A path towards a new appreciation

By Daniela Gualtero – 201414066

Introduction

DANIEL CHARLES: Do you still hold this conception of structure?

JOHN CAGE: No, of course not. I began by accepting it, but only because I was no longer structuring
according to tonality, but according to time.
D.C.: Why?
J.C.: Because I wanted to include the world of noises in a musical work.
D.C.: Then, you rejected the tonal system from the beginning?
J.C.: Yes, because noises have nothing to do with cadences.
D.C.: And, by the same act, you avoided remaining with a ‘cultural’ definition of structure.
J.C.: Yes. I was obliged to re-examine the notion of musical material.
(Cage & Charles, 1995)

The quote above is an excerpt of an interview held in 1970 between Daniel Charles1 and John Cage,

one of the precursors and a leading exponent of experimental music. Cage was a composer and a

promoter of new concepts in music (Allen, 2014, p.71). What Cage is talking about in this excerpt –the

inclusion of noises and examination of musical material- is what I was thinking all along the Kaiku

Duo experimental music concert held in Universidad de los Andes on April 13th 2018. This concert was

a performance that raised many questions concerning music cultures, music’s aesthetics, and questions

concerning the definition of our conception of music. Although I tried to identify a form, a rhythm and

identify music as I conceive it, I wondered if what I was listening to was just a mix of sounds and

noises that did not have any sense.

The purpose of this text is to make a report on the Kaiku Duo concert making an emphasis on

the relationship between this concert and its music-culture; furthermore, we are going to analyze the

                                                                                                               
1
Daniel Charles was a philosopher and a musicologist. He was teacher of music’s aesthetics in Sorbonne (Paris IV)
concert in light of the characteristics, components, and the conception of experimental music. The main

point and conclusion of this report is to show that music conception and definition depends completely

on how each person was thought and how they want to internalize and appreciate music.

On experimental music

First of all, before talking about the concert, we are going to get immersed in the world of experimental

music. As defined in Allen (2014), experimental music is “music where the outcome is unknown until

the piece is realized” (p.99); according o this author, due to his musical innovations, musician Charles

Ives was the father of American experimental music. In addition to that, experimental music cannot be

conceived as a musical gender, it is a manifestation whose aesthetics go beyond conventional and

commercial music, and it is a challenge to conventional creation rules in music (Música Popular, n.d.).

Harper (2015) adds that experimental music is “music with chance elements or improvisation built into

it”. These characteristics of experimental music can be found in 4’33’’, John Cage’s most known

performance2. In this piece, as we saw in the introduction of this text, Cage uses noises and prolonged

silences to perform music.

Concerning material culture of music, experimental music “exploits an instrument not simply as

a means of making sounds in the accepted fashion, but as a total configuration – the difference between

‘playing the piano’ and the ‘piano as a sound source’” (Nyman, 1999, p.20). Taking into account this,

instruments in experimental music are not just the producers of music/sounds but are important

characters all along the performance. We will exemplify this in the analysis of the Kaiku Duo concert.

This conception of material culture is also related to the fact that for experimental music performers,

“music is more than just a ‘kind of music’ to be performed; rather, a permanent creativity, a way of

perceiving the world’” (Nyman, 1999, p.22). Following this idea, instruments are also subject to be part

of the creative process.

                                                                                                               
2
The video can be found in https://youtu.be/JTEFKFiXSx4
The Kaiku Duo concert and its music culture description

Kaiku Duo is an ensemble composed by Sergio Castrillón and Marc Vilanova. They are specialized on

free improvisation and experimental music; as in the concert, Sergio plays the cello and Marc plays the

saxophone and the clarinet (Vilanova, n.d.). Ricardo Arias, the Arts Department Director in

Universidad de los Andes also accompanied the duo at the end of the concert. Ricardo is interested in

topics concerning electronic music, experimental music, history and practices of improvised music,

non-conventional musical instruments, among other topics (Universidad de los Andes, n.d.); in fact, in

the concert Ricardo performed with a computer and with a balloon. The concert was divided in five

parts: first there was the Duo’s performance, next Sergio’s performance, later Marc’s performance,

then a performance by Kaiku Duo accompanied by Ricardo, and finally there was a talk between the

three musicians and the public. The entire concert, as told by the musicians, was an improvisation.

Image # 1. Artists on stage.

The concert was part of “Sonósferas”, a set of concerts offered by Decanatura de Estudiantes of

Universidad de los Andes; therefore, the audience was mostly composed by Uniandes’ students. All

along the concert, I could notice the attention and the strong connection between the audience and the

artists, as told by Marc in his web page: “The powerful connection on the stage between Sergio

Castrillón and Marc Vilanova generates a fresh and hypnotic experience” (Vilanova, n.d.); indeed, at

the end of the concert Sergio told us that the reason why he performs this type of music is his need to

interact and to share a moment of deep listening, a moment of deep concentration and connection with
the audience. According to him, in experimental music we can find this type of connection that does

not exist in other styles of music.

