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oise O rders



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oise Orders

Jazz

Improvisation

and

Architecture

David

P

rown

University of Minnesota Press

Minneapolis / London



Part

of chapter 4 was previously published as Sonorous Urbanism:

Spatial Implications of the AACM, in

Sites of

Memory, edited by

Craig

E.

Barton (Princeton: Princeton Architectural

Press,

2001);

reprinted

with permission.

Copyright

2006

by the Regents of the University of Minnesota

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored

in a

retrieval system,

or

transmitted,

in any

form

or by any

means, electronic, mechanical,

photocopying,

recording,

or

otherwise,

without the

prior written permission

of the

publisher.

Pub lished by the University of Minnesota

Press

111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290

Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520

http://www.upress.umn.edu

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Brown, David, 1965-

Noise orders

:

jazz,

improvisation, and

architecture

/

David

P.

Brown.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978-0-8166-4350-9

he

: alk. paper)

ISBN-10: 0-8166-4350-4 he : alk. paper)

ISBN-13: 978-0-8166-4351-6 (pb

:

alk. paper)

ISBN-10:

0-8166-4351-2 (pb :

alk. paper)

1. Music and architecture. 2. Jazz— Analysis, appreciation.

3. Improvisation (Music). I. Title.

ML3849.B85 2006

781.65 117-dc22

2006006191

Printed

in the

United

States of America on acid-free paper

The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and

employer.

12 11 10 09 08 07 06 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

http://www.upress.umn.edu/

http://www.upress.umn.edu/



In mem ory

of

Helena,

Frank, and

Robert



Contents

ix Acknowledgments

xi Speculative Leaps

1 1.

Compositional Imperatives: Mondrian

and

Boogie-woogie

33 2.

What

Is the

Body Supposed

to Be

Doing?

John Cage

and Rahsaan

Roland Kirk

61 3. Now s the Time: Temporalities of Louis

Armstrong and Le Corbusier

89 4.

Function, Flexibility,

and

Improvisation:

The

AACM and Mies van der Rohe

119

Conclusion: Diagrams, Conduction,

and

the

Contemporary City

133

Notes

153

Index



Acknowledgments

McKnight Junior Faculty

Fellowship

from the Florida Ed u-

cation Fund provided the support and time for general research

on

jazz that

I have drawn on to write this

book.

I wish to thank

Dwight

Andrews fo r permi t t ing me to audit his jazz survey course

at

Emory University during

that

fellowship year.

I

would also like

to

thank Araya Asgedom

and

Mark West

fo r

pointing

me to the

w or k

o f

Nathaniel Mackey just before

I

started

the

fellowship.

It is

through Mackey's work that

I

later realized that

I had

both

the

m ate -

rial and the

s t ructure

fo r

this

project.

I

am

grateful

to

m a ny

fo r

their contributions

to

this project dur-

ing

the years of i ts development. I would l ike to thank Lars Lerup

for his questions and encouragement , Stephen Fox for his ca r e f u l

review of an ear ly draf t , Alber t Pope for his insights o n wri t ing a

book, and

Sanford Kwinter

for his

encouraging interest

in the

pro j -

ect. Walter

Hood,

Fred Moten, and Robert Walser provided review

and criticism

that

I foun d extrem ely valuable. I am indebted to Polly

Koch for her

early edit ing; Michael Martinez

fo r

image research;

Quyen Luong

for her

skillful m a na ge m e nt

of the

image permissions

process; Philip

Lee and

Kathy W ill iam s

fo r

assistance with some

o f

th e

images;

and Lys Ann

Weiss

for final

edit ing. Craig Barton

and

Craig W ilkins provided va luable advice and assistance as I sought a



TTT

publisher. I also w ant to thank Pieter Martin and L aura W estlund at

the

University

o f

Minnesota Press

fo r

their enthusiastic reception

o f

th e

project

and

their efforts

to

b r ing

it to

completion. Finally,

I

wish

to

thank Rober t Brown

for his

scholarly

and

brotherly advice

and

support

throughout the development of this project.

knowledgments



Speculative

Leaps

Fugitive Systems

1-2-3-4-5—1-2—1-2-3-4-5

is the rhythmic pattern o f descending

chords introduced in seven measures of "Giant Steps." In the next

eight measures, this progression is countered with four rhythmic clus-

ters

of

three chords moving

in

ascent,

1-2-3—1-2-3—1-2-3—1-2-3.

Then

1-2

chords descend

in the

sixteenth measure

to

initiate

a

sec-

o n d presentation of the sequence. Speed transforms this harmon-

ic

progression and rhythmic sequence into a challenge o f daunting

complexity when John Coltrane and his

fellow

musicians play.

1

Mul-

tiple distinctions blur, as Coltrane rapidly presses an extraordinarily

dense quantity o f notes through his saxophone. H e barely has time

to

draw breath

and

seems intent

on

forcing either himself

or the

saxophone

to a

traumatic end.

Out of

necessity, dexterity

and

intel-

lectual agility merge

as he and his

fellow musicians work

frenetically

to maintain their pace and a delicate balance between his solo and

their tempestuous support. The slightest hesitation o r misstep by any

participant will result in the collapse of their play. In defiance of this

risk, Coltrane's solo seems to always run slightly ahead, beckoning

and

then springing forward with

the

arrival

of the

smallest amount

of

necessary support.

Despite

th e

strains imposed

b y

their velocity,

no one

falters. They



xii / Speculative Leaps

all

navigate

safely to the

end. Future recordings

b y

Co ltrane

do

reveal

that there was in

fact

a casualty: the composition had been pressed

and accelerated

to its

end. W ith

"Giant

Steps," Co ltrane exh austed

the need for a chord s t ructure as the basis o f im pro visational play.

In

such wo rks as "M y Favo rite Things," he obliterates the song as a

sound

object—something

represented

in a fixed

ideal

state

through

writ ing o r recording and reproducible in

per fo rmance—in

order to

use

f ragments

of the

song

as raw

materials

and

resources. W ith

th e

song recognizable only through occasional statements

of its

ref ra in,

two scales selected f rom within the them e structur e enable an equally

energetic and open-ended play that eventually becom es so expansive

that

Coltrane

is

criticized

fo r

p racticing

onstage.

2

Practice is

pertinent;

preparation for recognizing potential dimen-

sions, d epths,

and

directions

is

pr eferred . Instead

o f a final

fo rm , there

is a

perpetual s tate

o f

development

and

change

in

playing that

fa-

cilitates a leap

into

the unk no w n. Steve Lacy describes the potential

yield o f

that leap

as the

only means

to

s om e

f o r m s o f

knowledge:

"If

through that leap

you find

something then

it has a

value which

I

don't think

can be

f ou nd

in any other

way.

. . .

What

I write is to

take

you to the

edge

safely so

that

you can go out

there

and find

this

other

stuff. But

really

it is

this other

stuff

that interests

me and I

think it f o rm s th e basic stuff o f jazz."

3

Within this dynamic system,

the sound object is not the only

fo rm

subver ted—rendered pl iant,

uns table ,

and

unfixed.

Also necessary

fo r

this music,

focused o n a

risk-laden moment,

is the

engagement

of the

indelibly inscribed,

yet

m utable, b odies, instrum ents, and vo cab ularies of the m usicians. Play-

ing in an atm osphere where they contribute to evolving m usic orders

rather than conform

to

existing ones, m usicians parado xically lose

their identities even as they find

them.

4

Noise

Arch itecture has b een characterized as frozen music. However, mu-

sicologist Bruno

Nettl

suggests tha t

th e

dom i na nce

o f

vision

in

W est-

ern

culture

and

thought

has

already frozen

its

sense

of

m usic:

"Musi-

cologists have been concerned in the first instance with musicology,

and

less with

the

process than with

the

completed work.

Affected

by

the research traditions of visual art and literature, they have con-



Speculative Leaps /

x i i i

centrated o n the finished wo rk, analyz ed the interrelation ships of i ts

components ,

and

looked

at its

history ,

b ut

rarely have they b een con-

cerned with

the

varying orders

o f

cr eativi ty that

m ay

have

led to the

final

product."

5

A s it has

co nt inued

to

develop throug h

th e

twentieth

century, Western classical music has focused on f ixed, rather than

active, relations that emphasize

the

composer over

the

pe r f o r m e r ,

and

"correct" technique adopted

to

p e r f o r m

the

intentions

of the

written composition. This focus facilitates the identification of syn-

esthetic equivalencies

o r

harmonic series

o f

m athem atica l

and

struc-

tural relationships

that

might

be

extracted

and

applied

to

reinforce

the

pro po r t ion al re la t ion s , ideal ized geom etr ies ,

and

o the r v i sua l

obsessions

that

dominate architecture

and

urban design.

However,

as Nettl

notes,

all

music cannot

b e fully

accounted

fo r

wi thin

the

vision-based relations of wri t ten music: "The concept of improvi-

sation

is

actual ly broader

and

encompasses more types

o f

creative

activity

than

th e

concept

o f

com posit ion,

defined as an

individual

writing a score. Nevertheless, musicologists have tended to dismiss

it as a

single pro cess which

is not

easily

described."

6

U na b l e

to

pre-

cisely

account

for or define all of the

processes that

can be

f o u n d

in

j azz , wri t ten modes

o f

thought that privilege

the eye

have dism issed

the

potential

o f improvisation as a modern mode o f thinking and

practice, viewing

it as

opposi t ional

and inferior . But

im provisation

is

f acilitated

b y a broad

range

o f

creative activities, including written

com posit ion , that enable a set of explorations that are dist inct f r o m ,

rather than opposed to , those of a fixed composit ion. In rem inding

Western

culture that playing music

and

creating music need

not be

separate activities,

jazz

insists that order might no t reside where w e

expect

it—in

the places described by Western musical notation, i ts

techniques, and i ts harm on ic preferen ces. Ord er m ight in

fact

reside

in

what that system perceives

as

noise.

No ise, as the art historian George Kub ler pro po sed in

The Shape

o f Time while explaining the concept of "drift" in linguistics, is

i r regular

and unexpected

change.

7

"Drift ," or gradual and periodic

change

in

language, occurs because

o f noise,

interferences

that

pre-

vent

the com plete repetition of an earlier set of conditions. Historical-

ly,

"human perception

is

best suited

to

slow modifications

of

routine

behavior," so we seek to r egulate rather th an em bra ce the sources of

noise.

8

No ise is inevitab le. Ho wever, by lim iting it or r edu cing it to a



x iv

/

Speculative

Leaps

regular hum, we can control the rate of change to ensure communi-

cation. In

Noise: The Political Economy

o f

Music,

Jacques Attali in-

dicates that

a

price

is

paid

for

that limitation

and

reduction, because

noise

m ay

bear meaning:

"A

noise

is a

resonance that interferes with

th e audition o f a message in the process o f emission. A resonance

is

a set of simultaneous, pure sounds o f determined f requency and

differing

intensity. Noise, then, does

not

exist

in

itself,

but

only

in

relation to the system within which it is inscribed: emitter, transmit-

ter, receiver. Information theory uses

the

concept

of

noise

(or

rather,

m e t o n y m y )

in a

more general way: noise

is the

term

for a

signal that

interferes

with

the

reception

o f a

message

by the

receiver, even

if the

interfering signal itself

has a

meaning

for

that

receiver."

9

Situational

and system-dependent, noise, or that which is excluded or taken as

interference, may indicate a different ordering

potential

and mean-

in g outside th e range of an existing system. These aspects o f noise

are evident in improvisation's use of particular contexts, perform-

ers, and other circumstantial variables as resources fo r making music.

Because written composition

in

classical music seeks

to

regulate

and

limit these same factors

to

ensure

the

precise reproduction

of

music,

improvised music

is

inexplicable

to

classical musical thought.

Architecture and

Improvisation

However, neither Kubler's

no r

Attali's discussion

o f

noise

is

limited

to sonorous considerations. In contemporary architectural practices,

we find several efforts that reflect upon questions introduced by im-

provised music's assertions o f verbs over nouns, th e sonorous over

the visual. We also find variability and fugitivity as indicators for

different

issues in architecture. Readings of the spontaneity and exu-

berance in architectural drawings and forms have o n occasion iden-

tified or

proposed

a

visual equivalence

to

qualities that characterize

f o r m s o f j a zz , such as syncopated rhythms, hesitations, repetitions,

inversions,

and

call

and response.

10

Walter Hood deploys

a

geomet-

ric organization and

often

subjects it to a series o f readings, based o n

subjects—observed and documented from everyday l ife—w ho might

occupy the space, and who provide different articulations a nd elabo-

rations

of the

geometry that

he

overlays onto

a

site.

11

The

completed



Speculative Leaps

/ xv

design

is a

synthesis that somehow

reflects all of

these informants .

Araya Asgedom and Mark West have sought to

incorporate

impro-

visational aspects within their work through frameworks and form-

works

in

which

the final

determination

of a

built element's form

is

elicited f r o m

the

play

o f

mater ia l forces

and

proper t ies dur ing

construction.

12

Through

such

work,

improvisation offers

a

challenge

to approaches that m a ke th e material conform to m odes o f con struc-

tion. With computers, this play

o f

m aterial forces

can

become more

implicated in the act of design. Animation software is the material

in

which active properties

and

variables

are

defined, assigned,

and

set

in mot ion to enable shi f t ing forms to unfold. Design becomes

a process of assignment, adjustment, and selection that has been

likened

to

"avant-garde jazz" ( that

is, the

work

o f

avant-garde jazz

musicians).

13

The reasons for these

explorations

in relation to improvisation,

at the level of design, construction, and/or use, are quite varied.

Some

o f

these references

to

improvisation

and

jazz focus

on

visual

equivalents—substituting

one

kind

o f

music

as a

representation

of

visual relationships—and m aintain an emphasis on representational

relations that can account for the sonorous quality of music and the

visual

character of geometric forms, as well as the processes that

generated them.

14

Other efforts, such as Bennett Neiman's, strive to

develop generative for m s or processes that exceed the intentions and

expectations

of the

designer

and

subsequently give

the

design greater

f o r m a l

spatial complexity.

15

Asgedom seeks

an affective as

well

as

effective

architecture—an architecture o f excess, which, hav ing fu l-

filled its fu nctionali ty, goes further. An architecture o f improvisation

in

this formulation

is

based

in

repetition

and

change, improvisation,

nonobject ivity,

and contaminat ion.

16

Through his improvisat ional

design acts,

Hood

strives to produce a new spatial field—one that

acknowledges and is characterized by flux and change, rather than

permanence and certainty, and

that

enables its sub jects to engage in

acts o f impro visat ion in their occupation of the space.

Further potential fo r such dynamic spatial fields and ways

that

architecture might provide o r work within them is the

focus

o f this

book. Jazz and improvised music are s tudied to identify properties ,

qualities, and effects that architecture might instill and encourage



x v i / Speculative Leaps

to increase the potential fo r improvisat ional moments and actions

to

occur.

The

chapters

that

fol low focus

o n

mani fes ta t ions

in im-

provised music of active and variable conceptions of

composition,

relations between

subject

and object, time and space that challenge

architecture's o w n separations between subject and object , its iso-

lations

and

exclusions

to

delineate discrete wholes,

and its

asser-

tions of fixed structures wrought by a privileged eye, which tend to

em phasize stasis. By exam ining these fo ur area s, the potential for

designs that emphasize material forms and their resultant shapes,

emergent and variab le sub ject/ob ject posi t ions, m om ents laden with

diverse temporal articulations,

and

latent properties

of

m aterials

and

systems are introduced and outl ined.

The inco rpo ration of these con siderations, w hich seek to facilitate

improvisation

in a

dynamic spatial

field,

does

not

necessitate improvi-

sational design, but it does transf or m ,

shift,

and expand architecture

practice from an em phasis on the design of ob jects to an em phasis on

the coordination and manipulation of resources, including the pro-

ductio n of ob jects, to f acilitate access to p rocesses. Operating w ithin

this change in emphasis, the architect may take on the role of im -

proviser as well as other roles involved in the making o f improvised

m usic , including those o f composer, soloist , provider o f r h y t h m i c

support, and listener. The architect might engage in

different

sets of

actions—some

improvisational

and

some compositional.

The

par-

ticular position that an architect might occupy across this spectrum

would be determined by the needs of the project .

In

such

shifting

roles,

the

architect might address

Keller

E asterling's

suggestion that architects seek the wild cards—which she describes

as

impro visational fram ewo rks that permit adjustment—in m a n y

o f

the

organizat ional formats

and

in f ra s t ructu res that work upon

the

manifesta t ion

of our bui l t environment .

17

The architect might find

himself or herself working like a j a z z d ru m m e r, or a shepherd, to

guide

what Sanford Kwinter describes

as a

"soft

u r b a n i s m " — a dy-

namic ,

flexible,

ad hoc urbanism "where forces are allowed to in-

teract and in so doing to declare their

natures:

to tell us of what

they are m ade and to w hat ends they

tend."

18

Both of these potential

directions

fo r

architectural practice

are

notable because they refer-

ence biology, information theory, and cybernetics, yet they recognize

that

there are quali t ies and properties of

impro vi sa tion—w hich

is



Speculative Leaps / x v i i

not a component of such areas of s tudy—that meri t consideration.

These

qualities

and

properties include

its

ability

to

accept

and ac-

com m odate the unforeseen and the unplanned , the provis ional and

the circumstantial , and that which is

subject

to change and

adjust-

ment. Such recognition of improvisation is rare, perhaps because of

th e

lack

o f

precise lines

o r

indications, s imilar

to

those

of fe red b y

scientific

explanation,

on which design might

concentrate.

Insofar as improvisation has been examined, the emphasis tends

to be on

seeking unders tand ing through definition.

The

definitions

provided in architecture, such as

those

by Asgedom and Hood, de-

scribe

improvisation as a negotiation between anticipated and un-

anticipated phenomena and a play of the familiar within processes

of

tradit ion/repeti t ion and change. These definitions a re richer and

m ore accurate than the com m on unders tanding of im provisation as

the act of "making it up as one goes

along."

Even so, the m om e nt

and act of improvisation eludes prediction o r precise identificatio n.

The

task

of

defining improvisation

is

likely impossible

in

view

of its

"having no existence outside o f i ts

practice."

19

Improvisation

is

perhaps, bo rrowing f rom

the

language

of the

bio-

logical and the com putational, best understoo d as an emergence—

one of

h u m a n th ou gh t

and

ac t ion—that

is

facilitated

b y a

range

o f

var iables ,

proper t ies, and s t ruc tures . As this bo ok dem on strates ,

some o f those variables, properties, and structures, as well as ways

in which they might b e informat ive fo r architecture, can be identi-

fied and

unders tood

b y

exam ining

jazz . The

intent

o f

this study

is

to und erstan d what design can o rganize to fac i l itate or increase the

l ikelihood of im provisation— to s t ructure ways to, in paraphrase o f

Lacy, "take someone out there."

In its

cultural, philosophical,

and

social basis, jazz also offers

an in-

dication

of the

value

of

pro cesses

that

facilitate imp rov isation

as

infor-

mants and aspects o f dy nam ic spatial fields.

20

Through th e blues and

work songs, jazz descends

f rom

six organizing principles of

Afr ican

song and dance, which Robert Farris Thompson has described. Five

of these principles a f f i rm and e laborate the

f o r m a l

characteris t ics

that

a re

tradit ionally used

to

descr ibe jazz .

The

sixth principle—

characterized

as ""songs

an d dances o f social allusion

(music which,

however danceable and 'swinging, ' rem or selessly co ntrasts social

imperfections against implied criteria for perfect living)"—identifies



xvi i i

/ Speculative

Leaps

the ability of the tools of entertainment to operate as conceptual cri-

tiques that push both musical and

social

limits.

21

The study of impro-

vised music contributes insight regarding the human creative poten-

tial

that

can be

enabled

in the

interplay

o f

dynamic

systems—filled

with risk, diverse durations, fleeting boundaries,

and

varying quali-

ties of media. The manner in which active properties are deployed

in

improvised music emphasizes inclusion b y maximizing individual

creativity within a collaborative and collective environment.

Cecil Taylor and Santiago Calatrava

Commenting on his own music and Santiago Calatrava's architecture,

Cecil Taylor,

an

improviser known

for his free-form

playing, sug-

gests some

of the

fundamental questions that improvisation poses

for

the design, development, and engagement of architecture—questions

that this book examines: "I get more gratification in looking at an

architectural drawing by the structural engineer Calatrava than I

do looking at most musical scores. There's always been this inac-

curate

way of

describing people

who

play

by

ear.

I

mean what other

way is there to play? Composition is a kind o f architecture b y using

sonorities to create three dimensions. What is this mythology about

composition? What

is the

body supposed

to be

doing when

one is

performing?"

22

Elsewhere, Taylor has revealed that his fascination

with Calatrava's work proceeds f r o m interests in dance, poetry, and

architecture/engineering, including

the

ways

in

which these forms

are structured.

23

Although

he

acknowledges

a

difference

in

material,

Taylor, who also writes poetry, believes there are unintended simi-

larities

in his

poetic

and

musical structures

that

are

informed

by his

cross-disciplinary interests. Similarly, his interest in the transition

f rom suspension bridges to the sculptural qualities o f fan-shaped and

harp-shaped cable-stay bridges,

and the

development

of Calatrava's

distinctive structural conception—all, according to Taylor, analyses

of construction techniques manifesting an "idea o f space, duration,

and time"—have unspoken yet clear connections to

Taylor's

musical

structures.

24

Taylor's particular interest in Calatrava's bridges seems

to lie in the

ability

of

Calatrava's f o r m s

to

identify

the

forces

and

counterforces acting upon them (Figure 1).

Alexander

Tzonis

and

Liane Lefaivre,

in

Movement, Structure, an d



Speculative Leaps

/

Figure 1. Sant iago Calat rava, Bac de Roda Bridge.

the Work o f

Santiago

Calatrava, assert that Calatrava's wo rk "m ani-

fests movement ra ther than masks

it."

25

They note that Calatrava

surpasses the

representation

o f

stability

and the

appearance

of

opti-

mization, and approaches structure as an open field of po ssibilities by

selecting

a transitional state—where the structure articulates its gen-

erative

movements as well as its potential destruction—as the point

of

equilibrium.

In its

poise between

"generation and catastrophe,"

Calatrava's dynamic equilibrium relates to two structural aspects of

Taylor 's music: the rhythmic quali ty created through cycles of a

gradual rise then precipitous

fall

of pitch and intensity, and the com-

posed elem ents that initiate the m usic

(Figure 2 ).

2 6

Using poetic prose, Taylor describes these com posed elem ents and

their role in the generation of his music in the liner notes for his

recording

Unit Structures:

"The first

level

o r statement o f three an

open ing field of question, ho w large it ought or oug ht not to be. From

Anacrusis

to

Plain patterns

and

possibility converge, m o un tain sides

to dry rock beds, a foun tain spread befo re prairie,

fo rm

is possibility;

content, quali ty and change growth in addit ion to di rect ion found.

3rd pa rt is area where intui tion and given m aterial m ix gro up inter-

action.

Simultaneous invention heard which these

words

describe.

The paths o f harmonic and melodic light,

give

architecture sound

structures acts creating flight."

27

The "unit

s t ructures"—short ,

self-

contained rhythmic and/or melodic themes and elements—that are

xix



xx

/

Speculative Leaps

Figure 2. Diagram of pitch and

intensity

cyc les in Ceci l Taylor 's mu sic.

Based o n a

d rawing

b y

Ekkehard Jost

in Free Jazz.

present

in the sections "Anacrusis" and "Plain" have similarities to

Calatrava's drawings. In "Anacrusis," which is the beginning of the

piece, a unit structure in the form of a rhythmic figure juxtaposed

with piano chords establishes rhythmic tension as the general sense

of

th e

m o o d

and

tone

of the

music

to

come.

In

"Plain," unit struc-

tures provide predetermined thematic materials: as m a ny as fifteen

different

melodic

and

rhythmic phrases, none lasting more

than

ten

seconds,

are

stated

to

provide

the

material that will later

b e

repeated

and

developed.

28

In the spring of 2001 Taylor taught his organizational principles

to a class at the Turtle Bay M usic School, pro viding a rare descrip-

tion of how Taylor

notates

this m aterial: "He divides the scores

into

smal l

modules , which he cal ls quadrants . Each has specific ru les ,

with cues and gestures as to how they can be played, and each fits

with the others in some m ann er. He uses neither b ar lines nor staves,

b ut

presents

th e

notes

as

hieroglyphs

of

letters, ascending from

A

to G and descending

f rom

G to A , w ith register and p itch indicated

by

the distance in whole steps

f rom

middle C . They look like th e



Speculative Leaps / x x i

branches of a tree, abstract landscapes of plateaus, mountains, and

valleys,

or

perhaps

a

graphic representation

of a

dance."

29

In

develop-

in g

this material, Taylor applies lessons

from

opening melodic lines

b y

Thelonious Monk and Charl ie Parker

"that

have all the energy

and all the rhythmic qualities of a symphony in twelve measures."

3 0

He strives to provide similar properties in his short statements.

Calatrava's drawings reflect

"conceptional

principles that regard

structure as a three-dim ensional well-woven network con taining dif-

ferent conduits dedicated to different scales and qualities of move-

ment."

31

A s

such, they

can

d iagrammat ica l ly desc r ibe

the

general

rhythmic osci l lat ions and the forces at work in the composed ele-

ments

of

Taylor's music.

But the

drawings

are

resonant,

not

resolute,

as formal correspondences. They lack

the

capacity

to

explain

the

varying tempo , the irregular rhythmic lengths, o r the other phenome-

na

that Taylor encourages

in

"Area,"

th e

long passages

of his

m usic

constructed through collective improvisation, the conscious manipu-

lation o f the kno wn m aterials. However, Taylor's com posed elem ents

presented

in

"A nacrusis"

and

"Plain" also lack this capacity, b ecaus e

"notation can be used as a point of reference, but the notation does

not indicate music. It indicates a direction."

32

Describing the potential within a chord sequence to the Turtle

Bay

group, Taylor explains, "I played you just a single line. Unless

you play this extension cho rd, y ou have all sorts of po ssibilities within

that sound."

33

Later he em phasizes the rhythm ic aspect of a fo ur-no te

sequence

and

demonstrates that

its

different rhythmic registers hold

potential improvisational variations. Musician

D an

M a r m or s t e i n ,

echoing Taylor's description

from

Unit

Structures, considers the scores

to be fields. "Part of the fun,"

Marmorstein

o bserves, "is to discov-

er

the possibilities o f combining these notes in different ways." Y et

as the

music develops,

all of the

possibilities

may not be

appropriate:

"the player has to keep alert and on his toes and decide whether to

deal with the vertical stacks and the horizontal l ines as co nsecutive

tones

or as

simultaneously voiced

chords."

34

Taylor's description of his preparations for a work with the danc-

er M in Tanaka

fur ther

explains w hy the composed elements cannot

fully

account

for the

music

he

pro duces. "For this

M in

Tanaka thing

there are three areas I'm de aling with. I'm d ealing with how to g et to

th e

piano, what kind

o f

m ovem ent

is

going

to be

required.

How the



xxi i

/

Speculative

Leaps

voice

is

going

to be used. . . . Then there's the

music. Specific sound

organiza t ion of

music."

35

Ar chitecture, in Taylor 's fo rm ulatio n of

using

so no rities

to

create three dimensions,

is not

limited

to

notated

directions, d efinition s, o rgan izations, and relations of sou nd values,

because the

"intricate network

o f

form al relations" that

he

produces

b y

playing includes such seemingly nonmusical variables

a s

getting

to his instrument.

3 6

His

architecture emerges

f rom the

development

of

sound in an interplay between the directions described in his com-

posed structures and the variable quali t ies of the body, t ime, and

space.

In the manipulation of these forces and materials, his music

ar t iculates a tota l envi ronment or area that i s a measure of these

properties and in

which

no one property is the

sole determinant.

Complex Subject/Object Relations

To

opt imize

th e

di rect ional operat ions

of his

composed e lements ,

Taylor conveys

h is

music through playing rather than through wri t-

ing: he

prefers

tha t his com posed structures rem ain in the realm of

sound

fo r

more complete absorpt ion. Heard ra ther than seen,

his

f o r m s

are always active, "playing around in [the musicians'] heads

and operating" to

suggest

new

shapes

that

emerge when playing.

37

W riter M ark M iller em phasizes the collaborative im plications of this

approach in a description of Taylor's

process.

Miller observes

that

Taylor

first had the

m usicians wri te

the

par ts that

he

descr ibed

to

them. Later, "he would ask for Xeroxes of each part as the musician

had

wri t ten

it—this,

together with

a

personal s tatement

o f

what

th e

musician

felt

to be his or her own

'most outs tanding personal i ty

trait.' "

38

Because

o f

this emphasis

on the

contr ibut ions made

by the

m usicians and their distinct person alities, Taylor's m usic is subject to

change depending on the individuals who are playing it.

For musical personal i ty to emerge, Taylor

feels

i t i s important

that "you look

at the

instrument

and you

spend yo ur energy creating

sound w i th

th e instrument."

39

Hav ing studied

in a

classical con serva-

tory

for

three years, Taylor

has a firm

grounding

in the

standard tech-

niques for playing the piano. However, as

seen

in excerpts from th e

video

Burning Poles,

he has developed a range o f uniq ue techniques

fo r releasing

an

a r ray

o f

sounds f rom

his

ins t rum ent . W hi le playing

"Poles," he

bypasses

the

ke yb oa r d

to

concentrate

on the

produc-



Speculative

Leaps / xx i i i

t ion of sounds through the direct manipulation of the piano str ings

(Figure

3). With a m allet in his right ha nd , he successively pluc ks

and rub s the piano str ings with his

left

hand, then str ikes them with

th e

mallet

as he

m oves a round

th e

piano. Shown seated

at the

key-

b o ard playing "The Silence of Trees" in the same video, Taylor re-

veals a

sim ilar variety

o f

techniques,

few of

which correspond

to the

con ventions o f his classical train ing

(Figure

4). He conducts runs in

which his

ringers,

clustered together, dart at the keys. A t other m o -

ments ,

he

sits with

his

hands poised above

the

piano keys, then rolls

one h an d over to strike a cluster o f keys with its bac kside or slaps the

keyboard with his palm and forearm. While most of these practices

and techniques were initiated

b y

modernist composers , Taylor 's

use

of them

has

distinctive

effects.

40

Buell

Neidlinger

has

commented

that "most

pianos are not wor thy o f Cecil's abilities no r were they

able to

sustain

th e

massive

force of his

attack which comes

f rom

the shoulder.

Most

pianists play f rom the elbow; he played f rom th e

shoulder."

41

Valerie W ilm er has called Taylor's technique percussive,

as if the

piano were eighty-eight tuned

drums.

42

Figure

3.

Rub. Still sequence

of Cecil

Taylor playing Poles. From

Burning

P oles: Cecil

Taylor

in

Performance,

1991. Courtesy of

Mystic

Fire Video.

Figure 4.

Dart, Slap,

Forearm. Still

sequence

o f Cecil

Taylor playing The

Si lence o f Trees. From Bu rning P oles: Cecil

Taylor

in Performance,

1991. Courtesy

o f Mystic

Fire Video.



xxiv /

Speculative Leaps

Taylor's playing em phasizes the extensive sound potential that lies

outside

the

range

o f

sound s that s tandar d no tation com m unicates

and the

realm establ ished

b y

classical techniques developed

to

allow

written composition to work

effectively.

Every

instrum ent both enables

and conditions us through its implied physical

relations—fingerings,

volume control, and body control. In j azz , thorough explorations of

how the

b ody

m ay

relate

to an

instrument provide

th e

basis

for de-

veloping technique. "Each man," Taylor declares,

"is his own

acade-

m y," deriving techniques f rom an indiv idual exploration of gestures

in

relation

to a

par t icular ins trum ent

as

well

as f rom th e

latent intel-

ligence of

that

instrument's m aterial and f o r m .

43

Variable Temporal Flow

Jazz, which reintroduced rather than introduced Western culture

to the principle of kinetic improvisation in music, is not unique in

its practice.

44

A ll

music uses improvisation

in

some manner .

"What

m a k e s j azz unique," Taylor proposes, "is the compression of that

energy in a short period of time, and that, in turn, is a

reflection

of

what th e machine has done to our lives in metropoli tan areas in

America."

45

While solos in twelve, sixteen, o r thi r ty- two measures

and the durat ion that a piece is played contribute to this temporal

compression, rapid rhythmic manipulations have

th e

mos t signifi-

cant impact. Accents on the o f fbeats , the placement of notes slightly

ahead of or behind the beat , and the overlay of multiple rhythms

provide jazz with its kinetic drive and enable the expression of vari-

able and complex temporal manifestations within a small interval.

Charles Mingus, describing the opening line of The

Black Saint and

the

Sin n er Lady,

indicates the compressive degree of these manipula-

tions: "Dannie Richmond opens with a written repeated rhythmatic

bass

d r u m to snare drum to sock cymbal figure that suggests tw o

tempos along with its own."

46

Three of the six m ovements

that

fol-

lo w

deploy tem po ral m easures extracted from this dense overlay pro-

duced in the one-second interval

that

it takes Richmond to play th e

figure. In effect, th e basic measure o f un i form m echanical t im e here

contains four measures o f t ime.

Taylor encourages temporal

compression—"complete

sketches, im-

provisation, content, and shape becoming one"—by dispensing with



Speculative

Leaps / xxv

steady beats and other repeti t ive measuring elements and concen-

trating on the development of a dense field of varying patterns and

phrases.

47

Energy, the rise and fall in pitch and intensity of his rhy th-

mic

phrases,

operates

as the

source

of

kinetic drive

in

this

approach.

Additionally, the d i f fe rent lengths of Taylor 's o verlapping m elodic

lines often accentuate one another over extended and unde fined pe-

riods of time, which not only results in a startling density of tempos

but also suggests

that

t ime consists of an interplay of various dura-

tions that develop and dissipate at different rates. The music, lacking

any external imposi t ion of temporal measure , i s developed in real

time, w ith each elem ent opera ting tem por ally as a direct registration

of

the

activities

that

produce

it.

Textured Space

Music that undergoes development in real t ime is influenced by al l

the

elements that m a ke

up its spatial

environm ent, including

the so-

cially

defined

spaces between musicians,

and

between

the

musicians

and the audience, as well as the physical space that surrounds them.

Taylor conveys the importance of these spatial considerations when

he com m ents on recording studios: "I've never been really com for t-

able in a recording studio. For the m ost part it's such an artificial situa-

tion,

and the

engineer,

o f

course, m akes

it

even m ore artificial

by the

insistence on arr ang ing ev eryb od y to fit his idea of sou nd, wh ich has

nothing to do with music . . . what the engineer should do is sim ply

reproduce the sound after the m usicians have set them selves up in the

most happy arrangement

possible."

48

In

impro visation, unlike com po-

sitions written away f rom the pe rf o rm an ce site, the space of playing

is

no t

assumed

to be

u n i f o r m

o r

without significant propert ies that

might affect the m usic. Instead, that space, textu red and va ried, is un-

derstood to contain elements that not only

affect

the acoustic proper-

ties of the m usic but a lso give it a degree o f site specificity, info rm ing

so me o f the musical decisions and relations o f the musicians.

Noise Ord ers

Composi t ion is an open-ended s t ructure . We should not l imit our-

selves

to a

prescribed range

o f

given objects

b ut

alert ourselves

to the



x x v i

/

Specu lative Leaps

broader range

o f

potential positions that

we can

develop

b y

wo rking

with them.

A t

each m om ent,

we are

immersed

in

m ultiple dur ation s;

space consists of varied rather than uniform properties . As Taylor

works with these dynamic

and

variable considerations, "the em phasis

in

each piece is on building a whole, totally integrated

structure."

49

How ever, he is hesitant to

fully identify

the nature of the

fo rm

or the

order that develops,

and offers th e

following viewpoint:

"There is

no

m usic

without order.

. . . But

that

order is not necessarily related

to any single criterion of what order should be as imposed f rom th e

outside. Whether that criterion

is the

song

fo rm o r

what some critic

thinks

jazz

should be.

This

is not a question,

then,

of ' f reedom' as

opposed to 'non-freedom' but it is rather a question of recognizing

different

ideas

and

expressions

o f order."

50

Taylor

is frequently

sur-

prised by the ways in which patterns, relations, and order

manifes t

themselves

in the total field

generated

by his

music because none

of

these structuring considerations provides comprehensive control

over

th e

elements

it

gathers

and

organizes.

Dynamic, open-ended, and ambiguous, these considerations fa-

cilitate improvisation

and the

embrace

of opportunities

created

by

th e

circumstantial

and the

unforeseen, yielding outcomes that exceed

their seem ing potential. I call these und erlying structu ring co nsider-

ations

within

the

apparent

disorder,

which music played

by

ear—

improvised music,

such

as

jazz—has

com e to represent, no i se

orders .

With

th e

phrase

noi se orders , I

seek

to

convey

th e

tenuous balance

between o bject

and

action

b y

which such orders maintain their ten-

tative relations with

the

forces they organize,

and how

they

are in-

herently

subject

to change, capable o f resisting closur e and

objectifi-

cation

b y

acknowledging

and

engaging noise.

The chapters

that

follow fur ther investigate th e design implica-

tions of

these structures

and

conceptions

that

facilitate improvisa-

tion

by

exam ining each

one

individu ally within

one of four

preexist-

in g

com parative m om ents when m odern and avant-garde ar t is ts and

architects established an overlap or a distinction between their work

and jazz.

Each com parison int roduces

a

line

o f

inquiry, thro ugh ideas

in architecture,

visual

ar t , o r m usic, that pro vides par am eters for ex-

am ining developm ents and ideas in

j azz .

Black culture is

significant

in

considering these moments

of

overlap because

of its conceptual,

perceptual , and aesthetic impact on

jazz

practices, and b ecause of



Speculative Leaps / x x v i i

the ways in which misperceptions resulting

f rom

its reception have

affected perceptions of jazz . The process

questions

the prevailing his-

torical understand ing

of jazz as an

emblematic

o r

metaphoric "expres-

sion of the dynamism of the modern c i ty and m ode r n

life

t h r ou gh

its complex

dissonant

sounds and dynamic energy," to reveal jazz

as a reflection on improvisation as a mode of production in modern

culture.

51

The lines of thought are altered, deflected

onto

different

trajectories that reveal

jazz

to be a set of

structures, conceptions,

and

practices that constitute a distinct effor t to negotiate the pro-

cesses

of m o derniza tion. The chapters thus operate dually. First, they

demonstrate how improvised music, since its rise in the early twen-

tieth century, has consistently

offered

seldom considered alternative

and inclusive modes of practice. Second, they reveal how the active

properties

and

practices

o f

improvised music continue

to

bear

th e

potential for the creation of an inclusive environment. In working

through

th e

comparisons ,

the

intent

is not to

read improvisational

aspects in past architectures, but to expose potential directions for

arch itecture. Each chapter co ncludes with the identification of a de-

sign consideration

that can be incorporated into

contemporary

de-

sign practices.

Mondrian 's reflection on neo-plasticism, rhythm, and open form

in relation to jazz is the focus of chapter

1.

The obvious point of over-

lap is bo ogie-woo gie, the m usic to which M o ndr ian referred in his two

final paintings. However, as early as 1921, Mondrian also proposed

that jazz

was a precursor to

neo-plastic

music—a point he made in

"Jazz

and the

Neo -Plastic,"

an

essay that Mondrian describes

as "an

article

on

Neo -Plastic chrom oplastic

in

architecture.

... I

o nly take

jazz

as the starting

point;

it does not deal

with music."

52

The chap-

te r discusses bo ogie-woo gie as the culm ination o f these speculations

on neo-plastic music and considers the impact of boogie-woogie on

Mondrian 's work. It then explores Mondrian's thoughts on the spa-

tial and architectural implications o f neo-plastic painting and jazz .

Both em ploy o pen-form com positions

focusing

on extended relations

rather than closure, and b oth ( in M on drian's estim ation ) indicate an

open potential in architecture that leads to a transcendent

Utopian

fu ture unconst ra ined

b y

f o rm .

The

chapter concludes

b y

discussing

an

implication

o f

open fo rm

in

jazz that

is

outside Mondrian's focus

on rhythm and percuss ive

sound—the

way in which composit ions



xxv i i i /

Speculative Leaps

organize

participants.

Form s

that take you

"out

there"

provide links

and/or find

coherences within incoherences

in the

work

and

words

of

C ou nt

Basic,

Charl ie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus,

W adada Leo

Sm ith, Michel

Ratte,

and

A nthon y Braxton. These

fo rms

suggest not only a different manner in which architecture might be

an open form, through the des ign of mater ia l forms that mani fes t

resultant shapes,

but

also

a

diff eren t consideration

of the

present

and

the future , as well as im m anence and transcendence.

Al though Mondrian 's ideas were t ransformed upon

his

hear ing

boogie-woogie,

his

early writings ad vocate

the use of

electronic soun d

and

nonsound, emphasize

the

composer rather than

the

pe r f o r m e r

as

"the actual

artist,"

and

support

a

precise repetition

in

pe r formance .

In

these respects,

Mondrian's

ideas

run

counter

to

many develop-

ments within jazz. Given the emphasis on electronics, they have

more similari ty with

th e

ideas

o f

John Cage. However, M on drian's

emphasis on the repeti t ion that electronics permit runs counter to

Cage's viewpoint.

For

Cage,

th e

advent

and

p rol i feration

o f

electronic system s intro-

duced sounds and qualities

that

exposed th e inadequacies o f W estern

music's concentration

on

harmonical ly organizing

the

sounds

of the

scale. An indeterminate music, one that eluded the control of the

com poser o r the perfo rm er and perm i tted sounds to be them selves ,

was his response. Chapter 2 compares th e processes o f improvised

music and

Cage's ideas regarding indeterminacy

by focusing on

Cage

and

Rahsaan Roland Kirk,

who are

paired

in the

video Sound??

The

chapter

also

addresses Cage's

effort

to distance himself from

jazz

in

an

interview, "Lethal Measurement." Cage sought this distance

b e-

cause he

believed that

jazz

m ani fested

the

desires

fo r

control that

he

sought

to

forgo. Additionally,

he

bel ieved that improvisation con-

sisted of playing what you know, and that i t did not introduce any

means, such

as

those found

in his

com positions,

to

generate

a

situa-

tion or action

w ith

an

unkno wn outcome.

The chapter addresses how Cage's belief results from a different

consideration

of the

relations between

the subject and the

ob ject than

that

f ou nd in

jazz .

While Cage

successfully

challenged m any aspects

of classical m usic and expan ded the perceptual range of the com pos-

er, the

pe r former ,

and the

listener,

his

indeterm inate works retain

the

separate and discrete understandings of these subjects as well as the



Speculative Leaps /

x x i x

objects

they use. Jazz , given its prem ise that playing music and m ak-

ing m usic need not be separate activities, has different restraints and

considerations:

th e subject and object are not

discrete,

b ut

engage

in

a range o f

di f ferent

relations between the b o d y and the i ns t r u m e nt

and

a m o n g the par t i c ipants

that

emphasize thei r var iabi l i ty. This

emphasis is revealed in nineteenth-century effor ts to notate African

American work songs

and spirituals,

which

consisted

of

sounds

that

deformed

and slid across the notes of the traditional scales. Roscoe

Mitchell 's development

o f

recordings

and

notat ion

o f finger

pos i -

tions,

the

movements

of the

body, provides

an

extended example

o f

the expanded potential of variable relations between the subject and

the object. Kirk demonstrates this emphasis in a unique and explicit

m a nne r ,

by

playing m ultiple instrum ents

at the

same time,

as

well

a s

through other actions

that

show he is looking to participate in a field

of activity

rather

than take

control.

From

their conceptions of the

subject

and the

object ,

we can

propose

different

models

o f

di f fusion,

receptive

and reson ant, un derlying the respective wo rk of Cage and

Kirk.

After fur ther consideration of the resonant model of diffusion

that Kirk suggests,

the

chapter concludes

b y

propos ing that nur tur-

in g ob ject

b ehaviors

is a w ay that

design might acknowledge variable

subject/object

posi tions, and develop m anifestatio ns of the reso nant

m ode l

of

di f fusion.

The com parisons yield unfo reseen interrelations, in a dem on stra-

tion

o f

Nathaniel Mackey's proposal that "creative kinship

and the

lines o f affinity it effects are

much more complex, jagged,

and in-

dissociable than the total izing pretensions of canon formation tend

to

acknowledge."

53

The examination of Kirk and Cage provides an

introduction to Le

Corbusier

and

Ludwig Mies

van der Rohe, the

architects considered in chapters 3 and 4. Kirk 's Rip, R ig and Pan ic

inadver tent ly com m ents on a work by Le Co rbus ier thro ugh i ts play

upon Edgard Varese's

Poeme Electronique, the

composit ion made

fo r

th e Philips Pavilion , and

lonisation.

