Music that Goes to the edge of the Canvas

"WE tend to think of the explosion of creativity in New York in the mid 20th century as one that was dominated by the visual arts. The era belonged to those hard-living and wildly original exponents of abstract expressionism. But there was a great deal of experimentation in classical music, too – if you can use that term for sound-making that was continentally removed from the European heartland of the Austro-German tradition.From the 1940s, the avant-garde composer John Cage was active in New York overturning the precepts of art music. Among his followers were Morton Feldman and La Monte Young, who in turn inspired the minimalist composers Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass."


Read the rest here