Cultures of Experimental Music

  October 04, 2021

The score for John Cage’s indeterminate composition “Fontana Mix”

Cultures of Experimental Music

During the 1900s, experimental music became increasingly popular. American art and music grew popular, and new genres blossomed in the boom. From artists like Charlie Parker to Julius Eastman, there was no shortage of central figures of American music. Two of the most influential figures in American music were Pauline Oliveros and John Cage. Both of these artists were central figures in their genres and helped with the development of new forms of electronic music. While both artists had strong Eastern and familial influences, their different personal identities helped shape their vastly different contributions. 

Pauling Oliveros pursued music from a very young age and, unlike Cage, she knew she wanted to be a composer by the age of sixteen. She even participated in the Tau Beta Sigma Honorary Band Sorority at the University of Houston, the same sorority my father participated in at the University of Miami. She was interested in the sciences and studied martial arts, both of which influenced her musical ventures. As a sort of synthesis of the psychology of consciousness, the physiology of the martial arts, and the sociology of the feminist movement, she developed Sonic Awareness. Sonic Awareness describes two ways of processing information, attention, and awareness, which she applied in her compositions. Her curious nature also encouraged her to descend fourteen feet into the Dan Harpole underground cistern in Port Townsend which led to the development of Deep Listening. Oliveros coined the term "deep listening"[12]—a pun that has blossomed into "an aesthetic based upon principles of improvisation, electronic music, ritual, teaching, and meditation. This aesthetic is designed to inspire both trained and untrained performers to practice the art of listening and responding to environmental conditions in solo and ensemble situations". She was also influenced by her sexuality in the composition of pieces such as Rose Moon and Rose Mountain. 

Similar to Oliveros, Cage was also gay, but he did not become open about it until after his divorce in 1945. Oliveros was largely influenced by the intersection of the arts, and by the people he worked with throughout his life. For example, Oskar Fischinger told Cage that  "everything in the world has a spirit that can be released through its sound." Although Cage did not share the idea of spirits, these words inspired him to begin exploring the sounds produced by hitting various non-musical objects. This led to Cage’s use of non-standard musical instruments. He was also largely influenced by the visual arts, which he studied for a long time, and choreography, which was a passion of his. 

Chance was a Buddhist and had a strong interest in Eastern philosophies. Through his studies of Indian philosophy and Zen Buddhism, he developed Chance or Ideterminate music, music in which some element of the composition is left to chance, and/or some primary element of a composed work's realization is left to the determination of its performer. He later used I-Ching, a classic Chinese text, as a standard tool for composition. All of this led to some of his more famous works, the Williams Mix and 4’33”.

Both Oliveros and Cage were highly influential composers of the experimental music age. They shared many similarities, but ultimately their differences lay in their personal identities. Olivero was largely influenced by feminism and the sciences, whereas Cage was more interested in the arts. While they both had strong Asian influences, Oliveros was more focused on meditative arts, such as karate, while Cage was more interested in the philosophies. Oliveros was clearly a dedicated academic as well as composer, while Cage couch-surfed and explored the art world. Despite their differences, both artists were massively influential in the development of music in the 1900s, and help lay the groundwork for the music of today.