Cage suggests tha t Mies's Cr ow n

Hall is an ideal space for an indeterminate music.

Chapter

3

exam ines tem po ral conceptions initiated

b y Le

Co rbusier's

descriptions, in When the Cathedrals

Were

White, of seeing Lo uis

Armstrong play. The chapter begins b y examining ho w

jazz

musi -

cians, thro ugh their wr i t ing

and

perf o rm ance practices ,

often

sought

to subver t

effor ts

to place their m usic and them selves w ithin f ixed



x x x / Speculative Leaps

and limiting identities. Arm strong, both a skilled m usical innovato r

and an

adept entertainer,

w as

perhaps

th e

cleverest negotiator

of an

identity not fully of his own making through the development of per-

formance practices that reinforced prevailing cultural associations of

th e

m usic without

sacrificing its

conceptual foundations. This nuance

in Armstrong's music is lost upon Le Corbusier in his description

of Armstrong, which relies on a reductive characterization of black

music production. Le Corbusier

focuses

exclusively on the prim ary

rhy thm in the music, as he reinfo rces his ow n pro posals for a new ur-

banism by presenting Armstrong's music as a rhythmic art iculation

of machine-age precision and universal time. However, Armstrong's

music actually expresses

and

manipulates various

durations. His

sense

of

time, articulated

in the

rhythmic play

of his

solos upon

th e

pri-

mary rhythm, is revealed in his early recordings, and

noted

in ac-

counts by authors Ralph Ellison and Marie Cardinal of l istening to

Armstrong's music. This m anipulation in Armstrong's work suggests

the design of moments laden with diverse and simultaneous tempo-

ral articulations. A manifestation of this design potential is revealed

through an analysis of the Carpenter Center as a temporal experi-

ence that provides moments of release

f rom

the surrounding tempo-

ral order.

Mies 's promotion of f lexibi l i ty over fun c t io n and his warning

to be careful of improvising establish the parameters for chapter 4,

which seeks an understanding of the optimizations and precisions

provided by "fun ction ," "flexibility," and

"improvisation."

Louis

Sullivan's

focus on

function

attempted to develop new codes and

signs,

and

Mies's

work

with

flexibility

indicated

the

loss

of

meaning

in signs as well as the inability to produce new ones. The improvi-

sational

efforts

of the Association for the Advancement of Creative

Musicians (A A CM ) offered processes fo r developing ephemeral and

evaporative codes.

The

AACM

is an

improvisational urban collec-

tive

that sought to provide alternative settings for the development

of

a free improvised music. In seeking these settings, this collective

extended the interactions of improvised music play to the social and

urban situations of Chicago's South Side. The implications of this

effort

are

considered

in

relation

to

Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

and

Toni Morrison's

Jazz, two fictional

works that

offer

improvisation

as

a m ean s of nav igating and par ticipating in the city. How ever, Jacques



Speculative

Leaps

/

x x x i

Attali's Noise provides the primary basis for understanding how the

AACM's various efforts , as a challenge to the existing political econo-

m y o f music, resulted in new modes o f production and exchange. In

reviewing

those

new

modes

of

production

and

exchange

in

relation

to

several critiques

of

work

by

Mies,

we can

raise questions about

th e

political economy

o f

property

and the

potential

for new

urban

morphologies, responding to the reflective and transparent qualities

of

Mies's work, and Walter Benjamin's identification of new percep-

tual

and

conceptual challenges produced

by

mass cultural f o r m s .

The chapter thus offers ideas about urbanism as well as a proposal

that design work can explore the potential in latent properties of ma-

terials

and

systems

to

encourage

the

development

of the new

modes

o f production and exchange that can be identified in the AACM's

efforts .

Toward the end of each o f these chapters, aspects of two proj-

ects

(a

proposal

for the

Martin Luther King

Jr.

National Memorial

in Washington, D.C., and an installation at Project Row Houses in

Houston) and work f r o m studio teaching (Community Land Trust

Plans

of

Action Studio)

are

introduced

to

provide some initial

and

tentative indication

of the

ideas

presented.

54

Produced while writing

this

book,

that design work drew upon

or

informed

the

develop-

ment

o f

those ideas.

The

design work

is not

presented exhaustively.

However, readers can gain a clearer understanding o f a project b y

looking

at its set of

images across

all of the

chapters.

S o n o r o u s Vision

in the

Contemporary

City

By

examining

th e

past,

m y

larger intention

is to

foreground

the po-

tential o f deploying structures that facilitate improvisation in a con-

temporary architectural context.

The

conclusion reassesses

the four

design propositions introduced in the preceding chapters in relation

to contemporary considerations of the diagram in architecture. The

intention is to better understand the qualities that conceptions and

processes that facilitate improvisation contribute to contemporary

efforts

to

move

f rom

static

to

variable,

and to

dynamic understand-

ings

o f how w e

experience, read,

and

design

th e

contemporary city.

The work and words of Anthony Braxton and Lawrence Butch

Morris f r a m e this chapter.

Reflecting

on Braxton's diagrams, their



x x x i i / Specu lative Leaps

relation to writing practices, and the provision of human agency, a

concern

for the

m ob i li ty

and flows

within diasporas

can be

identified

as one direction for

fur ther

study.

Morris's

work is exam ined for the

fur ther

insights that it provides

about

playing practices

in

improvised music.

In

discussing conduct-

in g

as an

improvisational music-making activi ty, Morris proposes

that

a focus on the

medium ra the r than

on the

aesthetic, constant

preparation, determination and then release of the boundaries, and

risk rather than chance drive the restless mobil i ty of improvised

music.

After

discussing

those properties, I

suggest

that

they pro-

vide th e

outl ined design proposi t ions with

a

dist inct potential

to

contribute to an architecture of inclusion that encourages original

and

creative actions, when coupled with greater understanding

o f

the

var ious organizers that work upon

the

metropol i tan

field, and

to

operate

in an

envi ronment

that

unfolds

b y default

rather than

b y

design. By inco rpo rating c on ceptions and p rocesses that faci l itate

improvisation,

design

can

contribute

to

areas

in

this

field in

which

im prov isation and the agency that i t prov ides have greater po tential

to occur.



Chapter

1

Compositional Imperatives

Mondrian and Boogie-woogie

Boogie-woogie Rev iva l

In the 1920s A l Am m ons, M eade "Lux" Lewis , and other Chicago

pianists developed a twelve-bar blues

f o r m that

became k n o wn as

boogie-woogie.

It

demonstrated their

facility fo r

articulating

left-

hand, syncopated,

eight-bar-to-the-m easure rhythm s overlaid

with

r ight-hand melodic l ines. Its bas ic character is evident in

"Lux's

Boogie," a

piece

by

Lewis

that

could

be,

given

its structure, continu-

ous in form . Its recorded length was determ ined m ore by the l imits of

available technology than

by an

im plicit progression

in the

m usic that

would build to a concluding resolution. Reso lutions instead recur at

micro-levels. The piece is ordered by a repeated w alking bass line, de-

veloped

in

lef t-hand ar t iculat ions

o f

I-IV-V chords

in

arpeggio, that

creates a slight, cyclical vertical movement within the

f o u r

beats of

each

b ar. These cycles tak e place w ithin a larger cycle—a twelve-b ar

s t ructure—indicated

by right-hand accents

that frequently

signal a

shift in

melodic ideas. Often consisting

o f one

note interm ittently

re-

peated as a counterpoint to the primary rhythm, these melodic ideas,

p r imar i ly th ree -n o te

r i f fs , are

ver t ical ly res t ra ined

an d

r h y t h m i c

in

their conception. A rhythm ic em phasis is reinforced b y the f requent

lack

of

progressive development.

Melodic

ideas frequently

recur,

but

1



2

/ Compositional Imperatives

in no particular sequence in relation to one another. Instead, they are

rhythmically juxtaposed

to one

another.

While "Lux's Boogie" reveals many

of the

basic elements

o f

boogie-

woogie, it does not

fully

demonstrate the

effects

that could emerge

while this music is being played. The faster tempo of Lewis's

"Honky

Tonk Train Blues" makes it harder to aurally identify these basic ele-

ments.

One

hears

a

rapid cascade

of

implied textures

and

figurations

through the interplay of the triplet figures of the right hand with the

left-hand

rhythms. These textures an d figurations arise

f rom di f fer-

ent

paces

of

accented moments

in

which notes

of the

ostinato

and

r i f fs , each having its own rate, coincide within or across measures

of

the music (Figure 5).

Mondrian and Boogie-woogie

Arriv ing

in New York in 1940, in the midst of boogie-woogie's re-

vival, Piet Mondrian had frequent opportunities to hear these musi-

Figure

5.

Cross-rhythm effects between bass lines

and

riffs

in

Meade

L u x

Lewis's Honky Tonk Train Blues. Based on notation found in

Frank Tirro,

Jazz: A History, 2d ed.

(New York:

W. W.

Norton,

1993).



Compositional Imperatives

/

3

cians

play and exub erantly proclaim ed "certain exam ples of boo gie-

woogie to be

'Pure,'

o r

'The

True

Jazz';

as for the rest, it was worthy

provided an inferior status be

granted."

1

The impact of this music

on his work and

thinking

was first

registered

in his

response

to a

comment regarding changes in

New

York

City I:

"now it has more

Boogie Woogie." More commonly noted is his acknowledgment of

this music

in the

titles

of his

last w o r k s —B o o g i e W oo gie , Broad-

way

Boogie-Woogie,

and Victory

Boog i e -Woog i e—which

has led to

speculation regarding the relation o f this music to the New York

paintings. Rapid, syncopated rhythms and i rregular rhythmic flick-

ers of

color,

improvisation, and new

process-oriented

techniques (in-

cluding the use of l ines of color

tape,

revealed brush strokes, and

intuitive decisions) have all been cited in analyses of these paintings

relating them to boogie-woogie.

2

B ut Mondrian 's o w n statements

reveal

that he was striving to articulate a relation

focused

on a simi-

larity in intention:

I c am e

to the

destruction

of

vo lum e

by the use of the

plane. This

I accomplished b y m e a ns o f l ines cutting th e planes. But still th e

plane rem ained

to o

intact.

So I

c am e

to

m aking lines

and

b rough t

th e color within th e lines. Now the prob lem w as to destroy these

lines

also through mutual opposition.

Perhaps I do not express myself clearly in this, but it may give

you some idea w hy I

left

the Cubist influence. True Boogie Woogie

I conceive as hom ogeno us in intention with m ine in p ainting.

I

think

the destructive element is too much neglected in art.

3

While analogies with

jazz

were evident and were acknowledged by

Mondrian, what fascinated

h im was

their mutual destructive abili-

ty. Boogie-woogie and his paintings were parallel articulations of

dynam ic equi libr ium .

In boogie-woogie, Mondrian

heard th e

full

emergence of a po-

tential in jazz

that

he had first speculated about in "Natural Reality

and Abstract Reality" (1920). Potential relations between jazz and

the

neo-plastic

are established in this script when Z., an abs t ract

real painter, comments: "Old music and old violins don't m ean very

much

to me; I far

prefer

the

jazz band where

the old

harmony

is

broken

up.

That,

at

least,

is a

beginning.

The new

concert music

is

concerned with th e same thing, b ut goes about it differently."

4

Jazz



4

/ Compositional mperatives

had

provided Mondrian with definitive evidence that

the neo-plastic

was present in other arts besides painting, and it served as a prod

and precedent for his own efforts to distill painting. Before his en-

counter

with

boogie-woogie, his thoughts on

jazz

culminated in the

essay "Jazz and the

Neo-Plastic"

(1927), where he declared: "Jazz

and neo-Plasticism are already creating an environment in which art

and philosophy resolve into rhythm that has no

fo rm

and is therefore

'open.'"

5

Rhythm, form, and openness, as defined in this essay, provide a

basis for evaluating the transformations in Mondrian's late works as

well

as for examining the potential fo r architecture that is suggested

in form as understood in boogie-woogie and other compositional

modes, ideas, and practices in improvised music. It is important to

recognize that Mondrian's

focus

in this essay was neither on music

nor on painting. As Mondrian explained to J. J. P. Oud, it is "an

article

on

neo-plastic chromoplastic

in

architecture. ...

I

only take

jazz

as the starting point; it does not deal with music."

6

Open Form

Mondrian's concern for establishing an "open" environment, created

through a move f rom

form

to rhythm, can be seen as a manifestation

of a collective concern. In The De Stijl Environment historian Nancy

Troy describes this concern as "a goal

that

virtually every advanced

artist active in the period af ter the First World War held dear: to

work through the arts to achieve an ideal fu ture when all the walls

that separate men would be broken down and when society would

b e truly integrated and capable o f constructing a Utopian urban en-

vironment of abstract forms."

7

While Troy's observation emphasizes

this concern in the postwar work of artists, initial identification of

an

open potential

as

well

as its

architectural range

can be

made

in

prewar manifestoes.

Paul

Scheerbart writes

in

"Glass Architecture" (1914)

o f

visually

eliminating

architecture's enclosing character through the extensive

use of

glass:

W e live for the

most part within enclosed spaces. These

form the

environment f rom which our

cul ture grows.

Our

cul ture

is in a



Com positional Imp eratives

/ 5

sense a product of our architecture. If we wish to raise our cul ture

to a higher level, we are forced fo r better or for worse to t ransform

o ur

architecture .

A nd

this will

b e

possible only

if we

remove

the

enclosed quality

f rom th e

spaces within which

w e

live. This

can be

done o nly thro ug h the introd uction of glass architecture that lets

the sunlight and the light of the m oon and stars into our ro om s not

merely

through a few

windows,

but

simultaneously

through the

greatest possible number o f walls that are made entirely o f

glass—

coloured glass.

8

From

new technologies in

building

construction,

Scheerbart proposes

tw o

outcomes.

One is

that walls

o f

glass, rather than sm all window

op enings, could adm it light

and

pro vide views

in and ou t to

m in im iz e

the

sense

o f

enclosure. This

is an

obvious extension

of new

technolo-

gies

applied

to

every building

in the

bu i l t envi ronment .

The

other

outcome, which is both his guiding concern and pure speculation,

is th e

posi t ive impact that this environment would have

o n

culture.

A n

open archi tecture—one that

fo r

Scheerbar t visually m inim ized

enclosure—would provide spatial

connection

and would raise cul-

ture to a higher

level

than had previo usly been attained.

In

the same year Antonio Sant'Elia's "Futurist Architecture" ap-

peared.

Like

Scheerbart, Sant'Elia stresses

the

need

to

embrace

n ew

mater ia l and const ruct ion techniques to accommodate modern

life.

For h im , the problem posed in

modern

architecture

is not a problem of linear rearrangement. ... It is a question of

tending the

heal thy grow th

of the

Fu turis t house,

o f

co nst ruct ing

it

with

all the resources of technology and science, of satisfying

magisterial ly

all the

d e m a n d s

o f our

habi ts

and o ur

spir i t , t ram-

pling down all that is grotesque and antithetical (tradition, style,

aesthetics, proport ion), determining new

f o r m s ,

new lines, a new

h a r m o n y

o f profiles and

volumes,

a n

architecture whose reason

f o r

existence can b e foun d solely in the uniqu e conditions of m od ern

life,

and in its co rrespondence with th e aesthetic values of our sensi-

bilities. This architecture cannot be subjected to any law of histori-

cal continuity. It m u s t b e new,

just

as our state o f m i nd is new.

9

Sant'Elia advocates a shift f rom monumental to l ight and practical

architecture—based on the

spat io- tempo ral

field that

modern devel-

opm ents had im plicated, rather than on the visual quali ty of m od ern



6 / Com positional Impera tives

materials that info rm ed Scheerbart 's thought: "The art of construc-

tion has b een able to evolve w ith tim e, and to pass f rom one style

to another while maintaining unaltered the general characteristics

of

architecture, because in the course of history changes of fashion

are

frequent

and are determined b y the alternations o f religious con-

viction and political disposition. But profound changes in the state

of the environment are extremely rare , changes that unhinge and

renew, such

as the

discovery

of

natural laws,

the

perfecting

of me-

chanical means, th e rat ional and

scientific

use of material."

10

While

Sant'Elia does

no t

explicitly identify

an

open quali ty

in

architecture

in

his manifesto, its suggestion can be located in earlier manifestoes

by a

fellow

fu tur i s t,

the

painter

and

sculptor Umberto Boccioni,

W riting ab ou t painting in 1910, Bo ccioni inqu ires, "Wh o can still

believe

in the

spacity

o f

bodies, since

our

sharpened

and

multiplied

sensitiveness

has

already penetrated

the

obscure manifestations

of

th e m e d i u m ? Why should we forget in our creations the doubled

power

of our

sight, capable

of

giving results analogous

to

those

of

th e

X-rays?"

11

Later, in "Plastic Dynamism," a lecture presented and

published

in

1913,

he

proclaims,

"It

should never

be

forgo tten that

w e

are passing thro ug h a stage in a long progress toward s interpen-

etration, simultaneity,

a nd

fusion,

o n

which humani ty

has

been

e n-

gaged

for

thousands

of

years."

He

then

states, "As a

result, sculpture

as w ell, by m e ans of an interpenetration o f planes, is b ringing figures

alive within their environment." He concludes that "we must, there-

fore, raise

the

concept

of the

object

to

that

o f

plastic w hole: object +

environment. In

this

way we

shall have

the

object extended

into the

rays

of l ight which shine on to i t , by uniting atmospherical blocks

with elem ents of a m ore concrete reality."

12

Hints

of the

transparencies

identified

later

b y

Colin Rowe

and

Robert Slutzky

in

their essay "Transparency: Literal

and

Phenome-

nal" are already present in Scheerbart 's emphasis on glass and in

Boccioni's

focus o n

"sim ultaneity"

and

"interpenetration," which

a re

among several terms

that

Rowe

and

Slutzky claim

are

used synony-

m ously in archi tecture: "superimposition," "ambivalence," "space-

time,"

and

"transparency."

13

"Open"

can be

understood

as

another

of these synon ym ous term s. However, M ondrian's m ention

of

open-

ness in relation to rhythm and form shifts emphasis away

from

the

spatial

effects

that Rowe and

Slutzky

exam ine to relations o f m atter ,



Com positional Imperatives

/

7

f o r m ,

and space.

Literal

and

phenomenal

still apply. Scheerbart's

glass architecture permits one to see how a form is l i terally pene-

trated

by

light, while Boccioni talks phenomenally

of an

object

ex-

tending into rays o f light. This extension of an

object

occurs through

Boccioni 's dual conception

o f fo rm in

response

to two

unders tand-

ings of movement. At the outset of "Plastic Dynamism," he proposes

that dynamism "is the lyrical conception of forms, interpreted in

th e

infinite

m anifestatio ns of the relativi ty between absolute m otion

and

relative motion, between the envi ronment and the

object

which

come together

to

f o r m

th e

appearance

o f a whole:

environment

+

object."™

Mondrian

acknowledges

the

efforts

of

futurism

at the

outset

o f

"Jazz

and the

Neo-Plastic": "Many m ovem ents have actual ly

set out

to

abolish form

and

create

a

freer rhythm.

In

art, Futurism gave

the

maj or impulse."

15

This seem s to point directly to "plastic dynamism."

As

Boccioni describes

his two

notions

o f

m ot ion

and

their implica-

tion

on the

"envi ronment

+

ob jec t"

as

well

as the

"object

+

envi ron-

ment," he provides

several

ideas that seem to inform Mondrian 's

essay—or

at least clarify i t. Bo ccioni notes, "Only thr o ug h this du al

conception

o f fo rm can we

give

a

hint

o f

plastic

life in our

w or k ,

without having extracted and rem oved i t

f rom

i ts l iving enviro nm ent,

which would mean ar res t ing

its

motion." This constitutes

a shift in

emphasis

from

form to rhythm : "In sculpture, therefore, we are not

necessarily

looking

fo r pure form but for pure plastic rhythm, no t

the construction

of an

object."

This is

similar

to the

emphasis

on

rhythm

that Mondrian would later propose. Further, Boccioni 's dis-

tinction

between absolute

motion—"the

motion characteristic

of an

object,"

th e

internal

forces

working upon

and

exerted

by an

object

(while at rest o r in mot ion)—and relative motion (the "transforma-

tion which th e

object

undergoes in relation to its m obi le and im m o -

bi le envi ronment") seems to inform

Mondrian's

unders tanding of

the dist inction b etween what pa inting (abso lute m otion ) and m usic

(relative

m ot ion) cou ld im par t to

architecture.

16

Neo-Plasticism and Neo-Plast ic Music

In

"Jazz

and the

Neo-Plastic," Mondrian goes

on to

assert painting's

significance as the medium in which the

abolition

o f form could b e



8 /

Com positional Imper atives

intensively studied: "Cubism led painting to

break form

and to

o r-

ganize

it anew.

Less bound by fo rm

than

the

other arts,

painting

was able to ca rry this throug h consistently to N eo-Plasticism : a new

organizat ion through

a new

plastic

means."

17

Mondrian, Theo

van

Doesburg,

and

other

de Stijl

artists viewed their work

as a

continua-

tion of an evolutionary

shift

in the focus o f painting, f rom n a t u r a l

f o r m s (man, tree), to elements of form (sphere, cylinder, cone), to

plastic elements (plan e, line, color ). Over

th e

course

o f

m odern pain t -

ing's short history, f rom impressionism through cubism, an under-

lying co ncern for composition, or "the aesthetic element in art"—the

positions held by the elem ents w ithin th e space of the canvas—had

steadily asserted

itself

over

the

previously dom inant concerns

of

rep-

resentation. According to van Doesburg, cubism completed the ne-

gation of representation an d raised "to the first ra nk these elem ents

which, in illusionistic painting, had held a secondary plane (such as

plane, colour, proportion)." Cub ism, he fu r ther p rop osed, "is the

stage at

which

all

formal, tangible quali t ies (secondary)

are

t rans-

posed into essen tial qualities

o f

relation." Neo-plasticism continued

this development b y fur ther emphasizing th e pictorial space of the

canvas and "the mechanics of painting (b rushw or k, color-squares or

points—impress ioni sm,

divis ionism,

pointi l l ism)" as the

bearer

o f

the content. The intent of co m position for de

Stijl

ar t is ts becam e the

organization of line, plan e, and color into an equilibrium m ade up of

"a dynamic rhythm of determ inate m utu al relations w hich excludes

the setting up of any particular form."

18

"Jazz

and the

Neo-Plastic" continues with

an

assessment

of the

obstacles,

th e

conventions,

that

impeded

the

ability

o f

l i teratur e

a nd

music to achieve similar reductions as rapidly. For Mondrian, neo-

plasticism

was not confined to

paint ing,

but was an

extension

o f

neo-plastic painting principles to all aspects of the constructed en-

v i ronment .

He

believed

an

expressive unity

of the

arts would occur

th rough th e reduct ion o f each art to its par t icu lar m eans fo r ar t icu-

lating or m anifest ing pure, determinate, and equilibrated relation-

ships

of its

pr im ary opposi tions.

In support of this position, M ond rian proposed in 1922 that w hile

the plastic means of painting was "determined

color,"

or the duality

of color and noncolor, explored through line and plane, the plastic

means of music "should be determined sound, the duality of sound



Com positional Im peratives

/

9

and nonsound

(noise)."

19

H e elaborated on the

difference

between

sound and noise through analogies to color and noncolor in paint-

ing:

" Sound'

is

here used

to signify in the

auditory what

is

expressed

by

color in

neo -plastic

paint ing m ore or

less

in the sense of

'tone'

in

music.

And the

word

'nonsound' is

chosen

to

signify what

in

neo-

plastic painting is expressed as non-color, that is , white, black, and

gray. Thus

'noise'

denotes percussive sound

[coup]

rather than

an

assemblage of

diverse soun ds incapable

of forming a

h a rm o n y

in the

o ld

sense."

20

In a series of later essays, Mondrian sought to refine

this definition

of

neo-plastic music

by

focusing

on

futurist music

and

th e

potential

o f

electronic instruments. However,

he

would con t inu-

ally return

to

"the jazz

band,"

which

he had first

cited

in

1920,

as

th e

m o st

effective

demonstrat ion

o f

sound

and

nonsound.

A nd

w ith

each return,

his

descriptive vocabulary indicated

an

increased cer-

tainty that

jazz

possessed traits o f neo-plasticism.

In "Neo-Plasticism: The

General Principle

o f

Plastic Equiv alenc e"

(1920), he writes, "There appears, perhaps som ewhat b rutally, the

jazz band, which dares abrupt demoli t ions of melody and dry, un-

fami l ia r ,

strange noises

that

oppose rounded

sound."

21

In

"Neo-

Plasticism:

Its

Realization

in

Music

and in

Future Theater" (1922),

he

comments that "in the jazz b and we som etimes hear sounds which

by their very t imbre and attack are more or less opposed to tradi-

tional 'harmonious' sounds, and

which clearly demonstrate

that it is

possible to

construct

'nonsound.'"

22

By

1927,

Mondrian

seemed convinced that jazz had almost achieved

reductions

to the

equil ibrated relationships.

He

declared that both

"Jazz

and

Neo-Plasticism

are

revolutionary phenomena

in the ex-

t reme: they

are

destructive-constructive." However, perhaps

due to

the

r em aining presence

o f

m elody

or the

continued reliance

on

tradi-

t ional instruments, he maintained that jazz was not quite a mani fes-

tation

of

neo -plasticism :

"Jazz—being free

of

m usical

co nventions—

no w realizes an a lmos t

pure rhythm,

t h a n k s to its greater intensity

of sound and to i ts opposi t ions . I ts rhythm al ready gives th e

illu-

sion of

b e ing

'open,'

u n h a m p e r e d

b y f o r m . But on the

other hand

Neo-Plas t i c i sm ac tua l ly shows rhythm

free

o f f o r m : as universal

rhythm"

23

Scanning th e

remaining

essays

that Mondrian wrote,

we find

that

"Jazz and the

Neo-Plastic"

seems pivotal. He subsequently wrote



10 / Com positional Imper atives

alm ost exclusively on neo-plasticism and painting w ith references to

the arts in general. Jazz receives only one other brief mention until

m a n y years later when, after

a

t ransat lant ic relocat ion, Mondrian

was confro nted with bo ogie-woogie's rhythm ic assault.

Boogie-woogie as Neo-Plastic

Music

Max Harr ison, a

jazz

critic writing in the 1940s, provides a descrip-

tion of boogie-woo gie. Though lam entable for its pejorative character-

ization of boogie-woogie musicians, his description clarifies boogie-

woogie's dramatic departure from traditional Western piano playing

through

an

emphasis

o n

percussion

and

r h y t h m ,

tw o

essential ele-

ments of a neo -plastic mu sic:

There

are a

n u m b e r

o f

ways

o f

producing vo lum e

o n a

p iano ,

b ut an untutored player would almost always choose th e m o st

obvious—that

o f

hitting

th e

keys hard with tensed muscles

and

rather stiff wr ists. This kind o f touch results in th e hard percussive

quality of sound that is characteristic o f almost all genu ine boogie.

It is a

t iring

way of

playing,

but the

prim itive pianists knew

of no

other method and were doubtless inured to hard work . ... it is

diametrically

opposed to the conception of pianism im posed on us

by n ineteenth-century m usic.

. . . the

general trend

in

piano writ ing

was tow ards an increasing reliance on v ariat ion in touch, scope of

h a r m o n i c v o c a b u l a r y

and use of the

pedals , part icular ly

th e

sus-

taining pedal. E verything possible w as done to mitigate th e inst ru-

ment's percussive qualities. ... In sharpest contrast to all this, the

boogie players used

the

piano virtually

as a

percussion instrum ent.

This was not an abuse of its qualities, for it has enorm ous resources

and

fully

admits of both approaches.

24

Through this shift

in focus to the percussive qualities of the piano,

boogie-woogie musicians could provide the "abrupt demolition of

melody," which Mondrian had wri t ten about in 1920, by using an

old instrument. Harrison analyzes the rhythmic impact of this per-

cussive approach:

In

practice

the

unconsciously imp osed limitat ion

of the

percussive

touch proved

to be a b eneficial

discipline.

Cut off from the

resources

of

touch by his ignoran ce and the

poor

qu al i ty of his inst rum ent ,

the boogie player was forced to develop variety of

effect

by other



Com positional Imperatives / 11

m eans. His harm onic kno wledge was sm all and his them es were a

limited number

of

blues.

As he was

called upon

to

produce brash

and forceful music at all t imes, the refinements o f elaborate m elodic

development were

out of the

question. (This

is not to

suggest that

boo gie does no t have its share o f m elodic interest, but m elody could

never be its foremost qual i ty. ) Consequent ly the boogie player

explored the only avenue open to him and cu lt ivated great rhyth-

m ic virtuosity. Ag ainst the unfal ter ing beat of the left hand were

thrown an endless variety of rhythmic punctuations and irregular

accents. Thus did the rhythm ic elem ent pred om inate as in no other

form o f

j a zz ,

and it

becam e

the

richest part

of the

boogie

idiom.

25

The

developments made

by

bo ogie-wo ogie m usicians

that

Har-

r i son identifies as "untutored," "prim itive," "unconscious," "igno-

rant,"

and "limited" in

fact reflect

an aesthetic choice on the part of

the musicians, informed by the rhythmic and percussive emphasis in

African Am erican m usic culture. The classically traine d Cecil Tay-

lor,

fo r

exam ple, developed

a

m a nner

o f

playing

that

m any o bservers

believe

uses

the

piano

as if it

were eighty-eight tuned dr um s.

A

per-

cussive

approach

to the

piano, Taylor insists,

is

consistent

in

black

music.

26

This predominance of rhythmic art iculations in boogie-woogie

did not

co nfir m M ond rian's earlier speculations

o f a

correspondence

between noise

a nd

percussion

in

early

jazz .

Instead,

the

kaleido scopic

rhythmic flurries that

A m m o n s ,

Lewis, and others encouraged

f rom

the

piano

produced a resonant frequency

that

demolished the op-

posit ional dualisms

at the

core

o f

Mondrian 's

neo-plasticism.

Even

after

writing "Jazz

and the

Neo-Plastic,"

Mondr ian mainta ined

a

belief

that both painting and music contained dist inct opposi t ional

boundaries, the clari ty of which can be seen in the sharp del inea-

tion

between

color and noncolor

within

his work.

How ever, stim u-

lated by bo ogie-woo gie, M o ndr ian wo uld paint his tautest surfaces—

Broadway Boogie-Woogie and Victory Boogie-Woogie—works in

which line, plane, and color merge

into

one another (Figure 6). Each

of

these elem ents com prises

and

defines aspects

o f the

others

in

such

a

m anner tha t

th e

im age threatens

its ow n

co llapse. Elem ents seeming-

ly recede into

th e

background

o r

proceed into

th e

foreground,

and

m ove centrifu ga lly past the edges and c entripetally tow ard the center

of

the canvas.

However,

none of these

motions

dominates; we are



12 / Com positional Imperatives

instead made aware

o f the

fragility

of the

surface. Even

the

m os t

im -

perceptible additional weight upon distributed points seems capable

of collapsing

both

paintings into

a

disequilibrium, where

the

ele-

ments composing this

surface

read as individual and dist inct forms.

Harry Cooper

in "Mondrian,

Hegel, Bo ogie"

specifies the

na tu re

of this rhy thm ically posed co m positional challenge: "Boogie-Woogie

is

th e very model of a collapsed dualism, or rather a collapsing one,

since the two

hands remain distinct despite their similarities:

the

left

hand is

(more)

repetitive, the right ha nd (more)

discursive."

27

The op-

position o f sound and nonsound has collapsed into

what

is in some

senses a

reversal,

as

there

is

mo re m elodic m ovement

in the

left-hand

Figure 6.

Piet

Mondrian, Broadway

Boogie

W oogie,

1942-43.

Oil on

canvas , 50 x 50

inches.

Museum o f Modern A r t , New York. Copyr ight

the

Museum

off Modern

Ar t ;

licensed by

SCALA

/ Art

Resource,

N.Y.



Com positional Imperatives / 13

bass l ine (nonsound)

and

m ore rhythm ic var ie ty

in the

juxtaposi t ion

of twe lve-b ar m elodic l ines in the r ight (so un d). Co oper locates the

influence o f

boogie-woogie

on

Mondrian's late works

in shifts

that

are not

only discernible

at the

sur fac e level (the techniques previously

noted)

but at a "higher

level

of abstraction" in the transfo rm ation of

Mondrian's

vocabulary f rom

"duality

and opposition" to

"plurali-

ty and

similarity."

Mondrian's

Studios

Describing neo-plastic

painting, Mondrian

noted: "Through equiva-

lent oppositions of form and space, it manifests real i ty as pure vi-

tal i ty. Space-determination

is

here unders tood

as

dividing empty

space into unequal but equivalent parts by means of

f o rm s

[planes]

o r

lines.

It is not

unders tood

as

space-l imitation. This l imitation

determines empty space

to

par t i cu la r

forms ."

2 8

In

this suggestion

of

space-determination, space is viewed not as an empty void

that

permits form to

stand

out as figure, but as something made up of

differing

and changing quali t ies and properties . Form is not con-

sidered to be distinct f rom and an organizer of space, but is seen to

consist of different

states, scales,

an d

consistencies

of

those qualities

and

properties

found in

space

and

art iculated through relations

o f

line and plane. The precariousness of these relations is described by

Mondr ian: "The more neu t ra l

the

plastic means are,

the

m o re

the

unchangeable expression

of

reality

can be

established.

. . . We

con-

sider all forms relatively

neutral that

do not

show

any

relationship

with

th e

natural aspect

o f

things

o r

with

any

'idea.'

Abst ract

f o r m s

o r dislocated parts o f f o r m s can be relatively neutral ."

2 9

A ny indica-

tions

o f o r

deference

to

function

and

utility could upset

th e

dyna m ic

equil ibrium.

Because it was

subject

to structural and practical needs, architec-

ture

was one of the

p r i m a r y f o r m s

that

established boundaries

that

created space-l im itation . How ever, Mo ndr ian, l ike m any

of his

con-

temporaries , sought an architecture that did not separate and limit

a

por t ion

of

space

f rom

the

continuity

of

space.

The

uniqueness

o f

Mondrian's explorations

w as the

extreme degree

to

which

he

attem pt-

ed to develop an architecture of space-determ ination , ra ther than

space-l imitation,

as an

extension

of

paint ing.

He did

this

b y

focusing



14

/


on architecture as a multiplicity of planes rather than as a volume,

or

as "three

dim ensional

'plastic.'" He

sought

to

literally apply neo-

plastic pa inting principles of plan arity an d color to arch itecture as he

proposed that

"a

room

has to be

mo re than

an

empty space bounded

by six

empty planes facing

one another: it

m ust

be an

articulated

and

therefore

a partially rilled space bounded by six art iculated planes

that oppose

o ne

ano ther

b y

their position, dimension,

and

color."

30

Mondrian

himself did not

treat

the edge of his canvas as a bound-

ary that contained th e painting. B y letting som e lines extend to the

edge

while having others s top short ,

he

could imply

that a

viewer

w as

seeing

jus t o ne

por t ion

o f a

larger

field. The

dynamic rhythm

and

equil ibrium

in his

paintings does

no t

cease

at the

edge

of the

canvas,

b ut

suggests

an

extended vibrational

field

that

is

open

to and

integral with

its

su r rounding envi ronment .

As one

looks upon

the

surface, the intent is not to perspectivally experience

pictorial depth.

Instead, while standing

before the neo-plastic

plane

and

viewing

the

forces

in equil ibr ium upon i ts

surface

and within its edges, a viewer's

vision collapses into an inner seeing that enables the viewer to intuit

or perceive the fundamental universal re la t ions of the world—the

uni ty of

objects

and the envi ronment as di f ferent states, densities,

and intensities of

matter.

In his

studio, Mondrian pursued

the

architectural implications

o f

this planarity

and its

extensive vibrational

field by

applying variably

sized, painted cardboard panels

onto the room

surfaces (Figure

7). To

stand among those neo-plastic

surfaces was to

stand within

a

three-

dim ensional m atrix com posed of the vary ing densities and intensities

structured

and

suggested

by the

planes.

With

th e

space already

de-

termined,

furnishings

became perturbations within

the

matrix rather

than l imi tat ions of the space. His focus o n planes, neo-plastic sur-

faces,

provided

a set of

aesthetic conditions

affecting a

given space

that

were

distinct from its

otherwise dom inant function al, structural,

o r

utilitarian use;

the

description

o f its

lim its;

o r

o ther

subjective influ-

ence that introduced readings that m ade architecture

an objective and

closed form. Space was

defined

instead by the interrelation of things

that were "ultim ate ly no thing

in

them selves,

b ut

creating

o ne

another

simultaneously."

31

"Seen as an equ ilibrated opposition of

expansion

an d limitation in planar co mpo sition , architectural expression (despite

its third dim ension) ceases to exist in corporali ty and as object . Its

abstract expression appears

even

m ore directly than

in Painting."

32



Compositional Im peratives /

15

Figure

7. Piet Mondrian, studio of the

artist, Paris, 1926. Collection

of

the

Gemeentemuseum

Den Haag. Copyright 2003 Mondrian/Holtzman

Trust

/

Artists

Rights Society

(ARS),

New

York.

Painting, Architecture,

and Open Form

W hile com m enting

on the

design

o f a

salon

for Ida

Bienert ,

a

r oom

where

Mondrian

proposed articulating all six planes (Figure 8), El

Lissitzky

rem arked that

"it is

really

a still-life o f a

r o om ,

fo r

viewing

through a keyhole."

33

Lissitzky's "Proun Space" stood in contrast to

the

static nature that

he saw in

Mo ndrian's spatial com position:

it was

a

composit ion

of six

planes that accentuated

the

unfold ing

o f

space

through

the

viewer's movement.

The

differences between this tem-

po ral consideration and Mo ndrian's preexistent space-determ ination

are

evident

in the two

artists' renderings

of a

six-sided interior th ro ug h



16

/


Figure

8.

Piet Mondrian,

Exploded Box

Plan. Kupferst ich-Kabinet t ,

Staat l iche

K u n s t s a m m l u n g e n

Dresden. Copyr ight

2003 Mondrian/

Holtzman Trust / Ar t i s t R ights Soc i ety (ARS) , New York .

axonometr ic project ion (Figures

9 and

10) . Mondrian,

as

Lissitzky

notes, sought

to

center

th e

viewer within

th e

space

b y

using

a

projec-

tion

of two

walls

and the

ceiling

to the left of and

above

a

projection

of the two

remaining wal ls

and the floor.

Lissitzky,

on the

other

hand,

inscribed time into

his axonometric

pro jection

by

starting

it at

the doorway (at the midpoint of a wall) and unfo lding the rem ain-

in g planes in the order in which they are to be perceived before re-

tu rn ing

to the

doorway

via the

rem aining wal l hal f .

Fo r

M ondr i a n ,

this p erceptual un fo lding of space em phasized by Lissi tzky was a

temporal approach to be avoided. The dynamic character of

space,

independent of occupation, was his point of emphasis. In addition to



Figure 9.

Piet

Mondrian, Geometric Perspective, Salon d e Madame

B.

Kupferstich-Kabinett,

Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. Copy-

right

2003

Mondrian/Holtzman

Trust

/

Artists Rights Socie ty (ARS),

New Y o rk .



18 / Com positional Imperatives

Figure

10. El L issi tzsky,

Proun Space (No. 5

from

1st Kestner Portfolio),

1923. Axonometric, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Copyright 2003

VG

Bild-Kunst, Bonn / Ar t i s ts R igh ts Soc iety (ARS) , New York .

el iminat ing

the dominance of s t ructural , ut i l i tar ian, and

practical

concerns as determinants o f spatial experience, M on drian 's

focus

on

planes abolished the potential inherent in perspective for a privileged

position

o r a

privileged sequence

to

accum ulate

in

t im e.

In his effor ts to dissolve architecture by applying color to wal l

surfaces ,

van

Doesburg s imi la r ly abandoned

the

not ion

o f a

p ro-

gress ion in t ime found in Liss i tzky 's temporal approach. He also

found

Mondrian's architecture to be two -dim ensional in conception

and lacking a consideration of t im e: "I am now certain that painting



Compositional

Imperatives

/ 19

in

the

interior, i.e.,

in 3

dimensions, brings with

it

entirely different

demands than paint ing on a plane. The inter ior again br ings the

time element to attention. . . . Since in his last article M o nd riaa n

completely denies

the

t i m e m o m e n t

and

wants

to

banish

it

f rom

painting,

for him 3

dimensional painting (i.e., space-time painting)

m ust be im possib le . He rem ains lim i ted to the

2-dim ens iona l

canvas

and the attempt to solve a 5-plane space as 1 whole is im possible in

te rms

o f 2-dim ensional painting. Thus what M on driaan has m a de in

his

atelier with colored cardboard is restricted to one plane (window

plane)

and is

therefore also

a

paint ing

in 2 dimensions ."

34

Whi le

van Doesburg's investigations in 1921 used musical harmonies and

progressions to

in form

the prop ortions, ba lances, and tem po ral pro-

gressions of the

color

compositions that he deployed on wall sur-

faces, his col laborat ive design with Cornel is van Eesteren for the

"Private

House" in

1923 produced

a

conceptual b r eakthro ugh.

In

this project,

v an

Doesburg ceased

to

th ink

o f

color relationships

"in

temporal connection with music," as a "sequential, linear progres-

sion across architectural surfaces, b ut rather in t e r m s of the iden-

tification

of color with those surfaces, perceived simultaneously in

space and

time."

35

His

not ion

o f

"coloristic m o v e m e n t "

no

longer

required the progression of a moving subject around a building,

m o v e m e n t through space, or movement through t ime. Instead van

Doesburg conceived of movement in space-time, visually obtained

(as seen in his axo n o m e t r i c s ) b y suspending colored planes in a

three-dimensional matrix. Never quite meeting, they described

an

architecture in which th e walls and f loors were made up of planes

situated

in the

matter

of

space, through

and

around which space

continuously

flowed. B y suggesting that areas were actively being

formed

or in a

state

of

dissolution

by

those

flows, as

well

as the flow

of the planes within the ether o f space, it was possible to describe

interior spaces, as well as their continuous extension into and connec-

tion with the surroundings, an d directly im plicate them in the vo latile

atmosphere of space-time. In

contrast

to Mondrian's and Lissitzky's

effor ts ,

van

Doesburg ' s space ,

as his

axonomet r ics revealed ,

w as

discernible

f rom

outside

as

well

as

f r o m

any

point

sur rounded

by

the descr ibed planes and did no t d epend on a s ingle van tage point

or sequence.



20

/ Compositional Imperatives

Music, Architecture,

and

Open Form

Mondrian seems never to have answered these critiques of the ab-

sence of time in his spatial environments. He declined to pursue simi-

lar explorations of three-dimensional

fo rm

and seemed content to

focus

on his

canvases

and the

manipulation

of the

apartments

he

occupied. Time was not absent

f rom

Mondrian's conception, but he

did not seem to consider it a concern that could be solely addressed

through painting. Space-time was manifested not through one art,

but through the expressive unity among arts. True to his

belief

in the

expressive unity of the arts, as each art was reduced to its primary

elements, Mondrian did not perceive painting as the single source of

determinations that could be operative as organizers of an environ-

ment outside

the

provision

and

accommodation

of

function

and

use.

Other arts, such as j azz , could provide similar determinations that

were more temporal than

spatial—composed

of changes and rela-

tionships in time.

Mondrian suggests this temporal determination when,

in

1931,

he

describes

a

room

in "An

International Museum

of

Contemporary

Art"

at the end o f a

series

o f

galleries that document

th e

evolution

of

the arts f rom naturalism to neo-plasticism. In the room "painting and

sculpture will b e realized by the interior itself: dissolved as separate

objects and projected directly into life. Thus, neo-plastic architec-

ture

and

chromoplastic

are

shown

as a

unity determining everything

in the room, and demonstrating that what is lost for art is gained

fo r

life."

36

Distinct f rom the other galleries, this room could be de-

signed for use as a lecture room or a restaurant; then, following an

ellipis

pause, he provides the program that he had described in "Jazz

and the Neo-Plastic," which could complete the determination of the

space "as a bar with an American jazz band."

37

In "Jazz and the Neo-Plastic" Mondrian reiterates his belief in

expressive unity: "Only when the multiplicity of forms has become

u n i f o r m l y deepened, so as to establish equilibriated relationships,

can forms annihilate one another in multiplicity." He identifies an

aff ini ty between j azz and neo-plastic painting through the similar

effects

that they have on form: "They do not destroy the actual con-

tent of

form: they only deepen form

and

annihilate

it in

favor

of a

new

order. Breaking

the

limitations

o f

' fo rm

as

particularity,' they



Compositional

Imperatives

/

2

1

make universal unity possible.