This feeling of connection and Sergio’s words give us clues about music and the belief system

held by musicians; they conceive music as a way of connection with an audience and their instruments

also as a way of connection with sounds found in nature, for example in video #63. As Nyman (1999)

points out (talking about experimental music), “Music is a way of being in the world, becomes an

integral part of existence, is inseparably connected with it; it is an ethical category, no longer merely an

aesthetic one” (p. 2). Furthermore, taking into account that they are always improvising, we can

conclude that the transmission of their music is an oral tradition; they transmit their music in the same

moment they produce it. They do not write down what they perform, not even (as told by Marc) they

practice with each other.

With regard to the material culture, as we saw before, instruments in experimental music are

used beyond the traditional boundaries. In the concert, as we can see in video #1, Sergio plays the cello

with one hair of the arch. He also plays it with his hands like a drum, even with his mouth like giving

kisses to it, and rubbing the wood with the arch (video #2); furthermore, sometimes he held the cello in

an horizontal form rather than in a vertical one (the traditional form). Also he told us that he always

deconstruct his instrument visualizing it as a piece of wood with chords, not as a cello. Concerning

Marc; first of all, he put a little bottle of water inside his saxophone and he played it with the bottle

inside it. Secondly, as seen in image #2 (and video #6), he had a weird posture for playing his clarinet;

moreover, he was barefoot.

                                                                                                               
3
Video links can be found at the end of this text.
 Image # 2. Marc and his posture.

For Marc, the way he plays his instruments and the sound he produces is inspired in noises

people listen to when a person speaks in an unintelligible language. What he tries to do is to transmit

those sounds with his instruments and to deconstruct the instruments, creating new sounds. In regards

to Ricardo, in addition to produce sounds electronically, he used cotton and an inflated balloon to

produce other types of sounds (video #3). For him it is important to use everyday objects to produce his

music.

With respect to the elements of music in the concert, I have to admit that all along the

performance I was trying to identify a rhythm, a meter and a form, but I could not do it. As seen in

videos #4, #5 and #6, these elements are imperceptible. As I told before, what I heard was a mix of

sounds and noises produced by instruments and objects. Although I didn’t identify any melody,

certainly the texture was a heterophony because both instruments were playing different melodies. The

timbre of each instrument was different and it changed also with the way they played instruments and

objects (balloon). Even though the fact that I did not identify those elements, at the end of the concert,

Marc and Sergio assured that while they were playing they were also thinking about the form and

timbre changes of their composition.

 This testimony is related to the fact that “the tasks of experimental music do not generally

depend on, and are not markedly changed by, any response from an audience, although the atmosphere

in which these tasks are accomplished may be completely changed by audience response” (Nyman,

1999, p.23). This way, having a form or a certain rhythm has nothing to do with the perception of these

elements by the audience; the artist creates his/her music trying to have a connection with the public,

but not trying to transmit a certain rhythm, form or a melody. Every person in the concert, including the

artists and the public is free to interpret and to give elements to what they are hearing.

Conclusions

The Kaiku Duo concert was certainly a musical experience different to what the audience and I

conceived as musical performance. The elements of music and the aesthetics were different to what we

were used to listen. In conclusion, as the concert demonstrates, experimental music is based on an oral

tradition and on a belief system whose purpose is to create connections for example with the audience

or with sounds. In addition to this, experimental music opens a path of reinventing musical instruments

and other technical elements of music like the form, melody and rhythm. The way the audience and the

artist interpret this elements and the aesthetics of sounds and music depends on what they hear, on what

they know and on what they want to perceive. All this is a proof of what we have talked in Music

Appreciation course about the definitions and meanings of music: they are totally culturally

determined.
Video links

• Video #1: https://youtu.be/fqoY0kklRhA

• Video #2: https://youtu.be/pRlwpuzNS6E
• Video #3: https://youtu.be/glxS9TK2bQ8
• Video #4: https://youtu.be/Yvr2_xYnfZY
• Video #5: https://youtu.be/HB4YuBJh-kU
• Video #6: https://youtu.be/vnGyxaANrT8

References

Allen, Ray. 2014. Music: Its Language, History and Culture. Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing.

Cage, John., & Charles, Daniel. 1995. For the birds. Boston; London: Marion Boyars.

Charles, Daniel. n.d. “Daniel Charles: Biographie” <http://home.att.ne.jp/grape/charles/dc/dc-bio.html>

Harper, Adam. 2015. “What Does ‘Experimental Music’ Even Mean Anymore?” The Fader. May 08. <  
http://www.thefader.com/2015/05/08/system-focus-experimental-music>

Música Popular. n.d. “Música Experimental”. <http://www.musicapopular.cl/generos/musica-

experimental/>

Nyman, Michael. 1999. Experimental Music. Cage and Beyond. Cambridge University Press.

Universidad de los Andes. (n.d.). “Ricardo Arias, Nuevo director del Departamento de Artes de Los
Andes”. <https://uniandes.edu.co/nuevo-director-artes-humanidades>

Vilanova, Marc. n.d. “Kaiku Duo”. <http://www.marcvilanova.com/Kaiku-Duo>

Evidence of attendance