December 1952, by Earle Brown (December 26, 1926 Ð July 2, 2002)

Earle Brown studied Jazz in his early musical stage. He studied the trumpet and composition privately in the Schillinger School of Music in Boston (1946-50). He painted, and taught the Schillinger method and experimented many different compositional techniques. He was an editor and recording engineer for Capitol Records in 1955-60.  He was the director and producer for ÒContemporary SoundÓ series of the Mainstream-Time Records in 1960-73. He was the director of the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University and programming director of the Fromm Weeks of New Music at Aspen. He held the W. Alton Jones chair of composition, had received numerous honorary awards in America.

Earle Brown was good friend of John Cage. They were both leading representatives of the New York School that was established in 1950. Brown is one of the most significant American composers who composed using indeterminacy Ðthat is, undetermined elements can be found in the composition, such as unconventional musical notations or undefined duration, and thus the composition may be played upon the performerÕs self interpretation. With using the idea of indeterminacy, BrownÕs major contribution was opening up the concept of graphic notation, time-notation and open form.

The piece that I have chosen was December 1952 from Folio. It is a piece for piano, flute and cello. This piece is very significant because it is completely based on indeterminacy, and is the earliest composition that was not using any musical notations but entirely graphical notations. The only instructions that were being given were that the piece is for Òone or more instruments and / or sound-producing media,Ó and it may be Òperformed in any direction from any point in the defined space for any length of time and may be performed from any of the four rotational positions in any sequence.Ó

When I first listened to this recording, it is very difficult follow the graphic notation. I would guess that the thickness of the lines and dots is representing the thickness of the texture, and the placement these lines and dots is the register of the notes on the instruments. Yet, the most curious thing is that I do not know in which directions on the score that the performers are playing.

I am very interested how the performers interpreted the score and performed it as an ensemble. Since this music is so abstract and indeterminacy, I believed that no one can play the exact same note for the second time. I would feel that the music was rather like an improvisation.

Work cited

Morgan, Robert P. Twentieth-Century Music: A History of Musical Style in

Modern Europe and America (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1991) 366-368.

NICHOLLS, David: 'Brown, Earle', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed

February 3 2006), <http://www.grovemusic.com>

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