedback tumed to extremelyloud levels, easilyreaching decibelcounts above dangerpoints. The recording ofthis work, with instructions"to be played at thehighest possible volumelevel" constifutes directdanger to those listeningin a small room.Phil Comer's adaptationof his own preludeFigurefrom 4 Sulfs creates interestingdanger6.2. Robertuhley.music:I threw out a rifle and then slowly picked it upand pointed it at the audience (no one bolted forthe doors, by the way) . . . counterpointed by awom€rn who slowly picked up a bouquet ofroses-there was a countdown . . . at the end ofwhich she threw the flowers into the audience, allover, with great love and joy, while I silently letfall the rifle and slunk offstage. Yet this wasapparently not the right message for some, as Iwas accosted afterwards by one of the Up AgainstThe Wall Motherfucker crowd, and yelled at:"Next time a real rifle!" (letter to the author)Comer's One antipersonnel-type CBU bomb will bethrown into the audience represents another example ofdanger music. Comer speaks of this work:Figure 6.1. Nam June Paik during a 1962 F/uxus performance.I tried to push the concert situation to a pointwhere those present would have to feel theimmediacy of the situation-their situatiorysince this had to be something in which thosepresent shared a complicity. Failure! Could Ihave been that naive? For the audience reactionis not predictable. I discovered that right thenand there. For that reason the thing was noteven ever done. The defenses against identify-
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