The

potential

fo r

equilibrated rela-

tionships, given this similarity, is

fur thered

through the

effects

that

jazz

has on the architecture of the bar that is the focus o f Jazz and

th e

Neo-Plastic."

Identifying

the bar as a manifestation of the more

sublimated culture, which the neo-plastic would engender, he writes

that equilibrium is there, fo r everything is subsumed b y rhythm.

The source o f this equilibrium is not visual b ut musical. Jazz above

all creates the bar's open rhythm. Jazz furnishes a measure and pace

that provides a basis fo r identifying relationships between disparate

elements. The structure, the lighting, the advertisements—even in

their

disequilibrium—serve to

complete

the

jazz rhythm.

All

ugliness

is

transcended b y

jazz

and by light. Everything in the bar moves,

as it is

interpenetrated

by the

rhythms

of the

music, and

at the

same

time is at rest. Continuous action holds passion in check. The bottles

and

glasses

on the

shelves stand still,

yet

they move

in

color

and

sound and light. Mondrian concludes that jazz rhythm annihilates.

Everything that opens has an annihilating

action.

This frees rhythm

f rom

fo rm

and so

much that

is

fo rm without ever being recognized

as

such. Thus a haven is created fo r those w ho would b e free o f form.

B ut nowhere—neither in his initial emphasis o n a duality and oppo-

sition

of

sound

and

nonsound,

of

tone

and

percussion,

nor in the

col-

lapsing plurality

and

similarity

of the two

that Cooper identifies

in boogie-woogie and the late transition in Mondrian's pain t ings—

is there an indication that rhythm fills everything without creating

new oppression—it

does

not

become f o r m . "

3 8

The Open

Potential

of Rhythm in

Music

With some elements stopping be f o r e and others continuing to the

edge

of the

canvas, Mondrian's paintings suggested

the

extension

o f

some lines and planes beyond the canvas. They also hinted at varia-

tion in the patterning of that extended field to maintain the sense

of dynamic rhythm and equilibrium rather than a static and regular

pattern, which is capable of its ow n oppression, if not form. Dynamic

rhythm in music has a similar need fo r variation.

James Snead, in Repetition as a Figure o f Black Culture, states

that variation

and

repetition

are

accounted

for in

black music through



22 /


the overlap of rhy thm ic elements: "The typical

polymetry

of black

music

means

that

there are at least two, and u sual ly m ore , rhythm s

going

on

alongside

the

listener's

own beat."

This overlap

and

j u x t a -

position o f multiple rhythms provides a third sensibility

f rom

duali-

ty and opposition, and

plurality

and

similarity—"dynamic rhythm,

organizing melody wi thin juxtaposed l ines of beats grouped into

differing

meters."

In

dynamic rhythm, "one rhythm always

defines

another,"

and

"beat

is an

entity

o f relation."

39

These characteristics

enable

boogie-woogie's flow

of varying

short

melodic phrases within

its

r h y t h m s

to

create

a field of

shift ing rhythmic patterns

and in-

tensities

that

are rhy thm ically propulsive but not harmonical ly pro-

gressive. Each rhythm ic phrase o r m elodic phrase can be con tinued

indefinitely

o r

provide

th e

basis , through

its

implied rhythms,

for a

shift to

another repetitive phrase.

Snead

reveals how som e other pro perties in black m usic contrib-

ute further to rhythm 's dynam ism . He

notes, "That

th e beat is there

to pick up does no t m e a n

that

it must have been metronomic, b ut

merely

that

it

m ust have been

at one

point b egun

and that it

m u st

b e

at any point 'social '—amenable to restart ing, interruption o r entry

by a

second

o r

third player

or to

response

by an

addit ional musi-

cian."

40

The

bea t

is not

rigid

in its time, b ut

mal leable . This mal-

leability

is ob tained thro ug h call and respon se as well as wh at Snead

terms the "cut," a kind of variation that allows for a "succession of

accidents

and

surprises" rather than

an

illusion

o f

progress: "Black

culture,

in the

'cut,'

builds

'accidents'

into its

coverage,

alm ost as if

to

control their unpredictability. Itself

a

k ind

o f

cul tural

coverage,

this magic

o f the

'cut'

attem pts

to

confront accident

and

rupture

no t

b y

cover ing them but by making room for them ins ide the sys tem

itself."

41

Snead's comments suggest that the social, interactive, and

responsive properties are just as

significant

as extension and varia-

tion

to

rhythm operating

as an

o rganizer wi thout b ecom ing form .

All

these qualities are evident in the music of the Count

Basic

Or-

chestra, w hich deploys dense clusters

o f

riffs (short, repeated phrases)

as

support

for a

soloist. Within

its

"big band" structure

th e

t rumpet ,

saxophone, and t rombone sect ions play

different

riffs

that

call and

respond to one another, accruing into a driving rhythm that bel ies

th e

simplicity

of the

singular phrases, which

often

seem static when

heard in isolation. "One O'Clock Jum p" (1937) is buil t o n this idea



Com positional Imp eratives / 23

of

gradually crescendoing

riffs.

Like

"Lux's Boogie," it has a

twelve-

b ar

phrase

and a

rhythmic base

that is infinitely

extendible. This

rhythmic interplay is not

just

between the various wind ensembles.

Lewis Porter

and

Michael Ul lman,

in

Jazz: From Its Origins to the

Present ,

note that

one of the

m ore dram atic m om ents

in a

Basic

per-

f o r m a n c e

would occur when

the

rest

of the

band would drop

o ut

and leave the rhythm sect ion to sweep up b ehind it. In the absence

of

any

riffs

or

phrases,

th e

layering

o f

gu itarist Freddie G reen's steady

4-4

r h y t h m ,

Jo

Jones 's high-hat cy m b al r ides,

the

wa lking bass lines

of W alter Page,

and Basic's

sparse

and

intermittent piano accents pro-

duced

its own

subtle,

yet

steady, locomotive drive. Although

a big

band does

no t

possess

th e

dramatic clari ty

of one

ins t rument

de-

ployed to m axim um percuss ive effect, Basic 's accumulated rhythms

are

closer

to the

co llective interplay

found in African

drum sessions,

so

more demonstrat ive

of the

composit ional properties

of

rhythm

and Sn ead's "sociab ility" of the bea t.

The presence of these rhythmic qualities in Basic's music is sig-

nificant

because

it

demonstrates that boogie-woogie,

in the

m o m e nt

that it

influenced

M on drian, was not the sole perm utation of m usic

based o n rhythm aesthetics . Nor was it the m ost recently em ergent.

Charlie Parker noted

the first

formulat ion

o f

bebop,

th e fo rm o f jazz

tha t becam e dom inant

after

the war, while practicing on the roof of

a place where he was working one night in 1939: "I'd b een ge tting

bored with

th e

stereotyped changes

that

were b eing used

at the

t ime,

and I kept thinking there's bound to be something else. I could hear

it

somet imes

but I

couldn't play

it.

Well, that night

I was

working

over

'Cherokee'

and as I did I

found

that

by u sing higher intervals of

a chord

as a

m elody line

and

backing them with appropriately related

changes,

I

could play

the

things

I'd

been hear ing.

I

c a m e

alive."

42

This

separation

of the

melody

f rom its

chord s t ructure means

that

any

chord s t ructure holds wi thin it the potent ia l to suppor t mul -

tiple m elodic phrases. B y developing new m elodic lines for the chord

changes

of

"I've

Got

Rhy thm ," "How High

the Moon," and a

host

of

other popular

tunes,

bebop

m usicians produced num erous head

ar rangements

o r

composit ions.

In

pe r formances ,

th e

stating

of the

melodic line

and

chord progression initiates

a

play

in

which

th e

rhythm section repeatedly plays the chord changes to permit each

soloist

to

improvise

for one or two

m easures, concluding with

a final



24 / Compositional Imperatives

restatement of the theme. Snead notes that the departure and varia-

tion from

the

theme introduced

by the

solos also constitutes

a

cut,

or

a departure f rom expectations.

These rhythmic emergences, which bracket boogie-woogie's re-

vival, show that boogie-woogie,

in its

reductive

and

clear articula-

tion of repetition and variation, provided a rhythmic expression that

propelled a

f u r the r

transformation of Mondrian's work. They also

reveal

that

its

consistency with

his

positivist

and

transcendent ideas

regarding

neo-plasticism is not a

historical convergence,

but a co-

incidental tangent or intersection. And the subsequent explorations

of

form

and

other manifestations

o f

rhythmic expression

in

impro-

vised

music

found

along this diverging

trajectory

would yield

differ-

ent implications for an open—rather than idealized, objective, and

c lo sed —fo rm.

Open Form Enablers

The

compositional implications

of

Parker's breakthrough

are

evi-

dent in the work of Thelonious Monk, who showed the percussive

qualities of the boogie-woogie pianists as well as the melodic quali-

ties of the Harlem striders in his dissonant yet logical vocabulary

of

chords. In

Straight

No

Chaser,

a documentary on Monk, pro-

ducer Teo Macero views Monk's twelve-bar phrases/compositions,

scrawled on scraps of paper, as sketches. Monk's compositions are

not complete scripts, but o u t l in es—a kind of open form. Although

complete statements on paper, these pieces did not indicate the full

course of music that occurred in performance, making them open,

or weak. Monk's

focus

on the process that these

f o r m s

would even-

tually initiate, rather than their objective existence, is evident in the

same documentary. Having jus t completed

an

extended

jam

with

his

fellow musicians, Monk asks Macero

to

play

it

back. Macero,

who had not

recorded

it,

responds that

he

thought they were

jus t

practicing, a distinction that Monk did not make. Monk wanted to

hear the playback o f what he felt w as extraordinary music regard-

less

of the pretext under which it was played. Monk

f u r the r

denied

the objective nature of his pieces and emphasized the texture of

p e r f o r m a n c e by insisting on an aural rather than visual transmit-




/ 25

tal of his

mus ic .

In

clubs, nei ther

the

audience

nor the

mus ic ians

knew

what

piece

was

for thcoming unt i l

Monk

played

its first

eight

to twelve bars .

The

c om pos e r

and

bassist Charles Mingus developed

a

similar

composit ional process based

on his

unders tanding that nei ther

a

classical musician

nor a

jazz musician

w as

capable

o f

playing

his

compositions as he heard them in his inner ear. The former would

no t

play with

the

proper emotion, while

th e

latter would inevitably

introduce his or her individual expression.

Mingus's solution

was to

t r ansmi t

his

com positions aural ly, l ike Mo nk,

so

that

th e

ensem ble

elements

might have

as

much spontaneity

as the

solos

and so as to

encourage col lective improvisation. Although similar

in

method

to

Monk, Mingus 's work has a different character that is depen dent

on

broad movements, rather

than

chord progressions,

and

rhythms

and tempos

in

those movements that

are

shifting rather than stable.

Mingus

and his

drum m er, Dannie Richmo nd, provided rhythmic

drive

in

addition

to

rhythmic support . This drive

in

par t emerged

f rom

Mingus's obstinate insistence on encouraging implied rather

than actual rhyth m by always playing ahead o f or b ehind the b eat .

Additionally, he and

R i c h m ond

often

a r t i cu la ted b roken rhythms

and made shifts

in

tem po

that

challenged

the

other musicians

to

keep

up.

Acco unt ing

for the

presence

o f

rhythmic

flow in the

apparent

ab -

sence of a set beat within some of their wo rk, Richm ond explained:

"Mingus

and I feel

each other

out as we go but

always, when

th e

t ime comes

to

back into

the

original beat, we're both always there.

The b est way I can exp lain is that we find a beat that 's in the air, and

just

tak e i t out o f the air w hen we wa nt

it."

43

Mingus demanded

that his

fellow musicians mutually arrive

at

select

po ints, but the path fo r getting to those po ints was determ ined

by

each individual.

He

thus created collective improvisations

that

were highly com positional in their

ability

to develop long and com -

prehensive

f o r m s .

The

mos t dramat ic

o f

these endeavors

is

"Folk

F o r m s No. 1," where he o r ga n i z ed a col lective improvisation that

was

cohesive

yet

fully unpredictable

in its

shifts

and

development.

Mingus noted

that

he

essentially provided

a

rhythmic

pattern,

then

asked

that

th e

rest

o f the

band keep

up as he

shifted f rom

o ne

rhyth-

m ic figure to

another.



26 / Compositional mperatives

Form and Resultant Shapes

The absence of any apparent set structure or rhythmic figure would

become

a

focus

of the

improvised music avant-garde

of the

1950s

and

1960s.

But in these permutations of improvised music, from the

1930s

boogie-woogie revival

to

this avant-garde,

the

startling fact

is

that there has,

in a

sense, been

no

development

at

all. Amiri Baraka

termed this underlying stability of principles "Changing Same," di-

verse manifestations

of

"consistent attitudes within changed con-

texts"

4

*

The flexibility and

resiliency, rather than stagnancy,

of

this

attitude, in music ranging f rom field hollers to blues and jazz, is facili-

tated

by its

emphasis

on the transient

play

of

forces enabled

by

forms

rather than

on an

intrinsic value

of

forms

in

isolation

or

stasis. While

writing about free improvised music, Wadada L eo Smith identifies

three

potential

forms: "the original intention of all great music [is]

to create and express original ideas without being inhibited by cer-

tain prescribed forms. In f ree-music w e have many forms: structured

f o r m s that supply

a

beginning leading into improvisations; link form,

whereby several different predetermined elements

are

linked together

to form improvisations; and, at its highest level, improvisation cre-

ated entirely within

the

improvisor

at the

moment

of

improvisation

without any prior structuring."

45

Transitional and connective rather

than f ixed, these forms identified b y Smith are not artifacts o r ends,

but variables

that

organize and enable activity. They provide access

to processes of flux and interaction that produce unforeseen ways for

things to collide, momentarily cohere, and describe other shapes.

Michel

Ratte

describes

the

shapes that emerge from these pro-

cesses as finding coherences within incoherences: the continual chal-

lenge

is to

resolve

a

form that

has a

shifting

presence, given

its

for-

mation during

a free temporalization—"the

activity

o f

grouping

o r

synthesising time-events."

46

In each instant, musicians strive to create

coherence f rom what was previously played. However, incoherence

reemerges because o f their distinct temporalizations and different

perceptual grasps of the multiple subjectivities at work. The

offer-

ing of the

collective

in

each instant blurs each musician's decisions,

interventions, and perspectives regarding coherence. "Spontaneous

temporalization" and its attendant "perceptual scramble of actual

listening" destabilize "the identities, similarities and differences of



Compositional Imperatives / 27

the materials"—the composition as well as the participants—and re-

lease them into

free

play.

The

conception

o f

dynamic form that

is at

work here

is not one

of

revealing

th e

dynamic

forces

at

work

in

forms.

The

conception

is

that the

form provides access

to the

means

for

actively engaging

the

decisions, risks,

and

exclusions f rom which forms proceed. Anthony

Braxton provides a summary of this form sensibility that is appli-

cable

to

architecture

as

well

as

music: "The significance

of

form

is

that information

can be

carried forward;

a

given f o r m

can

make

given variables come into

play."

47

Such form provides material

and

so me

measure

o f

organization

for the

emergence

of a

series

of

shapes

or states.

Extended to design, this suggests interplay between form and

shape.

Form

can

operate

as a

generator

of

shapes,

and

might make

it possible to identify, select, or develop other

f o r m s

f rom the subse-

quent shapes (Figure

11).

Shape might provide th e basis fo r particular

readings

o f a form (Figure 12). Form can become the guide/organizer

of change

to

make shapes (Figure 13).

Provisional Utopias

In noting that "Jazz and

Neo-Plasticism

are already creating an envi-

ronment in which art and philosophy resolve

into

rhythm

that

has no

fo rm and is therefore

'open,'"

Mondrian sought to make their direc-

tions th e same.

48

By

shifting

f rom representation toward abstraction,

the

arts were eliminating oppressive

and

closed forms,

and

enabling

m anifes ta t ions o f

higher

f o rm s

o r

states—open forms

in

which people

cease to focus on the things themselves and instead contemplate the

relations among them. Form in Mondrian's vision was a complex

relation

o f

material things coupled with historically determined con-

ventions

and

institutions that produced closed orders

of

society indica-

tive

o f past stages o f human culture. Modernization and technology

had introduced and encouraged processes that fragmented and sepa-

rated people and things into discrete and isolated categorical ele-

ments, while producing ruptures in closed f o r m s that permitted new

opportunities

and

states

to

emerge.

The

arts,

in

Mondrian's estima-

tion, could reveal the opportunities that modernization engendered



Figure

11. Form an d resultant shapes. Solstices an d

Equinoxes

Shadow

Studies, Glass Canopy— Shadowed F ield— Projection Surface, a propos-

al for the Washington, D.C.,

Martin

Luther King Jr. National Memorial

Competition,

2000.

Twenty glass planes, etched

with

quotations f rom

Martin Luther King Jr., are suspended overhead and aligned along the

ax is between the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials in Washington, D.C.

Th e glass panels a n d their structure are proposed as a mechanism fo r

creating a field of projected words that shif ts

with

the sun's move-

ment. Smooth stone markers

in a

plaza below

the

glass panels would

operate

as a

mechanism

for

selecting particular quotations from this

transient shape. The alignment of quotations with markers would per-

mit the

commemoration

of

different moments

in

civil rights history

ov er th e course o f a year.



Figure

12.

Arrangements through overlays

of

shape

and

form.

Lighting Arrangements Indicating

Different

Playing and

Viewing

Configurations. ... and other latent uses, an installation in Project

Row Houses' Music and Spoken Word House, Houston, Texas, 2001.

Within the shell of a shotgun house three

zones

were

defined

by raised

platforms,

as

well

as

planes

of

different-color fishing line described

along the ceiling and portions of the walls. The positioning of three

lights on a low-voltage line running the length of the

s p a c e

could be

used

for organizing different relations between the two primary ac-

tivities in the

s pa ce—ma kin g music

and

listening.



Figure 13. From form to s h a p e to form. Anne

Buttyan, Site

5

Interventions. Community

Land Trust

Plans

of Action

Studio, Rice

University, spring 2003. A set of walls structures the means for a site

to develop responsively from one form and use to another by operat-

ing

in support of and in relation to construction activity on surround-

ing sites. Reprodu ced by

permission.



Compositional Imperatives / 3 1

throug h the creation of an ab stract enviro nm ent in which everything

was si tuated within rhythms manifesting dynamic equil ibrium.

However, the equil ibrium that Mo ndrian thought could b e estab -

lished

by

jazz

and neo-plastic

painting

was not

without

limits.

In the

practices available

to

him, immersion within

a

state

in

which

all

ele-

ments are mutually dependent could only occur within the limits of

an interior:

"What

wa s achieved in art m ust for the present b e lim ited

to

ar t .

O ur

external envi ronment cannot

yet be

realized

as the

pure

plastic expression of

harmony."

49

Only in the future would there be

a

true realization of a neo-plastic architecture, an architecture other

than a closed

fo rm

separated f rom th e co ntinuity o f space surround -

in g

it .

With this realization

o f

architecture

as

environm ent , bo th

art

and architecture would dissolve into

life.

In Mondrian's theosophi-

cally

inform ed beliefs, this evolution would lead f rom m u nda ne c on-

cerns for matter to a higher spiritual state of unity, where "man will

b e

able to

live

by intui t ion: al l

' th inking-and-feel ing- in- form'

will

dissolve into the unity of deepened emotion and

intellect."

50

Mondrian undoubtedly gl impsed this inevi table t ranscendent

end while dan cing

"to the

rhythm

o f

som e

'boogie-woogie'

unti l

the

melody reminded him of the immense developmental dis tance

that

remained,

and he

would stop

and

re tu rn

to his

seat."

51

However,

the open

fo rm

that is suggested by improvised music, and extend-

ible

to architecture, does no t progress toward any envisioned Uto -

pian and t ranscendent end. As Rat te no tes, "Not on ly is i m pr o -

vised

music

a

process seeking

to go

beyond

its

incoherences,

and

finding

in

this an expression of coherence: it is also a music whose

incoherences critically confront

any

a t tempt

to go

beyond incoher-

ence in a schematic way."

52

Or as Jacques Attali states, "To c om -

pose [improvise] is to stay repetition and the death inherent in it,

in other words,

to

locate

liberation not in a faraway future, either

sacred o r mater ia l , but in the present, in product ion and in one's

o w n enjoyment ."

5 3

In both statements one can detect extensions

and e laborat ions of the impulse informing the b lues—"to keep,"

as Ralph Ellison describes, "the pa in fu l details and episodes o f a

brutal experience al ive

in

one's aching consciousness,

to finger its

jagged grain, and to transcend it, not by the consolation o f philoso-

phy but by

squeezing

f rom it a

near-tragic, near-comic lyricism."

54



32

/


Within

the

b lues-inflected practices

o f

contem porary improvised

m usic, transcen dence is no t p rojected as the end b ut, l ike the m usi-

cal shapes that develop and dissipate in t ime, is tenuously an d m o -

mentari ly grasped in the transformative play of forces

that

f o r m s

make available.



Chapter

2

What

Is the

Body

Supposed

to Be Doing?

John Cage and

Rahsaan Roland Kirk

Sound??

Bearing

multiple instruments, his blind steps measured with a cane,

multi-reedist Rahsaan Roland Kirk crests a hillside to descend into

London's zoo. In the background a sustained pitch emerges and con-

tinues as the

im age cuts

f rom

Kir k's seem ingly chaotic

and

f ragm ent-

ed

fo rm

moving across the fixed space of the camera's f rame to John

Cage, the centering point of focus in a moving fram e. In the midst of

the vis ua l swirl of the city b ehind him , Cage calm ly, stoically, recites

a

series

o f

questions f rom

the

book that

he

carries:

"Is it

high?

Is it

low?

Is it in the

middle?

Is it

soft?

Is it

l oud?"

The

im ages continue

to

alternate intermittently between these contrasting figures and their

surroundings

(Figure

14).

The

pitch

is

jo ined

by an

accompaniment

as

Cage poses more questions: "Does

it

communicate anyth ing?

Must it? If it's high, does it? If it's low, does it? Is it a sound? If so,

is

it music? Is 'music' the word I mean; is that a sound? If it is, is

'music' m usic? ...

Is it

softer than

before? Is it

supersonic? W hen will

it stop? What's coming? Will it never stop? W hy won't it? Is sound

enough; what more do I need?"

Finally,

the a lternating im agery b reak s (Figure 15). W e see K irk

in a nightclub per fo rm ing the m usic that has taken shape in the back-

ground. Cage continues: "Silence

is not a

question.

A

little sound

or

33



34 / What Is the Body

Supposed

to Be

Doing?

Figure 14. A l ternat ing sequ ence of contrast ing sub jects presented

in the opening of Sound?? Rahsaan Roland Kirk ( lef t ) and John Cage.

St i l ls f rom

Sound??

t

film

b y

Dick Fontaine

fo r

Grapevine Pic tures.

Courtesy

of

Rhapsod y Films, Inc.

m ore so und , there's no such thing as no so und . It 's sim ply a question

of what sounds we intend and what sounds we don't intend." His re-

flections

are

followed

b y

Kirk's sole com m ent,

an

ex planatory state-

ment: "I've been put down by many critics for exploring what I call

'sound.'"

"Sound," he proclaim s, in the concluding m om ent of the

first

sequence

o f

Sound??

(1967), a video juxtap ositio n expo sing the

proximity and the distance between Cage and Kirk, "is something

like eyesight for me."

Cage always acknowledged jazz as a percussive music, notable for

rhythmic

and

timbral concerns similar

to his

o w n .

In

"The Future

o f

Music," he

writes:

Percussion m usic

is a contemporary transition

f rom ke yboard-

influenced

music

to the

all-sound music

of the

f u t u r e .

A ny

sound

is

acceptable

to the

composer

of

percussion m usic;

he

explores

the

academically forbidden "non-musical" field of sound insofar as is

manually possible.

Methods

of

writ ing percussion music have

as

their go al

the



What Is the Body Supposed to B e Doing? / 35

Figure

15. Transi t ion sequ ence. St il ls f ro m Sound??

Courtesy

of

Rhapsody

Films, Inc.

rhythmic structure

of a composition. As

soon

as these methods are

crystallized

into one or several widely accepted methods, the m e a n s

will exist for group improvisations of unwrit ten but culturally im-

portant

music.

This has

already

taken

place

in

Oriental culture

and

in hot j azz .

1

A

rhythmic orientation

w as

necessary, given

his

view

o f what

sound

consists o f: pitch, t im br e, loudness, and durat ion. H e explains: "The

opposite and necessary coexistent o f sound is silence. Of the f o u r

characteristics of sound, only duration involves both sound and si-

lence. Therefore, a s tructure based on durations (rhythmic phrase,

t im e lengths)

is

correct (correspon ds with

th e

nature

o f the

m ate r ia l ) ,

whereas harm on ic s t ruc tu re

is

incorrect (derived f rom pitch, which

has no

being

in silence)."

2

Having

identified

these parameters , Cage

proposed a high-culture music

that

wo uld explore these charac ter-

istics,

and he

posi t ioned

j azz

outside

the

need

fo r fu r ther

cons ider-

ation, m ain tainin g that i t was inco nsequential to fo rm al , high m usic

culture.

Cage b el ieved that while j a z z , like folk music , was s t ructural ly

based o n

r h y t h m ,

the

correct or ientat ion

o f

music , rhythm "never

developed in

t h em ,

fo r

they

are not

cultivated species, growing best

when

left

wild."

3

And he would cont inue to del ineate boundar ies ,

hierarchies,

and

lines

o f

descent

in

other writings: "Jazz

per se de-

rives f rom

serious music.

A nd

when serious music derives

f rom it,

th e

situation becomes rather silly."

4

These characterizations

o f jazz

were

necessary

fo r

es tabl i shing

th e

or iginal i ty

of his

deve lopm ent

of a

transg ressive m usic w ithin high m usic culture that f ocused

on

rhythm and was tenuously related to

notation. "Work

indeterminate



36 /

What Is the Body Supposed to Be Doing?

of

its

performance,"

Tom

Johnson notes,

is the

name

that

Cage chose

for his

music, "because

to

have called

his

work 'improvisations' would

have implied that

the

performers were

not

guided

by

goals

and rules."

5

In Sound?? this distinction is evident when Cage asks, "Wouldn't it

be better to just

drop

music? Then what would we

have?

Jazz?"

Then, smiling wryly, he asks, "What's le f t?" to rhetorically imply,

but

remain silent about,

his own

indeterminate work

as the

answer.

In his construction o f a high cultural distinction between in-

determinacy and improvisation, Cage failed to see the true difference,

found in his own

assertion

of a set of

distinct

and

separated

subject

positions rather than a set of shifting and variable ones: "Compos-

ing's one thing, performing's another, listening's a third. What can

they have to do with one another?"

6

Indeterminacy through written

composition

led to an

experimental music that Cage

defined as an

action "the outcome

of

which

is not

foreseen"

and is

"necessarily

unique."

It

challenged

the

ability

of

notation,

the

work

of a

compos-

er, to predefine music by pursuing a music removed f rom intention.

7

Play in g —mak in g music through variable

and

simultaneous inter-

actions of composing, performing, and listening—led to an experi-

mental music that challenged writing

as the

only location

o f

musical

thought by developing, over its history, new systems of communi-

cation and interaction that facilitated improvisation. Indeterminacy

and

improvisation

are

thus sources

of

musical spontaneity

that

differ

in their respective structurings through writing

and

playing,

as

well

as

in their conceptions of the subject and its relation to the surround-

in g environment. In bringing Kirk and Cage into proximity with each

another,

Sound??

offers

an opportunity to understand the implica-

tions

o f a

variable, rather than

fixed,

sub ject,

as

well

as the

potential

of

those subjects

in

relation

to the

behaviors that

may be

embedded

in

objects.

Changed Composer

as

Subject

The

inability

o f

"scales, modes, theories

o f

counterpoint

and

harmo-

ny, and the study of the timbres, singly and in combination of a lim-

ited

number

o f

sound-producing mechanisms,"

to fully

account

fo r

the diverse and widening array of sounds that were unintentionally

introduced by mechanical and electronic means was pivotal to Cage's



What

Is the Body Supposed to Be Doing? / 37

formulat ion

of his work. In

response

to

this

condition,

Cage sought

to

demonstrate, through

a

series

o f

activities, that "soun ds

are

events

in a field of po ssibilities, not on ly at the d iscrete po ints co nventions

have

favored."

8

By m eticulously recom piling shreds of m agnetic tape,

Cage mined "the possibilities

of

m agnetic

tape,

which

is

revealing

to

us

that musical action o r existence can occur at any point o r along

any

line or curv e or w hat hav e you in to tal sound -space; that w e are,

in fact,

technically equipped to t ran sfo rm o ur co ntemp orary aware-

ness of nature 's manner of operation in art."

9

Likewise, turning the

kno b o n a radio could produce an u nfo reseen range of sounds , a t -

testing

to

this emergent

field of

soun d within which no tation al tools

could

identify

only a minute and l imi ted spect rum

(Figure

16). Or

by m erely sitting silently, yet poised to p e r f o r m , th e musician could

call

attention

to the hum of air

conditioners,

the

creak

of

seats,

and

other unintended sounds generated

b y

bo th

the

environm ent

and the

audience.

Given th e

unfo reseeable sounds prod uced throu gh such acts ,

ho w

could

one

operate

as a

com poser without im posing

composition's ra-

tional, controlling, and lim iting efforts? How could one m ake com po-

sitions

that unleashed this broadened spectrum and permitted sounds

to be them selves? In respo nse to these challenges to relinquish com posi-

tional control over soun ds in perform ance, Cage proposed that

"those

w ho

have accepted

th e

sounds they

do not intend—now

realize that

Figure 16. John Cage

studying

a

sound-emitting

electronic

assembly . Still

from Sound?? Cour-

tesy

of Rhapsody Films, Inc.



38 /

What

Is

the

Body

Supposed to Be Doing?

th e

score,

the

requiring that many parts

b e

played

in a

particular

to -

getherness,

is not an accurate representation of how things are. These

no w compose parts but not scores, and the parts m a y b e combined

in any

unthought ways. This means that each performance

of

such

a

piece o f music is unique, as interesting to its composer as to others

listening."

10

The disjunctions resulting from these fixed scripts speci-

fying parts

and

structures with

no set

succession were furthered

b y

the

absence

of a

specific vocabulary

of

notes

in the

notation systems

he developed. The written compositions might indicate vertical and

horizontal

relations

of

points

in

time,

but in the

absence

of a

measure,

the

performer

has to

decide what those relations mean. Through both

strategies,

Cage

was

able

to

"fix some parameters while leaving oth-

ers

to

chance"

and so to

develop music that incorporated both sound

(prescribed and

intended sounds)

a nd

silence (unintended sounds).

"At minimum," declares Peter Yates, "Cage 'emancipated music f rom

its

notes.'"

11

Lethal Measurement and Cage's

Other Difficulties

with

Jazz

Y et fo r

Cage

a

"composition which

is

indeterminate with respect

to its outcome" had larger implications for modern culture, given

the tendency of those compositions to produce simultaneous yet un-

related occurrences. "Sounds," he noted, "have frequency, ampli-

tude, duration, timbre, and in a composition, an order of succession."

However,

the

same technologies that introduced unintended sounds

had ruptured

the

notion

that

a

singular linear narrative could orga-

nize

and define a time period or a zone of space. "Communications,

radio,

television, not to mention magnetic tape, not to mention travel

by air, departures and arrivals from no matter what point at no mat-

ter what time, to no matter what point at no matter what time, not

to mention telephony": all these things revealed an immense field of

simultaneous events of differing scopes and scales that lacked se-

quential dependencies with

one

another. Multiple orders were prolif-

erating in the world and making it impossible to believe that any one

order possessed primacy over the others. Considering the impact of

these developments

on

sound, Cage observes: "Patterns, repetitions,



What Is the Body Supposed to Be Doing? / 39

and variations will arise and disappear. However, rhy thm is dur ation s

of

any length coexisting in any

states

of succession and synchronici-

ty .

The

latter

is

liveliest, m ost unp redictab ly changing, when

the

par ts

are not fixed by a score b ut

left

independent of one another, no two

p e r f o r m a n c e s

y ie lding the sam e resul tant durat ions . The form er ,

succession, liveliest w hen ... it is not fixed but present in situation-

form, entrances being at any point within a given period of t ime."

Instead

o f

using succession

a nd

beat

to

impose

unifying

conceptions,

composers should create "the

situation

of sounds arising from ac-

tions which arise f rom their own centers" and should appreciate any

synchronicities

that

em erge.

12

The presence o f succession wo uld be one of Cage's pr im ary com -

plaints about j azz in "Lethal Measurement," an interview by John

Zwerin published in 1966 in the

Village Voice.

Its form , Cage notes

in

this interview, which focuses o n

j azz ,

"suggests too

frequently

that

people are

talking—that

is, in succession—like in a panel dis-

cussion."

13

Identifying further

elements

in

jazz

that

he

b elieved "you

really

have

no use for in

life,"

he

criticizes

the

persistent presence

and

emphasis

on the b eat: "i f this notion of m easurem ent—that som eone

is

ahead

o r

behind

the

beat—is

essential

to our

lives,

it

m e a n s

w e

mustn't do

anything,

without this

lethal measurement going along

with it. I

m yself

revolt against this notion of m easurement ."

1 4

Cage

asserts

that

jazz contains

the

structures

that

he

sought

to

subvert

and

that

it is

incapable

o f

crea ting un pre dictab le liveliness. W hile

he had

once cited

it as a

m usical practice that

w as

prim itive, wild,

and

out-

side

th e

realm

o f

ar t ,

he now

reposi t ions

it as an

insufficient practice

because

it

r e m a i ns

to o

close

to

Western conceptions

o f

music:

"It

seems—jazz does—to

cling

to the

fact

of ar t

more than

to the

fact

of life."

15

Jazz was not the only music fo r which he had revised his outlook.

Cage had distanced him self f rom the work of Schoenberg with a cri-

tique

o f

serial m usic that

clarifies his difficulty

with beat

and

succes-

sion: i ts l inks to repeti t ion (and variation) in commercial culture.

1 6

As evidenced

in the

stockpiling

o f

music, part icularly j azz , t h r ou gh

recordings,

repetition

had

become

the

dominant mode (logic)

o f

commodity culture. While sheet music

as a

m e an s

o f

representation

permitted

the

development

and

dissemination

of a

part icular kind



40 / What

Is the

Body Supposed

to Be

Doing?

and form o f music (based in harmony), recordings

permitted

the ac-

tual m om ent of perform ing, playing, or m aking of music , a tempo ral

event, to be stock piled and t ransform ed into a

commodity.

17

In atonal

serialism,

a relation to

com m ercial culture occurred

thro ug h the co nt inui ty of capi ta l is t developm ent m ani fe s ted in the

continuation o f harmony, albei t through questioning and seeking to

dissolve it. As an

explicit critique

of

harm ony,

it

operated

as a devel-

opment

o f

harm on ic evolution,

o ne

that

w as

consistent with dev elop-

ments in Western commercial culture. In

j azz ,

this relation to c o m -

mercial culture

w as

mi r rored

in the

musical content through beat

and

succession,

a false

play

o f

difference

and

innovation,

in his

eyes,

that

was

amplif ied

by the use of

improvisation. "Improvisation,"

he

stated, "is general ly playing w hat yo u

know."

18

The im prov iser, Cage

believed, was b urden ed by ind ividu al em otion, taste, and m em ory,

and

Cage could

no t

detect

a

m e a n s

fo r

obtaining

new

experiences

within

an

improvisat ion.

1 9

Therefore , improvisat ion, l ike ra t ional

planning, co uld o nly provide a "m eans o f control l ing the con tinuity

from note

to

note."

It

could

not

make opportunities

to

release

control

over sound mate r i a l

and to

create

a

si tuation

in

which "sounds

are

to

com e into their ow n, rathe r than being exploi ted

to

exp ress senti-

ments

or

ideas

of order."

20

Cage's critique posed

tw o

principal questions. First,

can a

m us ic

im m ersed in b eat and succession pro vide a resource for l iveliness and

unexpected sounds?

The second

question

is

implied

in his

lament:

"What I

would l ike

to find is an

improvisation that

is not

descrip-

tive of the

pe r former ,

but is

descriptive

of

what happens,

and

which

is characterized

by an

absence

of

intention."

21

Is

improvised music

inevitably

under

th e

control

of the individual?

Nonnotat ional

Noises—a

Div ergent Aesthet ic

The impossibi l i ty of "achieving creative agency and experiential

spontaneity through improvisative

musicality" points to the

limita-

tion of o nly co nsidering intellect and em otion as the creative sour ces

in m a k in g mus ic .

22

Neither, as Cage noted, can account for all the

complexity

o f

nature .

Nor can

they account

for all

hum an complexi-

ty .

M issing

from

Cage's formulation

is a

co nsideration

o f the

relation



What Is the

Body Supposed

to Be

Doing? /

41

between the player's body and the instrument, which became trans-

parent

in the

W estern m usic tradition. M usic critic Joh n Co rb ett notes

this diminished presence:

The

t ra ining

o f the

hands, their

adjustment

and

a l ignment

to

meet

the requirements of correct technique, and thus the development

of muscula tu re

in capable o f

producing "bad" technique,

all

ensure

th e reproduction o f m usic outside, off the surface o f, away f rom

the

performer . Standard technical facility

is

therefore

a

strategy

by which

th e

ins trum ent

and

p e r f o r m e r

a re

both denied

a

cer ta in

kind

o f

presence

in the

pe r fo rmance ,

a

strategy

b y

which they

are

disavowed as the writing o f culture and thus a strategy that protects

wri t ten

(pre inscr ibed)

music and the discipline o f the body against

exposure and detection.

23

The

problem

is not

that impro visation

is

impo ssible,

as

Cage

and

oth-

er s rooted in W estern m usic tradition have asserted, but tha t the regu-

lated bo dies of classically train ed m usicians cann ot improvise.

24

By

1963, when

the

"Lethal Measurement" interview

w as

con-

ducted, the elements in jazz that Cage criticized had already under-

gone critical examination b y numerous

jazz

musicians. Cecil Taylor,

Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, and others were working in set-

tings in which all

'm usicians

improvised simultaneously, in a kind o f

re tu rn

to

early

N ew

Orleans/Chicago music. They were creating

a

free-form

m usic having variable, po lyrhythm ic densit ies

and

tonali-

ties

that lacked any connection to Western tempered scales. But these

emergent

sounds—free

shrieks and honks—were less a response to

ideas set forth by Cage or other "modern" music composers , than

they were

a

look

backward.

25

Corbet t observes that "modern" music ' s problemat ics a re no t

shared

by the "ongoing legacy o f black music in improvisat ion."

2 6

Christopher Small provides some insight

as to why

this might

be so:

"the l im it of distort ion to which per fo rm ers are expected to

subject

the wri t ten notation are variable, being all but

infinite

in the A f r o -

Amer ican tradit ion but very narrow in the classical."

27

Improvised

music

stems

f rom

practices in which notation did not indicate nar-

ro w constraints .

Efforts to transcrib e ballads, spirituals, and w ork songs, nineteenth-

century

precursors

o f j azz , had

revealed

the

dis junct ion between



42 / What Is the Body Supposed to Be Doing?

Western notation and sound

that

Cage would later recognize in elec-

tronics.

In

1873

M. F.

A r m s tr ong

and

Helen

W.

Ludlow,

reflecting

on their efforts to

document

and

compile

the Hampton

spirituals,

observed

how the

mobi l i ty

o f

cont inuous tones across

the

precise

points

of an

octave presented notational conundrums: "Tones

are

frequently

employed which

w e

have

no

musical characters

to

repre-

sent.

. . .

Their tones

are

variable

in

pi tch, ranging through

an en-

tire octave on different occasions, according to the inspiration o f the

singer."

28

Earlier, in 1862, William Allen, one of the editors of

Slave

Songs in the

United

States, offered

similar comments on the diffi-

culty of m aking no tations, given the em phasis on tonal ar eas rather

tha n precise notes,

as

well

as the

temporal variabi l i ty: "What makes

it all the harder to unravel a thread o f m elody out of this stran ge net-

work

is that,

like birds, they seem

no t infrequently to

str ike sounds

that

cannot

b e

precisely represented

by the

ga m u t ,

and

a b o u n d

in

'slides

f rom one

note

to

another

and turns and cadences not in ar-

ticulated

notes.'. . .

There

are

also irregularities

in the

tim e, w hich

it is no less

difficult

to express

accurately."

29

Lucy

McKim Gar r ison ,

another editor of the same volume, specifically linked these variab le

qualities to the processes of the body and the collective interactions

that created

the

music:

"It is difficult to

express

th e

entire character

of these negro ballads by mere musical notes and signs. The odd

tu rns made

in the throat and the

curious rhythmic

effect

produced

by single voices chiming in at

different

irregular intervals, seem al-

mos t

as

impossible

to

place

on the

score

as the

singing

o f

bi rds

o r

the tones of an

Aeolian

Harp."

30

Developed

through the

activity

of

playing, direct im m ersion in the thing being m ade, none o f the m usic

that these ind ividu als sought to chronicle conform ed to the notation

that

the

documenters sought

to

impose.

Given

his gro und ing or ientation in W estern classical m usic, Cage

could no t reconcile the presence o f m elody, harm ony , and tim ekeeping

with experimentation

in

m usic.

He

could

not see

that

a

m usic devel-

oped through playing rather than notation w as ou tside th e limits and

crises of Western composition, the primary critical focus of Cage's

o w n

wo rk. However,

a

m usic based

in

playing

can find its

oppor tuni -

ties within th e exploratory potential of the constitution of the body

without necessarily ab ando ning m elody, harm ony, and timekeeping,

elements that Corbett characterizes

as

"tools

of

expression

for

roman-



Wha t Is the

Body Supposed

to Be

D oing? /

43

ticism;

the

lineage

to

perforate

fo r

h igh m odernism .

In

either case,

r e-

pressive

strategies only

insofar

as they pro duce the po ssibility

'music'

that

denies the presence of the body of the performer. Melody, har-

mony, t imekeeping: these take

on new

significance

in

be ing impro -

vised."

31

In playing, these elements represent potential rather than

prescribed

developments. Because

it

developed thro ugh playing,

jazz

never

created ruptures between

the

m i nd

and

b o d y

o r

separations

between composing and performing. Emerging

through

playing, au-

rality,

and the

body,

it

never experienced

th e

need

to

adhere

to the

restr ict ions

o f

no ta tion ,

o r

conversely

the

need

to

dis regard them.

The

difficulty

of transcrib ing m usic produced by playing points to an

understanding o f no tation as a guide and stimulus fo r m aking m usic

rather

than

the description of an object for performance.

Roscoe Mitchell an d

a Language

of the

Body

The sense

that

"notes on scorepaper amount to nothing more than a

set o f

variables"

is

evident

in

such wo rks

as "SII

Examples,"

a

solo

recording by Roscoe Mitchell , who is a meticulous documenter of

the sounds that can b e produced through interact ion wi th ins t ru-

ments.

32

As the

name implies, "SII Examples"

is a

selection

of ex-

amples

f rom his

SII Book,

which describes soprano saxophone fin-

gerings that he has developed to "allow an individual to play quarter

tones, semi-quarter tones, between notes, the same note with

differ-

ent

t imbres ,

and that

kind

o f thing."

33

With

an

accompanying tape

that

dem onstrates the sounds, "the book explains how the fingerings

are

done ,

and how to t ie

these sounds together into

a

line with

no

breaks in i t other than hearing a

scale

pat tern of notes falling to -

gether."

34

Mitchell 's work constitutes

an

alternative

fo rm

o f

w ri t ten

no tation that describes positions

of the

b ody

in

relation

to the

instru-

ment rather than musical note values fo un d

o n a scale.

35

And the

577 Book is

po tential ly

but one of

m any boo ks , given

the

n u m b e r

o f

saxophones

and

other wind instruments with which Mitchell works

(Figure 17).

This emphasis

on

processes

and

actions rather than

on

quantities,

note values,

is

driven

in part b y the

character

of the

sounds Mitchell

produces. Listening to "SII Examples," o ne detects sounds, which

lack

discrete clarity

o r

authori ty, em erging

as

distant resonant pitches



Figure 17. The Art Ensemble of Chicago, live at Kanihoken

Hall,

Gotanda,

Tokyo, 1984.

For

this

concert,

Ros c oe

Mitchell,

top was

equipped

with an ensemble of eight woodwinds (upper left corner). Copyright

Mitsuhiro Sugawara. Reproduced

with

permission.



What Is the Body

Supposed

to Be

Doing?

