EARLE BROWN was an American experimental composer who created works in graphic notation and free form. His contributions to the history of postwar music were considered to be significant. Brown was born in 1926 and passed away in 2002. Folio and 4 Systems (1952–1954) were the works in which he explored the limits of traditional staff notation to the point of abstraction. He also encouraged performers to make their own decisions regarding pitch, time, intensity, timbre, and attack. This approach was in stark contrast to the composer-controlled treatment of sound that was implicit in serialism and total organization. Postmodernism often rejects hierarchical structures and challenges the authority of established traditions. Brown's use of open form and indeterminacy undermines the traditional composer-performer hierarchy, giving performers a more active role in the interpretation and realization of the music. Alongside fellow composers John Cage, Morton Feldman, and Christian Wolff, Earle Brown played a pivotal role in the establishment of the New York School, a group known for its experimental and avant-garde approaches to composition.
Composer, music theorist, and writer John Cage was born in the United States in 1912 and passed in 1992. working predominantly during the modernist era, but whose work displays a post-modernist perspective in terms of its theoretical approach. Four minutes and thirty-three seconds is the title of one of his most avant-garde works. It tells the story of a musician who is seated on the stage without performing. After that, the piece is comprised of any and all ambient sounds that are produced during the four minutes and thirty-three seconds that are actually taking place. In addition to being a conceptual work that challenges the boundaries between music and silence, this piece represents a significant divergence from the conventional ideas that are associated with musical performance. This focus on removing all limits on artistic expression appears to be what Cage was attempting to get at, despite the fact that it is a bizarre piece. He was trying to convey the idea that one should be able to express their thoughts and creativity without being guided by rules or regulations.
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