‘Listening to the Sounds of the People’: Frederic Rzewski and Musica Elettronica Viva (1966–1972)

Abstract

During the early 1960s, composer and pianist Frederic Rzewski began to seek alternatives to the esoteric formalist music prevalent in the ‘Darmstadt era’. In 1966, along with his colleagues in Musica Elettronica Viva, he explored a form of free improvisation using live electronic music. Caught up in the whirlwind of radical politics shooting across Europe, MEV experimented with audience participation, brought its music into the streets, and performed in occupied universities and factories. Rzewski's early experiences with MEV would ultimately lead him to a lifelong commitment to musical activism, as a member of an avant-garde no longer appropriated by the very institutions it had traditionally opposed.