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Aesthetic of Impermanence: The Music of Earle Brown
by Cornelius Dufallo
At the dawn of the twenty-fir st century, we musicians marvel at the seemingly infinite potential of contemporar y music. We are mixing, crossing, fusing, changing, revisiting and redefining music in countless ways, finding ourselves in a state of ecstatic post -postness. Stylistic boundaries have all but
dissolved: classical players now improvise comfortably, jazz musicians interpret graphic scores, string quartets are calling themselves “bands” while rock groups perform highly complex chamber music. Symphony orchestras collaborate with heavy metal bands, and rock stars are writing oratorios. How did we arrive at this fantastic place? In the late twentieth century certain “maverick” musicians showed us that we need not be wedded to one style or another; that “schools” of composition were a counterproductive concept. These mavericks appeared in classical, jazz, and rock music, and they were not af raid to throw rules and history out the window (at least temporarily). Case in point: Earle Brown.
Brown belonged to what is known as “The New York School.” This group, consisting of Brown, John Cage, Morton Feldman, and Christian Wolff, was active in New York during 1950s. Despite the name, these musicians did not necessarily see themselves as a “school” of composition. They were simply four colleagues exploring ideas of music and art. Feldman described it this way: “What was great about the fifties was that for one brief moment — maybe, say, six weeks — nobody understood art. That’s why it all happened.”1 This was the opposite of a compositional “school”: it was an open forum in which any experiment was welcomed. Brown wrote, “I am mostly impressed by the impermanence of
styles and ‘ideas of order’…. This preoccupation with impermanence has meant that I do not have a particularly reverent attitude toward my own or anyone else’s rules. It seems to be a matter of moment rather than a momentous matter.”2
The concept of “impermanence” was present throughout his career. In 1948 Brown first encountered the work of Alexander Calder, whose mobile sculptures he saw as a visual embodiment of the variable (impermanent) aesthetic that he was striving to create. This “Calder aesthetic” stayed with him throughout his several stylistic shifts. Whether he was writing twelve-tone serial music (Music for Violin, Cello, and Piano), conceptual graphic scores (Folio and Four Systems), composed material/
open form scores (String Quartet, New Piece and Tracer), or “spontaneously composed” music (Special Events), all of his music shares Calder’s sense of integral but “floating” variations, which Brown described as, “the construction of units and their placement in a flexible situation that subjects the original relationships to constant and virtually unpredictable, but inherent, change (the movement of the units as well as the movement of the viewer).”3
In Music for Violin, Cello, and Piano the “Calder aesthetic” is evident in the construction and placement of serially composed rhythmic groups. This piece is a series of mercurial micro-variations, assembled “rather arbitrarily”4 (not unlike a mobile with many small, suspended parts that turn in all directions). Octet I, for Eight Loudspeakers (written during the same period), is quite similar in the sense that it is a highly organized assemblage of fragments. In the graphic scores that followed his serial period, Brown added another dimension: the infinite variability of human perception. The performers themselves become part of the “mobile” by interpreting the graphic information in new and unpredictable ways. Although these pieces are radically different from the serial works with regard to structure and form, they are conceptually the same. Given the extremely free nature of the graphic scores, Brown chose to describe them as activities, rather than compositions. He felt they lacked the inherent “composer identity” necessary to be considered compositions. Brown resolved this problem in the composed material/open form scores, by retaining the aspect of performer creativity without sacrificing “composer identity.” In these works certain structural choices remain “floating,” while the actual compositional materials remain fixed. While these pieces change dramatically from performance to performance, they are instantly recognizable because of their composed elements. Finally, in the “spontaneously composed” music (Special Events) he returns to a style that is similar to his early serial pieces, in that the “floating” concept exists primarily in the musical material itself. However, the scope is much larger than the early works, and the material, structure, and notation have been influenced by close to fifty years of stylistic explorations. In Brown’s work “impermanence” also has another meaning that is made clear by the following statement: “The general movement, in all the arts, is toward the presentation of an ‘actual’ event rather than a remembered or ‘representational’ event. The materials become progressively more freed from subservience to the ‘history’ of their usage…”5 The impermanence of spontaneously creative performances (as opposed to a stiff recreations of preconceived ideas) begets openness and freedom from historical context. Brown’s acceptance of spontaneity (which stemmed from his early experience as a jazz trumpeter), combined with John Cage’s liberation of sound led to the emergence of an abstract sound world that shared common ground with the fringes of several musical genres (jazz, rock, and free-improvisation). Toward the end of the twentieth century musicians from these different genres began to accept, imitate, and contribute to each other’s work. One has only to listen to the work of artists such as Ornette Coleman, John Zorn, Butch Morris, and Sonic Youth (among countless others) to see the formidable results of this cross-pollination. While Brown’s music remained in the realm of “classical” or concert hall music, it was his attitude (as well as that of his contemporaries in jazz, rock, and free improvisation) that helped bring about major changes in music. The willingness among mavericks of all genres to playfully and irreverently remove music from its historical context is what eventually led to the music of the early twenty-first century.
