Open to whom and to what

Abstract

Abstract A consideration of some questions about open form in the 1980's. “Open” as a fluid notion which includes social and political meanings. It is not so much a technical issue (indeterminate techniques, whether applied to composing or performing) as a matter of how the music sounds. This is elusive to describe, but could be considered as the result of a dialectic between the music as presented and the historical situation of the listeners, in particular as the listeners are affected by their awareness of “content”, i.e. what is not strictly musical or acoustic phenomena. It is the content, whose meaning changes with the history of the listeners, that allows the music to maintain and define its openness. Certain kinds of content are more conductive than others to an openness which is socially useful now. Three examples are considered: Luigi Nono's string quartet Fragmente‐Stille, An Diotima (1979–1980), Pauline Oliveros’ Teach Yourself to Fly from the Sonic Meditations (l970‐ ) and the author's Bowery Preludes (1985–6).