[silence] origins and purposes / tonal aleatorism

[Dionisis Boukouvalas]

Thank you for you answer. It is very interesting indeed, what you point out. 
But I have to make clear here that my interest after all is how the notes 
themselves are picked up aleatorically, although producing "tonal" results. 
Aleatorism is widely concidered as a tool to produce atonal music. But say 
if we take the white notes of the piano and choose among them aleatorically, 
what would be the result? Or if we take a mode (as in Cage's "Litany for the 
WHALE"). I.e. how can we write music using preexisting tools (like modes), 
using aleatorim to escape their historical (or technical etc) connotations. 
It seems like a very interesting subject to me, and I am delighted to see 
Cage profiting from it. Any additional information would be valuable. Thank 
you!


>From: David Badagnani <davidbadagnani@yahoo.com>
>To: silence@list.mail.virginia.edu
>Subject: Re: [silence] origins and purposes / tonal aleatorism
>Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2006 06:08:54 -0800 (PST)
>
>Good luck with your research.  If you're interested in use of aleatorism in 
>modal/tonal music one example that's often overlooked is Alan Hovhaness's 
>"Spirit Murmur" technique, which I think he first used in the excellent 
>piano concerto "Lousadzak" of 1944.  Cage, Cunningham, and Harrison became 
>associated with Hovhaness c. 1945 after hearing a New York performance of 
>this piece and while Hovhaness didn't approve of Cage's later, more 
>philosophical (i.e. "less musical," to him) works, I think they had a 
>lifelong admiration for one another and I think Hovhaness, Cage, and 
>Harrison appeared together at an event at the Cornish Institute in Seattle 
>sometime around the 1980s.  In Hovhaness's 2000 New York Times obituary, 
>Cage was quoted as saying that Hovhaness produced music much as an orange 
>or lemon tree produces fruit, a beautiful quote, I thought.
>
>   By the way, for some reason in academic texts and courses Lutoslawski is 
>usually given the credit for introducing, 10 years *later*, pretty much 
>exactly what Hovhaness had been doing since 1944, though Hovhaness didn't 
>give his technique a Greek name or use fancy boxes to surround the free 
>rhythm sections in his pieces. ;-)
>
>   For more about Hovhaness, see the website www.hovhaness.com -- note in 
>particular the photo of a young Cage in the "Gallery" section, with 
>Cunningham at a party at Hovhaness's house, maybe around 1946.
>   --
>   David Badagnani
>   Kent, Ohio
>   USA
>
>Dionisis Boukouvalas <paistinpotamia@hotmail.com> wrote:
>   I am presently doing my master, examining the history and actual
>possibilities of aleatorism
>
>Different kinds of aleatorism: Compositional, as in Music of changes.
>Interpretational, as in all the indeterminate works. Morover: Variaties of
>compositional aleatorism, like Cage and Xenakis (a totally different
>apporach). I would very much appreciate any bibliographical suggestion on
>the origins and purposes/goals of aleatorism.
>
>What strikes me as more interesting though, is what one can make out of
>aleatorism in our days. I think aletorism is a wonderful tool that can
>permit us to compose "tonal" music (I include modal music here) liberating
>us of its historical connotations. A nice example is Cage's Litany for the
>whale. I am not sure if Ear for EAR is aleatoric too (?) Which other works
>by Cage fall in this category? Which ones of other composers? Attention: I
>am not talking about potential tonality. E.g. Many of Feldman's graphic
>pieces can be tonal if the interpreter choses so. These are not interesting
>to me. I am talking here about works where tonality is inescapable (that
>conciders, as much as I see it, compositional aleatorism).
>
>Thank you!
>
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