The works recorded on this disc represent several of Earle Brown’s compositional styles. At least one piece was selected from every decade of his career, from the 1950s to the 1990s. The ensemble size varies from one player to fourteen. New Piece and Special Events were conducted by Christian Wolff. It was a wonderful experience to work with both Christian Wolff and Joan La Barbara (a regular
member of Ne(x)tworks) on this music, since they knew and worked with Earle for so many years. Also present at our sessions was Susan Sollins, Earle’s wife, who helped us tremendously with her recollections of Earle’s opinions and musical tastes.
One last note: this is the first recording ever made of For Neil. That’s because it was written for me when I was two years old, and had been hanging on my wall until the day that Brian Brandt and I decided to take this project on. Earle and my dad, Richard, were buddies for years, and they performed many concerts together. When I was two Earle became my Godfather, and on that day he made me this graphic score.
Well, Earle, I hope you can hear it wherever you may be. Thanks for all you’ve done for the art of music. We miss you.
1 Morton Feldman, Give My Regards to Eighth Street – Collected Writings of Morton Feldman, ed. B.H. Friedman (Cambridge: Exact Change, 2000), 101.
2 Earle Brown, “Transformations and Developments of a Radical Aesthetic,” Current Musicology 67 & 68 (2002): 39.
3 Brown, “Transformations and Developments of a Radical Aesthetic,” 40.
4 Brown, “Transformations and Developments of a Radical Aesthetic,” 40.
5 Brown, “Transformations and Developments of a Radical Aesthetic,” 52.
About the recordings
All works were recorded in surround, utilizing the natural hall ambience in the rear speakers. The dramatic exceptions to this are the works for spatialized musicians (Octet 1 and New Piece, which were conceived as spatialized works, and from Folio: December 1952, March 1953 and Four Systems).
The 4-channel tape used in Tracer actually surrounds the musicians on stage rather than the audience, and so both the tape and the ensemble have been recorded in the natural hall persepective.
For Octet 1, new high-resolution transfers were made from the analogue master tapes provided by The Earle Brown Foundation. The original 8-channel tapes appear to be lost, what remains is a 4-channel master where Brown combined (Left = 3+6; Right = 8+5; Left Surround = 1+4; Right Surround = 7+2). Because of this we have chosen to present it here as a 4-channel playback. We have also opted not to
use the alternate master which contains reverb, choosing instead to go with the “pure” version. No noise reduction was applied.
-Brian Brandt
Ne(x)tworks is a collaborative ensemble of musicians creat ing and interpret ing work that features a dynamic relationship between composition and improvisation. In performance and recordings, the group locates pathways into various types of notation systems and interfaces, striving for a meaningful dialogue with the past, present, and future of creative music.
Formed in 2002 in New York City, Ne(x)tworks first performed at legendary American composer Earle Brown’s memorial concert. After this auspicious beginning, the group chose to form around the tradition of the ‘performing composer’. It often presents full programs of works created by its members
including those of Joan La Barbara, Kenji Bunch, Cornelius Dufallo, and Chris McIntyre. Ne(x)tworks’ repertoire also expands outward from its ranks to encompass the “open” scores of Brown and his New York School colleagues, work by the their European counterparts, further experiments by the composer/performers of the AACM and SoHo Scene of the 1970’s, the so-called Downtown composers of the 1980’s, and a number of like-minded contemporary colleagues. More information at www.nextworksmusic.net.
The release of this CD/DVD marks Ne(x)tworks’ recorded debut.
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