20th Century Eccentrics

I'm really stumped to put a tag on this one--not even my catch-all "aesthetics" one will fit! What I want to talk about are those rare unique individuals who set off on their own, exploring musical realms that no-one else has. These figures rarely make any kind of impression on the musical mainstream, or even classical music institutions and are often discovered only decades later, sometimes after they have died.

The one interesting exception to the usual profile is John Cage who was most certainly a musical eccentric following a unique path of his own, but also who managed to achieve a remarkable amount of career success despite this. He is one eccentric who everyone knows by name. I think the main reasons for this were that he always managed to move in closely-knit avant-garde circles and he also had a gift for promotion. He came up with a number of ideas that became so notorious that they were newsworthy. The most prominent of these is probably his silent piece, 4'33, but we should also include his pieces based on the I Ching and a few other ones. He was also a gifted writer and published a number of books, such as Silence, that effectively communicated his aesthetic vision. None of our other eccentrics had much success in self-promotion and most didn't even try. Before we move on, here is a sample of Cage's promotional skills, a 1960 appearance on the popular TV show "I've Got a Secret."

The next eccentric I want to discuss is the very reclusive Conlon Nancarrow who spent much of his life living in obscurity in Mexico. His path was to discover the potential of the manual excising of player piano rolls in order to explore possibilities that no living pianist could execute. You might say he discovered electronic music through mechanical means. Here is his Study No. 40:

Oddly enough, both Cage and Nancarrow were born in 1912.

Pauline Oliveros, born in 1932, is from one generation later and she was a very early explorer of the possibilities of electronic music. She spent most of her life teaching and working in California where she was associated with various colleges and universities. She is particularly known for the concept of "deep listening:" 

an aesthetic based upon principles of improvisation, electronic music, ritual, teaching and meditation. This aesthetic is designed to inspire both trained and untrained performers to practice the art of listening and responding to environmental conditions in solo and ensemble situations

Here is Bye bye butterfly, a 1967 piece by Oliveros:

 Our final eccentric is another Californian, Harry Partch, born in 1901, the oldest of the group. He focussed on the idea of microtuning and as a result had to invent all his own instruments, which he did with great ingenuity. I think my favorite is the Boo-Bam, a kind of sub-bass marimba which I had the great pleasure of playing when I was a graduate student. Here is a performance of Castor and Pollux, composed in 1952.