In his landmark book devoted to experimental music, composer Michael Nyman defines it as something that "engages the performer at many stages before, above, and beyond those at which he is active in traditional western music." Whereas European classical music has... [more]

In his landmark book devoted to experimental music, composer Michael Nyman defines it as something that "engages the performer at many stages before, above, and beyond those at which he is active in traditional western music." Whereas European classical music has always had a built-in need to engage the mind, by Nyman's compass, experimental music enjoins performers to a more physical experience of music, not only playing but remembering the music from a physiological standpoint. This is just one take on a practically indefinable concept. Rock iconoclast Frank Zappa felt that if an individual agitated air molecules, a composition was taking form. For others, the mere idea or notation of a piece represents a musical experience, complete in its silence. Games, chance procedures, and the juxtaposition of expert players alongside amateurs, of temperament against intonation, of Western timbres with Eastern -- all these constitute valid experimental approaches. Experimental music can stand alone, but more often it serves the function of a research and development department in the factory of music; its more successful concepts slowly filter down to the mainstream. For this, one need look no farther than Brian Eno, who has successfully distilled experimental music for pop audiences via his own recordings and the work of his production clients. Then again, it's easy to recall the disdain of filmmaker Kenneth Anger for the term avant-garde; in its original context, it denoted the "suicide squad" in the French army, the ones sent onto the battlefield first to test the enemy's firepower. [show less]