/ 45

that

are inextricable

from

the

passage

of air and the

manipulation

of

th e saxophone's keys. Consequently, o ne becomes acutely aware

of

the physical e f for t and constraints of the musician, as well as the

stresses

and

strains within

the

instrument needed

to

produce such

sounds. Mitchell eventually discovered that one example that could

be done on [his] curved soprano saxophone couldn't be played on ...

straight

sopranos."

36

Sound in this sense is not an a priori note value,

but a

function

of

Mitchell's body positions,

as

well

as the

form

and

properties of his selected instrument.

Technique

and Its

Absence

The potential enabled by such relations between the body and the

i n s t r u m e n t

is

fu r t h e r revealed

in

Taylor's recollection

o f a

discus-

sion regarding Thelonious Monk's playing technique: "[Gunther]

Schuller

had made a remark that it would never occur to Monk to

practice and thereby change his technique to improve his music. I

asked then,

'Would

it ever occur to Horowitz to practice to change

his technique? ' I said, 'Monk can do things that Horowitz can't, and

that's where the validity of Monk's music is, in his technique.'"

37

Monk's

lack

of

proper technique, relative

to

definitions imposed

by

classical training, did not limit his music, but was inextricable f rom

the potentials of his activity and from the sound he created. A change

in

technique would

no t

have improved

h is

music;

it

would have

led to

the

development

of a

different kind

o f

music.

Taylor's anecdote implies that, like the relation to notation, the

concept o f technique is not the same in improvised music and West-

ern

classical music. Wadada

L eo

Smith identifies this d i f fe rence:

Technique

for the

improvisor

is not an

arbitrary consumption

o f

an abstract standardized method, but rather a direct attunement

with the mental, spiritual and mechanical energy necessary to ex-

press a full creative impulse. H e emphasizes th e generative potential

in individual technique: "In other words, to improvise, a display of

flawless standardized technique is not enough: an improvisor must

b e

creative."

38

A n individual's technique, in improvisation, emerges

f rom

the work

with

the

instrument

in

order

to find and

develop

his

or her sound.

John Corbett provides a detailed account of the influences of the



46 /

What

Is the

Body Supposed

to Be

Doing?

fo rm

and properties of an instrument on the development of tech-

nique

in

both

th e

Western classical tradition

and

improvised music:

"Implicit

in the

ins t rument

are techniques for

playing

it; the

knowl-

edge one can have on an instrument is mapped out progressively in

term s of a t raining

that

allows the musician a certain way and there-

by

forces

the instrument to sound only a certain way. Contained in

the very body of the ins t rument i s the power/knowledge juncture

capable

o f

producing correct gesture."

39

The

Western tradition

em -

phasizes

c onf o r m a nc e

b y

focus ing

on the

technique that facilitates

the repeated

production

of

particular

sounds regardless of individual

m usicians and instrum ents. The

"correct

gestur e" in this focus creates

a

seamless interface between

the

body

and the

instrument

in

which

the weaknesses and undesired characteristics of either one are mini-

mized and become undetectable. Compared to this disciplined, and

thus hidden, body

o f a

Western-trained musician, Corbett explains

that

"a reappropriated technique" requiring "a radical redisciplining

of the body" is evident in improvised music: "The improviser's task,

then, is to sub vert this disciplinary action at a n um b er of levels: ges-

ture ,

th e

object-body art iculation,

th e

orchestrated body,

o r a

c om -

bination of these. This does not m ean an ab ando nm ent of discipl ine

altogether. It requires re-discipline. N ew techniques, new gestures,

new

responses.

To

repos i t ion music

in

relation

to the

b o d y

of the

performer ,

the

player must

be

willing

to

stretch,

m u st

not be

fear-

fu l o f

exposure

and

detect ion. Abandoning vi r tuos i ty

o r

em brac ing

it:

both

become

possibilities."

40

As the body,

through

all of these

actions, ventures beyo nd the s tandard inter face and becomes detect-

able,

so

does

the instrument.

Standing

with

the

reed away

from

his

m ou th, Evan Parker percussively fingering

his

saxophone's keys, Fred

Hopkins

pro ducing a drone b y bow ing his bass in a circular motion

that shreds

th e

hairs

of the

bow, Peggy

L ee

repetitively striking

her

bow and the str ings against the br idge of her cello, Susie Ibarra

dro pping and drag ging a string of shells on her snare dr um : all these

acts

are

examples

o f

musicians going beyond

th e

limits

of the

stan-

dard o r designed

interface

in the Western tradit ion to locate and

work with hidden

and

unintended sound potentials

of the

behaviors

that

are

emb edded

in

their instrument's design (Figures

18 and

19).

41

A ll

these behaviors , which a re info rm ed by an ins t rum ent ' s m ate-

rial

properties as well as its f o rm , are exposed as creative reso urces,



Figure

18.

Bowed cymbal.

... and

other latent uses,

an

instal-

lation

in

Project

Row

Houses' Music

and

Spoken Word House,

Houston, Texas, 2001.

Figure

19.

Three forms

of playing

balloons.

and

other

latent

uses,

an

installation

in

Project

Row

Houses' Music

and

Spoken

Word House, Houston, Texas, 2001.



48 /

W h a t Is the Body Supposed to Be D oing?

rather

than

weaknesses,

for the

improviser

to

interact with

and to

develop a bro ad range of so und -m aking activi ties .

Shifting

Subject/Object

Relat ions

in

Playing

No one has displayed improvisation's facets of technique and focus

o n

ins t rument behaviors more openly than Kirk.

With a

variety

o f

whistles and noisemakers, in addition to the three saxophones,

flute,

clarinet , and s i ren, s t rewn around his neck, Kirk kept available a

sound-making potent ia l

that w as

perhaps

infinite

given

his

willing-

ness to mo d i fy

each ins t rum ent (Figure 20) .

The "Saxophonium"

is

the

name given

to a

saxophone without

the

reed

that

K irk wo uld

play.

The

practice

w as

perhaps initiated

by an

instance

in

which

he

had

lost

a

reed,

or the

worn

and

fragile state

of

m a ny

of his

instru-

ments.

In the

course

o f

playing,

he

m ight also remo ve

the

saxophone's

mouthpiece and neck, or substi tute a s imilar part

f rom

another in-

strument, such

as the trombone.

42

In the

liner notes

fo r Here Comes

the

Whistleman,

cr i t ic Alan Grant proposes ,

"If

Roland

Kirk had

the

t ime,

he

would

try to

master every musical ins t rument

in the

world, not so m u ch to master th e ins t rument as to produce his own

inim itable im prov isational

sound."

43

A s with th e m usicians described

abo ve, the con cern is for so und po tential ava i lable wh ile playing

rather than adherence to correct technique.

Figure

20.

Rahsaan Roland K i rk demon st rat -

ing his

multihorned

approach. Still f ro m

Sound??

Courtesy of Rhapsody Films, Inc.



What Is the

Body Supposed

to Be

Doing? /

49

Kirk fur ther increased th e sound potential of his playing b y plac-

in g

multiple mouthpieces

in his

m ou th

at one

tim e. W ith

up to

three

ins t ruments in his mouth, Kirk placed his b ody in a position

that

demanded new techniques because he could no longer hold the in-

s t ruments or manipulate the keys in a convent ional manner . Ki rk

lamented being limited to ten fingers; however, many observers ,

amazed by his ability to deploy a fingering

that

enabled him to play

all

of these instruments simultaneously, could not detect a l imit or

weakness.

4 4

Thro ugh his m ulti-instrum ental practices, Kir k devel-

oped the facility to

contemplate

and play two

separate

thoughts as

different

melodies simultaneously issued

f rom

each horn, thus mak-

ing apparen t the under standin g in im provised m usic that the

subject

w as fragmented

and

unfixed,

and was

susceptible

to

change

in

rela-

tion to the object .

W hile citing Am iri Ba raka's declaration that the im perative of New

Black

Music,

o r free improvised music, was to "find th e

self,

then

kill

it," Nathaniel Mackey identifies comparable mani fes ta t ions

o f a

multiple

rather than unified subject in the activities a nd claims o f m u -

sicians such

as

Charles Mingus

and

Muhal Richard Abrams.

45

Self-

expression becomes stimulus for self-transform ation through risk,

th e

"cruel contradiction"

o f

improvis ing

first identified b y

Ralph

Ellison and detailed by improviser Evan Parker.

46

Operating within

and against the group, the risks encountered in improvised music in-

clude stagnation (nonexistence), insanity (dysfunction),

and

comple-

tion (system ization, standardiza tion, habit).

47

In Sound?? K i rk m akes

these aspects of improvisation transparent (Figure 21). He does not

l imit

his

explorations

to the

nightclub,

the

venue that contributes

so

m u ch

to the

predominant visions

o f jazz . He is

equal ly com for t -

able playing in the zoo, where he spars with animals and organizes

a procession of whistle-blowing children. He thus challenges con-

ceptions

o f

proper t imes

o r

places

fo r

music.

Any

context becomes

an opportunity fo r exploring and interacting with sound. Later the

video documents Kirk in the club, distributing whistles and absurdly

requesting "'Blues in

W

in the key of W."

Ki rk

and his

band work

within and against the resulting cacopho ny o f sound pro duced b y

the audience to m a ke it clear that Kirk is not striving for authority,

but

rather seeks to interact with forces outside his control.



Figure

21.

Rahsaan Roland Kirk serenading

a

wolf in London's zoo; Kirk leading a parade of

children through

the

zoo;

and a

club audience

playing kazoos provided by Kirk. Stills from

Sound?? Courtesy

o f

Rhapsody Films, Inc.



What Is the

Body

Supposed to B e D oing? / 51

Music

that

emphasizes development, of itself and its makers ,

through playing

is not

concerned with "rules,"

b ut

located

in

disci-

pl ine, which trombonist George Lewis defines

as

"technical knowl-

edge

of

music theory

and of

one's

instrument

as

well

as

thorough

attention to the background, his tory, and cul ture o f one's music."

48

Lewis, an

improvi se r

and

composer , accepts that

a

music based

in

oral i ty

and the

body acknowledges personali ty

as part of its

sono-

rous equation: "Sensibi l i ty, personali ty

and

intel l igence cannot

b e

separated f rom

an

improviser's

ph e nom e nal

(as

distinct

f rom fo rma l )

definition

of music."

49

However, the presence of personality within

th e

m usic does no t l im it m usicians to their o w n experience or to only

playing what they know—suggest ing

fur ther

distinctions between

the understandings of discipl ine and technique in this phenomenal

definition

of

m usic

and

Western classical music.

An

e laborat ion

o n

improvisat ion

b y

Corbet t provides

a

release

f rom th e

bipolar consideration

o f

rational

and

emotional states

to

reveal its complexity: "a

different,

more complex image of improvi-

sation

as a

diverse range

o f

strategies rega rd ing gestura l rediscipline

and bo dy-o bject ar t iculat ion, wi thout

a

single rallying cry.

. . . An

opposition

to the

notion

o f music away from the site of the body o f

th e p e r f o r m e r — b u t one

that

is not unified at the level of the

three

bodies (knowledge , pe r form er , ins trum ent )

nor at the jun c tu re o f

these three bodies,

but in the

space between

improvisers."

50

This

is

a different

conception

o f

sound

as

integral

and

inter twined wi th

the

f o r m s

and

processes that produce

it. The

p e r f o r m e r s

a nd

their

personali t ies

are

inseparable

f rom

their music

but are not the

sole

source of its pro ductio n. Kno wledge, in this con ception , does not re-

side

in and em erge f rom the object o r the body, rather than the m ind.

Individually, all

three

are

inadequate

and are

limited

by the

a s su m p-

tion that

they are discrete and stable. Knowledge instead develops in

the interaction am on g the three, and is prod uced in exchanges across

musicians and the

audience.

Prepared Instrument

and

Disciplined

Bodies

As Sound??

implies, the zone separating the music explorations be-

tween

Kirk and

Cage

is

blurred rather than distinct.

In his use of a



52

/ What

Is the

Body Supposed

to Be

Doing?

radio

tuned to any

station

as a sound source for his music, K irk o ver-

lapped

Cage.

51

Similarly, Kirk's multiple horns

and

instrum ent m odi-

fications

have

parallels with Cage's prepared piano, which

he devel-

oped

in the

1930s.

The

production

of

unexp ected

and

undetermined

sounds could occur through the performer's application of standard

technique o n such a m odified instrum ent:

In the late 1930s Cage also devised the "p repar ed piano," the in-

novation that first won him notice. Here he doctored the piano's

netwo rk of strings w ith screws, bolts, nuts, and strips of ru b b er ,

endowing th e

famil iar

inst rum ent with a range o f unfam i l ia r per-

cussive

po tentialities.

. . .

In

addition

to

generating un usu al noises,

the

prepared

piano

gives th e

performer less control over

th e

sounds that

are finally

produced—bolts

and nuts, alas, are not as precise as tun ed

strings.

52

While a musician might s tr ike the keys in the standard manner, no

one knew what sounds would emerge

f rom

the al tered instrument.

Describing Cage's indeterminate s tructures, cri t ic Richard Kos-

telanetz notes

that "in the

choice

o f

mater ia ls

and

guidelines lies

his

taste.

He was

known

to

become visibly upset

if the

skeleton

of his

piece,

as

distinct

f rom the

detail, lost

it s

predetermined shape.

'The

rules of the game,' quipped [music cri t ic] Peter Yates,

'de te rmine

th e

na t u r e

of the

play

and the

shape

of the end product.'"

53

Cage's

notations

invariably

offered

shapes or points

that

placed the musician

outside

the

bounds

of

standard

notation. To

read

and

translate those

notations, the m usician wo uld have to initiate exp erim ental actions—

actions that neither Cage

nor the

musician

had preconceived—to

produce

a

sound. Since neither

th e

sound

nor the

action

w as

explic-

itly determined by the

notation,

th e same notation read b y a differ-

ent

musician would yield

a

different

action and

sound. Cage's only

insurance, therefore, that each action was "experimental" was i f i t

emanated f rom

th e

und erlying dictates

and

ru les , however am b igu-

ous, indicated by the no tations.

Cage

had not

created

the

m e a n s

for a

composer

to

s t ruc tu re

a

sound-making activi ty made

up of

indeterminate sounds

in

order

to

permi t

th e

pe r f o r m i ng

subject to influence or to

take control

o f

those

sounds .

H e

dictated through notat ion

the

m a n n e r

and

m e a n s

b y

which a musician could ini t iate an experimental action. At no mo-



What Is the Body Supposed to Be Doing? / 53

ment was the musician

free

to initiate such an action that emanated

f rom

a

different source

o r

st im uli than those structured

by the

nota-

tion.

Only

the

composer could provide

the

m eans

for the

musician

to

initiate an experimental action. Each action could be independent of

the previous one, and each sound could be independent of the previ-

ous one, only because

the

relations between

the

composer

and the

musician

as

subjects

rem ained fun dam ental ly intact.

The

true p aral lel

to

Kirk's work lies

in

Cage's activity while writ-

in g

his

compositions.

Jazz players have m ore in co m m o n

with

clas-

sical composers than wi th c lass ical performers , the makers of the

music in their respective idioms. Released f rom the concern for con-

trolling the aural result, Cage's exploration of methods of composi-

t ion, including chance and new notation systems, enabled h im to

emerge

as a wri ter who could pursue the implications of wri t ing as

an activity rather than

a

m eans :

In contras t to the neo-Schoenbergians , w ho wanted a precise

rationale for the placem ent of

every

note, Cage in the late 1940s

continued

to

develop m ethods

fo r

m i n im i z in g

his

control over

the aur al result . Som etim es he would enum erate several possible

choices posed

b y a

compositional si tuation

and

then

let the

th row

of dice dictate the selection. Other times he would choose his notes

by first marking the miscellaneous imperfections (holes, specks,

discolorations, etc.) on a piece of paper and then placing a transpar-

ent sheet over the m arked paper ; after duplicating these marks on

the transparent sheet, he would finally trace the random

dots

onto

musical

staves.

54

In all of these m ethods, the act of m a k in g a m a rk is em phasized over

the m eaning that those m ark s m ight signify. Cage's modes of writing

m usic were sim ilar

to

Kirk's modes

o f

playing, given their im m ersion

in

the material at hand and the demands they placed on the wri ter

as

subject .

Convergence

an d

Differentiation

The

painter

L ee

Krasner suggested

th e

potential influence

o f jazz

improvisation upon the work of her husband,

Jackson Pollock:

"He

would get into grooves o f listening to his jazz

records—not

just fo r



54

/

What Is the Body Supposed to Be Doing?

days—day

and night, day and night for three days running, unti l

you

thought

yo u

would c l im b

the

roof

Jazz? He

thought

it was the

only

other really creative thing happening in this

country."

55

Chad

Mandeles reinforces

the

connection:

"To the

extent

that

improvisa-

tory

method

was a

means both

for

invoking

the

unconscious

and

for developing

the act of

painting, Pollock's work

of the

early

1940s

more closely paral lels the be-bop idiom which emerged during the

same years: be-bop players distanced themselves

f rom

the

limited

chord progressions and rhythms of swing, placing greater emphasis

upon solo improvisation

and

accelerated rhy thm .

. . .

This improvi-

satory style was n ur tur ed by Pollock's reliance on the creative act, or

rather, his insistence on the preeminence o f gesture over

object."

56

By

spilling and dripping paint

onto

his canvases, Pollock

incorporated

accident and chance as stru ctur al challenges to pictorial composition

in

ways that w ould evoke com parisons

to the

art iculated playing sur-

faces of imp rovisation, and the abrasive paper surfaces and wri t ten

ins t ruments

of indeterminacy.

57

In

1959, with

the

release

of his

debut

a l b u m ,

Something Else Ornette

Coleman introduced

a

form

o f free

j azz .

A 1954 Pollock work, White

Light,

appeared on the cover of

Coleman's second album,

Free Jazz,

released

in

1960.

In an

inter-

view years later , Coleman com m ented

that

Po llock

w as

som eone

"in

the

same state

I was

in—doing

what I was

doing."

58

Kostelanetz

de-

scribes the relation b etwee n Cage and Pollock in a way that co ntrasts

with Coleman's response

to

Pollock,

focusing on the

qualities

of the

visual fields

that each produced rather than

o n

paral lels between

the

intersubjective process

and the

kno wledge

it

provides: "visual

work,

descending

from

unintentional purposes and yet eminently Cagean

in

artistic style,

is the

unt it led drawing m ade

b y

Cage while cleaning

his pen du r i ng the composi t ion of

34'46.446"

in 1954. The scat-

tered inklines create noncentered, nonhierarchical space, incidental-

ly

resem bling, m ore than any thing else,

no t

painterly constructivism

but expressionist paintings by Jackson Pollock, who, we rem em ber,

was likewise concerned with the possibilities of noncentered, non-

hierarchical visual

space." He

continues,

"By

such initially visual

device, Cage ensured

that

the

aural experience

of the

entire piece

will likewise

b e

no ncentered

and nonclimactic."

59

These discussion s

emphasize

two principal images of Pollock's

work—Pol lock

lung-

ing

forward

to

pour paint upon

a

canvas that rests horizontally

o n



Wha t Is the

Body S upposed

to Be

D oing? / 55

the floor, and the result of that process hung vertically upon a wall.

C om pa r i s ons

with

improvisation concentrate

on the

former , whi le

com parisons wi th indeterm inacy focus

o n the

latter

and

expose sim i-

lar yet

differing

models

of

diffusive

fields.

Recept ive an d Resonant Models o f Dif fusion

Cage, through

his e f for t s to

order activities

in

such

a way as to re-

move

individual

influence from

those activities, seems to advocate a

receptive diffusion. K irk, thro ugh an insistence on playing no m atter

the context, seems to propose a

reson an t diffusion.

The

difference

in

these

tw o

models lies

in

their

und erstanding

of the

subject occupying

the

diffuse

landscape and the sub ject 's po tential to act within i t.

In his

criticism

o f

j azz

in

"Le tha l Measurement , " Cage

of fe rs

Charles Ives's music as a more accurate reflection of the

times,

given

its

suggestion that "not

o ne

thing

is

happening

at a

t im e ,

b ut

ra ther

that everything is happening at the same time. They simply are. We

are living in a

period when

o ur

nervous systems

are

being exterior-

ized by electronics, so

that

the whole glow is happening at once.

There

is no

need

to

minimize

the

complexity

of the situation, but

rather

a

great need

to

make this complexi ty something

we can all

enjoy.

If our arts introd uce us to i t , then I think they are per fo rm ing

a

useful funct ion."

6 0

The

product ion

o f

sounds operating simulta-

neously

and indepen dently not only em phasizes the com plexity and

saturation

o f electronic and digital system s within co ntem porary cul-

ture, and their activation of processes at scales and rates that exceed

hu m an cap abil it ies , but also pro vides a m eans for

enjoyment

of that

complexity.

This

production,

evident

in

Cage's

characterization

of

Crown Hal l

as an

ideal perform ance set ting,

is

m o st

effective

when

the

pe r f o r m e r s

a re

dispersed within

a

space:

Certainly the performers in the case of an ensemble in space will

be

disposed about

th e

r o o m .

The

conventional architecture

is often

not suitable. W hat is requ ired perhaps is an ar chitecture like that of

Mies van der Rohe's School of Architecture at the Illinois Institute

of

Technology. Som e such architecture w ill

be useful for the

per fo r -

m a n c e

o f

compo sit ion which

is

inde te rm inate

of its

p e rf o r m a n c e .

No r will the perfor m ers be huddled together in a group in the center

of the

audience.

They

must

at

least

be disposed

separately

around



56

/ W h a t

Is the

Body Supposed

to Be

D oing?

th e

audience,

if

not ,

b y

appro aching their d isposit ion

in the

most

radically realistic sense, actually disposed within the audience itself.

In this latter case, th e fur ther separation o f p e r f o r m e r and audience

will fac ilitate the indepen dent action of each person , which will

include m obi l ity

on the

part

o f

all.

61

One can imagine Crown Hall as the site for one of Cage's collabora-

t ions with Merce Cunningham, which consisted

o f

little more than

the

agreem ent

to

perform

simultaneously—an

ensem ble

of

m usicians

and dancers perfor m ing and m oving independently

from

one another

with

th e

audience m oving am ong them . M ob i li ty

in

this

diffuse en-

vironment stimulates the development of active listeners, the role of

the composer that Cage t ransformed through his work:

W hat m akes Cage's esthetic position so revo lutiona ry is that, in

theory at least , i t completely discounts the t radit ional purposes

of composing and even the

importance

o f the composer. A s Cage

would have it , music is everywhere, and everywhere is m usic—

nature 's natural

noise—if

only the listener is prepared to hear it .

Therefore,

if the com poser has any funct ion a t all, it should b e,

Cage said, teaching people to keep attun ed to all the im plicit m usic

that their environment

offers.

Following the logic of this position,

he

admitted that solipsism characterizes the experience of both

everyday life

and indeterm inate music; and, b ecause each person

hears so m ething indiv idual, everyone is his or her ow n com poser,

putting sound together, in the act of attentive listening. The music

most appropriate to our t ime is that which allows each listener to

compose

an

individu al experience,

his

argument cont inued.

62

With

our

"nervo us system s exteriorized

b y

electronics,"

and

with

th e

choice to compose , pe r form, o r listen, Cage identified and advocat-

ed

active listening as the

appropriate position

for the

contemporary

subject.

In this position listeners obtained aspects of the composer

through their ability to individually select what sounds are of m usi -

cal value rather tha n have them impo sed by ano ther ind ividual . The

visitors

w ho

passed through these spaces

and

events m ade their

o w n

decisions regarding

the

relations among

the

performance e lements .

The active capability of the performer and the listener are maxi-

mized

in Cage's enviro nm ents; however, his com plexity—his ab sence

of

intention—can only b e m aintained by keeping the subject in a sin-

gu la r

and

restrictive role.

H is

listeners,

no

mat te r

ho w

active,

are



What

Is the Body Supposed to Be Doing?

/

57

always o utside the so und -m akin g system s: while listeners are

free

to

choose and select, they are unable to aff i rm or add to these sounds

by articulating any sounds of their own (Figure 22) . Even the slight-

est uninstructed utterance, Cage

feared,

could reestablish a desire

fo r control.

63

Thus the listener remains a consumer with no access

to the processes of production, left to the mercy of the increasingly

decentralized m odes of com m odity production and

cul ture .

64

While he envisioned Crown

Hall

as an ideal setting for an indeter-

minate music, the Philips Pavilion, a fo rm Cage wo uld have ab ho rred

and described as tyrannical, was the site of an architectural event,

Poeme Electronique, collaboratively developed by Le Corbusier and

Edgard

Varese.

65

Working separately on their respective

portions

o f

the

design-

o f a

480-second interval ,

Le

Corbusier constructed

a vi-

sual

presentation, while Varese conceived and created a sound com-

position directly

o n

m agnetic tape. Using vario us sound sources

and

processes, Varese developed sounds

that

"should

no t

have

so

direct

an

associational basis; through

the use of

loops,

filters and

other

devices, the sound is recreated, reshaped, acquires new

frequencies

and thereby new associations. In a word it is Organized

Sound."

66

To the distress of the Pavilion engineers, only a minimal calibration

of the acoustics of the space and the projection systems was allowed

because

both Varese and Le Corbusier completed their parts at the

last minute; the combined result was unknown unti l the f i rs t visi-

tors experienced th e space. "N o synchronization between sight and

sound w as a t tempted . . . p a r t of the effect achieved was the result

Figure 22. The audience as composer. Still

from Sound?? Courtesy of Rhapsody Films, Inc.




of a discordance between aural and visual impressions and part the

result

o f

their

no t

infrequent accidental concordance."

67

Althou gh there was no conscious

effor t

to do so, Cage's

HPSCHD,

con ducted eleven years later in the Assem bly Hall at Un iversity of

Illinois, U r b an a-C h am p ai g n , wo uld effectively operate

as an

ampli-

fication

o f

these

effects

through

its

increased scale

and

Cage's

de-

ployment o f a greater abundance o f s imul taneous , yet independent,

activities.

68

Kirk, however, interjects

a

di f ferent potential

into the

Pavilion's diffuse environment that describes a fourth posi t ion and

relation

o f

individuals

to the

events surrounding them, playing:

no t

composer or pe r former or listener, but a shifting play of

relations

a m o n g

all

three.

In

Sound??

Ki rk

is

shown recording sounds

to

incorporate into pieces such

as

"Rip,

Rig and

Panic," which plays

upon two of Varese's electronic works—

P o e m e

Electronique and

lonisation

—as well as on the chord progressions of jazz.

69

Kirk's

music

opens

th e

Philips Pavilion's closed loop

to

formula te

a

reso-

nant distr ibuted network in which distinctions between electronic

recorded sounds

and

played sounds become obscured.

The

projection

o f

"Rip,

Rig and

Panic"

onto

th e

Philips Pavilion

suggests some variation to its event. Some of the images might have

been projected along the level of the audience o r f rom higher levels

over

the audience and down onto

the

floor. Sim ilarly, speakers co uld

have

b een located

in

po sitions

that

were accessible

to the

visitors. With

both changes th e visitors to the space would move about to see and

hear , and in so doing int roduce var ia t ions in the pro jec t ions

that

would

affect,

yet not take control of , the environ m ent. Bo th changes

would have implicated the audience into the fields of sound and vi-

sual projection, and would have t ransformed the duration that the

Pavilion

calibrated and coordinated in one of active manipulations

and negotiations. A more complex change, o ne that w as likely no t

possible with the technology available at the time, would have been

to intro duce ways in which the activity of the visitors wo uld som ehow

change the overall sequence of images and sounds—perhaps through

various sensors and triggers located in the space.

Of the two

options,

the

latter

is

probably

the one

that Kirk wo uld

b e

least likely to advocate. Although willing to engage electronic sources,

Kirk always m aintained

a

healthy skepticism about

the

increasing reli-

ance on such systems b ecause they often prov ided dim inishing

quali-



Wha t Is the Body Supposed to Be Doing? / 59

tative returns (Figure 23) . W ith their em phasis on interfaces that w ere

efficient

only along

the

lines

o f

their prescribed use, these system s w ith

their seemingly vast range o f options often eliminated characteristics

and qualities that o therwise enabled unfo reseen and un intended form s

of

knowledge to em erge throu gh an interaction with m ore convention-

al instruments. In relation to this limiting aspect of electronics, per-

sisting if not magni f ied in our digitally driven diffusion, Kirk's work

suggests a potential for spaces and f o r m s that acknowledge shifting,

variable, and multiple subject positions, and thus permit interactions

that yield unfo reseeable ranges

of

know ledge.

The nurturing o f behaviors within objects to facilitate resonance,

rapport,

and

relationship between people

and

things might provide

such spaces and forms. The absence of

behavio r s—a tool's

or me-

dium's limitations

and

points

o f

distort ion—is

th e

source

o f

Brian

Eno's discontent with ho w computer software, which equates more

options w ith greater freedom ,

is

replacing

th e

recording studio. While

this absence

in the

design

o f

computer sof tware

is

prevalent,

it

need

not be. The development of behaviors—the ability to provide plau-

sible responses as well a s m a ke choices—is a driving consideration in

George Lewis's Voyager ,

a computer program

that

improvises com-

plex responses to the sound information offered by other improvis-

ers. B y m easuring th i r ty o r m o r e different musical parameters and

fil tering them through behavior options in its process of accepting

input

and

generat ing output ,

the

p r o g r a m

has i ts own

personal i ty

Figure

23. Rahsaan Roland Kirk playing

tape recordings and saxophone.

Still

from

Sound?? Courtesy

o f Rhapsody

Films,

Inc.




Figure

24.

Interference.

Shadow

Text

on the

King

Marker, Noon,

January 15.

Glass Canopy—Shadowed

Field—Projection

Surface,

2000.

Every time s o m e o n e moves onto

the

proposed p laza

to

read

King's w o r d s

that would be projected on it, an active negotiation oc-

c u r s .

Anyone seeking to

read

a

projected quotation o bs c u r es portions

of King's words,

and

King's ideas

are

presented

as a

continuing chal-

lenge to us to

fight

for

basic

human rights and freedoms.

and

responds differently to the musicians w ho work with

it.

70

In an

ef for t to provide a broad means for cons ider ing interact ive form-

m aking processes, Lewis

ha s

proposed:

"It

should

b e

axiom atic

that,

bo th in our m usical and in our hum an, everyday-life improvisations,

we interact with

o ur

environment, navigating through t ime, place,

and si tuation, both creating and discovering f o r m . "

7 1

This same

axiom serves

as a

start ing consideration

fo r

encouraging behaviors

in

the

ob jects

that m ight be designed and m ade. Possessing their o wn

behaviors, intelligences, and personalities, objects might alert us to

unanticipated and unknown aspects of ourselves in the process of

their operating responsively, independently,

o r

indifferently

toward

us

as we engage, or

interfere

with, them

(Figure

24) .



Chapter

3

Now's

the

Time

Temporalities of Louis Armstrong

and Le

Corbusier

Discursive Tactics

In the

1940s jazz underwent

a

revolution

in

sound

and

practice.

The

development of a new music, bebop, w as accompanied b y a change

in j azz musicians' view o f themselves. They ceased to consider them-

selves

entertainers

and

more consciously asserted themselves

as

art-

ists.

Some of this changed sensibility is reflected in the

tactical

uses

o f

naming b y bebop-era j a z z musicians, particularly Thelonious

Monk

and

Charlie Parker. "Relaxin'

at

Camarillo" asserts

a

casual

ease

that transforms Charlie Parker's six-month sentence to a Cali-

fo rn ia

state hospital. Parker's

"Klact-oveeseds-tene"

and Thelonious

Monk's Jackie-ing deploy onomatopoeia and verbal nouns re-

spectively to deflect th e

ability

of the

title

to fix,

place,

and

name,

in

order to emphasize the active processes of producing sound.

1

With

the proclamation Let's Call This," Monk provides a title that oper-

ates multiply, signaling the end of the session or the imperative to

name.

2

Similarly, Parker's "Now's the Time has multiple connotations,

given its

ambiguous position between naming

and

directing.

A s a

name,

"Now's

the Time" indicates a chord progression and melodic

phrase that structures

the

music

to

come.

As a

directive,

the

phrase

indicates

the

tempo,

the

musical time

of a

piece. However,

now, as

61



62 /

Now s

the

Time

a specific reference

to the present, is vague in this

context,

b ecause it

fails to indicate either a m eter

(beats

p er

m easure)

or a tem po

(number

of

notes

per

beat) . Lacking these measurements,

n o w

cannot indi-

cate a precise rhythmic art iculation and measure of t ime. Instead,

it

em phasizes ei ther

th e

full dura t ion

o f the

m usic with

its

pro cesses

unfolding as an

actual ized moment ,

or the

urgencies

of the

mid-

twentieth century, within which the m usic is constructed.

All

these discu rsive tactics have their pr eced ent in Swing That

Music, the first of

many au tob iographica l documents tha t Lou i s

Arm strong m ade over

th e

course

o f his life. In

"N egotiating

th e

Color

Line: Louis Armstrong's Autobiographies," William Kenney reflects

on the interactions o f

jazz ,

writing, and ethnicity within this first

autobiography, which Armstrong completed in 1936, a year

after

he

established

a d ecidedly co m m ercial direction fo r his m usic with the

assistance o f his new

m anager,

Jo e

Glaser. Em phasizing this co m m er-

cial

focus, Kenney

questions

Armstrong's

"degree

of

control

over the

text," given

its "eclectic nar rative form ." An intro duction and closing

essay

b y

other writers

f rame the

m a i n

text,

legi tim izing Arm stron g

for

th e general public interested in m usical enter ta inm ent by provid-

in g

transcriptions

and

analyses

of his

music

fo r

m usicians trained

in

t radit ional European notation. In the m a in

text,

tw o distinctive voices

are

at

work:

a verna cular Arm strong voice provides autobiog raphical

remembrances , which

a

didact ic Armstrong voice l inks

to a

story

about

th e

t rans form ation

o f jazz from its

crude

N ew

Orleans origins

to its

refined swing-era

art

fo rm . This interplay between

tw o

distinc-

tive

voices leads

to

Kenney's conclusion

that,

"like

b ig

band m usic

itself, Swing That Music

w as

arranged

to

communicate comprehen-

sible

signals

to the

general public."

3

Kenney

proposes

that

Armstrong's swing-era prose

and

playing,

executed within arrangements developed and edited by others , ad-

dressed two audiences: "a 'fictive reader,' a generalist, curio us eno ugh

about

popular

music

to

pick

up a

book

like

this

one,

and an 'implied

reader '

who is more sensi t ive and more

in fo rmed

tha n the fictive

reader about both jazz and the racial dim ension s of Am erican li fe."

In the

autobiog raphical process, A rm strong dem onstrated

his

aware-

ness of

this du ality

b y

"exercising

his

m em ory strategical ly, m onitor-

ing his speech to perform a version of his ethnic identity that seems

to

correspond

to his

collabo rators ' assum ptions." Sim ilar tactical

de-



Now s

th e

Time

/ 63

ployments of his playing abilities could be seen in his approach to

musical performance:

Armst rong

th e

popular entertainer drew

b ig

crowds with

his

m instre l

clowning, will ingness to p erfo rm pop ular m aterial readily

famil iar

to the general public as well as feature slapstick vocalists like Velma

Middle ton, and his own h igh-note theatr ics ; Armstrong the j azz

m usician included just enough improvisational creativity to remind

"implied"

jazz fans

that he was the man who had m a de the Hot

Five and Hot Seven records. The fictive, m usically naive general

public would

no t

(and need not) catch

th e

sub tleties that

th e

" im-

plied" j azz listener savoured.

The sense of two

levels

of

c o m m un ic a ti o n —t wo

m essages and

tw o

k inds

o f

l isteners—w as

a

vi ta l fo undatio n

of the jazz

concept

of "hip." It was hip to

identify

the fine points of the ar t is t ry with

which Louis Arm st rong pe r fo rm ed his shows, to catch the fleeting

m om e nts o f be auty that he sprinkled thro ug h his act. But it was

also hip to grasp th e racial dimensions of the act and the audience

react ions to them . Consciousness of a conf l ic t be tween surface

appearances and underlying reali ty w as hip in both m u s ic and

autobiography.

Kenney's

analysis suggests

that

Arm strong , concerned ab out his eco-

nom ic needs and aware o f audience expectations stil l heavily condi-

tion ed b y m instrelsy, accepted an im age not fully of his own m aking,

which he sought to

skil lfully

interject with indications

that

it was

an act . As a result , his performance style reinforced the emerging

cultural associations of the music, without sacrificing its conceptual

foundat ions .

4

The

divergent potential

o f

these dual levels

o f

reading,

fictive

and

implied,

is

revealed

in the

analysis

o f

A r m s t r ong m a de

by Le

Corbusier , who saw him play in 1935, the year o f A r m s t r ong and

Glaser's calculated effor ts

to

develop

a

wider com m ercial appeal .

Le

Corbusier characterized Armstrong in a way

that

supported the

universal , uni form,

and

progressive sense

o f

t ime underpinning

his

o w n modernis t proposals.

5

Obscured b y this characterization are

the

divergent senses

o f the

present—of "now"

as an

actual ized

m o -

m ent rather

than a

register

o f twentieth-century urgencies—revealed

through a close examination of Armstrong's musical activity before

and d uring the period in which Le Corb usier observed him . As early



6 4 /

Now s

the

Time

as 1926, Armstrong was exploring a variable and relational sense of

time that suggests an underdeveloped potential for design to struc-

ture moments composed of diverse temporal articulations. This po-

tential received

a

rare exploration

in Le

Corbusier's design

of the

Car-

penter Center (Figure 25).

Le

Corbusier's Time and Armstrong

In

When th e Cathedrals Were White,

Le

Corbusier initiates

a

reflec-

tion

on the

city,

j azz , and

race when

he

asserts that

"Negro

music

has

touched America because

it is the

melody

of the

soul joined with

the

rhythm of the machine."

6

The chapter, "The Spirit of the Machine,

Figure 25 .

Initiating

an

architectural promenade.

Le

Corbusier, Carpen-

ter Center,

Harvard

University.



Now s the Time /

65

and N egroes in the USA," continues with identifications of m achine-

like

rhythms in the work of black performers

that

establish a basis

for considering

th e

development

o f jazz in

relation

to and as a

reflec-

tion

o f the

city.

It is

while m aking

the first of

these observations

that

Le

Corbusier introduces Armstrong into the scope of architecture.

He proposes:

Let's listen

to

Louis Arm strong

on

Broadway,

the

black Titan

o f

the cry, of the apostrophe, of the burst of laughter, of thunder. He

sings, he guffaws, he m akes his silver trum pet spurt. He is mathe-

matics, equilibrium on a tightrope. He is Shakespearean Why not?

He

o nly appears

at two

o'clock,

to

close

the jam

session.

A n

assis-

tant has led the o rchestra up to now. The orchestra has not been

silent for a second. Its precision is staggering. . . . That implacable

exact i tude expresses Am erican tas te ;

I see in it an

effect

of the

machine . . . . with A rm strong, that exactitude leads to an unear th ly

suavity, broken

by a

blow like

a flash of

lightning.

The m en are

tire-

less, like

a

smoothly running turbine.

Later, a visit to the Savoy

confi rms

his impression. He observes that

"in

Harlem

as on

Broadway,

the

Negro orchestra

is

im peccable,

flaw-

less,

reg ular, playing ceaselessly in an ascending rh ythm : the tru m -

pet is piercing,

strident,

screaming over th e stamping o f feet. It is

th e equivalent o f a

beaut i fu l

tu rb ine running in the mids t o f h u m a n

conversations. Hot

jazz ."

Human

energy

and

activity, viewed

as

machine- l ike

regis ters

o f

precision, al ign

and

cal ibrate

the

l abor

of A r m s t r o n g and other b lack performers wi th the rhythm of the

machine-age metropol is .

In

this character izat ion, b lack perfo rm ers

are in essence entertainm ent-producing m achines that

reveal

an un-

anticipated m usical po tential

in the

rhythmic language

o f

machines.

7

Through this a l ignment o f

jazz

and the m a c h i ne , L e Co rbus ier

is able

to

s u ppor t

his

a r g u m e n t that c on t e m por a r y

N ew

York

is a

spectacular

b ut ineffective use of new

m achine technologies . W hi le

the music made by the tireless effor ts of black musicians and danc-

ers

demonstrates that regular ,

f law less,

precise,

and

exact rhythms,

such as

those

produced b y machines , can be musical, such musi-

cal

potent ia l remains la tent

in the

s ou nds m a de

b y

m a c h i ne s

at

work

in the

city. Interspersed among

his

reflections

on

hearing

and

seeing

black music and dance are character izat ions and descr ip-

t ions of sounds emanat ing f r o m the city, such as "the clamor of the



6 6

/

Now s the

Time

skyscrapers

and the roaring of subways," which are discordant and

fail to be

musical.

8

Co nceding that

th e

United States

was a

"modern society experi-

ment ing

o n a

grand scale with

th e

machinery which wil l someday

enable

it to

create

th e 'radiant

city' when everything wi l l

b e

calcu-

lated, justly valued and exactly m easured out," Le Corb usier charac-

terized American

efforts as a

willingness

"to

do," which

he

felt

was

th e

crudest stage

o f

machine-age development. Innovative

and full

of promise, yet

lacking

spirit,

Am ericans produced skyscrapers, "ar-

chitectural accidents"

and

"expressions

o f

pride," that exacerbated

the lack of l ight and the congested circulation of modern cities be-

cause they were buil t upon

an

inf r as t ruc tu re inappropr ia te

to the

new

m ove m e nt

and

density permitted

b y

technolo gical advances.

In

addition,

Amer ican

architecture,

urban design,

and

planning

had

produced an envi ronment in which the sounds of machines could

no t

operate musically.

The

unchained madness

of the

subways ,

th e

grinding

o f

streetcars ,

the

pou nd i ng

o f

m a c h i ne s

in

factor ies ,

and

piercing s irens con f i rm ed th e "atmosphere o f

f renzy"tha t

A m e r ic a n

efforts

had

created.

9

The abi l i ty of black performers to make music "from this new

uproar

around our lives" is an encouragement for Le Corbusier. He

speculates, "If arch itecture were at the point r eached b y jazz, it wo uld

be an

incredible spectacle."

He

then asserts

that jazz can

provide

di-

rection for the fur ther development of the city: "I repeat: Manhattan

is ho t jazz in

stone

and

steel.

The

contemporary renewal

has to at-

tach itself to some

point.

The Negroes have fixed that point throug h

music." Through sound,

jazz ,

which elevates

the

hear t

and

sets bod-

ies in motion,

provides qualities

that

architecture might strive

to at-

tain. A n arch itecture appro priate to new technologies and the t imes

would activate

the

musical quality

that was

latent

in the

sounds

and

r h y t h m s

o f

m achines.

10

Although it al lows him to identi fy and propose this potential

fo r architecture

and

planning,

jazz is not an

ideal

for Le

Corbusier .

Along with

th e

machine precision that

he

identifies

in

b lack perfo r-

mance,

he

sees elements

o f

primitivism.

On

Broadway

he

witnesses

"tap dancers

. . .

silent Neg ro es,

as

m echanical

as a

sewing m achine,"

demonstrat ing

that

"the rhythmic instinct of the virgin

A fr ican

f o r -

est has

learned

the

lesson

of the

m a c h i ne

and that in

A m e ri ca

the



Now s the Time / 67

rigor of exactitude is a pleasure. Idea of a masterpiece:

exactitude."

Although this s tatem ent em phasizes m achine precision and A m erican

exacti tude,

it

also

references

primitive

impulses—savagery, as

well

as "sim ple" and "virgin" qua li ties— that Le Co rb usier bel ieved were

sources

of the

music. "The Negroes have virgin ears,"

he

notes,

"a

fresh

curiosity.

T he

sounds

of

life echo

in

them ."

And in

this echo— a

passive

response, rather than an active

t ransformat ion—the

"ugly or

ho rrible" new soun ds of the city becom e musical.

11

A complex re la t ionship between the pr imi t ive and the modern

is,

consequently,

at work; the

modern sensibility

of the

city

is

still

in an

early (pr im itive, chaotic,

and savage)

stage, while

jazz has at-

tained modern

properties

because

of the

primitive qualities

that

Le

Corbusier

attr ibutes

to its

m akers .

"Jazz," Le

Corbusier noted, "like

the skyscrapers, is an even t and not a deliberately conceived creation.

They represent

the

forces

o f

today." Jazz

was a

"music

of an era of

construct ion"—one

that exceeded

th e

construction

that

stimulated

its development and, in that excess, pointed toward the next level o f

construction.

12

Having indicated this direction,

the

value

of , and

need for ,

jazz

wo uld b e eclipsed with the con struction of a m o dern society that w as

a

"delibera tely conceived creation ."

