Earle Brown—Form, Notation, Text

Abstract

This article offers an integrated look at Earle Brown's oeuvre and investigates it by first placing it within the larger context of the twentieth-century avant-garde through the application of Jean Weisgerber's definition of the movement, and then by analysing its formal, notational and textual aspects. Furthermore, it applies Umberto Eco's concept of the open vs. the closed work to the analysis of Brown's compositional poetics. In addition, the author offers his thoughts on the double—Promethean and Epimethean—nature (‘split personality’) of the avant-garde as well as on the essential aspects of modern musical notations and forms.