Composer, pianist, and avant-garde musician, John Cage was a member of that rare breed of artists who invent their own artistic tradition. Philosophically linked to Dadaism, Futurism, and Zen Buddhism, his music amplified the unpredictable and accidental possibilities of sound, always provoking cont

Chance, Collage, Musique concrete, New york school music, Silence

Iannis Xenakis was a highly original Greek composer, known for using mathematic principles in his compositions. Born in Romania, Xenakis was part of the Greek Resistance during World War II, then later moved to France, where he worked as an architect with Le Corbusier and studied composition with Oli

20th-century music, Abstract, Architectural, Atmospheric, Experimental, Intense, Musique concrete

Born in a small farm town in Germany in 1928, progressive composer Karlheinz Stockhausen found his greatest pleasure in listening to the radio with his mother and playing what he heard on the piano. He began piano lessons at the age of six. At eight, he was performing popular tunes for tips and food

20th-century music, Collage, Dense, Musique concrete

Pierre Schaeffer was a French composer and a pioneer of electronic music. While working at the French national radio (Radiodiffusion Française), Schaeffer began experimenting with real-world sounds recorded on magnetic tape, pioneering a genre now known as musique concrète. In works such as Étude

Collage, Composed, Experimental, Industrial, Machinistic, Musique concrete, Pioneering, Technology