In Le

Corbusier 's conception,

th e

developments of jazz and the

modern met ropol i s

are

subordinate

to

a

universal

and

progressive measure

o f

time, which

w as

described

b y

Le

C or bu sier wh ile visiting

the

Rockefeller Center: "The clock

is

dic-

tator.

... I

po inted

out to my

companion, Fernand Leger,

a

straight

red

needle tu rn in g a round a dial marked 1 to 60. They are seconds.

The

needle

is

ob sessing;

I

said

to

Leger,

"Notice

the

needle

that

goes

around so

fast:

it marks the seconds and nothing else. The clock be-

side it m a rk s the hours. Small

matter

The hours wil l return tomor-

row. B ut the dial with the second ha nd is so m ething cosm ic, it is tim e

itself,

which never returns.

That

red n eedle is a m aterial evidence of

the

m ovem e nt

o f worlds."

13

For Le

Corb usier ,

the

shift

in

m usic

f rom

a

m elodic

to a

rhy thm ic emphasis that

he

read within

jazz confi rmed

a present in which all things progressed and developed un ifo rm ly in

response to the possibilities

that

machines had established for the

age. The resolut ion of this tens ion between pr imi t ive and modern

characteris t ics

in j azz and archi tecture wo uld o ccur in t im e. W hi le

the im plementations o f skyscrapers had resulted in an overtaxed block



68

/

Now s

the

Time

system in 1935, sometime tomorrow, if Le Corbusier could imple-

ment his plans, Manhattan's grid would be replaced by a larger one

with a Y-shaped tower extending horizontally f r o m the center o f

each

new

block (Figures

26-29).

A

conscious effort would transform

th e forces o f

today—forces

o f upheaval and development during th e

early stages o f industrialization, and forces o f j azz .

Figure

26. Le

Corbus ier, sketch from When the Cathedrals Were White

1937), 188. Copyright

2003 Artist

Rights Society (ARS),

New

York

/

ADAGP, Paris / FLC.

Figure

27. Le

Corbusier, drawing

f rom

When the Cathedrals Were

White. 191. Copyright 2003 Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York /

ADAGP, Paris

/

FLC.



Now s

the

T ime /

69

Figure

28. Le

Corbusier,

sketch

from When the

Cathedrals

Were

White, 185. Copyright 2003 Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York /

ADAGP, Paris

/

FLC.

"Arc hitecture," Le Co rb usier argue d, "r ejoins its destiny, which

is the setting in order of the present time." The implementation of

his city

form

would constitute an infrastructure and architecture ca-

pable

of maintaining urban densities while providing the "essential

joys" of

light, space,

and

greenery.

As in his

proposal

for

Paris,

Le

Corbusier suggested that large skyscrapers and city blocks be used

as

a

tool

o f

city planning

in New

York

to

provide higher densities

while freeing the gro und of the smaller,

four-

to five-story structures .

One can begin to imagine how Manhattan's musical potential might

have been activated in this implementation of the

ville

mdieuse. Le

Corbusier might have considered the towers of this city plan to be

"cathedrals

o f

sound."

Back in France, he reflected further on his

encounters with jazz in New York while attentively listening to the

sounds within

the

environment around him, seeking

to

hear within

it the potential for constructing a world of "mechanically precise

rhythmic armature[s]" in which one heard the music of m achines.

14

Richard Sennett sum m arizes

the

link between

th e

substantive cost

in existing physical stru ctu re necessary for Le Corb usier's city plans,

and his emphasis on a progressive sense of time:

Le Co rb usier hoped to erect a new aw areness of tim e, the sense of

now. You have to fight off the deadweight of the past, as a young

person must overthrow th e presence of an overbearing parent . This

destructiveness

can be

redeemed

b y the

quality, indeed,

th e

perfec-

tion

o f

form

one can

create once

one is

free.

The

literary critic

and

theorist Harold Bloom describes this sense of t im e as a result of



70 / Now s the

Time

Figure 29. Le Corbusier, sketch from When the

Cathedrals

Were

White, 197. Copyright 2003 Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York /

ADAGP, Paris

/

FLC.

anxiety

o f

influence.

In

urbanism,

the

result

o f

this anxiety about

past and present, as represented by Le Corbusier's early work, is

to

destroy

the dif ferences

which have accumulated

in

space

for the

sake

o f

a f f i rming this

dif ference in time.

15



Now s the

Time / 1

1

For Le Corbusier, the ful l inventive

potential

of the machine-age

present—of

"now"—could

only emerge through

the

dramatic era-

sure of the material past and the remaking of all things in accordance

with new technologies and means of the time. The inadvertent, yet

inevitable, result

of

such

an effor t is to

deny

the

reality

of duration—

the temporal signals borne in fo rm and matter.

16

The temporal sig-

nals from the past are not the only ones lost in this erasure. The

a f f i rm a t ion of the difference in time through new spatial

f o r m s

that

supersede prior urban forms also collapses, through elimination

or

calibration,

th e

various temporal impulses

of the

twentieth century

into

a

single trajectory.

For

Armstrong

and the

other black perform-

ers

and workers who populate When the Cathedrals

Were

White,

this collapse

of

time

is a

loss

of

agency

and an

assignment

to the

subordinate class implied b ut seldom acknowledged b y Le Corbusier

in his urban

plans.

17

Contrary to his proclamation "Architecture or

revolution," the liberty to make spatial

fo rm

did not guarantee social

liberty, because for many it maintained the inscription of predefined

and of ten limiting roles and relations.

Armstrong's Time

Although

Armstrong is the only black musician named by Le Cor-

busier,

we

gain very little information regarding

the

character

and

nuances

o f Armstrong's music as distinct

f rom

that o f other musi-

cians or dancers from Le Corbusier's description. In describing Arm-

strong, he emphasizes Armstrong's qualities as an entertainer, rather

than the quality of his trumpet playing. "His voice is as deep as an

abyss, it is a

black cave.

H e

bursts

o ut

laughing,

he

roars

and

puts

the

trumpet

to his

mouth. With

it he is in

turn demoniac, playful,

and

massive, f rom

o ne

second

to

another,

in

accordance with

an as-

tounding fantasy. The man is extravagantly

skillful;

he is a king."

18

Le Corbusier

was

less concerned with Armstrong's music than with

crowning Armstrong as the emblem or icon of Le Corbusier's char-

acterization o f j a z z — a s the music o f a nascent machine age. "The

modern world vibrates with

new

sounds.

. . . The

companion

of so

many of us: the cadence, th e slight o r titanic rhythm o f machines at

work.

. . .

Armstrong

has

recognized these ever-present voices

and

his genius has put them into

music."

19



72 / Now s the Time

Significantly,

Arm strong's activity during a solo does not con fo rm

to Le Corbusier's characterization of black music or his conception

of

"now."

Absent f rom Le Co rbusier 's co nsideration, the solo

shifts

focus from

regular rhythmic articulation

to

invention

and

innova-

t ion. Marie Cardinal , in

The

Words

to Say It ,

provides a compel-

ling

account of the development of the solo in her description of

Armstrong 's music:

My first

anxiety at tack occurred during

a

Louis Arm st rong concert .

I

was

nineteen

or

twenty. Armst rong

was

going

to

improvise with

his t rum pet ,

to

bu i ld

a

whole com position

in

which each note would

b e im p o r t a n t and would contain with in

itself

the essence of the

whole. I was not disappointed: the a tmosphere warmed up very fast.

The

scaf fold ing

and flying buttresses of the jazz ins trum e nts sup-

ported

Armstrong's t rumpet, creating spaces which were adequate

enough for it to climb higher, establish

itself,

and tak e off again. The

sounds

of the

trumpet sometimes piled together, fusing

a new

m usi-

cal

base , a sor t of mat r ix which gave b ir th to one precise, unique

note, tracing a sound whose

path

was almost painful , so absolutely

necessary

had its

e qu i l ib r ium

and

dura t ion be come ;

it

tore

at the

nerves of

those

who

followed

it.

My

heart began

to

accelerate, becoming more important than

the

music , shaking

the

b a r s

of my rib

cage, compressing

my

lungs

so

the air

could

no

longer enter them. Gripped

by

panic

at the

idea

of

dying there

in the

m i d dl e

o f

spasm s, s tom ping feet ,

and the

crowd

howling, I ran into the street l ike som eone

possessed.

20

Through arch i tec tura l , s t ructura l ,

and

spatial references, C ar d i n a l

identifies

a

support ro le

for the

r h y t h m i c ,

as

well

as

h a r m o n i c,

ef-

fo r ts of the band that are the area of concentration in Le Co rbusier 's

description. W orking with the support tha t they provide, A rm stron g

creates an improvised melodic line that has com positional integrity.

No note is wasted in this improvised l ine, which works with the

space and support to b ui ld , find support, and then b uild again unti l

it reaches a crescendo .

Car dinal 's description, while sim ilar to Le Corbusier 's in its em-

phasis

on

precision

and

mathematics,

identifies

harmonic

and

m elodic

properties tha t are absent from Le Corb usier 's r hythm ic descriptions.

However, within her description, which only acknowledges rhythm

in a cursory fashion with th e mention o f s tomping

feet,

she can n o t



Now s the Time

/ 73

explain

all of the

music's relationships

and effects.

Cardinal expects

and emphasizes compositional musical relationships

in the

solo,

b ut

as th e music reaches its crescendo , it provides qualities that those an-

ticipated

compositional

relationships

cannot

account for. Cardinal

panics

and

flees

as the

m usic posseses

an

immediacy, which

she

expe-

riences

bodily, when

in

building toward

a

crescendo, sounds "piled

together" and yielded "a sound whose path w as almost painful , so

absolutely

necessary had i ts equil ibrium and dura tion becom e."

The effect is a rhythmic one, resulting f rom th e solo, that neither

Le Corb us ier nor Cardinal identify in their descriptions. A rm strong ,

as a fellow corn etist who was his contem porary

noted,

had developed

the "ability

to

compose

a

close-knit, individual

32

measures wi th

all

phrases compatible with each o ther—al l the while based on the

fun d amen ta l

tune and chord structure being played."

21

Additionally,

as a biogr apher has described, by using an im pro visation al technique

that permitted articulation of an extended playing range, variable

rhythmic

quali ty, and long i rregularly shaped phrases, Armstrong

w as capable o f profo und rhythm ic manipulation through his

"tech-

nically precise expression o f beauti ful melody," and he "became th e

subtlest

m anipu la tor

o f

t im e that

jazz has

ever

had."

22

Cardinal establishes a support role between the rest of the band

and A rm strong, and she assum es that Arm strong is wo rking solely to

build melodically

on that support. However,

Arm strong 's solo actu-

ally

operates rhythmically,

as

well

as

melodically,

and in its

rhyth-

m ic

operations i t both builds upon and counters i ts support . Both

Le Corbus ier and Cardinal emphasize only a pa r t o f what is taking

place in the music. The invention that Cardinal

identifies

occurs in

part through Armstrong's introduction of rhythmic variations in the

r h y t h m s that L e C orbus ier em phasized.

Passages by Ralph Ellison emphasize

this

work by the soloist, and

provide some insight into Armstrong's understanding

o f

t im e.

In In -

visible Man

the main character reflects: "Invisibility, let me explain,

gives one a

slightly

different

sense

o f

time, you're never quite

on the

beat. Som etimes you're ahead

and

som etim es behind . Instead

of the

swift

and imperceptible flowing of time, you are aware of its nodes,

those points where t ime stands st i l l or f rom which it leaps ahead.

A nd yo u

slip into

th e

b reaks

and

look around.

That's

what

yo u

hear

vaguely

in Louis ' music."

23

In

Shadow

and Ac t Ell ison introduces



74 / Now s the

Time

the

"cruel contradiction" implicit

in the art

f o r m — " an individual

as-

sertion within

and

against

the

group"

in

which

the

performer "loses

his

identity even as he finds it."

24

Together these descriptions reveal

the complexity of Armstrong's rhythmic work. At the same time

they challenge

the

configuration

o f

blackness

in

which

an

encounter

with black people ignites

a

critical moment

o f

discovery

o r

change.

A s

Toni Morrison has noted, such a concept of blackness operates

within

Cardinal's

description, and as

Mabel Wilson

points

out,

it

also

informs Le Corbusier's description o f Armstrong a nd other black

musicians and its

relation

to the ville radieuse.

25

Through rhythmic

manipulations

and

alterations

of the

sense

o f

time's

f low,

Armstrong

revealed

that

making music could provide a moment—particularly

within the solo—that was filled with empowering and actualizing

potential even for members of society who were presumed to be

known and transparent through their placement in limiting social

constructions.

26

Variable Temporal Flows

Henri Focillon and George Kubler have proposed that the moment of

actuality,

the

present instant,

is

immanent

and

vital,

yet

forever

fleet-

ing and

elusive— having always just

occurred.

27

It is the

present instant

in which various signals from

disparate

sources arrive.

Not fixed, but

becoming, this instant, described as the void between events, passes

imperceptibly,

yet it is the

only manifestation

of

time that

we can

know directly. However,

if

actuality

is

impossible

to

perceive,

the

experience of its having passed can be intensified by necessitating,

within a dense cluster of present instances, our response to a turbu-

lent flow of diverse temporal signals.

Jazz, in essence, presents such intensification by compressing sev-

eral articulations and manifestations o f time into th e duration o f

playing

so as to

effectively create

an

expanded moment

in

which

we

are acutely and persistently aware that we have jus t missed actuali-

ty's passing. Through this rapid accumulation of moments, we expe-

rience a duration in which the moment of actualization is almost a

palpable presence.

In the music o f Armstrong, there is the rhythmic measure that L e

Corbusier noted—4/4 time with accents on the downbeats to

ere-



Now s

the

Time

/ 75

ate the forward mot ion

that

is characteris t ic of swing. Armstrong

began to manipulate this pulse, as well as the twelve- o r sixteen-bar

m e a s u r e s indicative of the song structure o f early j a zz and popu -

lar

music,

by

playing melodic solos

that

introduced

alternative

and

counter- rhythms, o r carefully placed notes

just

ahead of or behind

the beat. Through both techniques Armstrong's melodic lines oper-

ated rhythmically to accelerate, slow, o r reverse the flow of t ime ,

understood through the sense of the beat.

In the Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings m ade in the mid-1920s,

Armstrong, a prototypical

jazz

impro viser, ceased to im pro vise em -

bellishments of the melody and instead introduced new m elodies b y

improvis ing

on the

chord changes.

Fo r

A r m s t r ong , m e l ody

was a

var iable and flexible counter-rhythm capable of accelerating or de-

celerating the

feel

of the grounding beat. The regulari ty and exac-

ti tude of the rhythm section art iculated a temporal datum against

which Armstrong sonorously developed alternate potentials. In "Po-

tato

Head Blues," Armstrong consciously turned the bea t a round.

By placing his notes against the na tura l strong-weak, strong-w eak

progress ion of beats , he created counter-meters that momentar i ly

caused the existing m eter to leap out of place. In such solos as the o ne

documented in the 1926 r ecording "Big Bu tter and Egg M an," he

continually manipulated th e sense of the pulse b y shifting th e beat

through

accent,

weight,

duration, and the

precise placement

of

notes

fractionally

ahead of or behind the beat.

Thi s rhythmic manipu la t ion—cons i s t ing

o f

pulses

o f

varying

rates and measures—is the most over t of many measures , tempo-

ral modali t ies , and durations operating within and

in fo rmin g

the

duration of playing. The t ime of inspiration, the t ime of s tructur-

ing and realiz ing the m usic, the tim e of playing it, and the tim e of

communicating with the audience are all temp oral m odalities that

are

typical ly subo rdinate

to

clock time

in

wr itten m usic practices,

as

they prim ari ly occupy separate and distinct

positions.

28

However, in

improvised music these modalities operate simultaneously as inter-

related flow s.

Accompanying these simultaneous modalities

are

durations rang-

in g f rom th e introduction, development, and passage o f ideas by mu-

sicians

to the

var ious his tor ies that

i n f o r m the

reception

o f

those

ideas: the history of the idiom, the memory of the musicians and the



76 / Now s

the

Time

audience, the relation s that the m usicians have developed in w ork ing

with o ne another, and the instruments and the musicians' knowledge

of them

as

sound-making devices.

All of

these durations have

an im-

pact

on the

m usic's developm ent.

As decisions are made across these rates, measures, modalities,

and

durations,

the duration of

m aking

the

music, which

is coincident

with the musical artifact, operates as an expanded moment . Within

this moment

there

is an acute awareness of the instant of actuality

as an almost palpable presence

that

is

felt

through a persistent expo-

sure to a series of

risks—the

cruel co ntradiction identified by Ellison.

These risks, as detailed by the improviser Evan Parker, include stag-

nation (no nexistence), insan ity

(dysfunction),

and completion (sys-

temization, s tandardization, habit) .

2 9

It is through the assumption of these risks, the acceptance of an

unpredictable outcome, and the assertion of the moment as a ques-

t ioning of circum stance

that

improvised music overtly engages actu-

ality and provides opportunity to question arbitrary and constraining

external conditions, such as imposed social positions and hierarchies.

A

reflection by G. W. F . Hegel,

quoted

in The

Society

o f

the Spectacle,

reinforces

th e link between shifting and un foreseen m anifestations o f

identities and the

m om e nt

of actuality, as

well

as the way in

which

wo rking in and upo n tim e can operate as a social critique:

t ime is

necessary

a l ienation, b e ing the m edium in which the sub-

ject

rea lizes him self while losing himself, becomes other

in

order

to b ecom e t ruly h im self . . . . The opposite obtains in the case of the

alienation that holds sway—the alienation suffered by the produc-

er s

of an

estranged

present.

This

is a

spatial

alienation,

w hereby

a society rad ically severs the

subject

f rom the activity that it steals

f r o m

him in the first place f rom his own time. Social alienation,

though in principle surmountable, is nevertheless the alienation

that has fo rb idden and

petrified

the possibilities and risks of living

alienation within time.

30

From his experiences and observations at clubs in Paris, Piet Mon-

drian commented, "Jazz does not know the oppression of work .

The orchestra works as if it were at play."

31

In the United States this

proposal

was not

entirely true,

as jazz

musicians struggled against

external ci rcumstances—social al ienation

and

exclusions based

o n



Now s the Time / 77

race—in their efforts to obtain opportunities to make music. If play

is

understood as the opportunity to

subject

arbitrary and constraining

external conditions, such

as

invisibility

as

well

as the

social hier-

archies

that

created

it, to

questioning

through the

dynamic con-

struction

of an

expanded, adaptive,

and flexible field of

action, then

Armstrong's

solo

activity demonstrates

that,

within

the duration

of playing, play w as available. The duration o f playing was a mo -

ment

in

which social

and

spatial alienation could

be

cast aside

to

enable

the possibilities

and

risks

of

living alienation within time.

Armstrong's music, through the articulation of now as a moment

in

which o ne navigated diverse temporalities, transforms social aliena-

tion, invisibility,

and

exclusion into

a

temporal alienation that empha-

sizes

becoming.

Contrary to Le Corbusier's assertion, Armstrong's music did not

contribute

to the

compression

of all

contemporary temporal expres-

sions into a fixed, unified, and encompassing expression of the pres-

ent. While Le Corbusier anticipated

that

such compression would be

liberative, it would in fact allow social and spatial alienation to hold

sway. Instead, Armstrong

articulated,

in the

moment

defined

by the

duration o f making music, an actualizing intensity o f now b y am -

plifying, rather than denying, diverse manifestations o f time. He af-

fi rmed the need for the present to be made up of diverse, continuing,

and proliferating, as well as expiring, rates, measures, modalities,

and durations o f time. The challenge issued b y Armstrong's music

was whether or not architecture could also develop this actualizing

potential

o f

time. Could

a

spatial fo rm modulate time

a nd

participate

in

the

becoming that emerges

in the

moment

o f

actuality, rather than

provide a fixed and idealized indication of a past or present age?

Le Corbusier in Armstrong s Time

To

step onto

the

ramp

of the

Carpenter Center

at

Harvard University

is to initiate an architectural promenade. The building, completed

in 1963, stands as a late summary of Le Corbusier's ideas, given the

strong affinity between the center's program and the social ideas he

had advocated throughout his

life.

The Visual Arts Center is placed

at the disposal of all students of the University, independently of their



78 / Now s the Time

courses

of

study, with

the

sole objective

[of

bringing]

to the

present

generation the taste and the desire to combine the

work

of the hands

with that of the mind, which is Le Corbusier's most important social

vow."

32

While a reexamination of his architectural vocabulary is evi-

dent throughout and explains much regarding the resulting form, the

Carpenter Center is more than a late demonstration of principles. It

introduces

significant shifts

and

changes

in the

promenade

to

facili-

tate "a program of complete creation based on new

data:

to establish

a place where the students of the University could, while crossing this

main

path,

look-in

f rom the

outside, eventually enter

and

register

to

work."

33

The extent to

which

Le

Corbusier

attempted to

manifest

the po-

tential

for

this moment

in

which

a

student might wander

in and

reg-

ister seems

to be

linked

to his

1959 visit

to

Harvard

to

study

the

site

fo r

the Carpenter

Center.

He observed, as he had in 1935, similari-

ties

between

the

American campuses

and his

Radiant City,

as

well

as

manifestations of exactitude at the site similar to those he had noted

in the second hand's sweep and the rhythms of Armstrong's band.

While discussing the center's program with members of the

faculty,

his

"attention was riveted to the

sight

of the Yard below him, one

min ute empty and still, the next crossed by lines of people approach-

in g

one

another under

the

trees along

the

paths.

The

others present

realized they had lost his attention and

fell

silent. When he turned

back to them he remarked on the beauty of what he had just seen."

34

The

resonance

of the program

with

his own

ideas,

his admiration of

the fixed rectangular buildings

defining

open spaces

that

are crossed

by

paths of circulation, and his fixation on an alternating rhythm of

dynamism and stillness would establish the variables within the design.

Architectural Acoustics or Architecture Acoustique

Le

Corbusier's early design condensed these concerns into a route, po-

tentially spiraling, for touring the building, which was coupled with

a literal, intermittent emission of sound. The initial conception of the

building was thus as a sound object, not unlike the Philips Pavilion,

where a fixed route was precisely coordinated and modulated through

sound. Given this self-contained modulation, the building might have



Now s

th e Time / 79

existed a s a precisely contro lled and scripted o b ject in isolation

f rom

the campus. However, as the scheme developed, th e spiral w as con-

verted to a winding ram p, and sound em issions were replaced by the

routine noises o f the campus. Thus, literal acoustic concerns dissipat-

ed and were replaced by concerns regarding

architecture

acoustique:

"the action o f a work on its

surroundings."

35

The particular action

that resulted f rom appropriating and developing alternative manifes-

tations of the temporal and spatial ordering systems of the campus

as resource m aterial was not o nly m ore responsive to the m o m en t b e-

tween classes, but also more aligned with the temporal ideas articu-

lated by Armstrong. The Carpenter Center challenges the surround-

in g

order

by

restructuring

the

periodic

duration

of

activity betw een

classes to reveal em ancipatory m om ents resonant with Arm strong's

rhythmic dissent.

Through its insistence o n participating in both the rectangular

buildings defining open spaces

and the

paths

o f

circulation,

th e

cen-

ter

f o r m s a

dist inct counterpoint

to the

directed routes

of the

c a m -

pus (Figure 30). The design, operating equally as an object defining

a field and a

circulation element within that defined

field,

creates

a

series o f

ambiguous, f luctuating,

and

tensioned qualities

that

ques-

tion the building's status as an object and may be read by moving

along

the

r a m p

and

through

the

building. Observed f rom

the

exte-

rior, the

building presents

an almost

opaque facade:

a combination

of taut glass

surfaces,

the stair tower, and the

brise-soleil.

These ele-

ments emphasize the mass of the structure as a

collection

o f clearly

expressed programmatic and const i tuent p a r t s— s t u d io s , m u se um ,

stair,

and

ramp. Solidity

and

weight yield

to a

reflectively transpar-

ent and

lightweight interior space

as you follow the

ramp's measured

and continuous movement: the apparent opacity of the collaged forms

viewed

from the exterior melts into an ambiguous and continuous in-

terior surrounding

the

r a m p

(Figures 31 and

32).

At the

crest

of the

r a m p,

yo u

visually enter

th e

bu ilding, which

is

also ex perienced

as an

amplification

of the

paths. Walls

o f

glass m ake this entry condit ional

by establishing a tenuo us thresho ld that allow s yo ur eye to pro ceed

into th e interior spaces,

even

as it

f rames

views

of the su r rounding

bui ldings, yet impedes yo ur m ovem ent toward them. Ab sent here i s

the assum ed anon ym ity of the open paths. The undistinguished path



80

/

Now s the

Time

Figure 30. Fluctuating readings of the Carpenter Center in relation to

the

surrounding campus.

has been transformed into an interstitial center. The wrapping of

interior activities around

it

obscures

figure and

ground distinctions,

and

increases your awareness

of

others along this

or

crossing paths.

Risk

on the

Architectural Promenade

The rise and curve of the ramp accentuate th e presence of the body

through the gravity and tactility of the body's movement along it.



Figure

31.

Approaching

the

Carpenter Center

on the

ramp. Photograph

b y Peter

Stone;

reproduced

with

permission.

Figure

32. On the

crest

of the

Carpenter Center ramp. Photograph

by

Peter Stone; reproduced

with

permission.



82 / Now s the Time

The result ing juxtaposi t ion with the

flat

and straight paths of the

cam pus recal ls Le Co rbusier 's assertion:

Man walks in a straight line because he has a goal and knows where

he is

going;

he has made up his

m ind

to reach some particular place

and he

goes straight

to it.

The

pack-donkey meanders along,

meditates a

little

in his scatter-

brained and distracted fashion, he zigzags in order to avoid the larger

stones, or to ease the c l imb, or to gain a little shade; he takes the

line

o f

least resistance.

36

In the context of the

campus ,

Le

Corbusier implicitly advocates

the

meander, which he determinedly argued against throughout his ca-

reer, by

setting

in

place

a

form

and a motion

that

he had

criticized

as a mark of the pre-machine-age ci ty. More important, he

fo rmed

a

m o m e n t

of

distraction,

a

delay, within

the

rapid

flow of

students

proceeding

from o ne

class

to the

next.

The

building causes

you to

slow your pace, observe th e surroundings , and perhaps b ecom e less

serious

and

have

a n

"active, ardent thought, which contains

th e joys

of a

prof usely

flowered field," something that Le Corbusier

found

to

be absent among

Amer icans .

3 7

The

"ardent thought" that emerges

through

the

spatial order

and

temporal experience along this ramp

is

not a daydream, but a concentration upon th e surroundings that

yields alternative potentials within

the

defined

durat ion.

In the ab-

sence o f

expected p erceptual relation ships

or of

established nar rative

reinforcement, w e

must rely

o n

improvisational techniques

to

guide

us. During these moments o f intense concentration on the present,

as

w e

exercise unconventional

action,

w e

critically contemplate

th e

potential

of the

fu ture

b y

questioning present circum stance.

Dramatically, in this assemblage of his architectural devices, Le

Corbusier ' s promenade does

no t

conclude

in an

out look

to the fu-

ture ,

so

co m m o n

in

pas t prom enades,

b ut

conf ronts

th e

present

as a

f rag men ta ry

experience with undeveloped potential.

The

Carpenter

Center is part of the sequence, but it also challenges the sequence by

placing the

event

within the middle of the promenade rather than at

the end. At the crest of the ramp, slightly displaced

f rom

the center

of th e

bui lding,

is a

point

o f

transi t ion, rather than

an

arch i tectural

prom ise, where

o ne

either en ters

the

b uilding

or

pro ceeds along

a

slow



Now s

the

Time

/ 83

descent to the ground. The ramp is not focused on points of depar-

ture and destination, but, like Armstrong's music, is engaged in the

potential of the duration itself. L e Corbusier's conception o f now

is

set

aside here

to

provide

th e

pedestrian, caught

o ff

guard

and de-

fenseless,

with a heightened awareness o f moving between episodes.

The

movement along

the

ramp

is one of

felt intensity

and

relates

to

what L e Corbusier considered to be an eternal j o y — a

life

lived in -

tensely through each day. While visiting the Harvard campus, he had

proclaimed to the students and faculty, One must have courage "

38

Courage

is

what

is

needed because

the

design

is a

spatial

and

tempo-

ral eddy, at play within and against the surrounding order, in which

th e traveler might become lost. A s a tensioned experience o f the pres-

ent created by challenging both spatial and temporal perceptions, it

presents destinations that are ambiguous and open. Designed as an

in-between state, a flux of building and path, it simultaneously be-

gins, interrupts,

and

ends.

L e

Corbusier unraveled

the

structure

o f

mo v in g between classes and released the potential fo r events within

that moment. In the presence of an ambiguous formulation of the re-

lationships

so

clearly expressed elsewhere

on the

campus,

the

passers-

b y

may

examine

and

reevaluate, rather than passively

accept, the

su r ro un d in g order as well as their position within it.

Designing

Moments

Laden with Diverse Temporalities

The

destruction resulting from World

War II, the

frustration

of not

receiving a

larger U.S. commission,

a

self-evaluation

of his

successes

and failures, o r

fu r t h e r

reflection o n Armstrong's music: perhaps all

of these factors contributed to Le Corbusier's identification of actu-

ality, rather than the age, as a potential foc us fo r architecture. A s

the Carpenter Center demonstrates, architecture can contribute to an

expansive manifestation of the present moment, exposing us to the

dynamics o f actuality.

The

moment

in the

Carpenter Center

is

accomplished through

th e

overlap of at least three embedded temporali t ies—the duration of the

interval between classes,

th e

changing pace

(rate

o f

movement)

o f a

pedestr ian f rom

a f lat surface onto a curving ramp, and the rhythms

of the

programmatic activities

in the

spaces surrounding

the

ramp.



84

/ Now s the Time

It is

perhaps augmented

by the

t ime bound

in the

f o r m ,

its

m oving

sections,

as

well.

39

These tem po ralities

are but a few of a

diverse

field

of temporal i t ies—fast and slow durations—in which architecture is

imm ersed. Through its m anipulat ion and organization o f f o r m s , m a-

terials,

and

processes,

as

well

as

p r og ra m s

and

events, architecture

implicates

and is

implicated

in a

litany

o f

rates, intervals , rhythms,

periods, and

cycles.

The different

terms

are

significant. They

offer

dis-

tinctions that include physical

o r

manual articulation, material decay,

and

movement through space

to

reveal different manners

in

which

t im e m ay be em bedded and m ani fes ted.

In his

reflection s

on art history,

Kubler,

in particular, has

pro-

vided

fur ther

indication

of the

diverse shapes

o f

t ime,

th e

var ious

kinds and qualities of duration, which are hidden in the multiples

and divisions of the solar or calendar year that constitutes our pri-

mary vocabu la ry of t ime. Kubler emphasizes absolute age to

note

differences in the

rates, periods,

and

spans

o f

biological organisms,

materials,

and

objects,

as

well

as

similar differences within

any one

of these three categories—for instance, a f rui t fly's lifespan compared

to

that

of

m a n .

He

also identifies systematic ages,

the

historical

or

evolutionary development that is implicated in an idea or an object

as

well

as in

each

of its

com ponent

parts.

40

Having distinguished

be-

tween

the two and

outl ined som e

o f

their internal variation,

he

notes,

"Because duration can be m easured by the two standards of absolute

age and systematic age, historic time seems to be composed of many

envelopes,

in

addition

to

being mere

flow

f rom future

to past

through

the present. These envelopes, which all have different contours in

the

sense

that

they

are

durations

defined

by

their

contents,

can be

grouped

easily by

large

and

smal l families

of shapes."

41

The

applica-

tion of Kub ler's

propositions

to the reading of drawings has revealed

temporalities that range

from

instantaneous t imes

o f

pure presence,

in which all things are fully discrete, quantif iable, and mani fes t , to

entropic, transitive,

and

contingent d urations that

are

no nlinear, non-

monolithic,

and

nonpositivist manifestations

of time.

42

These classif ications

are

informat ive ,

b ut

they

are not

exhaus -

tive:

" the number

of

ways

for things to

occupy time

is

probably

no

more unl imi ted than the number of ways in which mat ter occupies

space."

43

The

classification s

offered

provide

a

beginning

for

iden-

t i fying dura t ions tha t a re relevant to archi tecture . However , many



Figure

33.

Shifting definition.

Overhead Sequence, 12-2 P.M., May.

Glass

Canopy—Shadowed

Field—Projection

Surface, a

proposal for

the Washington, D.C., Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial

Competition,

2000.

Rendering Martin Luther King Jr.'s words

as an

animated field of shadow, pro jected by the movement of the sun,

washing across surfaces below, enables the proposed memorial to

convey

the

universal nature

of his

ideas.

The

momentary alignment

of quotations with the markers in the plaza surface at varying times

and

lengths of days, as

well

as different times of year, shifts focus to

a particular quotation within the field, revealing the context within

which King developed

and

practiced

his

ideas.



Figure 34. Organizing temporal processes that mature at varying rates.

Quyen Luong, Delia Wendel,

and

Kathy

Williams,

Land Yield through

Cultivation. Community Land Trust Plans of Action Studio, Rice University,

spring 2003. Decisions about future uses of sites could be tied to planting

cycles and durations. Annual growth cycles of vegetables could organize

the

evaluation

of

sites,

or

areas

of

sites, with vegetable gardens relative

to

other changes in the surrounding area. If there was a perceived need, those

sites could take on new programmatic uses in a year or less.



Figure 35.

Quyen Luong, Delia Wendel,

and

Kathy Williams, Yield through

Land

Arrogation.

Community

Land

Trust Plans

of

Action Studio,

Rice

Univer-

sity, spring 2003. The planting of perennial plants and trees, such as fruit

trees, would establish a longer duration for a site or an

area

of a site. Evalua-

tion of such areas would occur only after the trees were mature enough to

bear fruit. The presence of the trees would have an inf luence on any future

course of action.



88

/ Now s the Time

temporal i t ies

that

might

not be of

interest

to

historians

m ay

have

value

f o r architecture.

44

Ad ditionally, while there are overlaps w ithin

these classifications, and the simultaneous manifestation of the tem-

poralities

that

they describe,

the

emphasis tends

to be on a

singular

or

primary temporality

at

work within

a given

process

or moment,

ra ther than mul t iple and s imul taneous durat ions . There is seldom

exploration,

o r

even acknowledgment,

o f

more than

one

temporal

process or m anifestation b eing operative. Im provised m usic has been

the pr im ary a rea to explore the opportunities presented within m o -

m ents consisting o f overlays o f var ious and diverse temporalities.

Ho wever, arch itecture, given its diverse activities, as well as the m a-

terial processes that

it

organizes,

has the

opportunity

to

create

fields

manifesting simultaneous

and

diverse temporalities,

to

provide means

fo r environments and the individuals within them to be responsive

to

shifting

modali t ies

and the

m om e nt s

o f

engagement that they

manifest . Arch itecture m ight organize the em bedded durations of its

materials, programs, and events to introduce opportunities for play

across them. Such efforts could make

use of

transitional zones f rom

a

space organized

b y one

duration

to

another space that

is

o rganized

by a

d i f ferent dura t ion ,

shift ing definitions o f a

space

as it is im-

plicated

in

changing temporal measures , and/or sett ing forward

o f

tem po ral processes that reach

m a t ur i ty — g r o w t h

o r decay—or

that

complete their cycle at varying points in the future (Figures 33-35).

In

foregrounding various temporal i t ies

o f

elements

and

systems that

surround us in these and other manners, the potential is similar to

that found in improvised music. By pro viding awareness of and play

across the diverse temporalities that organize o ur lives, arc hitecture

might provide greater opportunities

fo r

m om e nts

o f

questioning,

in -

novation, and change.



Chapter 4

Function,

Flexibility,

and Improvisation

The AACM and

Mies van der

Rohe

Verb

o r

Noun

Swing

was

transformed f rom

an

action

to a

fo rm

in

1935, when Benny

Goodman's band gained an enthusiastic reception in Los Angeles, the

last stop

on a

failing coast-to-coast tour.

In

1934 only

the

West Coast

had

been awake

to

hear

Goodman's

radio

performances broadcast

l ive from New York at 1:00 a.m. And only Los Angeles had devel-

oped an audience excited by Goodman's hot music, which was less

favorably

received

in the

rest

o f the

country. Without

th e

show

in Los

Angeles, Goodman would have returned to New York as a failure

rather than

as the

king

o f

swing,

the

fo rm

o f jazz

that captured

th e

imagination o f America in the mid-1930s and early 1940s. With its

transition f r o m the weighty two-beat rhythms that had dominated

jazz in the

1920s

to the lighter, more buoyant rhythms

that

would

characterize swing,

jazz

w as aligned and calibrated to perform as a

rhythmic expression o f American optimism regarding progressive

and populist reforms as the nation anticipated the end of the Great

Depression.

Goodman's

story

also

reveals a negative side to that upbeat re-

alignment. A s readily acknowledged b y Goodman, his musical style

was

built

on the

arrangements

o f

Fletcher Henderson,

who had

devel-

oped

the

sound with

his

Harlem-based band

in the

1920s. Although

89



90 / Function, F lexibility, and Improvisation

Henderson's char ts were vital to G oo dm an and the swing era, Hen-

derson's ba nd w ould

not

enjoy

the

sam e com m ercial success,

and

Hen-

derson officially becam e Goodm an 's staff arranger in 1939. The suc-

cess of

swing thus m eant high pr ofits

and

status

f or

white b ands,

b ut

a lesser degree of success for comparable b lack bands, the source of

m a n y of the innova tions that were later co dified as swing.

Focu sing on this appro priation, Leroi Jones (Amiri Bara ka) in

Blues

People

identifies a conceptual transition signaled b y the change in the

use

of the term

sw ing ,

f rom verb to noun: "Swing, the verb, meant a

simple reaction

to the

m usic (and

as it

developed

in

verb usage,

a way of

reacting

to

anything

in

life).

As it was

form alized

and the

term

and the

music taken further

out of

context,

swing became

a

noun that meant

a

commercial popular music

in

cheap imitation

o f a

kind

o f

Afro -

American

music."

1

Jones equates this transition with the t ransforma-

tion of a critical m usical practice into a com m odified popular urban

entertainment form, bringing a disturbance of the delicate balance

between oral and literary co nsiderations in the m usic. W hile the col-

lective improvisations

o f

sm all

N ew

Orleans ensem bles depended

on

composed m ater ial and sheet m usic as resources, the wri tten com po-

sition was not a static fo rm m eant for precise execution thro ug h per-

fo rmance . It was a system and approach that optimized th e abil i ty o f

the com position to initiate and enco urag e collective play.

The

d e m an ds

of

coo rdinating

a

large swing ban d

and

re-presenting

live renditions o f tunes popular ized b y radio and recordings would

requi re an increased rel iance on the written. The "arran gem ent," as

a mediator of the composition, facilitated th e ability o f a large b and

to sim ulate im pro vised play. G o od m an noted the essential qua li ties

of a successful swing arrangement in his description of Henderson's

arrangements :

The whole idea is that the ensemble passages . . . have to be writ ten

i n m o r e

o r

less

th e

same s tyle that

a

soloist would

use if he

were

improvising. That is, what Fletcher really cou ld do so wo nde r fu l ly

was to

take

a

tune like "Sometimes

I'm Happy" and

real ly impro-

vise on it him self, with the exception of certain parts of the various

choruses which would be m arked

solo

trumpet or

solo tenor

or

solo

clarinet.

Even here

the

background

for the

rest

of the

band would

be

in the sam e

consistent

vein, so

that

the whole thing really hung

together

and

sounde d uni f ied. Then, too,

the

arranger 's choice

of



Function, Flexibility, and Improvisation / 91

different

key changes is

very

important, and the order in which the

solos

are

placed,

so that th e

ar rangement works

up to a c l im ax.

2

W ith this increased dependen ce o n the written, swing shifted th e bal-

ance away

f rom

improvised music, b y imposing conf inement on

that

which w as open and

free.

The arrangement dictated the constraints

and the overall shape of the per formance by replacing previously v ari-

able elem ents— the tempo,

th e

instrum entation,

th e

collective palette

of sounds,

and the

relations

of the

pitches

and

ranges

of

different

in -

struments to one another—with set m odes and structures. Arranged

in this fashio n,

th e

music

w as

often based more

in

per formance than

play, and bands were

frequently

made up of m e m b e rs who could only

sight-read, supplemented

with

solo

specialists who

im provised

in

order

to add vitality and freshness.

While th e development o f radio and recordings, and the use of

standardized m aterial , encouraged th e com m odif ica tion o f m usic, im -

provised music, through

its

variability,

had

tended

to

resist commodi-

fication.

Through

th e

maintenance

of the

solo, swing maintained

a

limited

form o f that resistance. Additionally, arrange m ents were often

orally developed and communicated in order to permit some slippage

between

the

a r ranged music

and

what

w as

played. Although swing

was a less improvised, m ore standardized fo rm , it was still music that

depended

on

playing

for its

development, m usic that m aintained

m o-

ments

difficult

to t ranscribe and was capable o f sounds

that

exceeded

the seem ing simplicity of its notation.

In 1965

Muhal Richard

Abrams, Phil Cohran, and Steve McCall

created the Associat ion for the Advancement of Creative Musicians

(AACM), which was dedicated to another kind o f optimization b e-

tween writ ten arrangements

and

musical play.

The

core membership

of

this nonprofit arts organization

was an

experimental band star ted

by A b r am s

in

1961

that

sought

to

explore

new

m usical ideas thro ugh

collective improvisations deploying a vocabulary of written arrange-

m ents. W hen in ternalized , this vo cabu lary— which provided directive

and

connective themes while necessitating renewal, extension,

and

variat ion—enabled musicians

to

build

"long

mult i-sect ional compo-

sitions defined b y elaborate instrumental variety; rapid and ab rupt

rhythmic , dynamic

and

textural successions; [and

an]

emphasis

o n

multiple,

disparate, instrumental voices that ob scured any clear sense



92 / Function, Flexibility,

and

Improvisation

of

tonality."

3

Sounds within silence, space as a m edium of suspension,

and autonomous improvisat ion were some of the musical explora-

tions

conducted

through

unscored performances

that

developed from

w riting created

to

optimize collective improvisation.

Similarly,

there

are different levels and

degrees

of

o ptim ization

in

architecture. Lud wig M ies van der R ohe suggested these

different

op-

timizations, and the spatial as well as economic, technological, and

cultural

dem ands that inf o rm them , in a speech at the Illinois Institute

of Technology

(IIT)

that dealt with

th e

im por tance

o f

flexibility over

the expression o f func t ion: "When Sullivan spoke o f ' form m ust fol-

lo w

function, '

he was reacting to his tim es. Today,

function

changes

so rapidly

that

o nly great flexibility has any v alue in a b uilding. Flexi-

bility

is what is important and characteris t ic in my buildings, not

the

expression

of function."

4

Function, a

term

that

had

once given

rise

to r ich debate and had had a panoply o f m eanings, by the

1930s

was

reduced

to an

economically motivated

and

culturally determined

definition.

Through

an

emphasis

o n flexibility,

Mies sought

to ac-

commodate economic, technological ,

and

cultu ra l needs, wh ile leav-

ing his architecture

free

to provide an expression of the age. Clear

span volumes would support

a

variety

o f

planned

and unforeseen

uses

without ob struction and provide a basis for Mies to develop an

architecture that was a "repudiation of

a priori f o r m a l

meaning as

the prim ary locus of meaning."

5

This focus

on

flexib ility

has parallels

with

th e

insistence

by the

proponents

o f

im provised

m usic—o utlined

in

advance

but

determined

through playing—that

order

is not

implic-

it

in its wri t ten instrum ents but em erges thro ugh playing. Ho wever,

wh ile M ies

proposed that

flexib ility

was

desirable,

he was

wary

of the

flexibility offered b y

im provisation.

In

reaction

to

G eorge Danfo r th 's

declared admiration

of the

musicianship

and

improvisation

fo un d in

swing, Mies warned, "You must be careful of improvising."

6

Benny

G o o d m a n

w as the subject o f

that

par ticular exchange. How -

ever,

we can explore the implications of Mies's comment by exam-

ining his work in relation to the AACM and i ts e f for t s to offer a

more supportive

and

equitable alternative

to the

music industry,

in a

shared landscape, Chicago's South Side. Thro ugh or gan ization al , as

well as musical, innovations th e AA CM would challenge the prevail-

ing

perceptions concerning

jazz

m usicians, their role

in

society,

the



94

/ Function Flexibility,

and

Im provisation

"jazz age, while introducing a corollary proposition. Morrison's nar-

rator, omniscient

yet flawed,

embodies this tensioned dynamic

as a

voice unable

to

accurately account

for all the

activities

in the

novel

and

a voice that is

often

contradicted by the narrative solos of the novel's

main characters.

The

structure

of the

book reiterates Morrison's prin-

cipal point—that no singular narrative is capable of fully rendering a

subject 's complexity and

that

in the engagement of that complexity,

the participant-observer is also changed.

Morrison's and Ellison's works provide broad guides for an

improvisation-based understanding of the city b y respectively empha-

sizing

th e limits of the city's systems to

fully

account for the opera-

tions

and

activities within

it and the

potential relations that

an

indi-

vidual can establish to those systems. However, while both describe

the

basis

for

r inding

and

negotiating gaps

in the

city, they

do not

indicate

how

improvisatory practices might structure processes

of

the

city's design.

In

examining

the

AACM's work

in

relation

to

that

of Mies, th e attempt is to move

f rom

such models o f improvisational

processes, describing how we move through and interact with the

city, to a concept of how improvisatory practices might structure pro-

cesses of urban transformation and change.

Jazz

and the

City

Chicago's South Side, where such clubs and dance halls as the Lincoln

Gardens,

the

Dreamland,

and the

Pekin

and

Sunset Cafes were once

f o u n d , is vital to the general development and history o f j azz . During

the

1920s

musicians

f r o m

New

Orleans, such

as Joe

King Oliver

and Louis Armstrong, migrated north to play in these clubs and fur-

ther develop the collectively improvised music that is today known

as the New Orleans and Chicago style. In a typical arrangement

of this music, each band member would improvise a line in harmonic

relation to the melody of a blues, rag, march, or stomp. However,

after an extended visit to New York, Armstrong returned to Chicago

in 1926 and

redefined

improvised music b y creating

significant

dis-

tinctions between solo and ensemble play. His inventive rhythmic

and melodic solo flights, as heard in the Hot Five and Hot

Seven

re-

cordings, signaled th e demise o f both th e collective improvisation o f

the New Orleans/Chicago style and Chicago's reign as the dominant



Function,

Flexibility,

and

Improvisation

/ 95

site for new developments in jazz . The principal development of the

styles o f jazz that would later dominate—swing and b e b o p — w o u l d

occur in New Yo rk, thoug h Chicago co ntinued thro ugh the 1950s to

be the h o m e o f m a ny

jazz

clubs.

In

Jazz

City Leroy Ostransky proposes

that

some of the under-

lying

urban s t ructures

of New

Orleans, Chicago, Kansas City,

and

New York provided support for the development of

j azz .

Each of

these transport cities had a density of resident and transient popu-

lations, with money

to

spend

and a

demand

fo r

entertainment,

ca-

pable of sustaining musical activity

that

allowed for the exchange

of diverse ideas and enabled jazz to flourish.

However,

on Chicago's

South Side, this configuration

had

changed

by the

1960s,

when

th e

AACM sought to develop a new music and provide alternative ven-

ues to challenge th e dominant and l imiting structures of the music

industry, in the mids t o f declining opportunities fo r

jazz

musicians

to play in Chicago clubs.

With an explicit goal o f demonstrating "how the disadvantaged

and the

disenfranchised

c an

come together

and

determine their

o w n

s t ra tegies for pol i t ical and economic f reedom, thereby determin-

ing their o w n destinies," th e AACM establ ished an organizat ional

structure

that

treated each mem ber

a s an

individual

who was free to

participate in multiple collective groupings.

9

AACM m emb ers cou ld

play

in any band; however, a band led by an AACM member had to

m aintain 60 percent AAC M representation as a show o f m utual sup-

port. The common musical language that the musicians developed

and shared throug h their wri ting

facilitated

this dem and b y enabling

m e m b e r s

to

participate

in a

m ul ti tude

o f

form ulat ions ,

both

to

play

before an audience and to develop musical ideas. The AACM's sig-

nature group,

the Art

Ensemble

o f

Chicago, best demonstrates this

capabil i ty, having survived as a group for more than thirty years ,

perhaps because

o f

such fluid practices (Figure 36).

Its

m em b e rs

re-

mained commit ted to the group, yet pursued outside pro jects to de-

velop

other musical ideas

that, in

turn , contr ibuted

to the

ensemble's

musical vi tal i ty. This s tructuring also al lowed groups

to fo rm and

disperse in response to the parameters of their environment and the

need

to accommodate a greater variety of environments and oppor-

tunities fo r playing. The

structure

o f this self-reliant com m unity

of m u s ic ia ns t r a ns f o r m e d the poli t ical undertones in Ellison's and



96

/

Function,

Flexibility, and

Improvisation

Figure 36. The Art Ensemble of

Chicago,

live at Kanihoken Hall,

Gotanda,

Tokyo, 1984. Copyright

Mitsuhiro

Sugawara; reproduced

with

permission.

Morrison's propositions into direct political action. The m e m b e rs of

the AACM actual ly extended the dynamics found in playing to the

processes that supported thei r music making and their interaction

with the surrounding envi ronment .

The

AACM responded

no t

only

to the

collapse

o f

p e r fo r m a n c e

venues,

b ut also to the g reater cul tural , econom ic, and social chal-

lenges co nfro nting the S outh Side, a historically black neighb orho od ,

in

the

1960s,

as well as to co ntinuing civil rights

efforts.

10

The AACM

developed and prom oted South Side co m m unity centers, churches, art

galleries, coffeehouses, and private homes, as well as museums and

university

campuses,

as a new

network

o f

spaces

fo r

playing impro-

vised

music.

In

these spaces,

free

f rom

th e

definitions that l im ited

im -

provised music to an entertainment spectacle, th e AACM posit ioned

im provised m usic 's

fluid,

transient, and creative play as integral to



Function, Flexibility, and

Improvisation

/ 97

daily

life and available to anyone, anywhere, through a multi tude

of means . The A A CM actively encouraged others to adopt its crea-

tive practices, b y repairing instrum ents and giving them to inner-city

youths, and by operating a tuition-fr ee m usic school to educate others

in the m usic that th e AACM developed. Through such outreach, the

A AC M challenged the no tion that jazz musicians were an unreliable

and disorganized fringe group, and revealed how the musicians could

contribute to the everyday

character

of the u rban

environment.

In

pursuing i ts goals , the AACM was also influenced by black

nationalist efforts to develop expressions of black heritage and cul-

ture, including

i ts

African

roots, and to

provide positive

aff i rmations

of blackness. Presented by the Art Ensemble of Chicago as "Great

Black Music,"

AA CM stage shows m ade use of stage actions and spo-

ken words that

often

contained explicit black nationalist sentiment

and

other political content. However, these actions were also a

part

of

the music and were used to trigger transitions in the direction of

the musical

activity.

11

AACM stage shows involved a collage of performative elements

d r a w n

f rom

the many tradit ions of black music culture, including

theatrical stage actions, spoken word, and music. All of these ele-

ments, presented

as an

interwoven series

o f

spontaneous events ,

placed an emphasis on the inherent theatricality of making music.

A t the same time they enacted a critique of the entertainment con-

tent

that had

historically permitted

jazz to be

co nsidered

a

m a r g ina l

cul tura l practice.

By

dressing

in

different costumes, using face paint,

and

su rro und ing them selves with m ultiple instrum ents,

the

m e m b e rs

visually reinforced

this

collage o f activity. N or were their instruments

limited

to

those expected

o f

j azz .

A

reed player,

fo r

example, might

have an ar ray o f saxophones and o ther w ind instrum ents, as well as

an assortment of little instruments, such as bells, whistles, gongs, toys,

and

other unconventional

o r

homemade ins t ruments

that

could

b e

used

as percussive augm entation (Figures 37 and 38). The mu sicians

pursued a thorough knowledge o f, and

facility

with, every one o f the

diverse

instruments that they

played.

12

The AAC M 's m ix of experim ental soun d, poli tics , and the provi-

sional with potentials of its South Side surroundings are summ ar ized

in a s tory by an AACM member , Henry Threadgi l l , regarding the

m a ki ng

o f a

"hubcapphone":



98

/ Function, Flexibility, and Improvisation

Figure 37. Little Instrument storage and acoustic reflector or baf-

fle.

...

and other latent

uses,

an installation in Project Row Houses'

Music and Spoken Word House, Houston, Texas, 2001. AACM mem-

b er Wadada Leo Smith has described how children in Mississippi

stretched wire between nails in the walls of their homes to create

makeshift guitars. In its description of three zones

fo r

playing and lis-

tening

to

music,

the

installation developed

the

architectural potential

suggested in their and the AACM's play of materials and forms.

There was a guy on Maxwell Street,

that

you could see

f r om

the

expressway, that

had all of

these hubcaps

in his

junkyard:

the sun

was hitting them, and they were

shining,

it was just lighting up the

whole

expressway—it was

blinding.

So I

came

off the

expressway

to see

what

it

was.

And

when

I

started looking

at

them, they were

so

incredible—loo king

at the

coat

of arms on these hubcaps, you

know—when I was going through them, I would drop some trying

to get to

others,

and I got

involved

in the

sound when

I was

drop-

ping them. I

took

some of them home and cleaned them up and

began

to

beat

on

them

and

test them

for

sound;

I

designed

a

f r a m e

and everything and put it

together.

13

In

defiance

o f

stereotypes

and by

developing

the

unforeseen poten-

tials of the city, th e members of the AACM established an environ-




Figure 38. Little

Instruments. ... and

other latent uses, an

installa-

tion in Project Row Houses' Music and Spoken Word House, Houston,

Texas, 2001. Bottles containing poems, music diagrams,

and

liner notes,

and balloons inscribed with diagrams

by

AACM member Anthony

B r a x t o n ,

stored

in the wall,

referenced

the

project's generative

sources

and provided a range of ideas about making music for those

w ho

ch oos e

to play

within

this environment.

ment that sustained an ongoing e f f o r t "to use music to build a new

culture. . . . through the

production

of a new music outside of the

industry with implications beyond the musical."

14

Optimizations and Precisions

Because

it

thoroughly implicates

the

musician, improvisation

is al-

ways

susceptible

to the

influence

of

personal

aspirations.

15

This mani-

festation of the personal was sufficient cause for Mies's wariness

of improvisation,

and the

AACM departed

f r o m

Mies's ideal even



100 / Function, Flexibility, and Impro visation

fu r the r

b y using direct acts, beyond th e development o f music, to

provide

an

alternative

to the

m usic industry.

Its

b lurring

o f the

prop-

erties that distinguish music

f rom

th e economic, social, and political

influences

upon

it

contrasts with

Mies's

concentration

o n

architec-

ture, distinct

f rom

the diverse factors

that affected it.

16

Given these factors, the A A C M 's processes o f im pro visation seem

to repeat the efforts of functionalism to assert the needs of the in-

dividual

in the

mids t

o f a

mass-oriented

and

alienating metropolis.

Funct ion,

as

Mies acknowledged,

had

provided

a

rich source

o f

speculation and deb ate for Lo uis Sull ivan and his con temp oraries

on the

rise

o f the

metropolis, industrialization,

and

economies based

o n

mechanical reproduction, rather than

th e

economies

o f

represen-

tation that had dominated the first

half

of the nineteenth century.

Recognizing a loss of meaning in the formal approaches and styles

of the Be aux A rts, Sullivan , along with other architects in E uro pe,

sought to develop languages, approaches, and org anization s derived

f rom straightforward and apparent uses o f mechanical technology

mediated by art isanal knowledge. Through this mediation, function

might provide the basis for exploring new f o r m s that could be in-

vested with con tem po rary values

and

meanings .

Mies's

skepticism of the perso nal and his hesitancy rega rdin g other

social factors grew out of his reaction to the continued do m inance of

function as the determinant of form in the 1920s. While a focus on

funct ion

was appropriate within a culture in transi t ion f rom repre-

sentation to repetition, i t becam e apparen t b y the end of Wo rld W ar I

that there was no turn ing b ack

from

the alienating

effects

of the me-

tropolis. The search for new signs and meaning proved hollow and

ineffective before the overpow ering dem and s of capital . Function,

having failed to

produce

significant

meaning,

found itself

narrowed

in

definition

to the employm ent of rat ional m eans of construction to

establish a close fit between architecture and the uses that occurred

within

it .

This reductive elision, cold

in its

econom ic

and

p e r f o rm a -

tive optimization,

left

i t unclear whether architecture conformed to

use, or use to architecture, and blurred the distinction between the

language of construction and the language of m eaning. For Mies, this

close and individu ated fit between a b uilt environ m ent articulating so-

cial ideals and m eaning, and econo m ically and rationally o ptim ized in-

dustrial and repetitive wo rk, registered as cultural determ inism rather

than architecture. C onsequently, while Sull ivan's pro clam ation that



Func tion, Flex ibility, and Improvisation / 101

fo rm

fol lows fun ction wo uld historically sum m arize m od ernist w ork

executed through the

1920s,

Mies resisted this characterization in

his

attentiveness

to

flexibility

and

material i ty

in

order

to

redirect

th e

potential

o f

rational

construction fro m

the

particulars

of any

project

to u nive rsal con dition s of the age.

Flexibility—the

distillation

and

compact organization

o f

program

to

m a x i m i z e

th e

provision

o f

clear span spaces—coupled with pre-

cisely

calibrated deployments of materials, enabled Mies's architec-

ture

to

serve

as

background , shim m ering glass

and

steel presences that

offered

little expression beyond

th e facts o f

their construction. Such

works

as the

Illinois Institute

o f

Technology cam pus

in

Chicago

offer

exquisitely proportioned

and

detailed buildings, which provided

an

ambivalent if not

contradictory hierarchy

of

structural spans

and

tec-

tonic detail

in

relation

to the

program s fou nd inside (Figure

39).

Both

con ceptual and perceptual readings of Mies's wo rk have resulted.

Figure

39.

Ludwig

Mies

van der

Rohe,

Illinois Institute

of Technology,

Chi cago, 1939-41, master p lan

for the

c a m p u s . P h o t o m o n t a g e

of

aerial view: model super imposed

on

photograph

of

ne ighborhood.

Museum

o f

Modern A r t ,

New

York. Cour tesy

of The Mies van d er Rohe

Archive (MI3900.000).

Digital

image copyright The Museum of

Modern

Art /

Licensed

by

SCALA

/ Art

Res ou rc e, N.Y.



102 / Function,

Flexibility,

and Improvisation

As described

by

M ichael

Hays, Mies's

work creates

a

silence

in

which meaning is a function of em erging im person al produc tive sys-

tems

rather than of the

f o r m a l

operations o f architecture and u r b a n

plan nin g: "Mies's achievem ent was to o pen up a clearing of im pla-

cable silence in the chaos of the nervous m etropol i s. ... It is the

extreme depth of silence in this clearing—silence as an architectural

form

all its own—that is the architectural meaning of this

project."

17

Neither determined

b y

cu ltura l ideals

and

constraints

no r

developed

free o f circumstance through purely formal means, Mies 's architec-

ture, including his "subtle grafting of an alternative reality onto th e

chaos of Chicago's South Side," provides a "place in which the mo-

tivated,

the

planned,

and the

rational

are

brought together with

the

contingent,

the

unpredictable,

and the inexplicable."

18

By

construct-

ing

silence,

Mies's

buildings could support the dynamics of modern

cu lture , yet,

as

Hays proposes, also stand

as a

"critical architecture."

Focused exclusively on m ax im i z in g a m in imal l anguage of construc-

tion, Mies provided codeless and empty (if not active) vo iding signs

that m a d e

no effort to

establish meaning

o r

dialogue with

the me-

tropolis.

19

Instead, his buildings accept the inability of architecture

to offer any meaning; they criticize the surrounding chaos by silently

reflecting

the

metropolis back onto i tself . Rather than search

for a

new code, a new set of signs, Mies introduced silence as the pro-

nouncement of an end.

While the reflective capacity of Mies's work made possible this

critique, its transparent effects permit ted a different reading. One

could look at it or past it if one wanted. Thus, glass structures by

Mies and others indicated, fo r John Cage, a m e an s fo r encouraging

forgetfulness

and unfocused attention. As in Hays's reading, Mies's

work did not provide a way in which m eaning could take hold. How-

ever, Cage was not will ing to rely on the ability to ob ta in the au-

tonomy necessary for the conceptual critique proposed in Hays's

reading. Instead, by placing an emphasis on this new m o d e of per-

ception in which things are immersed in and interpenetrated with

their surroundings, Cage identified within Mies 's work a potential

rather than an end.

Forgetfulness

and un fo cus ed attention always

permitted seeing things fo r what they are, rather than in successive,

accumulative,

or

associational relations,

in

order

to

u n d e r m i n e

the

repetition and variation that was indicative of m ass and commercial



Function, Flexibility, and Impro visation / 103

culture.

20

Interpenetration rather than autonomy, perception rather

than cogni tion, could pro vide the m eans for gradu al ly eroding the

overly rationalized constraints

and

conformities

o f

capitalist culture

and allow an

anarchic culture

and

society

to

emerge.

Walter Benjamin had identified th e m ater ial izat ion of new modes

of

perception in "The Work of Art in the Age of M echanical Repro-

duction." Like Mies,

Benjamin

was unsentimental and unwavering

in his recognition of the passing of contemplative culture. He noted

tw o

phenomena—the

sub stitution o f plurali ty fo r unique experience

and the copy's ability to place an object in new situations discon-

nected from previous dictates

of

tim e

and

space. Together, these

had

overwhelmed

contem plative cul ture 's conceptual

underpinnings—

creativity, genius, a nd eternal

value

and

mystery—as

well as the art

object 's authenticity. However, Benjamin suggested that the poten-

tial

for a new

cultural sensibility

was

emerging

in the

distractive

tendencies of tempora l i ty and the habi tual knowledge o f tactility,

which were thr iving rather than dim inishing within the t ransfo rm a-

tions of m echanical reprod uction. "The adjustm ent of reali ty to the

masses

and the

masses

to

reality

is a

process

of

unlim ited scope,

as

m u c h fo r thinking as for perception," he commented, while identi-

fying

in film the

introduction

of new

participatory modes based

on

spatial expansions and

contractions

as well as tem poral com pression

and extension.

21

While

Benjamin concentrated on film, its effects on the actor and

th e

audience, m usic

w as

also significant within m echanical reprod uc-

tion,

and it em phasizes som e other

effects,

implications, and complexi-

ties of the

m as s

o r

popular

fo rm

and the

multiple

influences

upon

it—particularly its developm ent thro ug h several m odes of production.

W hile m usicians created

the

music,

in

m ass

and

commercial culture,

producers, marketers, agents, and cri t ics possessed unprecedented

powers to

affect

its reception and m a n n e r o f developm ent. The p ro-

duction

of the

com m odi ty (what would

b e

recorded) and, m ore

im -

portant,

the production of demand exerted significant

influence

o n

th e product ion o f m usic (what m usicians wo uld

play).

Therefore,

quest ioning

of the

p roduct ion

of the

co m m o d i t y

and

of

d e m a n d w as necessary if the A A C M and the other black music

organizations of the 1960s were truly to have the freedom to explore

free improvisation as a new mode o f m usic pro duction. Jacques A ttali



Function, Flexibility, and Impro visation

/ 105

gues

that

free

j a z z , having failed

as a

takeover wi thin repet i t ion,

generated the conditions to articulate a new system of exchange, one

that is stil l emerging: "It also shows how the refusal to go a long

with th e crisis o f prol i feration created locally th e conditions for a

different

m ode l

o f

musical production,

a new

music.

B ut

since this

noise was not inscribed on the same level as the messages circulating

in

the network of repetition, i t could not make itself heard. It was

the

herald

o f

another kind

o f

music,

a

m o d e

o f

production outside

repetit ion—after

having failed

as a takeover

o f power in

repetitive

society.""

25

Free improvisation was less a new form o f music than a

new m usic practice,

and the

potential t ransformations brought about

by

this new practice are tenuou sly evident today.

As conceived by the AACM, creative music provides rules, or a

vocabulary o f

open potential, that

are

tools

fo r

exploration

and

stimu-

lation o f creative thinking. Emphasis is on the development of the

individual

voice and its abi l i ty to contr ibute to the collective im -

provisation. Rather than focusing

on the

proper technique

and the

correct gesture necessary for ensuring the accurate production of

par t icular notes within a wr itten com position, individ uals developed

techniques and gestures that allowed them to facilitate and meet th e

creative

needs

o f the

moment. This emphasis underlies

all

improvised

music, but the AACM's developments are not merely a stylistic shift,

or a simple return to the collectively improvised forms of the New

Orleans/Chicago style.

In its

rejection

of the

tradit ion al rhy thm sec-

tion as support for l imited solo flights, the AAC M developed ensem -

ble relationships in w hich each m usician simultaneously im provises

to a

co llectively developing piece.

Access

to multiple instruments was necessary, given the AACM's

desire

for the

musician

to

have "the absolute abi l i ty

to

ins tanta-

neously

organize sound, silence, and rhythm with the whole of his

or her

creative intelligence."

26

Joseph Jarman describes

the

free-form

implications and challenges of these musical relationships:

"This

was

about goal and purpose and mental at t i tude. I t 's about, what do I

want to paint, what colors do I want to use, it's about, will I have the

nerve

to step out there on a

l i m b ?

It 's about, will I be creative?"

2 7

The AACM brought the structures

that

facilitate improvisation

into

sharp focus through its reduction o f m usic to a collective exp loration

of

sound that creates a code. This code is not permanent, nor does it



106

/


and Impro visation

have

an intrinsic m eaning. It exists b ecause at least two people have

chosen to invest meaning in i ts product ion. The effect of this re-

ductive approach to playing was the t ransform ation of creative pro-

cesses

into

a new

fo rm

o f

musical practice.

As an

alternative mode

of

production accessible to anyone, this practice is resonant with

Benjamin 's prediction in "The Author as Producer" that as special-

ties dissolve, we m ight all become

producers.

This practice is a form of abstraction intim ately tied to its m akers,

and because it is developed collectively, it eludes singular control.

Attali elaborates

on the

impact

of

this m usic prod uced throu gh collec-

tive labor, calling it a mode of production that "heralds the negation

of

th e

tool-oriented usage

o f

things,"

and "a

reco ncil iation betw een

work and play":

"Thus

in a reversal of the current process, which

starts with the conception and ends with the object, the outcome of

labor no longer 'pre-exists ideally in the im agina tion of the worker.'

To mo d i fy the meaning of fo rm in the course of its production, to

empty exchange/use-value of its alienating content, is to attempt to

designate the unsayable and the unpredictable." He also notes the

impact

of

this m ode

o f

production

on the

object: "Each production-

consumption (composition) entity can call its program

into

question

at any moment; production is not foreseeable before its conclusion. It

becomes a starting po int, rather than being an end product; and time

is lived tim e,

no t

only

in

exchange

and

usage,

b ut

also

in

production

itself." The AACM's simultaneous acts of inhabitation and musical

developm ent describe

a

potential environm ent,

"a

truly different sys-

tem of organization" waiting to be actualized .

2 8

As an alternative

m o d e

o f

production

and

exchange em erging

f rom

their

efforts,

it was

neither fully

anticipated by the A A C M and other improvised music

collectives, nor within the scope of the

IIT

cam pus's criticality— its

s ilent and contem plative end. The AA CM dem onstrates that effec-

tive t ransformations

of and

alternatives

to

mass cultural conditions

might b e found b y working through different opt imizat ions o f sur-

rounding forces rather than avoiding them.

The

Mass Market

and

Architecture

At the end of the twentieth century, com parable engagem ents

with

the polit ical economies surr ou nding a rchitecture have occurred with

reassessments of the preoccupation with criticality in architecture. The




and

Impro visation / 107

competition for a campus orientation center at IIT, held in 1997-98,

is one instance of such engagement. The competition offered an op-

por tuni ty fo r

reflecting

on contemporary condit ions, paradigms, and

modes for architectural practice in relation to

Mies's

work. Some of

the designs subm itted revealed the potential f or alternative direction s

by

applying his focus, intensity, and resolve to questions and areas

that constitute exclusions and blindnesses of Mies, given the limita-

tions that he placed on his work, or of prior readings of him.

29

With

the change in age

f rom

mechanical to informational , as well as the

transformations and expansion of mass consumer culture, the need

fo r questioning has continued, but the area of questioning can no

longer be the same. Such questioning has included th e repositioning

of

traditional relationships in architecture, such as figure-ground to

figure-figure or field-field, and inquiries regard ing the bo dy in bu ild-

ing activity

that

Mies's reliance o n technical means excluded. It has

also enabled architecture

to

appropr ia te ideas f rom,

and

enter into

new overlapping relations with, its affi l iated design disciplines, as

well as areas, such as m ass m edia and m ass cultur e, that h ave gener-

ally

been considered to be outside the bo un dar ies of the design of the

buil t environment.

These expansions,

in

part icular , respond

to

observations

of the

continued growth

and

increasing

influence of

mass consum er culture.

That

growth has revealed that the opposition between critical and

commercial practices, like the opposition between

fo rm

and function,

can be ambiguous: the commercial can co-opt th e critical, and can

itself operate critically.

30

This understanding

has

made possible

an

embrace of the ways

that

architecture participates

in—is

informed

by and

informs—commercia l

and consum er culture. Com m ercial and

consum er culture is itself a resource for principles that can provide a

basis fo r alternative positions.

In the IIT

competition,

th e

winning schem e

w as

subm itted

by Rem

Koolhaas's firm, the

Office

for M etropo litan Architecture

( O M A ) .

Ko olhaas has engaged in the m ost extensive study and pu rsu it of

new

principles

that can be

extracted f rom mass culture,

and

OMA's

proposal is indicative of the opportunities provided by redirecting

som e o f the sensibilities of m ass culture. The project fo regrounds and

intensifies the commercialism

that

is latent in the program—as an

orientation center and a focal point that provides the campus wi th

an

a r ray

o f

needed services.

It

provides

five

diagonal paths through



108

/

Function,

Flexibility, and Improvisation

the

site that

are

al igned

with

destinations

on

c a m p u s

and

routes

f rom c a m p u s

to the

surrounding residence halls

and

apar tment tow-

ers. Within the envelope of the orientation center, which is the zone

where

the five

pa ths intersec t, clusters

of

activity

are

located

in the

spaces between them. Although mall-l ike,

the

intent

is

u r b a n :

The issue of the

IIT

Cam pus is how to inhab it a given terri tory

with half th e po pula t ion tha t anim ated it in the 70s. To us the

co nun dru m implies a b uilding that is able to (re)urbanize the largest

possible area with the least am oun t o f (built) sub s tance. ... By not

stacking activities, b ut by positioning each pro gram m atic p article

as p a r t o f a dense m osaic , o ur bui lding conta ins the u r b a n c ond i-

tion itself.

. . .

Without f ragm enting

the

b uildin g itself, each

of the

constituent par ts can b e ar t iculated according to its

specific

needs,

positioned to respond precisely to co ntextual influence, placed for

m a x i m u m

exposure an d im pact, creating neighborhoods— 24 hour ,

com m ercial, entertainm ent, academ ic, uti li tarian—p arks

and

other

u r b a n

elements

in

miniature.

3 1

Additionally,

the

center

is

intended

to

provide

a

quie t environment

fo r

studies b y

bu f fe r i n g

th e camp us f ro m the noise of the elevated

tra in . Both programmatic concerns make the campus more appeal-

ing, which makes IIT more competi t ive with other campuses as they

vie for

students.

32

The self-dependency and isolation operate to off-

set the lack of services provided by the surroundings. The irony of

Koolhaas 's approach was p r o b a b l y not los t upon him. The p ro jec t

provides a

miniature urbanism

through a

kind

of negation—by in-

serting an anti-urban body into an existing, internally focused anti-

urban body

(or one

that

is

u r b a n

within

the

confines

of the campus).

Urban Morphology and the

Political

Economy of Property

Durin g a sym posium in 1992, "The Presence of Mies," Dan H o f f m a n

presented his altered aerial photograph of Detroit next to Mies's col-

lage pro posal at IIT. Ho ff m an's altered photograph reflected an ef-

fo rt by the city to identify and assem ble land parcels for fu t u re devel-

opment , but as Ho f fm an lam en ted , "Un fo r tun ately , no development

has taken place and the parcels are growing larger and larger." For

H o f f m a n , the juxtaposi t ion of the two images raised the question

of "how to mobil ize a culture

towards

the great investment of effor t



Function,

Flexibility,

and

Improvisation

/ 109

and displacement of material that is required to build." The juxta-

posi t ion also foregrounds and questions th e available processes o f

urban t rans format ion

and

change.

33

Dana

Cuff

notes, in The Provisional City, tha t u rban t rans form a-

tion and chang e is curr ently engendered by large-scale ur b an p ro jects

in

which "radical changes are quickly effected, large sites are trans-

fo rmed,

and new kinds of co m m unity are propo sed." Mies's collage

graphically describes these

aspects

by simultaneously indicating the

campus plan

as

well

as the

process

of

acquiring

the

land

and

clearing

it that would

b e

needed

to

implement

his

cam pus vision.

The

process

entails

"convulsion" within "a part of the urban body which then

becomes a discrete zone, operating with greater independence

f rom

it s surroundings."

3 4

Cuff fur ther notes

that

th e aggregation and description o f large-

scale discrete sites to provide utopic areas of

stabil i ty—presumably

insert ing a measure of clari ty and order within the f ield—has not

increased the city's legibility. Rather, it contributes to urban insta-

bility,

increases

and

accentuates

the

f ragm ented nature

of the

city,

b y

introducing large-scale areas with harsh relations to their surround-

ings. The provisional character of the city emerges in the cumulative

effect

o f

this process

as it is

repeated.

With the repetition of such large-scale operations and projects in

various areas

of the

city, continuous, planned,

and

referential qualities

yield

to

disruptive, spontaneous,

and

circum stantial ones. Long-term

stabilities

recede to reveal the short-term instabilities of architecture

a nd u r b a n i s m . In co ntrast to historians and designers w ho strive to

read coherence, as well as an orderly, continuous, and progressive de-

velopment of the city as a whole, composed of interrelated parts, Cuff

m aintains that

th e

city

has

often

if not

always been provisional, con-

vulsive, f ragm ented,

a nd

sporadic

in its

changes. Transform ation s

o f

areas occur in indeterminate and unpredictable cycles o f divestiture

and reinvestm ent. Currently, three prim ary factors shape contempo-

ra ry u rbani sm and inform the part icular character o f contemporary

urban transformations: th e implementation o f large-scale architec-

ture and ur b an design pro jects , the upheav al that such pro jects en-

tail , and the varied property rights and claims of different groups

and organizations that manifest themselves when an effort is m a de

to implem ent such projects .



110 / Function, F lexibility, and mp rovisation

In

Cuff's

account, two pr im ary scales of the city can b e discerned:

the small scale of individual lots, and the large scale of pieces of the

city that are assembled for

majo r

projects. However, the provisional

city that she describes is only predicated upo n large-scale operations,

with

the

scale itself contributing

to the

overall

effect.

35

There

is no

comparable cons iderat ion

at the

sm all scale. Wh ile sm all-scale sites

can undergo dramat ic t ransformat ion and change, thei r effects are

only local ,

and are

easi ly absorbed

by the

ci ty. Small-scale pertur-

bations on

individual

lots do not

introduce transform ative shocks

or

changes

to the

city.

In

relation

to the

development

o f

large-scale

projects ,

the small is also a point of resistance: "The small can mo-

bilize

to

stage attention-getting events,

to

unite with other entities

into

something large,

and

generally

to

show strength where none

is

assumed.

But the

small always

finds itself defending

against

th e

large, in a po sture of resistance, which, in the long ru n, is exha usting

and given to

failure."

36

While the large scale prompts transformation

and

change

o f the

city, context

and

co ntinuity have been

the

p r im a r y

m odes fo r und erstand ing the sm all scale and i ts changes.

These scales are what the political econ om y of pro per ty m ost easily

accommodates,

but

they

are not

enough,

as

there

are

site conditions

that

neither scale can support . The

effects

of repeated large-scale

projects

a re

evident a round

IIT.

Three other large-scale projects ,

Comiskey Park, Dearborn Homes, and Stateway Gardens, surround

the cam pus. All four operate with the independence that

Cuff

identi-

fies as

characteristic

o f

such works.

In the

r em aining spaces b etween

them there

is not

enough

of the

small scale

to

operate viably.

O ne

wonders whether

the

increased

self-dependency

and

isolation

that

the

IIT

orientation center

is

m e an t

to

provide would

b e

necessary

if

each

of these projects sought to opportunistically address its

adjacencies.

The accumulat ion o f large, independent projects has contributed to

an

overall vacancy, desertion,

and

danger

in the

surroundings,

as

well as in each of the

fo u r

si tes . A walk within the rational clari ty

and calm ness of the cam pus order can be perilous.

37

The lim its of the

small scale,

th e

maintainer

o f

context

and

continuity,

and the

large

scale,

th e

generator

o f

t r a ns fo r m a t ion

and

change,

are

fu r the r

ex-

posed

in the

areas, such

as

those that H o f f m a n

identified in

Detroit,

where context

and

continuity have ceased

to be an effective m e a -



Function,

Flexibility,

and

Imp rovisation

/

111

sure or informant , and t ransformat ions through the const ruct ion of

large-scale p ro jects seem increasingly less likely.

These sites register

the

need

for new

u rban morphologies ,

no t

only in form, but in scales and rates of growth. However, the crea-

tion of new

m orphologies

is not

enough.

The existing

m odes

of trans-

fo rma t ion

and change can be traced back to the

shift

in the politi-

cal

economy

of

proper ty:

"With use

value liberated

f rom

exchange

value,

a new

political economy

of

land

was

possible,

and

with

it, new

u r b a n morphologies."

38

In addressing site conditions that

fall

outside

the

available means,

the need—similar to the

case

of the

AACM

and

its efforts

to develop a new

m usic—is

to

identify

al ternative m odes or

morphologies,

and to

seek

o ut

econom ic m echanism s that

can

enable

and

engender

them.

Conversely,

one

m ight exam ine existing alter-

native

m e c h a n is m s t o

identi fy

thei r la tent potent ia l for new urban

morphologies.

Power Stronger Than Itself

One such al ternative is a community land trust (CLT), a nonpro f it

organizat ion

that

holds land in common for the

benefit

of a com-

m unity. W hile m aintaining o wnership o f the land, the trust prov ides

low-cost, long-term leases

and

sells

the

bui lt im provem ents upon

th e

land

to its

m embers.

The

principal purpose

of

such

a

trust,

which

can

ensure

long-term

affordability of

housing

in an

area,

is

economic.

However,

th e

long-term management s tructure,

and the

restructured

relat ions between bui ldings and lots that this economic model en-

tai ls , provide the potent ia l fo r u r b a n tr a ns f o r m a t ion a m ong d is pa-

rate small-scale sites.

This potential em erges thro ug h

a

slight change

in the

CLT's prac-

tices. In place of long -term leases of the who le pro perty, a trust m ight

provide

a

partial land lease

or a

guarantee

of

easements

to

allow

other port ions

of a lot to

work without relation

to the

b uildings upon

it. Portions of a lot m ight work in conjunction

with

other sites to pro-

vide

relation s

and

connections among lots

and

blocks that elaborate

on the

econom ic links that

a

trust establishes

(Figures

40-42).

Design actions executed at the level of ind ividu al sites can sudden-

ly

have urban implications, as each property that the trust acquires



112 / Fu nction, Flex ibility, and Imp rovisation

Figure 40. Jaso n Sco tt

LaRocca,

Trust Steps

1 and 2.

Communi ty Land

Trust Plans

of

Ac t ion Stud io, R ice Universi ty , s pr in g

2003.

W o r k i n g

with

the a s s u m p t i o n that a Comm uni ty Land Trust might p r o v i d e a

guarantee

o f

easements,

o r a

part ia l land lease,

a

stud io invest igated

p lann ing d i rec t ions engend ered

by

different definitions

of

w h a t

a

CLT

cou ld b e. An

initial

genera l p resence

a c r o s s

th e a p p r o x i m a t e ly

seven ty - f i ve-b lock area

o f

s t u d y

in

Houston cou ld

b e

establ ished

through membersh ip

o f the

ex is t ing res id en t owners .

The

pr ior i ty

o f

proper t ies for initial acquisi t ion and p roper t ies that might be acquired

later was subsequent ly d eve loped g i ven the ident i f icat ion of cr i t ica l

si tes for initiating the planning direction s u g g e s t ed by a par t icu lar

definition, an d

g iven

an

assu med budg et equal

t o a

grant amo unt that

two area community development corpo rat ions had each received.

Through the assum pt ion that co rner s i tes , b e low a cer ta in p rop er ty

value,

were

optimal for

w o r k

and

retail, sites that could prov ide

the

basis

f o r t w o c o m m e r c i al a n d s e r v i c e a r e a s w e r e

identified

within

this

area of Houston.

has the potential to be articulated as part of a larger urban body.

Actions

on one

site

can be

amplified through repeti t ion across other

sites

o r

cond ucted

in

co njunct ion with different,

yet

com plem entary ,

actions on other sites. Each site

that

the CLT acquires provides a

basis fo r adjusting roles, actions, and relations on its other sites.

Although these connections

can be

developed between immedi-

ately adjacent properties, they are p rob ab ly m os t effective over non-

adjacent and disparate sites o f v ary ing sizes. Thro ugh relations and

connections across dispersed sites,

a CLT can

provide comprehensive



||

Figure

41.

Quyen Luong, Delia Wendel, and Kathy Williams,

Initial Acquisitions.

Community Land Trust Plans of Action

Studio, Rice University, spring 2003. Defining the CLT as a general provider of community resources and infrastructure

that focuses on preparing and

tending

land maximizes this

potential

of a trust as an organizer of comprehensive plan-

ning. Given such a

definition,

a CLT's sites, and the cycles they might experience, can be informed by onsite and sur-

rounding conditions; no one site is fully determined at the outset. All CLT sites are

initially fluid,

and

multiple

sites are

suitable to any one program. The multiple programs that the project proposes can be seeded and supported on its foun-

dational infrastructures,

and with the

addition

of

more sites,

or

development

by

others,

as well as the

relative su c c ess

or

failure of programs on a

site,

the form of a particular site and program becomes more determined and more formalized.



Figure

42. Quyen

Luong,

Delia

Wendel, and

Kathy

Williams,

Priorities

of

Programmatic Intervention. Community Land

Trust Plans of Action Studio, Rice University, spring 2003. More signif icant than the form of any one site or program are

p ro c e s s e s

for activating as much land in the ward as possible, and guides to continually assess the area's transforma-

tion and set the CLT's priority of activities. By offering means for growth

internally

and priority shifts in response to

external changes, the design outlines a structure for negotiating the area's development in time.



Fun ction, Flex ibility, and Improvisation / 115

planning across an area that exceeds its actual property. Its area o f

influence can

equal

th e

area

o f a

large-scale

project .

However,

b e-

cause it

does

not own all the

property within

that

area ,

it

r e m a ins

a

participant in, rather than the sole determinant of , the area 's

f o r m ,

and impar t s a different kind o f t rans format ion and change.

In

contrast

to the

acquisition process that large-scale urban

proj -

ects require, in which sites may

fall

into disuse or disrepair unti l

all the necessary pro perty is o btained , a CLT, thro ugh increm ent,

variability,

and dispersal, can d yn am ically nego tiate the area's

devel-

opment

in

time.

Planning can be initiated on one or two

lots,

with

influence and im pact over an area b uilding thro ugh the CLT's abi l ity

to

articulate

and

develop relations

and

connections

among

its

sites

and the property of others . The network of relations and connec-

tions that a t rus t can structure does not exclude or obstruct other

development

but provides a

f ramewo rk

that other development can

work within. Other development can in turn contr ibute to

that

net-

work, or i t can tr igger responses and adjustments by the trust upon

its sites. W ithin the area w here the C LT operates, the im pact o f indi-

vidual

sites upon

the

u rban su r roundings

is not

limited

to

properties

that the trust owns. Neither independent no r fully de te rmined, the

relations

and

connections that

the

t rus t

can fo rm are

able

to

change

over t ime. Change can result

f rom

actions ini t iated by the trust i t-

self

or by

others,

as

well

as

through chan ging responsibilities, claim s,

and needs.

39

These m ay include the provision o f housing, service, and

commercial structures,

as

well

as open and

public space,

and/or

com-

munity inf rast ructures.

4 0

The

effort

by the

city

of

Houston,

Texas, since 1995

to

initiate

a

Land Assem blage Redevelopm ent A utho rity in its third and fifth wa rds

reveals

ano ther alternative.

In a

segm ent

of the

third ward, this prog ram

would reclaim approximately one hundred lots scattered throughout

the

area

(Figure

43). In con trast to the sites in Detroit, those sites are

in

de m a nd .

The

city's plans wo uld co ntinue

to

treat them

as

separate

lots.

Unders tood individual ly, the lots wil l return to the tax rol ls

and

to the

exist ing modes

o f

t rans form at ion

and

change. However,

und erstand ing all or som e o f them collectively, and finding ways

that

they might be organizationally developed and maintained by local ,

city, or regional o rgan izations, offers different op po rtunities to address

a

range

of

needs

in the

third

ward

and its

relations

to the

surrounding



116 / Fu nction, Flex ibility,

and

Imp rovisation

m etropo litan area. As with a trust, those needs could be m et by out-

l ining the variab les, param eters, and guides that w ould inf or m deci-

sions and allow the shape of development upon those sites to occur

in time

and

across

an

area

that

exceeds

its

actual area.

The

specific

organizat ional s t ructure that might

b e

envis ioned would provide

a

basis

fo r identifying and fully developing those gu ides. How ever, th e

land assemblage program and the location in the third ward provide

tw o starting points fo r evaluating th e magni tude o f change that col-

lective

work on those sites might provide. The challenge is to demon-

strate that th e collective use o f the lots is to the greater

benefit

of the

exis t ing community and provides greater value for the city than re-

assembling

the properties as

individual

lots

returned

to the tax

rolls.

A

CLT structures an economic difference within lots and, through

a modif icat ion of its practices, provides a m e a n s fo r opportunisti-

cally bui lding

o n

those differences urbanis t ical ly

and in

relation

to

other f acto rs and con siderations. The land assem b lage locates an

existing economic difference defining a field of lots and intercedes

to b uild upon the po tential of und ersta nd ing those lots as a field.

Both

examples demonstrate that b y expa nding their o w n scope o f

thinking

to the

opportunities that various economic structures

and

mechanisms engender in property, architects can work comprehen-

Figure

43.

Si tes

in

Houston 's third ward tha t have d el inquent pro per ty

tax es exceed ing their current proper ty value.




sively with organizations

to

envision

and

enable alternative modes

o f

urban transformation

and

change.

Latent Potential of

Materials

and

Systems

Such work,

as it relates to the AACM, is less ambitious than

that

outlined b y Attali in his reading o f the AACM and other improvised

music collaboratives started in the 1960s. As Attali acknowledges, it

is

difficult

to fully conceptualize a political economy based on the sys-

tem of

organizat ion—improvisat ion,

which he terms composition—

that

he

sees implicated

in

their work.

Its

development

is

dependent

on an array of

forces.

While th e practice fo r architecture

that

is being

described here might contribute to it in some manner, the intention

has been to understand implications and opportunities at the urban

scale of considering a system that architecture affects and is immersed

in—the political economy

of

property.

The relations in time and among the disparate sites that emerge

f rom shi f t s in

that

system are but one way

that

the AACM's work

is

informative f o r architecture. In all the materials and systems that

affect

o r define their practices (instruments, writing, group relations,

playing venues, and economic structure), members of the AACM

sought to understand and expose the latent potential that was present

and to describe the alternatives made available by working with that

potential. A similar understanding can b e pursued in architecture, and

as with

th e

AACM, that understanding should

b e

extended

to the

full

range

of the

materials

and

systems that architecture

is

immersed

in,

including

those areas that have been considered outside

its

scope.



Conclusion

Diagrams, Conduction,

and

the Contemporary City

Form and

Agency

In Graham

Locke's Forces

in

Motion,

percussionist Gerry Hemingway

provides an informative description of his

various

ways of reading

and playing in

relation

to a graphic

notation

by

composer

and saxo-

phonist

Anthony

Braxton,

which Hemingway

approximates

in a sketch

(Figure 44):

Then there's

11OA

where Ma rk [Dresser] and I play a pulse tra ck,

108B,

that is nothing b ut n um b e r s and lines that go up and down,

with circular, wavy motions to them that suggest glissandos, d y-

namics, but could be anything—Anthony didn't

specify,

he allowed

us

to

m a k e

our own

interpretation

o f

what

th e

shapes are. They're

interesting

in

that they

do

hold

yo u

together, though Mark

and I as

well as John Lindberg and I developed various ways of interpreting

that score.

OK . So, for appro xim ately five given beats we m ight do a glissan-

do up, which is what happens on the record, the Six

Composit ions

(Quartet) 1984

LP.

John Lindberg

and I

tended

to

lean towards

glissando, we would follow the shapes

fairly

literally and we'd try

to adhere to the time lapses that were happening: we'd b e deliber-

ate, but not too much, so we'd stretch them out and open them up

in

certain

ways.

More

recently

Mark

and I do a

number

o f

other

things within this diagram system—sometimes I use it as a velocity

119



120 /

Conclusion

d i a g r a m ,

so as the

line goes

up I

increase

th e

velocity

o f

whatever

I'm

doing; somet imes

it

gets faster, sometimes faster

and

loude r ,

speed and dynamic ; or I'll do inverse thing s, so wh e n the line goes

up I slow dow n. I try to keep changing the

relationship.

1

Hemingway reveals the agency

that

he and two

different

bassists pos-

sess

in B raxton's m usic. Not only can he read th e diagram differently,

b ut

working collaboratively with

a

different bassist

he

develops dif-

ferent

tendencies. Describing

his

playing

in

relation

to a different

pulse

track, 105A, he reveals

that

with Lindberg, he tended to extend the

track into

a

slower, elongated fo rm , w hile w ith Dresser,

he often

var-

ies the tempo or speeds it up beyond what the track implies.

Hemingway explains that Braxton provides

an

indication

of the

directions and the various approaches that Hemingway and either

bassist might take in w orking with the diagram , whi le encouraging

them

not to

limit themselves

to the

ob vious ones. Variation

can

take

place

because Braxton

has

"given

no

special instructions,

he just

tells

us he likes what he hears, so because we're improvisers we open up

the po ssibilities. Bu t we're tru e to it, too : I m ean , it's hold ing you into

a

pattern

that

you

have

to

play

and

you've

got to

stay together."

The

exchanges

and

interplay that H em ingway describes occur between

the

bassist and himself, but he emphasizes that the two of them are also

listening and wo rking in relation to what else is going on, such as shifts

in pitches, tempo,

and

dynamics

that

Braxton

and

pianist Marilyn

Crispell introd uce.

T he

m usic

is

"the

w ay it

should be,"

he

concludes,

after

noting

that

it is "different every time we

play."

2

Figure

44.

Sketch

by

Gerry Hemingway

of

An thony Brax ton 's Pulse

Track 108B d iagram . Repr in ted with permiss ion f ro m Graham Locke,

Forces in Motion: Anthony Braxton and the

Meta-reality

of Crea tive

Music (London: Quar te t Books, 1988), 261.



Conclusion / 121

Bra xton accounts for this variation in his m usic, when he describes

his study

of and

emphasis

on

structure.

He

seeks

to

understand "the

reality of structure and what it poses to the dynamics of

m usic—the

unders tanding being

that

given structures will make certain things

happen."

3

To this end, he has worked to develop a diagram system

that

graphically titles and organizes his music while leaving it sus-

ceptible to a wide rang e of interpretations.

Braxton has categorized over 230 sound

structures—such

as long

sound, accented long sound, tri l ls, multiphones, short

and

angular

attacks, and staccato line, intervallic, legato, and diatonic fo rmings—

and codified them

into

a system of "language types" with accom-

panying visual

symbols.

4

Individually or in com bination, these lan-

guage types can operate as a generating form in four ways: "(a) as

a language generating form (in the solo context); (b) as a material

generat ing for m (as notated m ater ia l inser ted into the co -ord inate

music);

(c) as a principle generating fo rm (as a given variable used

to

determine

th e

nature

of

m usic);

(d) as a

multiple generating form

(inserted into a larger

context)."

5

The for m -m aking proper t ies of the

language types

shift

in state—language generator, m aterial generator,

principle generator,

o r

multiple generator—depending

on the

playing

context, yet in all phases they operate as generators becau se the shapes

do not specify a particular sound. Instead, they provide limits and di-

rections

b y

asking that

th e

m usician pro vide either

a

sound quali ty

o r

a so und -yielding action that can be categorized within the

classifica-

tion that a visua l sym bo l indicates. In this way Braxto n's no tations

and diagrams expl ic i t ly prompt playing ra ther than performance

and display his respect for the science o f mus ic but not the m a n y

value

systems

that

have become associated with the science, such as

dominant concepts surrounding notation.

"That's

what s truc ture is,"

Braxton reiterates, "it doesn' t have anything to do with m e telling

somebody what

to

feel,

b ut

with creating

a

structural s i tuation

o r a

language

situation that has par ticu lar variab les which will allow cer-

tain thing s to hap pen , and each indiv idua l will be able to establish

their o w n relationship with it."

6

Qualities of Braxton's diagram system are

reflected

in the recent

em phasis on the diag ram in architecture, b ased on the ability of the di-

agram

to

work sim ilarly

as an

o rganizer

and

coo rdinator

o f

forces

and

flows. It has become clear that the diagr am can o perate provisionally,



Conclusion / 123

Rag is a significant

wri t ing

achievement—the

q uintessential ragtim e

composit ion

by the

idiom's most noted composer. However, while

it

aff i rms

the importance of writing, the desire that guided its writing

acknowledges

that

wri t ing

is not the

exclusive domain

for the

pro-

duct ion

o f

m usical know ledge.

The

complexi ty

of Maple Leaf Rag

results from

Joplin's intention and

effor t

to write a composition that

is

too com plex for im prov isation. In this

effort

to prevent im provisa-

tion, it

defined

one end of the potential

relations between

writing

and p laying (Braxto n's diagra m s wo uld later

define

the other).

However, Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton's im provised version

of

th e

com position

a few

yea rs later revealed

the

hopelessness

o f

Jop lin's

efforts.

The history o f

jazz

demonstrates

that

any

fo rm

can be ap-

proached dynam ically, rather th an statical ly. The em phasis in swing

and

b e b op

on

playing standard s

and the

development

o f new

m elodic

lines

on top of existing chord changes reveal the continued impulse

within

jazz

to und erstand an d read no tation as a guide, rather than a

definitive set of

instruction s.

A m i r i Baraka

sum m arized this im pulse

when he reviewed Joh n Co ltrane's recording o f Billy Eckstine's "I

Want

to Talk

about

You." "Each one of the

notes,"

Baraka

wrote

in

response

to

Coltrane's extensive

use of

t rem olo

and

v ib ra to ,

"is

given the possibility of

'infinite'

qualification. . . . proving

that

the

ballad as it was w ri t ten was o nly the b eginn ing of the story."

11

W h en

played, each

notation,

through

its

susceptibility

to "

infinite'

quali-

fication,"

provided

th e

oppor tuni ty

for the

description

o f

wo rlds

o f

alternatives.

Developing relation s between m usic and langu age in black l i ter-

ary and cul tural pract ices , Nathanie l Mackey has

identified

h o w

such

qualification constitutes

an

artistic practice

that

implicitly cri-

tiques social practices.

He

references

Zora Neale

Hurston's descrip-

tion

o f "verbal

nouns"

in black folk culture and Amiri Baraka's essay

"Swing: From Verb

to Noun" to

reveal

an

accent

and

emphas i s

o n

verb, rather

than noun,

as the basis fo r

this

critiquing

action.

B y privi-

leging verb s in m usic and languag e practices, b lacks have countered

pr es um e d no r m s

and

supposedly static

and

intr insic attr ibutes

and

char acteristics, wh ich so cially

confine

them , with assertions o f inno -

vation, m ob ility, action , variatio n, and change. By privileging verb s,

blacks

assert their agency

even as fixed and

l im i ting form at ions

and

constructions in society seek to deny it. Continuing with the analysis



124 / Conclusion

of some works o f literature that are informed and

influenced

by im-

provised music, Mackey proposes that "troubled eloquence"—the

breaks, dissonances, and d e fo rmat io n s—in music, language, and lit-

erature

registers

"a

need

for a new

world

and a new

language

to go

along with it, discontent with the world and the ways of speaking we

already have. A revolution of the word can only be a new beginning,

'beating,'

as [Edward K a m a u] Brathwaite puts it,

'its

genesis genesis

genesis genesis / out of the stammering

world.'"

12

Like Braxton's no-

tation,

the

literature that Mackey analyzes expresses

its own contin-

gent character, and through it Mackey describes a cross-cultural ter-

rain of experimental writing—composed of white and black writers

in the United States as well as Caribbean writers, with black music

providing

a

link—that advocates "diversity, hybridity,

and

mix."

13

Diasporic Flows

The

heterogeneity that Mackey identifies

and

develops emerges f rom

diasporic flows, many of which have been active long before the

trans-

nationalist flows o f globalization that are a contemporary focus and

concern. There are similarities: both present the need to reevaluate, re-

think,

and

redefine

the

concepts

of

nation

and

nationalism. However,

they are not the same. Transnationalism introduces an unmitigated

leap

f rom local

to

global

that can

supersede national concerns, while

diasporas—the historical migrations, immigrations, and exiles of

people—introduce conditions

that

extend and reshape the bound-

aries

o f nations as citizens living in communities outside a nation's

borders introduce hybrid and transformed conceptions of citizenship

and

configurations

o f

culture.

14

The two are

categorically different ,

as well. Diaspora can operate as a subset o f transnationalist

flows,

defined as flows "of

people, ideas,

goods, and

capital across national

territories in a way that undermines nationality and nationalism as

discrete categories

of

identification, economic organization,

and po-

litical constitution."

15

However, diaspora is a distinct epistemological

and historical condition with particular qualities.

Therefore ,

even diasporas

that

have resulted f r o m the processes

of globalization contain relations and aspects that globalizing forces

cannot

account for. Similarly, older diasporas have been transformed

b y

globalization, but maintain qualities and characteristics that do



Conclusion /

125

no t register in the unders tandings o f transnationalism

that

global-

ization fo regro unds. The shapes and flows

that

these still active and

emerging diaspo ras pro vide between places

are not

always coincident

with the shapes and movements characteristic of economic globaliza-

tion.

16

Considered concurrently

with

globalization, diasporas pro-

vide

a clearer indication of the

flows

that m ake up contempo rary

life.

While processes of global ization and transnationalism foreground

commonal i t ies

and

sameness among world metropolises, diasporic

processes are a b asis for con sidering the continued em ergences of

difference, as well as the potential fo r negotiation s and play that can

b e

structured around such

differences.

Conduction

Through the term

conduction

Lawrence "Butch" Morris simultane-

ously distinguishes conducted improvisation, as a process for mak-

in g

m usic,

f rom

conducting,

as a

process

of

interpreting music,

and

emphasizes properties

of his interaction

with

the

music, musicians,

and

environment within

that

pro cess. Fo r Morris , conducted impro-

visation

is an

immediate transmission

o f

inform ation

and

result that

encompasses both physical properties (communication and heat) and

physiological pro perties (electric charg e and respo nse from one body

to another)

defined

as conduction. Morris provides this

definition

in

"Theory

&

Contradiction: Notes

o n

Conduction,"

a set of

shor t

re-

flections

on his

development

o f

conduction

as a

m e ans

o f

pro ducing,

within free improvisation, s tructures and f o r m s

that

are indicative

of

writing

without

recourse

to

writing.

17

These reflections provide

a

basis for

gauging

the

effectiveness

o f a

dynamic system

as an

enabler

of hu m an agency, as well as for und erstan ding the dem ands and po-

tential encountered within such systems.

A

vocab ulary of hand gestures perm its Mo rris to approach a group

with which he has

never

played, describe the actions that the gestures

convey, and enter into a collective pro duction of m usic that has a "vi-

able

co nnection to the process o f com position, and the process itself."

Replacing notation, gesture incites an immediate response

f rom

the

m usicians, and the resulting soun ds b ecom e the m aterial for the devel-

opment

o f a

sustained improvisation

o f unspecified

length. Sustain,

repeat, m im ic, rem em ber, develop, and expand : these are am ong the



126 / Conclusion

actions that Morris elicits through gestures in order to select mate-

rial f rom the field of sound that the musicians are generating, shape

it, and shift the course of the music. However, while Morris directs

aspects

of the

music through these gestures,

the

musicians determine

what sounds they are being asked to select and shape. Through the

gap in

transmission, each participant informs

the

music,

yet no one

has full

control.

The

music itself

has a

freedom;

it

operates

on the

musicians and audience as much as they operate on it. To make spon-

taneous music, Morris adds, "is to convey information

that

is in all

ways interpenetrable."

18

Music in this process is nothing more than the transfer of energy

across

its participants—the

audience,

the

musicians,

and the

conduc-

tor. Beyond

the

temporal experience

and the

t ransfer

of

information,

this music bears

no

explicit content

or

meaning.

It is the

production

of

"a sonic code

found

only in team play, trust and challenge—focus and

construction. The decoding o f tongues, to m a g n i f y all combustible

elements—in that moment

of

ignition."

19

As

with Louis Armstrong's

temporal manipulations, this moment is

extended.

It encompasses

the

duration

of the

music's making.

For

Morris, this production

is

"a place or a music with

'no tense.'"

20

With the production of each

sound, the moment is continuously articulated and reevaluated.

Determine Boundaries Then Let Them Go

With

the first

sound, potential directions

are

indicated.

By

executing

a gesture

to

initiate other sounds, Morris begins

to

parse through

those potential directions

and to

describe parameters

for

fo rm

and

structure to subsequently develop. However, Morris at times might

leave

the

ensemble alone

to let

sounds develop

a nd

emerge before ges-

turing

to initiate the

selection

and

manipulation

of

sounds. Seeking

to provide forms, structures, and directions that propel the music

but can neither take control nor subordinate the group or the music,

Morris works to determine boundaries then let them

go."

21

Such action enables a play between directed and emergent orders

by

providing a basis for the production o f

differences.

Letting g o em -

phasizes any boundaries

that

are determined as volatile sites rather

than distinct and inviolable edges. Once introduced and released into



Conclusion

/

127

the

music,

the

boundaries

are

either developed

or

permitted

to

dissi-

pate.

In

either fashion, they propel

the

music

by

introducing material

that

can provide, encourage, or leave space for the development of

subsequent and/or other shapes and directions. "Extreme flexibility"

as well as the encouragement of "environmental orchestration" and

collective action are qualities

that

Morris seeks to enable through

this process of "music as constant invention."

Constant Preparation

Shifting

emphasis

f rom the

process

to the

demand that conduction

places on the participants, Morris states

that

each participant must

b e prepared to "take responsibility for the direction of the

music—

and

to

surrender

to the

music."

22

Each participant contributes mate-

r ia l that is capable o f

offering

directions in which th e music may g o

and sustaining or following the direction in the music

that

emerges.

The music requires an intensity in which one is simultaneously lis-

tening and reacting, as well as a readiness to recognize contingencies

and noise as part of the process, as potential.

In

his

introduction

to his

conduction vocabulary, Morris recom-

m e n d s that "when

you are not

playing,

you

should

be

thinking

of

what

yo u would b e playing. Y o u must make music all the time, whatever

yo u think music is. Respond to what (you th ink) you hear or see or

understand. Execution must be deliberate and decisive." "Constant

preparation" is Morris's succinct yet expansive and seemingly im-

possible reply to how one begins to operate within this production of

music .

"Part of the idea," Morris explains, "is to develop the mind in

such

a way that it becomes critical to the construction of something

w e

have yet to hear or see."

23

Such preparation entails learning the

total

range of the instru-

ment, including registers

and

uses outside

the

range

fo r

which

it was

designed,

prescribed, or intended. Similarly, one must increase the

understanding

of the

qualities

of the

materials

at

hand,

no t

solely

in

the realm of their rational and intended expressions but in their

latent qualities and properties. Constant preparation also means

that in any given situation, one must not only recognize the mate-

rial intelligences

at work, but

must

be

open

to

what constitutes

the



128 /

Conclusion

mater ia l . In Morr is 's unders tanding o f conduction , hum an b eings as

well

as

in s t rumen ts

are the

mate r ia l th ro ug h which in fo rmat io n

is

co mmun ica ted .

Additionally,

one

m u st

be

prepared

to

accept material

that

seems

to be

o utside

o f the

understood l imits

o f a

discipline's boundaries.

In

the period following 1963,

John

Coltrane was frequently accused of

practicing on stage. The accusation was true, but not in the pe jo ra -

t ive m ann er that was intended.

24

Col t rane had ceased to m a ke a dis-

tinction between practicing and p e r f o r m i ng . In order to fully pursue

the

d e m a n d s

o f

musical exploration,

he

m ain ta in ed

the

sam e playing

intensity in each environm ent.

Saxophonist Daniel Carter extends this understanding further.

He

does

no t

believe that

th e

development

of his

musical play

is

l im ited

to practice or p e r f o r m a n c e . It permeates his daily inhabitation and

engagement of his urb an environm ent. Like the characters who popu-

late the novels of Ralph Ell ison and Toni Morr ison , Carter moves

t h r o u g h the c i ty , re fo rmula t in g it t h r o u g h an associat ional word

play inspired by street ve rna cula r as well as Jam es Joyce's Finnegans

Wake.

25

He believes tha t the ab ility to reevaluate conventional m ean-

ings encountered in life by rem aking "the world with the words that

it has" in fo rm s

and

develops

his

playing.

The

development

o f

var ious

resources, the mul t i tude of places

that

one might locate thought at

any

given moment ,

is

another implication

o f

constant prepara tion.

Paul B erl iner,

in

Thinking

in

Jazz,

has

noted that there

are

multiple

representations, including sounds, physical gestures, visual displays,

and verbalizations, that musicians keep at their disposal—each hav-

ing distinctive thought processes and distinctive qualities of mediation

with

the

body,

in

preparation

for the

m o m e n t

and

needs unknown.

26

Risk,

Not

Chance

Because the music is determined in the moment, "everyone receives

the in fo rm atio n at the same time. Therefore the m i nd can m ake deci-

sions on what can or will be sounded. Then the m in d can change its

self or allow its self to be influenced b y another."

27

Morris writes

these words

before

presenting another, and perhaps his m o s t imp o r-

tant, propo sition: "Risk, not chance." With this proposition, Morris

repositions a vital info rm ant of

twentieth-century

forms and expres-



Conclusion / 129

sions, chance, f rom a structuring device, or operation, to an unantici-

pated variable, or stimulus. In chance operations, an act of chance is

a specific method fo r developing a structure, o r setting parameters,

quantities, dimensions, and/or extents. Such operations challenge

the

structures o f modernization b y revealing ways that modernization's

rationalized processes of

optimization

and efficiency can be divert-

ed

to

yield

unanticipated results. However, in these challenges, the

body (the subject)

is

primarily

a

productive

ins trum ent—conduc t ing

a scripted action—that is engaged in a riskless endeavor. Like mod-

ernization processes, chance operations reveal a wariness o f the sub-

ject as a variable and avoid manners in which th e subject could po -

tentially take

control.

A s a

result, such operations

do no t

fully

engage

the

subject .

They

fail

to place the

subject

at risk, in a position in

which it is capable o f

affecting

th e processes and outcome as well as

susceptible to change within the processes that unfold.

A s

a stimulus rather than an explicit operation, chance elem ents—

the unforeseen and unplanned elements

that

the environment, the

musicians, the audience, the space, and the vocabulary p ro v id e—are

variables that affect the outcome and ensure

that

no one individual

will take control. Each time

one

makes music, there

is not

only

the

risk that

th e

music will succeed

o r

fail, that

th e

resources will prove

to be inadequate, but also the risk of identity in relation to the instru-

ment,

and the

risk

of

alienation

and

transformation

in

time.

Reflecting

on

Morris's music, Allan Graubard remarks, Conduc-

tion presents

a

challenge. ...

a

challenge

not to

forgo

the

complexi-

ties and exaltations o f embodiment. It is also a challenge not to

l imi t

embodiment

to the

human form

alone."

28

Not

only

is this

challenge

applicable

to

architecture

as it

works upon

or

within dynamic sys-

tems,

but the

three propositions that Morris offers provide

a

guide

fo r how to operate upon and within them.

Within

a

Field Organized

by Default

Rather Than

by

Design

Morris's reflections applied

to the

metropolitan

field

suggest

a

focus

on the

various agents that create

the field

more than

on the

physical

elements that compose it, or the daily activities that course through

it. The m ajo r i ty o f those elements (housing, retail chains, highways,

interstates, city a nd regional service systems an d infrastructures, an d



130

/

Conclusion

so fo r th ) are generated b y governm ent, com m ercia l , and nonprof i t

organizat ional ent i t ies , operat ing at local , regional , and n a t i o n a l

scales.

29

Each enti ty, operating

as an

agent

for a

specific element,

possesses operational

and

organizational logics

that

guide

its

deci-

sions

ab o u t th e element of the m etropol is that is its area of focus, in -

cluding the properties that the elements seek to enable and, of equal

importance, what they do not take into account . Much of the me-

tropolis's f ragmented

and

discontinuous character results f rom

th e

absence, within many of the logics organizing and constructing i t ,

of provisions

fo r

addressing connections, overlaps,

and adjacencies

with

dissimilar, as well as

similar, concerns.

The same infrastructur-

al

element,

fo r

example,

m ay

have m ultiple

a nd

potentially compet-

in g logics informing it as it passes f rom one agent to another (most

notab le in

shifting

grids, as once separate m unicipa lities expan d into

a co nt inuous, yet varied, street system). Fo r all of the intelligence in

the individu al logics gov erning

parts

o f it, the m etropo lis develops by

default rather than b y design.

The provision of

structures

operating within those logic gaps al-

lows increased opportunities

fo r

architects

to

work more effective-

ly upon the metropol i tan field. By incorpo rat ing knowledge of the

agents and their guiding logics, as well as the various forces, and

the available resources that they provide, design wo rk acro ss a range

of

scales could offer

different

calibrations of those systems in order

to

structure overlaps, connections,

and

adjacencies that

can

enable

negotiations among various organizations.

The governing logics of organizing agents, and the variables that

they

present, become available to design through constant prepara-

tion,

or sustained research and study

that

is independent of any one

project .

That research entails learning the voc ab ular y that an agent

uses

to

describe

the

actions

of an

element

and

subjects

that use it; its

sites, how they are defined or determ ined and how they are acquired ;

mater ial and programmatic obsolescences and abandonments that

affect it; and its

p r imary ro le

and

related short-

and

long-term

ac-

tivities, as well as the scale o f those activities. These facto rs perhap s

focus

on the buil t arti fact and

clarify

how that element is under-

stood

from

th e agent's point o f view. How ever, there a re o ther factors

guiding the

agent's

decisions that are less tied to the arti fact, yet are

equally significant.



Conclusion / 131

Research of an agent and its logic should include knowledge of

how the organization w as established, its mission, and its jurisdic-

tion;

the ab ility fo r it to initiate and im plement a project; and the tim e

it

needs to move

f rom

conception to development and implementa-

tion. Funding sources (city budget, bonds, grants , taxes) and their

accompanying temporal factors (fiscal, election, and granting cycles)

should also be described. Additionally, all of these organizations do

not work directly through construction. They might instead work

through lobbying, advocacy, regulations, and/or policy. Through an

understanding of such variables, alternatives and

opportunities that

are unrecognized

b y an

agent,

o r

those that

are

po tentially available

through

a

slight shift

in

definition

of the

organization

or its

mission,

can become apparent.

Design in this context wo uld co nsider the va riab les that each entity

provides, and identify those that could operate as parameters for the

project

that

is to b e

done

on a

site.

In

relation

to

those param eters ,

th e

design might provide

responsive

(using

th e

variables

as a

m easure ),

mimetic (ena cting or im itating som e of the logics and action s o perat-

in g

around it), and/or

transformative

(directing

the

variables

and pa-

rameters

to

different ends) operations.

In

o rganizing

th e

relations

o f

paramete rs from several agents as well as those suggested internally

by

the

program,

a

design might address multiple concerns.

In all of

these

and other

potential

directions, the

design could provide ways

for th e work on the site to be inflected and i n fo r m e d by the su r round-

ing parameters, as well as ways for the parameters introduced by the

site and

project

to inflect and in form th e

surroun dings. Thro ugh such

o pera tions, the design exceeds its physical site and op erates as a struc-

ture that determ ines the bo und aries, then lets them go .

The design considerations introduced in the preceding chapters ,

emphasizing f o r m s and

resultant shapes, com plex sub ject/ob ject rela-

tions, articulations

o f

diverse m easures

o f

t im e,

and

latent properties

of mater ia ls

and

systems, might serve

a s

i n f o r m a n ts

to the

p r ope r -

ties

that are enabled in s t ructur ing re la t ions among the var iables

provided b y these vario us agents. Additionally, fu rt he r research in

relation to im pro vised m usic m ight yie ld addi t ional cons iderat ions

and

guides.

30

Such research could consider subjects like the situation-

ists and play, automatic writing, the work of

W assily

Kandinsky, and

squatter settlem ents in m any m etropolises. The intent of incorp orating



13 2 / Conclusion

such

considerations

is to

structure s i tuations

that, in the

words

o f

Braxton, "will

allow certain things

to happen, and

each individual

wil l be able to establish their own relationship with it," or, in the

words

of

Morris,

provide

for

"risk,

not

chance."

31

Through

efforts

to

structure such situations

in the

m etropolis, inhab itants m ight gain

increased

perceptions of the

organizing forces that surround them,

as

well

a s

opp or tuni ties

and

m e an s

to

wo rk with those

forces and re-

lease some of the

cultural, social,

and physical routines of contempo-

ra ry m etropo l itan life into transient

and

fluid improvisational play.



Notes

Speculat ive Leaps

1.

Tomm y Flanagan,

th e

pianist, notes: "[John Colt rane] came

b y m y

apartment with this piece,

'Giant

Steps.'

I

guess

he

thought there

w as

some-

thing

different

about it, because he sat down and played the changes. . . .

There

w as no

problem

just

looking

at the

changes.

But I

didn't realize

he w as

going

to

play

it at

that

tempol

There

was no

t ime

to

shed

on it,

there

was

no m elody; it was

just

a set of chords,

like

we usual ly get." Quo ted in Peter

Watrous, "John Coltrane: A Life Supreme," Musician, July 1987, 106.

2. For a

m ore technical analysis

see Ekkehard

Jost , Free

Jazz

(New York:

Da

Capo Press, 1994),

25-26.

3. Steve

Lacy, quoted

in

Derek

Bailey, Improvisation:

It s

Nature

an d

Practice in

Music

(New York:

Da

Capo Press, 1992),

58.

4. Ralph Ellison, Shadow and Ac t (New York: Ran do m House, 1964),

234.

5. B r u n o Nettl, In the Course of Performance: Studies in the Wor ld o f

Mus ical Improvisatio n (Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1998), 1.

6. Ibid., 5.

7.

George K ubler,

The

Shape of

Time

(New Haven: Y ale Un iversity Press,

1962),

60-61.

8.

Ibid.,

124.

9.

Jacques At tal i ,

Noise:

The

Political Economy o f Music

( M i n n e a p o -

lis: U niversity

of

Minnesota

Press, 1985),

26-27.

133



134 / Notes to Speculative Leaps

10. See George R and,

"Morphosis:

Three Houses,"

Design Quarterly

152 (1991): 17-19. Dave Hickey offered Gehry's design for the Guggen-

heim M useum , Bilbao, as the architectural realization of im provisation in a

fall 1997 lecture at Rice University.

11. See

W alter Hood,

Urban Diaries

(Washington,

D.C.: Spacemaker

Press, 1997).

12. See

M ark West, "Co nstruction-Research-Design-Invention: Elastic

Behavior in a Moist Environment," Journal

o f

Architectural Education 54,

no. 4

(May 2001): 251-54;

and

Araya Asgedom, "The Un soun ded Space,"

in White Papers, Black Marks: Architecture, Race, Culture, edited b y Les-

lie

N aa Norle Lo kko (Minneapol is : Univers ity of M innesota Press , 2000 ) ,

237-77.1 explicitly cite as pects o f im prov isation that their work engages in

David Brown, "Extemporaneous Lessons: Improvisation

in

Built

Surface"

in Built Surface

(exh. cat.)

(Tallahassee: Florida A&M University, 1998).

13.

Thorn M ayne m ade this analogy

in

response

to a

question

at the

con-

clusion

of his

lecture "Rice (and Bean s) ," Rice University,

fall

2002.

14. Mona Hadler, "Jazz and the Visual Arts," Arts

Magazine,

June 1983,

91. Hadler

writes,

"For exam ple, m any jaz z compositions utilize riffs in

which m oti fs

a re

repeated

and

va ried; call

and

response patterns where solo

instrum ents of ten

are

involved

in a

dialogue with another instrum ent

or the

ensemble; insistent rhy thm with synco pation. These stylistic traits

are

gen-

erally consistent with C ubist wo rks and also with o ther

f o r m s

of twentieth-

century abstraction. In addition, the new expressive sounds o f jazz instru-

ments, including growls and varying shades of vibratos, f ind correlates in

th e inventive color and texture o f certain modern paintings. Finally, th e

central role o f impro visat ion in jazz is para lleled in the equal ly important

role of the process of m uch twentieth-centu ry art."

15.1 cite Neim an , as he has m ost extensively referenced jazz in his ex-

ploration

and

production

o f

such w ork.

16. Asgedom , "Unsounded Space."

17. See Keller Easterl ing, Organ ization Space: Landscapes, Highways,

and Ho uses in America ( C a m b r i d g e , Mass.: M IT Press, 1999).

18. Sanford Kwinter, "Politics and Pastoralism," Assemblage 27 (Au-

gust

1995):

31.

Kw inter l ikens

the

role

of the

architect

in

this condition

to

shepherdry—the architect is like th e shepherd, driving his herd, and the

shepherd is like the dru m m er in a jazz quartet. "This new u rbani sm — it does

not plan, it does not precisely or inflexibly impose, and it does not fetishize

the integrity and pristine unfolding of the fixed abstract scheme. This new

urban ism

is a m o v in g u r b a n is m , a pas to ra l u rb an ism o f inflection."

19.

Derek Bailey,

Improvisation : Its Nature an d Practice in Music

(New

York: Da Capo Press, 1992), x-xi. While he uses the word

improvisation,



Notes to Speculative Leaps / 13 5

Lawrence

"Butch" Morris prefers

"to

th ink

of an

improviser

as an

intuitor,

and the act of

im provising

as

intuiting."

See Testamen t: A Conduction Col-

lection, bo okle t, in Lawrence "Butch" Morris, Testament: A Conduction

Collection, New World Records 80478-2 (1995), 3.

20.1 will shift between using jazz and improvised music to

refer

to the

music.

The

shifts will

be in

pa r t

to

acknowledge

th e

refusal

b y

many m usi -

cians

to

categorize their music

as

jazz, while seeking

to

maintain

a

rela-

tion to yet question the

historical

understandings and conceptions that have

built up a round th e term

jazz.

21. Robert Farris

Thompson, Flashes

o f

the Spirit

(New York: Vintage

Books, 1984), xiii: "the

dominance

o f

a percussive performan ce style

(at-

tack and vital aliveness in sound and motion); a propensity for multiple

meter (competing meters sounding all at once); o verlapping call

and re-

spon se in

singing (solo/chorus, voice/instrument "interlock systems"

of

per-

formance);

inner pulse control (a

"metronome sense," keeping

a

beat indeli-

bly

in

m i n d

as a

rhy thmic common denomina to r

in a

welter

o f

different

meters) ;

suspended accentuation patterning (offbeat phrasing of melodic

and choreographic accents)."

22. Cecil Taylor, interview by Howard Mandel, Weekend Edition Sat-

urday, National Publ ic Radio, 24 April 1994. See also How ard M andel,

"Emperor

of the

Senses,"

The

Wire

124

(June

1994):

22-25.

23.

Chris Funkhouser, "Being Matter Ignited:

A n

Interview with C ecil

Taylor," Hambone 12 (spring

1992).

An online copy of the interview may be

found at

http:/ /wings.buffalo.edu/epc/authors/funkhouser/cecil taylor.html.

24. Cecil Taylor interviewed in Miya Masaoka, "Innovation, Improvi-

sation,"

San Francisco Bay

Guardian,

25

Octobe r 2000.

A n

onl ine copy

o f

the intervie w m ay be fou nd at h t t p : / / w w w . s f b g . c o m / A a n d E / 3 5 / 0 4 /

innovation.html .

25.

Alexander Tzonis

and

Liane

Lefaivre,

Movement, Structure,

an d

the W o r k o f Santiago Calatrava (Boston: Birkhauser, 1995), 156.

26. Ibid. , 136.

Buell

Neidlinger describes the process as one o f com pres-

sion

and

release

that

"produces

a

very forward leaning groove, whereas

with

a lot of

jazz ,

th e

rhy thm

is

very straight

up and

down

as it

goes along.

In CT's music the lines lean m ore and more forward as they go through the

fo rm

of 66 or 88

b a r s

o r

whatever

th e

length some

of the

tunes are. They

lean further

and

further forward until they release,

at

which

point

they

stand straight

up

again

at a new

plateau,

b ut

reproducing

the

sam e feeling."

A Conversation with Buell Neidlinger, bookle t , The Complete Candid Re-

cord ings o f Cecil Taylor an d Buell Neidlinger, Mosaic Records MR6-127

(1989),

4.

27.

C ecil Taylor, "So und Stru cture

of

S ubc ulture Becom ing Major Breath/

http://wings.buffalo.edu/epc/authors/funkhouser/ceciltaylor.html

http://www.sfbg.com/AandE/35/04/innovation.html


http://wings.buffalo.edu/epc/authors/funkhouser/ceciltaylor.html





13 6 /

Notes

to

Speculative Leaps

Naked

Fire Gesture," liner notes of Cecil Taylor, Unit

Structures,

Blue

Note

GDP

7 84237 2 (1987; recorded 19 May 1966).

28. For an

extended discussion

of how

Taylor's music unfolds,

see

Jost,

Free Jazz,

66-83.

29. Ted Panke n , "Abs t ract ion wi thout Com prom ise ,"

Jazziz

18, no. 6

(2001): 42.

30. A. B. Spellm an, Black Mus ic (New York: Schocken Books, 1970), 37.

31. Tzonis and Lefaivre, Movement, Structure, and the Work o f San-

tiago Calatrava, 81.

32. Cecil Taylor quoted in Nat Hentoff , Jazz Is (New York: Limelight

Edition s, 1992), 231.

33. Panken, "Abstraction without Compromise," 42.

34.

Ibid. ,

43-44.

35. Fun kho user, "Being M atter Ignited."

36.

Jost,

Free

Jazz,

83.

37. Valerie

W ilm er , As Ser ious as Your

Life (Lon don : Serpent 's Tail ,

2000), 48.

38.

Mark Miller, "Cecil Taylor Musician Poet Dancer,"

Coda,

June-July

1988,5.

39. Taylor quoted in Hentoff , Jazz Is , 232.

40.

Buell

Neidlinger, a longtime bassist with Taylor,

reflects

on the dif-

ferences in Spellm an, Black Music, 36-37.

41. A

Conversation

with

Buell Neidling er,

bookle t , The

Complete

Can-

did

Recordings

o f

Cecil Taylor

an d

Buell Neidlinger, 4.

Neidlinger contin-

ues by

noting

the

influence

o f

Du ke Ellington

on

Taylor: "W atching Elling-

to n

play,

you can see

wher e Cecil's ba lletic style, i.e., rhythm with

the

whole

body , p robab ly came f rom ."

42. Wi lmer , As Serious as Your Life, 51.

43.

Ibid.

44.

Bailey, Improvisation,

ix .

Improvisat ion enjoys

th e

curious distinc-

tion o f being both the most widely practiced of all musical activities and

the least acknow ledged and under stoo d. W hile i t is today present in alm ost

every area of m usic, there is an alm ost total absence of info rm ation abo ut i t .

Perhaps this

is

inevitable, even appro priate. Im provisation

is

always chang-

ing and

adjusting, never

fixed, too

elusive

fo r

analysis

and

precise descrip-

tion; essentially nonacademic. More than that, any a t tempt to describe

improvisat ion must

be, in

some respects,

a

misrepresentation,

fo r

there

is

something central to the spirit of vo luntary im provisation which is opposed

to the

a ims

and

contradicts

th e

idea

o f

documentat ion.

45.

Spel lm an,

Black Music, 38.

46. Charles Mingus, liner notes of

The Black Sain t an d the Sinn er Lady,

M C A Im pulse MC AD-5649 (1986; recorded 20 Jan ua ry 1963).



Notes

to

Chapter /

137

47. Spellman, Black M usic, 38.

48. Cecil Taylor quoted in ibid., 66.

49. Spellman, Black M usic, 38.

50. Cecil Taylor, quoted in Erik Wiedeman, liner notes fo r Cecil Taylor,

Trance,

Black Lion BLCD760220 (1963); reissued

by DA

Music (1996).

51. Hadler, "Jazz and the Visual Arts," 92.

52. Har r y Hol tzman and Ma r t in S. James , eds., The New Art—the

New

Life:

The

Collected

Writ ings

o f Piet Mo ndr ian (Boston: G. K. Hall,

1986), 217.

53. Na thaniel Mackey, Discrepant Engagement: Dissonance, Cross -

Culturality, Experimental Writing (New Y ork: Cam bridg e University Press,

1993), 3.

54. C hristopher Starkey assisted m e with th e proposal for the King m e-

m orial . Darshan Am r i t , Sara Stevens, an d David Sto ckwell pro vided assis-

tance for the Project Ro w Houses installation.

1. Compositional Imperatives

1. Stuart D avis in Diane K elder, ed., Stuart Davis (New Y ork: Praeger,

1971), 185.

2. See

Nancy

J.

Troy,

Mon drian

an d

N eo-Plasticism

in

America

(New

Haven : Yale Un iversity

A rt

Gallery,

1979), 9-10;

Holland Cotter, "Abstrac-

tion and the True Believer,"

Art in

America, November

1995,

73. Cotter

notes: "At first the b lack grids stay in place, thou gh no w touched w ith little

tags o f

color that

flutter free at the

sides,

like

jazz clarinet appoggiaturas

creating a tension with th e under lying bass structu re."

3. H a r r y H o l t z m a n and M a r t i n S. J a m es , eds.,

The New Art—the

New

Life:

The

Collected Writings o f Piet Mondrian (Bos ton : G. K. Hall,

1986), 357.

4. Ibid. ,

116-17.

Other essays by M ond rian that consider jazz in rela-

tion to neo -plastic m usic include "Neo-Plasticism: The General Principle o f

Plastic

Equivalence," "The M anifes ta tion o f Neo-Plasticism in Music and

the Italian Futur ists ' B ruiteurs ," "Neo -Plasticism: Its Rea lizatio n in Music

and in Future Theater," and "Jazz and the

Neo -Plastic."

5. Hol tzman and James,

New

Art—New Life, 221.

6. Ibid. , 217.

7. Troy, Mon drian and Neo-Plasticism in America, 5-6.

8. U lr ich Conrads , Programs

an d

Manifestoes

o f 20th

Century Archi-

tecture

(C a m b r id g e ,

Mass.: M IT

Press, 1970),

32.

9 . Um b r o

Apollonio, ed. ,

Futurist Manifestos

(Boston:

M FA

Pub lica-

tions, 2001),

169.



138

/

Notes to Chapter 1

10.Ibid.

11. Ibid. , 28.

12.

Ibid., 94-95.

13. Colin Rowe, The

Mathematics

of the

Ideal

Villa an d

Other Essays

(Cambr idge , Mass: MIT Press, 1995), 160.

14. Apollonio ,

Futurist Man ifestos ,

92.

15. H o l tzm a n and James , New Art—New

Life,

217.

16.

Apo l lonio ,

Futurist Manifestos,

92-93. Also

see

150-54

for the

essay "Absolute M ot ion

+

R elative Mot ion

+

Dynam ism ," where Boccioni

provides a m ore in-depth discussion of the tw o k inds o f m o v e m e n t.

17. H o l tzm a n and James , New Art

—

New

Life,

217.

18. H. L. C.

Jaf fe ,

De Stijl: 1917-1931: The Dutch

Contribution

to

Modern

Art

(Ca m b ridge, Mass.: B elknap Press, 1986),

94-97.

19.

Hol tzm an

and

James ,

New Art—New

Life, 161.

20. Ibid. The bracketed term is inserted by Holtzman and James.

21.

Ibid.,

144.

22.

Ibid.,

163.

23. Ibid. , 218-19.

24. Max Harr ison, "Boogie-Woogie," in Jazz, edited b y Nat Hentoff and

Albe r t J. M cCar thy (New York: Da Capo Press, 1974), 110.

25.

Ibid.,

110-11.

26. See Valerie Wilm er, A s

Serious

a s

Your

Life (Lo ndo n: Serpent 's Tail ,

2 0 0 0 ) , 50.

27.

H a r r y Co o p er , "Mondrian, Hegel, Boogie," October

84

( spr ing

1998): 136.

28. Jaffe, De Stijl, 109.

29. Quoted in Jaffe,

De

Stijl, 108,

f rom

Piet M ondrian,

Plastic Art an d

Pure

Plast ic Art an d Other Ess ays

(New York: Wittenborn-Schulz, 1945),

20.

30. Hol t zman and James, New Art—New

Life,

110.

31. Ibid., 172.

32. Quoted in Troy,

Mo ndr ian

and Neo-Plasticism in

America,

63-64.

33.

Ibid., 151.

34.

Ibid.,

70.

35. Ibid.,

112.

36. Ibid.,

243.

37.

Ibid.

38. H o l tzm a n and James, New

Art

—

New

Life, 219-22.

39. Jam es Snea d, "Repetition as a Figure of Black Cu lture," in O ut There:

Marg inalizatio n in Co n temporary Culture,

edi ted b y Russel l Ferguso n,

M artha Gever, Trinh T. M inh-ha, and Cornel West (New York: New Mu-

seum of Co n t em p o r a r y Art; Cam bridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1990), 221.



Notes

to

Chapter

2 / 139

40. Ibid.

41.

Ibid., 220.

42. Quoted in Daniel Belgrad, The

Culture

o f

Spontaneity:

Improvi-

sation and the Arts in

Pos twar

America (Chicago: Un iversi ty

o f

Chicago

Press, 1998), 184.

43. Q uoted in Nat Hen toff , liner notes of

Charles

Mingus

Presen ts Charles

Mingus, Candid 9005 (1961).

44. Lero i Jones [Amir i Baraka] ,

Blues People

(New York: M orrow,

1963), 153.

45. Leo Smith, "Beyond Categories," in

Keeping Time: Readings in Jazz

History,

edited

by

Robert W alser (New York: Oxfo rd University Press, 1999),

322.

46. M ichel Ra tte, "Im provisation as Form,"

Resonance

6, no . 1 (1997): 30 .

47.

Graham Locke, Forces in Mot ion :

Anthony

Braxton and the Meta-

reality of Creative Music (Lon don : Qu artet Books, 1988), 233.

48. Hol t zman and James,

New

Art—New Life,

221.

49. Quoted in Yve-Alain Bois, "Mondr ian and the Theory of Arc hitec-

ture," Assemblage

4

(October 1987): 106.

50. Hol tzm an and James,

New

Art—New Life, 221.

51.

Bois, "Mondrian

and the

Theory

of

A rc hitec tur e," 117.

52. Ratte, "Improvisation as Form ," 30.

53. Jacques Attali, Noise: The Political Economy

o f

Music (Minneapo-

lis: Un iversity of Min neso ta Press, 1985), 143.

54. RalphEllison,

Shadow and Act (New York: Rand om House, 1964),

78 .

2. What Is the

Body

Supposed to Be

Doing?

1. John Cage, Silence (Middletown,

Conn. :

Wesleyan University Press,

1973), 5.

2. Ibid., 63n.2.

3.

Ibid.,

63 (from note 3 in the essay "Forerunners o f Mo dern Music,"

originally pub lished in March 1949), also 5; and Richard K ostelanetz, ed.,

John

Cage (New Y ork: Praeger, 1970), 162, wher e Cage also po ints out the

consideration of t imbre—that groups have dist inctive sounds rather than

seek to so und, l ike m ost orchestras, th e same.

4. Cage, Silence, 7 2. Also see George Lewis, "Im provised M usic

after

1950: Afrological

and

Eurological Perspectives," Black Music Research

Journal 16, no. 1 (spring 1996): 98-99, regarding Cage 's denunciat ion

of jazz .

5. Tom

Johnson quoted

in

Lewis, "Improvised Music

after 1950,"

115.

6.

Cage, Silence,

15.



140

/

Notes to Chapter 2

7. Lewis, "Im provised Music

after 1950,"

97; also see Cage, Silen ce, 39.

8.

Cage,

Silence, 28.

9. Ibid. ,

9.

10. Ibid., 11.

11.

Quoted

in

Richard

Kostelanetz,/o^m Cage (ex)plain(ed)

(New York:

Schirmer Books, 1996),

12.

12.

Cage, Silen ce,

35, 28, 40, 15.

13.

Ko stelanetz, John Cage , 163.

14.

Ibid. Also

see

Lewis, "Improvised Music after

1950,"

103-4.

15. K ostelanetz, John Cage , 162.

16. See Br and en Joseph, "John Cage and the Architecture of Silence,"

October 81 (sum m er 1997): 95-97, for an extend ed discussion of repetition.

17. See Jacques Attali ,

Noise: The Political

Economy

o f Music

(Min-

neapolis: Un ivers ity of Min neso ta Press, 1985), 87-132, for an extended

discussion of the development o f recording technologies and the t ransfo r -

mative

shifts

that they entail. Attali

specifically

discusses

jazz in

relation

to

these

shifts

(103-4).

18. Lew is, "Im provised M usic after

1950,"

107.

Lewis continues by ques-

tioning w hy

Cage

is

given

the authority to

speak definitively abo ut jaz z.

19. Cage,

Silence,

5 9: "musical composit ion the continuity of which is

free

o f

indiv idua l taste

and

memory (psychology)

and

also

of the

literature

and

'traditions' of the art."

20. Ibid., 62, 69.

21.

Quoted

in

Lewis, "Improvised Music after

1950,"

118.

22.

Ibid.,

107.

23.

John Corbett , "Ephemera Underscored: Writ ing around Free Impro-

visation," in

Jazz amo ng the Discourses ,

edited by Kr in Gabb ard (Dur ham ,

N.C.: Duke University Press, 1995), 227.

24. See

Christopher Small,

Mus ic of the

Common

T on g ue

(New York:

Riverrun Press, 1994), 281-86.

25. Taylor, who is classically train ed, is of par ticu lar note in this respect.

Bassist Buell Neidlinger has noted that there is a

difference

between the

way Taylor plays the interior of the piano and the w ay that Cage, Crist ian

Wolff , Karlheinz

Stockhausen, o r Mauricio Kagel would play th e interior o f

th e piano. See A. B. Spellman, Black M usic (New York: Schocken Books,

1970),

36-37.

26.

Corbett , "Ephemera Underscored,"

229.

27.

Sm all,

Music o f

the Common

Tongue , 232.

28.

Nathanie l Mackey,

Discrepant Engagement: Dissonance, Cro s s -

Culturality, an d Experimen tal W riting

(New Y ork: Cam bridge University

Press, 1993),

269.



Notes to Chapter 2 / 141

29. Ibid., also se e Sm all ,

Music o f the Common Tong ue,

91-92, for an

extended quote

of the

same passage.

30.

M ackey, D iscrepant

Engagement,

275-76.

31.

Co rb ett, "Ephem era Underscored," 229.

32. Francis Davis, liner notes of Roscoe Mitchell and the Sound Ensem-

ble, Live

at the

Knitting

Factory, Black Saint 120120-2 (1990) .

33. See

liner n otes

of

Roscoe M itchell, L-R-G, The Maze, SII Examples,

Nessa Records NCD-14 (1978).

34. Ibid.

35. In

reference

to

ano ther M itchell com position, "Cards," Stuar t Broom-

er, in his

liner notes, "The Roscoe Mitchell Quartet,"

fo r

Roscoe Mitchell,

Quartet,

Sackville SKCD2-2009 (20 02 ), comments that Cage has influenced

aspects o f Mitchell 's compositional interests. However, there is a

dif fer-

ence in intent. In the liner notes of Son g for My Sister, Pi Recordings PI03

(2002) ,

M itchell explain s

that

"The Card Catalog" is "a series o f cards I de-

veloped to address the com m on prob lem s of the inexperienced im proviser."

The cards

give

"the players th e i n f o r m a ti o n to be played and the abil i ty to

arrange th is information in

several

different ways." See Ro nald R adan o,

New Musical Figurations: Anthony Braxton's Cultural Critique (Chicago:

University of Chicago Press, 1993),

109-31,

for an extended discussion of

th e

influences

o f

m odernis t concer t m usic

o n

free

jazz

and

impro vised m usic

developments.

36. Liner notes o f Roscoe Mitchell ,

L-R-G, The

Maze,

SII

Examples,

Nessa Records NCD-14 (1978).

37.

Spel lm an,

Black Music, 31.

Also

see Ben

Sidran,

Talking Jazz:

An

Oral

History

(Ne w York :

D a

Capo Press, 1995), 4-6;

and

Derek

Bailey,

Improvisation: Its Nature an d Practice in Music (New York : D a Capo

Press, 1992), 98-102, regarding technique.

38.

Leo

Sm ith,

"Creative

Music and the

A

ACM,"

in

Keeping

Time,

ed-

ited by Rob ert Walser (New Yo rk: Ox for d U niversity Press, 1999), 320.

39. Co rb ett, "Ephem era Undersco red," 229-30.

40. Ibid. ,

226-28.

41.1 have seen

th e

examples

I

provide here.

See

Co rbet t , "Ephem era

Underscored," 231, fo r some other examples.

42. For a series of descriptions regarding Kirk's various instrument re-

assem blies, see John K ru th, Bright

Moments: The Life an d

Legacy ofRah-

saan Roland Kirk (New York: Welcome R ain Publ ishers, 20 00 ) , 83.

43. Quoted in ibid., 85.

44.

Yusef Lateef,

quoted

in

ibid.,

88,

states:

"He was

writing

at the

key-

board

and he was

telling

m e

there were no tes

he

wanted

to

incorporate, cer-

tain passages that he didn't hav e enough fingers to represent. So I suggested



142 / Notes to Chapter 2

he put a pencil in his m o uth and play th e extra note with it that way and

he did "

45. Mackey,

Discrepant Engagement,

275-76.

46. Ralph Ellison,

Shadow

and Act (New York: Rando m House, 1964),

234.

47.

Co rbet t , "Ephemera Underscored," 223, summ ar izes Evan Parker 's

comments on the risk of improvisation.

48. Lewis, "Improvised Music after 1950," 114.

49.

Ibid., 117.

50. Corbett , "Ephemera Underscored,"

236.

51. Byard Lancaster, quoted in Kruth, Bright Moments, 86, reveals

that

Kirk "would tape a radio to the m icrophone and turn th e radio o n. He'd

turn it to any station. It wasn't ab out th e station, or the m usic, it was simply

a sound source."

52. Kostelanetz, John

Cage (ex)plain(ed),

9.

53.

Ibid.,

14.

54 .

Ibid.,

9.

55.

Quo ted

in

Andrew Kagan, "Improvisations: Notes

o n

Jackson Pol-

lock

and the

Black Contribution

to

American High Culture ," Arts

Maga-

zine,

March 1979, 9 7. Ka gan states: "It is not surprising that his taste in

music should have run to a form of immediate emotional expression, an

improvisatory form

in

which authenticity

o f feeling

mat tered even more

than technique, though vir tuoso technique

w as

essential. Jazz voiced

the

passions

o f a

passionate person.

In

'hot' jazz ,

th e

emotional extreme

was

th e desiderata, not the state o f inhibition, temper, and balance. 'Cool' jazz

also allowed for the discharge of intense feeling, but in a more restrained

m anner. Pollock ev idently fo und release

for his

torm ents

in

this music,

and

he

dreamt o f finding a sim ilar

catharsis

in visual art."

56. Chad M andeles, "Jackson Pollock and Jazz: Structural Parallels,"

Arts

Mag azine, October

1981, 139-40.

57.

Kag an, "Improvisations,"

97; and

Mandeles, "Jackson Pollock

and

Jazz," 140.

58. Quo ted in Mandeles, "Jackson Pollock and Jazz," 140. Mandeles

states: "Indeed, it is in this spo ntaneo us m ethod of po ur ing pain t, of sim ul-

taneously composing and performing, if you will, that Pollock is closest to

jazz improvisation. That is to say, w hile jazz musicians often rely on im-

provisatory m ethod

to

em bellish preexistent

o r

preconceived com positions,

some fo rms o f

jazz

are essentially im prov ised. Or nette C olem an's recording

session

for the

1960 album Free

Jazz,

fo r

example, joined

tw o

quartets

fo r

36 m inutes and 23 seconds in an unrehearsed improvisation, without a har-

monical ly

struc tured design or even a premeditated form ."

59.

K ostelanetz,

John Cage (ex)plain(ed),

35-36.



Notes to Chapter 2 / 143

60.

Ko stelanetz,

John Cage, 163-64.

61.

Cage,

Silence, 40.

62. Kostelanetz,


18.

63. See K ostelanetz, John Cage

(ex)plain(ed),

143, regarding false m oves

by pe r fo rm ers of Europera.

64. For an extended analysis of the ways in which Cage's work , as a re-

sult, reinfor ces capitalist c ultur e, see Sm all, Music o f th e

Common

Tongue ,

345-47.

65.

K oste lanetz , John Cage

(ex)plain(ed),-

97. Cage comments

on Le

Corbusier's architecture, "Art this is called. Its shape is tyr ann y."

66. Liner

notes,

Music

o f

Edgard Varese, One Way Records A 26791

(1996).

67. Ibid. Also see Marc Treib,

Space

Calculated in Seconds: The Philips

Pavilion,

Le

Corbusier, Edgard Varese

(Princ eton: Princeton U niversity Press,

1996),

for an

extensive documentation

an d

study

of all

facets

of the

project.

68. See Kostelanetz,


99-104.

69. See Don Heck m an, liner notes of Rip, Rig and Panic/Now Please

Don't

Yo u

Cry, Beautiful Edith, Po lygram 832 164-2 (1990; o riginally re-

leased on Lim elight). Kir k notes: "W hen the glass bre aks it rem inds me of a

tim e when

I was

about

17 and I

used

to sit in the

hallway

a t

home practicing

those double and triple

stops.

It was the kind of hallway where there are

decorations and stuff . Once when I played a certain harmonic a glass vase

fell o ff the

shelf.

I

don't

know if the wind caused it or I did b ut it stuck in m y

m i n d

and I

decided

to do

this piece.

T he

ending

w as

done with

an

am plif ie r ;

I can shake it in a certain way to get those sounds. It was inspired by the

music

of Edgard Varese.

"Rip means Rip Van Winkle [or Rest in

Peace?] .

It's the w ay peo ple,

even musicians , are. They're asleep.

R ig

means l ike r igor mort is . That's

where a lot of people's minds

are.

W hen they hear m e doing things they

didn't thin k I could d o they panic in their m inds. They all say, 'W ell, I didn't

know this kind

o f

thing could

happen. '

Actually,

I was

doing some things

like

this when

I was in

Ohio,

but I

lost work because people didn't want

to

hear this kind

o f

music.

"I'm tryin g to be a m usician and represent all phases of m usic. Even the

hippies say

'What

is

that? ' when

I do my

electronic

stuff .

They think that

since I play two or three horns

that

I 'm not do ing an ythi ng. Since they

don't

know what style of m usic I really represent they can't pin m e

down."

70. For a m ore com plete description see the liner notes o f Geo rge E.

Lewis, Voyager, AVAN 014 (1993). Also see George Lewis, "Person to ...

Pe rson?"

Resonance

6, no. 1 ( N o v e m b e r 1997): 32-34.

71. Lewis, "Im provised M usic after

1950,"

Black Music Research Jour-

nal (1996): 117.



144

/ Notes to

Ch apter

3

3. IMow's the Time

1.

Later titles

by

musicians would continue this play

on the

strengths

and

weaknesses

of

language. Roscoe Mitchell's

"TKHKE" and

Cecil Tay-

lor's

"Taht"

play with

the

utility

of two of the

primary words used

in the

English

language

f o r specific

designation.

2. See Winston Smith, "Let's Call

This:

Race, Writing, and Difference

in

Jazz," Public 4-5

(1990-91): 71-82,

for an

extended discussion

of the

word play in jazz titles b y such musicians as Monk and Parker, and their

links to literature.

3. William H. Kenney, Negotiating the Color Line: Louis Armstrong's

Autobiographies, in

Jazz

in

Mind: Essays

on the

History

and

Meanings

of

Jazz,

edited

b y

Reginald

T.

Buckner

and

Steven Weiland (Detroit: Wayne

State University Press, 1991),

39.

4. Ibid., 43, 45, 56.

5. David Meltzer, ed., Reading Jazz (San Francisco: Mercury House,

1993), 26, notes

that

such assumptions were indicative of the

era: "The

invented

category

of 'primitive,'

opposed

to the 'civilized,' was

associated,

on the eve of the

Modernist revolt

and

World

War I,

with

new

trends

in

avant-garde European

art and

poetry that discovered,

if not

ancestry,

a

kin-

ship i n A f r i can art as a precursor. Jazz w as embraced with the same cultural

m i x o f

enthusiastic

assumptions:

Africa

was in

America expressing

a

fusion

of tribal and European martial musics. Jazz enabled white moderns to live

in the best of both imaginary worlds: the old and new, the savage and the

civilized.

6. Le Corbusier,

When th e Cathedrals

Were

White

(New York: Reynal

&

Hitchcock, 1947),

158.

7.

Ibid., 159, 161. Le Corbusier goes on to state, Jazz, like the sky-

scrapers,

is an event and not a deliberately conceived

creation.

They repre-

sent

th e

forces

o f

today.

The

jazz

is

more advanced than

th e

architecture.

If architecture were

at the

point reached

b y

j a z z ,

it

would

be an

incredible

spectacle. I repeat: Manhattan is hot jazz in stone and steel. The contem-

porary renewal has to attach itself to some point. The Negroes have fixed

that point through music. Their simple spirit has caused the reformation to

spring up f r om the depths and has situated i t in our ow n times (162).

8. Ibid., 159.

9. Ibid., 158-61.

10.

Ibid.,

161-62.

11.

Ibid.,

160-61.

12.

Ibid., 158, 161.

13. Ibid., 33-34.

14.

Ibid.,

35,

162, 164.



Notes to Chapter 3 /

145

15. Richard S ennett, The Con science o f the Eye (New York: W. W. Nor-

ton, 1990), 173.

16. G eorge Kub ler, The Shape

of

Time: Remarks on the History

of

Things

(New

Haven: Y ale Un iversity Press, 1962), 124.

17. At the o utset of the chapter (159), Le Co rbu sier com m ents on the

poo r living conditions o f black labor ers in New Y ork and C hicago: "They

live, crowded together, in Harlem or C hicago, in slums near the skyscrapers.

They serve in Pul lmans , in coaches, in all-night bars." However, he does

not d iscuss how his design addr esses the condition of labor ers. See M abel O.

Wilson, "Black Bodies/White Cities: Le C orbusier in Harlem," A N Y 1 6

(1996):

38-39,

for an account of their implied position.

18. Le Corb usier ,

When

the

Cathedrals

Were

White, 160.

19.

Ibid.,

164.

20. Marie Cardinal ,

The W ords to Say It

(Cambr idge , Mass.: VanVactor

&

Goodheart , 1983),

39-40.

C ardina l cont inues , "'I'm going

to die, I'm

going to

die,

I'm going to

die.'

M y heart w as beating to the rapid tempo o f

the music." Also see Toni M orrison,

Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and

the Literary Imagination (Ca m br idge, Mass. : Harv ard Universi ty Press,

1992), vi-vii.

21.

Esten Spu rrier quoted

in

Philip

R .

Evans

and

Richard

M .

Sudhalter,

Bix: Man and Legend, 51. Excerpted in Lewis Porter and M ichael Ullm an,

with Edward Hazell , Jazz: From Its Origins to the Present (Englewood

Cliffs, N.J.: Pren tice Hall, 1993),

57.

22.

Jam es Lincoln Collier, Louis Armstrong,

an

American Gen ius (New

York: Oxfo rd Un iversity Press, 1983), 40.

23. Ralph Ellison,

Invisible

M an (New York: Ran dom House, 1964), 8.

24. Ralph Ellison,

Shadow

and Act (New York: Ran dom House, 1964),

234.

25. See M orr i son , Playing in the Dark,

vii;

an d Wilson, "Black

Bodies/

White Cities," 35-39.

26.

Dwight Andrews, lecture

at

Em ory Un iversity, Atlan ta, spring 1996.

27.

Fo cillon states,

"Le

passe

ne

sert

qu'a

connaitre 1'actualite. Mais

1'actualite m'echappe. Qu'est-ce que c'est d o n e que 1'actualite?" (The past

serves o nly to know actuality. But actuality escapes me. So what is actuali-

ty?) . Quoted in Kubler, Shape o f Time, 16-17.

28. Stephen Nachmanovitch,

Free

Play: Improvisation in

Life

and Art

(New

York: Jeremy Tarcher/Putnam , 1990), 18.

29. John C orb ett sum m arize s Evan Parker 's discussion of the r isk of

improvisation in "Ephemera Underscored: Writ ing around Free Improvisa-

tion," in Jazz among th e Discourses, edited b y K r i n G a b b a r d ( D u r h a m :

Duk e U niversity Press, 1995), 223.



146 / Notes

to

Chapter

3

30.

Quoted

in Guy

Debord, translated

by

Donald Nicholson-Smith, The

Society o f

the

Spectacle

(New York: Zone Books, 1995), para.

161, 115-16.

31.

Harry Hol t zman

and Martin S.

James,

eds.,

The New Art

—

the

New

Life:

The

Collected Writings

o f

Piet Mondrian

(Boston:

G. K.

Hall,

1986), 221.

Also

see

Meltzer,

Reading Jazz, 30: "the

m usic practice also

has

levels

o f

at tention, cooperation, regar.d

and

play that

is

u n f o u n d

in

most workplaces."

32.

W. Boesiger, ed., Le Co rbusier,

Oeuvres

Completes, vol.

7, Le

Cor -

busier, 1957-1965 (Zurich: Les Editions d'Architecture Zurich, 1965), 54:

"The structure o f concrete and glass is a demonst rat ion of Le Corbusier 's

theories and contains a wealth of his lifelong basic ideas: the mutual inter-

penetrat ion of exterior and interior space, the use of roug h concrete, a ram p

which connects two streets above the third floor, f ree-standing st ructural

colu m ns on each of the five floors and

brise-soleil."

33. Ibid.: "The prob lem consisted of creating the circulation, places of

wo rk, to find surfaces and lighting and, the m ost

difficult

of all, it con sisted

of

inserting all of this in so little space."

34. Eduard Sekler and Will iam Curt is , Le Corbusier at W o rk ( C a m -

bridge, Mass.: Harvar d University Press, 1978), 50.

35. Ibid., 51:

"sound

as

audible equivalent

to the

kinesthetic sensations

b y

plast ic architecture composit ions, rhythmical, spatial and formal. He

thought

o f

bui ldings

as field forces o f

energy, emanating their effects into

surrounding spaces

and objects."

36. Le

Corb usier, The

City

o f

Tomorrow

(Cambr idge ,

Mass.: M IT

Press,

1971), 11.

37. Le Cor busier,

When the Cathedrals Were White,

105.

38. Sekler and C urtis, Le Corbusier at Wo rk, 52.

39. See Stan Allen, "Le Co rbusier and the M odernist Mo vement," AN Y

1, no. 5

(M arch-April

1994):

42-47.

40. See

Kub ler,

Shape of Time, 83-122.

41. Ibid., 99.

42. Pamela M. Lee, "Some Kind s of Dura t ion: The Tem poral i ty of

Drawing as Process Art," in A fterimage: Drawing throug h Process , edited

by Cornelia H.

Butler

(Los Angeles: Mu seum o f Contemporary Art; C a m -

bridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1999), 25-28. Lee categor izes these las t three as

"interchronic"

dura t ions , and provides fur ther description (entro pic, decay

or

dispersal

f rom

order;

transitive,

transitions

or

change

of

state;

contin-

gent, alert

to

change)

as she

analyzes

the

a ctualit ies

o f

drawing.

43. Kubler, Shape o f Time, 96.

44. Ibid. , 99.

Kubler

notes that his "main interest is in the shapes and

f o r m s o f those

durations which either

are

longer than single hu m an lives,



Notes

to

Ch apter

4 / 147

or which require the time of more than one person as collective durations."

Along similar lines, Fernand Braudel has proposed that f rom a

historical

standpoint, there are at least three kinds of

t ime—geographic,

social, and

hum an; see Dana

Cuff,

The Provisional City:

Lo s

Angeles Stories

o f

Archi-

tecture an d Urbanism (Cambridge,

Mass.:

M IT Press, 2000), 43. To these

three Cuff proposes a fourth, urban t ime.

4.


and

Improvisation

1. Leroi Jones (Amir i Baraka) , Blues People

(New

York: Morrow,

1963),

212-13.

2. Quoted in L ewis Porter and Michael Ullm an,

Jazz: F ro m

Its

Origins

to the

Present

(Englewood Cliffs,

N.J.:

Prentice Hall, 1993),

117.

3. Ronald M . Ra d a n o , New

Musical Figurations:

Anthony Braxton's

Cultural Critique

(Chica go : Un iversity of Chicago Press, 1993), 79.

4.

Michael Blackwood,

Mies,

Michael Blackwood Productions,

1985,

videocassette.

5. K. Michael Hays, "Critical Ar chitecture: Between Culture and Form ,"

Perspectall (1984): 21.

6. Blackwood,

Mies.

7.

Gerald Early, "Decoding Ralph Ellison," Dissent , summer

1997, 114.

8. Ralph Ellison, Invisible M an (N ew Yo rk: Vintage Press, 1972),

568.

9.

M u h al

R ichard Ab ram s and John Shenoy Jackson,

"The

A ssocia-

tion for the Advancement of Creative Musicians," Black World, No v e m b e r

1973,

74.

10. See

Ra d a n o , New

Musical Figurations,

91-99, for a

com prehensive

discussion of the political, social, and

artistic

environm ent that surrounded

the AACM .

11. See

Ekkehard

Jost,

Free

Jazz (New York: D a Capo, 1994),

171-73,

fo r

an

extended discussion

of the

AACM's

use of

spoken word

an d

stage

action in music.

12. George Lewis, "Singing Om ar 's Song: A (Re)c on st ruct io n of Great

Black Music," Lenox Avenue

4

(1998):

78-79.

13. Henry Threadgill quoted in John Litweiler, T he

Freedom Principle:

Jazz after

1958

(New York: D a Capo, 1984),

193-94.

14. Jacques A ttali ,

Noise:

The

Political

Economy o f

Music

(Minneapo-

lis:

U niversity of M innesota Press, 1985),

138.

15.

"Technical knowledge

of

music theory

and of

one 's inst rument

as

well as thorough attention to the background, history, and culture of one's

music": George E. Lewis, "Improvised Music

after

1950: Afrological and

Eurological Perspectives,"

Black Mus ic Res earch Journ al

1 (1996): 114.



148

/

Notes

to

Chapter

4

16.

Hays, "C ritical A rchitectur e,"

22:

"Distinguishing architecture

f rom

the

forces that

influence a rch i tec tu re—the

condit ions establ ished

by the

market and by taste, the personal aspirations of its author, its technical

ori-

gins, even

its

purpose

as

defined

by its own tradition— becam e the objective

of Mies."

17. Ibid.

18. Ibid., 26.

19.

Manfredo

Tafuri and Francesco Dal Co, t ranslated by Robert Wolf,

Modern Architecture (New York: Electa/Rizzo li , 1986), 1: 133-35. For

elaboration, see 2: 309-14.

20. See

Branden Joseph, "John Cage

and the

Architecture

of

Silence,"

October 81 (sum m er 1997): 95-97, for an extended discussion of repetition.

21. Walter Benjamin, Il lumination s (N ew Yo rk: Schocken Boo ks, 1969),

223.

22. Ibid.,

225.

23.

Ibid.,

227.

24.

Attali ,

Noise,

139.

25. Ibid. , 140

(em phasis

in

o r iginal).

26. Leo

Smith, "Beyond Categories,"

in Keeping Time: Reading s

in

Jazz History,

edited

by

Ro bert W alser (N ew York: Oxfo rd University Press,

1999),

317.

27.

Litweiler,

Freedom Principle, 179.

28. Ibid., 142, 144-45, 137.

29. See

"Design after

Mies,"

A N Y

24

(1999).

30. See

Ro ber t Som ol, "Five Easy

Mies," A N Y 24

(1999):

20-27.

31.

Quoted

in

A N Y

24

(1999):

46.

32. See Ed

Mitchell,

"This Is

Only

a

Test,"

A N Y 2 4

(1999):

33.

33. See Dan

H o f f m a n , "The Receding

Horizon of Mies—Work of the

Cra nb roo k A rchitecture Studio ," in

The Presence o f Mies ,

edited by Detlef

Mertins (New York: Princeton Architectural Press,

1994), 116.

34. Dana

Cuff , The Provisional City

(Cam bridg e, Mass. : MIT Press,

2 0 0 0 ) ,

37-39.

Also

see 13.

35. "The convulsive gro wth o f cities and the fugitive qu ality that large-

scale undertakings lend to them" (67). See Cuff , Provisional City, 11-14,

for an overview of the

effects

and qualities o f large-scale ur b an pro jects.

36.

Ibid. ,

15.

37. This is felt in the dan ger o n cam pus. See M itchell ,

"This

Is Only

a

Test," 30:

"the conno isseur 's appreciat ion

of an

exquisite corner detail

pales next to the

fear

o f being rolled and

left

fo r dead until morning."



Notes to Conclusion

/

149

38.

C uf f , Provisional City,

44.

39.

Property rights,

Cuff identifies, are

quite complex

fa c t o r s — a

prolif-

eration

o f

claims regarding various rights

and

duties asserted

b y an

increas-

ing

number o f agents and organizations. These proliferating claims result

f r om

a shift in the

political economy

o f

property.

40.

These

are all

roles

identified by

students

in a

design studio

at

Rice

University

that I taught in spring 2003. The studio was held in response to a

neighborhood association in Houston

that

is looking to

start

a community

land trust

in the

same area that

Cuff references in The Provisional City.

onclusion

1. Graham Locke, Forces in Motion: Anthony Braxton and the Meta-

reality

of Creative Music (London: Quartet Books, 1988), 261-62.

2. Ibid., 263-64.

3.

Ibid.,

232.

4.

Braxton describes

the

process

and

offers

th e

number

o f

sound classi-

fications

in

the liner notes of Anthony Braxton,

Five Compositions Quar-

tet) 1986, Black Saint BSR 0106 CD (1986). The notes f r om August 1987

indicate

a

feverish

development between that writing

and

Graham Locke's

travels and study o f Braxton in November 1985, when th e number o f lan-

guage types

was

more than

a

hundred.

See

Locke, Forces in

Motion,

321.

5. Locke, Forces in Motion, 321.

6.

Ibid., 232.

7.

See ANY23 ( Diagram Matters");

Daidalos

74 ( " D i a g r a m m a n i a " );

and OASE 48 for

journal-length presentations

o f the

diagram.

8. See Sanford Kwinter, "The Genealogy of Models: The Hammer and

the Song ;

and

Robert Somol, "The Diagrams

of

Matter"; both

in ANY 23.

9.

Braxton, Five Compositions Quartet) 1986.

10.

Robert Farris Thompson, Flashes of the Spirit (New York: Vintage

Books, 1984), xiii.

11. Leroi Jones ( Am i r i Baraka), Black Music (New York:

Quill,

1967),

143.

12.

Nathaniel Mackey,

Discrepant

Engagement: Dissonance,

Cross-

Culturality,

and

Experimental

Writing (New York: Cambridge University

Press, 1993), 274.

13. Ibid., 5.

14. Paul Gilroy's black Atlantic, a formulation of the black diaspora

emphasizing

oceanic links rather than nationality, is an example. See Paul



150

/ Notes to Conclusion

Gilroy, The Black Atlantic: Mo dernity an d Double Consc iousnes s ( C a m -

bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press,

1993).

15. Braziel and M a n n u r , Theorizing Diaspora (Maiden, Mass.: Black-

well Pub lishing, 200 3),

8.

16. Ibid., 10-11. Braziel and M annur sum m ar ize g loba l iza tion as fol -

lows:

"W e

have entered

a

period

of

historical glo balization where

in

m ulti -

national corporations, export industry,

and

m anufac tu r ing jobs , economic

migrants s tay home

and

migrate ,

and the

international division

o f

labor

more sharply divides

those who have

and

those who have

not, even as it

simultaneously rigidifies and erodes First World/Third World economic di-

visions, creating 'first-world zones' in formerly

'developing'

countries and

'third-world zones '

in

supposed

'First

World' nations."

17.

"Testam ent:

A

Conduction Collection,"

booklet

in

Lawrence "Butch"

Morris, Testament: A Conduction Collection, New World Records 80478-2

(1995), 8-12.

18. Ibid., 8, 10, 11-12.

19.

Ibid. ,

9. Also see A tta l i, Noise, 143. The m eaning o f such play, A ttali

points ou t, is not a priori but is in the decision of those p laying and listening

to invest it with m eaning.

20. "Testament: A Co nduction Co llection," bo oklet in Lawrence "Butch"

Morris,

Testament:

A

Conduction

Collection,

9.

21.

Ibid.,

8.

22.

Ibid.

23. Ibid., 11, 8.

24. See M ackey, Discrepant Engagement, 267, 276. Mackey links Col-

trane 's playing

to the

sense

of

infinite

variation

found

in the

novel The

Infi-

nite Rehearsal b y

W ilson Harris .

25. D avid Such, Avant-

Garde Jazz Mus icians :

Performing

"Out There"

(Iowa

City: University

of

Iowa Press, 1993),

141-42.

26. Paul Berliner,

Thinking in Jazz: The

Infinite

Art o f Improvisation

(Chicago: University of

Chicago Press, 1994), 217.

27. "Testam ent: A Co nduction Collection," bo oklet in Lawrence "Butch"

Morris, Testament: A Conduction Collection, 8.

28. Allan Graubard, "Theater through Music," liner notes o f Lawrence

"Butch" Morris, Testament: A Conduction Collection, N ew World Records

80478-2 (1995), 18.

29. See

Keller Easterling, Organization Space: Landscapes, Highways,

and Ho uses in America (Cambr idge , Mass.: MIT Press, 1999), 3. Easter-

l ing also states that many organizational logics

can

have improvisat ional

sites within them, and she suggests such locations as potential sites for ar-



Notes to C onclusion / 151

chitecture as well as sites that are suggestive of an active and inventive prac-

tice

o f

architecture.

See

4-5.

In the

proposition here,

the

intent

is to

suggest

that architecture can in

fact

stru ctur e such sites.

30. All of these have been propo sed to m e by various individu als while I

was researching and wri t ing th is boo k.

31. Braxton quoted in Locke, Fo rces in Motion, 232.



154

/ Index

Berliner,

Paul, 128

black music culture, xxvi-xxvii,

11,

21-24, 41-42, 64-67,

97,

122-24

black

nationalism,

97

blackness: views

of, 74

Boccioni, Umberto,

6-7

body, human:

and

musical instru-

ment,

41-46, 48-49

Boesiger,

W.,

146n32-146n33

boogie-woogie,

xxvii-xxviii, 1-4,

10-13

22, 24

Braudel ,

Fernand, 147n44

Braxton, Anthony, xxviii,

xxxi-xxxii,

27,

119-22, 132,

149n4

Broomer, Stuart, 141n35

Burning Poles (video),

xxii-xxiii

Cage,

John, xxviii-xxix, 34-36,

39-40,

51-53,

102-3, 140nl9,

141n35;

"Future

of Music,"

34-35;

HPSCHD, 58;

"Lethal

Measurement" (interview),

39-40,

55;

and Sound??,

33-36

Calatrava, Santiago, xviii-xxii

call and

response,

22

Cardinal, Marie,

xxx, 72-73,

145n20

Carter, Daniel,

128

chance and risk, 128-29

Chicago, South Side,

92,

94-99,

110

city planning, 129-32; Le Corbusier

and,

67-69

classical music, Western, 41-42,

45-46,

51

Cohran, Phil,

91

Coleman, Ornette,

41; Free Jazz,

54; Something Else 54

collaboration, xxii, 57-58.

See also

collective improvisation

collective

improvisation,

25,

91-92,

103-6

Coltrane,

John, 41,123,128,133nl;

"Giant Steps,"

xi-xii; "My

Favorite

Things," xii

commercial culture,

39-40, 107

commodi f ica t ion of jazz , 91, 103-4

community land trust

(CLT),

111-17

compositional process,

24-25,

37-38,

52-53

compression: in

j a zz ,

74, 77

computers: and architectural

design,

xv

computer software: and improvised

music, 59-60

conducted improvisation,

125-29

conduction,

125-29

consumer culture,

39-40,

107

Cooper, Harry,

12-13,

21

Corbett, John, 41-43, 45-46, 51,

145n29

Cotter, Holland,

137n2

Count

Basie

Orchestra, 22-24

cu bi s m, 8

Cuff ,

Dana,

109-10, 149n39

Cunningham,

Merce,

56

Curtis, William,

146n35

"cut," the, 22

Danforth, George,

92

De

Stijl, 4, 8

Detroit, Michigan, 108-9

diagrams: Braxton's use of, 119-22

diasporic

flows,

124-25

discipline, musical, 51

drawing: temporality in, 146n42

dri f t :

concept o f, xiii

dualism, collapsed:

in

boogie-

woogie,

12-13



Index

I

155

duration, 75-76, 84-88. See also

temporality

dynamic equilibrium:

Mondrian

a n d , 3

Early, Gerald, 93

Easterling, Keller, xvi, 150n29

electronics: limiting aspect of, 58-59

Ellington, Duke, 136n41

Ellison, Ralph, xxx,

31,49;

Invisible

Man, xxx, 73, 93; Shadow and

Act, 73-74

Eno, Brian,

59

field,

metropolitan,

129-32; spa-

tial,

xv

Flanagan, Tommy,

133nl

flexibili ty: in

architecture,

xxx, 92,

100-101;

musical,

126-27

Focillon, Henri, 74, 145n27

f o r m ,

4-7,

13,

26-31;

dynamic,

26-27; open, 15-19, 24-25,

27-31

f o r m and agency: i n music perfor-

mance,

119-22

free

j a z z ,

104-6

function:

in

architecture,

92,

100-101

fu t u r i s m,

5-7

Garrison, Lucy McKim, 42

gesture:

as

musical notation,

125-27

Gilroy, Paul,

149nl4

Glaser,

Joe,

62

glass:

in

architecture,

4-5, 7

globa l iza t ion , 124-25,

150nl6

Goodman, Benny,

89-91

Grant, Alan, 48

Graubard, Allan, 129

Great Black Music ( A A C M ) ,

97

Green, Freddie, 23

Hadler, Mona, 134nl4

Harrison,

Max, 10-11

Hays,

Michael, 102, 148nl6

Hegel, G.

W.

F., 76

Hemingway, Gerry,

119-20

Henderson, Fletcher, 89-91

H o f f m a n ,

Dan,

108-10

Hood, Walter, xiv, xv

Hopkins,

Fred, 46

Houston,

Texas, 149n40; Land

Assemblage Redevelopment

Authori ty , 115-16

"hubcapphone,"

97-98

Hurston, Zora

Neale, 123

Ibarra, Susie,

46

Illinois Institute of Technology,

Chicago,

101;

competition for

campus orientation center,

107-8;

Crown Hall,

55-57

improvisation,

xiii-xiv,

xiv-xviii,

xvii, xxxi-xxxii, 26-27, 36,

49,

91,

136n44; AACM and,

99-100, 104-6; Cage and,

35-36, 40; collective, 25, 91-92,

103-6;

nonnotational,

40-43;

personal factor

in, 99-100;

temporality

in, 75-76

improvisation, conducted,

125-29

i m p r o v i s e d music, 135n20;

as

abstraction,

105-6; and ac-

tuality,

76-77, 128;

literature

and,

123-124;

preparation

in,

127-128;

playing practices

in,

xxii-xxiv,

xxxii,

42-43;

tech-

nique in,

45-49

indeterminacy,

xxviii,

35-36, 51-53

Ives,

Charles, 55

Jarman, Joseph, 105

j a z z ,

xv,

xvii-xviii,

43, 74, 77,



156 / Index

90-91, 122-23, 135n20; Cage

and, xxviii, 34-36, 39-40;

commodification of, 91, 103-4;

compression

in, 74, 77; Le

Cor-

busier

and,

64-71, 144n7;

Mon-

dr ian and, xxvii-xxviii, 2-4,

9-10, 20-21, 76; New

Orleans

and

Chicago style,

9 4;

Pollock

and,

53-54;

succession in, 39.

See

also

bebop; boogie-woogie;

im provisation; rhythm ; swing

jazz ,

free,

104-6

jazz

m usicians ,

76-77.

See also

names

o f

individual mus ician s

Jones, Jo, 23

Jones, Leroi. See Ba r a k a , A m i ri

Joplin, Scott: Maple Leaf Rag ,

122-23

Kagan, Andrew,

142n55

Kenney,

Wil l iam,

62-63

Kirk, Rahsaan Roland,

xxviii,

xxix,

48-49, 51-53, 58-59,

142n51,

143n69;

"Rip, Rig and Panic,"

xxix, 58; and Sound??, 33-36

Koolhaas, Rem,

107-8

Kostelanetz, Richard,

52, 54

Krasner , Lee, 53-54

Kubler,

George,

xiii,

74,

84,146n44

Kwinter, Sanfo rd , xvi,

134nl8

Lacy, Steve,

xii

Lancaster, Byard, 142n51

Lateef,

Yusef, 141n44

Le Corbus ie r , 63-64, 71, 82,

144n7, 145nl7; Carpenter Cen-

ter, Harvard University, 77-84;

Philips

Pavilion,

57-58;

Poeme

Electronique (with

Varese) ,

57-58; When the Cathedrals

Were

White, xxix-xxx, 64-71

Lee, Pamela

M., 146n42

Lee, Peggy,

46

Lefaivre, Liane, xviii-xix

Leger,

Fernand,

67

Lewis,

George,

51,140nl8,147nl5;

Voyager

c o m p ut e r p r o g r a m ,

59-60

Lewis,

Meade "Lux,"

1; "Honky

Tonk Train Blues,"

2; "Lux's

Boogie," 1

Lissitzky,

El,

15-16;

"Proun

Space,"

15

listener:

role

of,

56-57

l i terature: and improvised music,

123-24

Locke, Graham , 119, 149n4

Ludlow, Helen W., 42

Macero, Teo,

24

machine age:

Le Corbusier

and,

65-71

Mackey,

Nathaniel,

xxix, 49,

123-24

Mandeles, Chad, 54, 142n58

Marmors te in , Dan,

xxi

mass market: and architecture,

106-8

M ayne, Thorn,

134nl3

McCall, Steve,

91

meaning:

in

architecture,

102

m elody: Arm st rong and, 75

Meltzer,

David,

144n5, 146n31

Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig,

xxx-xxxi,

92,

100-103; Crown

Hall, 55-57;

and

IIT, 107-9

Miller, M ark, xxii

Mingus, Charles, xxviii, 25, 49;

Black Saint and the Sinn er Lady,

xxiv; "Folk Forms No. 1," 25

Mitchell,

Ed, 148n37

Mitchell , Roscoe,

xxix, 43-45,



Index

I 157

141n35;SIIBook,

43;

"SII

Examples," 43-45;

"TKHKE,"

144nl

modernization: arts and, 27-31

Mondrian, Piet, 2-4, 15-19, 24,

76; Boogie Woog ie , 3; Broad-

way Boog ie -Woog ie ,

3, 11;

"Jazz and the N eo-Plastic,"

xxvii,

4,

7-11, 20-21; "Natural

Reality and Abstract Reality,"

3; "Neo-Plasticism: Its

Reali-

zation in Music and in Future

Theater,"

9;

"Neo-Plasticism:

The General Principle of Plastic

Equivalence," 9;

New

York

City, 3; studio of, 13-14; Vic-

tory Boogie-Woogie,

3, 11

M o n k ,

Thelonious, xxi, xxviii,

24-25, 45;

"Jackie-ing,"

61;

"Let's Call

This,"

61

Morris, Lawrence "Butch,"

xxxi-xxxii, 125-29,

132,

135nl9

Morrison, Toni, 74; Jazz, xxx,

93-94

Morton, Ferdinand "Jelly Roll," 123

motion, absolute o r relative, 7

m usic, neo-plastic, 9-13

musical

instruments ,

xxii-xxiv,

41-46,

48-49,

127; "hubcap-

phone," 97-98; multiple, 48-49,

105; piano,

xxii-xxiv,

10-13,

52;

"Saxophonium,"

48

musical recordings, 39-40

music

production: AACM and,

104-6

naming:

jazz

musicians and, 61-62

Neidlinger,

Buell, xxiii, 135n26,

136n41, 140n25

Neiman, Bennett, xv

neo-plasticism,

4,

7-10,

24, 31

neo-plastic music, xxvii, 9-13

neo-plastic painting, 13-14

Nettl ,

Bruno, xii

New

York:

Le

Corbusier's view

of,

67-69

noise, xii-xiv

noise

orders, xxv-xxxi

notation, musical, xxiv, 40-43,

122-23;

Braxton and,

119-22;

Cage and, 52-53; gesture as,

125-27; Taylor and,

xx-xxi

Office

for

Metropolitan Architec-

ture (OMA), 107-8

Oliver, Jo e "King," 94

openness: in work of Mondrian,

4-7

optimization:

in

architecture,

92

order: noise as, xiii-xiv

Ostransky, Leroy, 95

O u d , J . J . P . ,4

Page, Walter, 23

painting, modern, 7-10, 18-19,

53-55. S ee also Mondrian, Piet

painting, neo-plastic, 13-14

Parker ,

Charl ie , xxi, xxviii , 23;

"Klact-oveeseds-tene,"

61 ;

"Now's the Time,"

61-62;

"Relaxin' at

Camar i l lo ,"

61

Parker, Evan, 46, 49, 76

percussion: in b oogie-woogie, 10-13

performance: and practice, 128

personal factor:

in

im provisation,

99-100

piano: boogie-woogie,

10-13;

prepared, 52; Taylor's m anipu-

lation

of, xxii-xxiv

planes: Mondrian's

focus on,

13-19

6



158 / Index

playing

practices:

in

improvised

music,

xxii-xxiv, xxxii, 42-43

Pollock, Jackson, 53-55; White

Light, 54

Porter, Lewis, 23

practice, xii, 128

preparation,

constant:

in impro-

vised music , 127-28

"Presence

of

M ies" (1992 sym po-

sium),

108-9

property: poli tical economy

o f,

108-11, 117

pro perty r ights,

149n39

ragt ime, 122-23

Ratte,

M ichel, xxviii, 26, 31

receptive diffusion, 55-58

recording studios, xxv, 59

repetition, role

of,

39-40

resonant

diffusion,

55, 58-60

rhy thm,

21-24,

39-40;

Armstrong's

use of, 73-77; in boogie-woogie,

1-2, 10-13; Cage and, 34-36;

and

the

"cut,"

22; dynamic , 22;

Mondr ian and , 4, 7,21; socia-

bility o f ,

22-23;

and var ia t ion,

21-24. See also temporality

Richmond, D annie, 25

risk:

in

improvised music,

76, 93,

128-29

Rowe, Colin, 6

Sant 'Elia, Antonia, 5-6

"Saxophonium," 48

scale: in u rb an architecture, 109-17

Scheerbart, Paul, 4-5,

7

Schoenberg, Arnold,

39

Sekler, Eduard, 146n35

Sennett, Richard, 69-70

serial music, 39-40

shapes: resulting

f rom

f o r m , 26-27

silence:

in

work

of

Mies

van der

Rohe, 102

skyscrapers, American, 66-68

Slutzky, Rob ert, 6

Small, Christopher, 41

Smith ,

Wadada

Leo, xxviii , 26, 45

Snead, Jam es, 21-22, 24

solo: Arm strong and, 73-75, 77,

94-95

sound: and architecture, 78-80;

and

music ,

33-34,

36-39

Sound?? (video), xxviii, 33-36, 49,

58

sound s t ructures , 121

space: Mondrian and, 13-19; tex-

tured, x xv

spatial

fields,xv

spiri tuals,

African

Amer ican , xxix,

42

s tandardizat ion: o f

jazz ,

90-91

Straight No Chaser ( d o c u m e n ta r y

film), 24

subject-object relations, complex,

xxii-xxiv,

xxix

succession: in

jazz ,

39

Sullivan, Louis, xxx , 100

swing,

89-91, 95, 123

Tanaka, Min,

xxi-xxii

Taylor, Cecil,

xviii-xxv,

xxvi , 11,

41, 45, 136n41, 140n25; class

at Turtle Bay M usic School,

xx-xxi; "Taht," 144nl; Unit

Structures,

xix-xx

technique,

in

improvised music,

45-49

temporal flow,

variable, xxiv-xxv

temporality, xxiv; architecture and,

83-88; Armst rong and , xxx,

71-77; in drawing, 146n42; his-

torical , 147n44; in im provised



Index

I 159

music, 75-76, 128; Le Co rbusier

and, 67-68, 71; Mo ndr ian and,

15-20

Thompson, Robert Farris , xvii, 122,

135n21

Threadgill , Henry, 97-98

t ransnat ional ism, 124-25

t ransparency:

in

architecture,

4-5,

7,102

Troy, Nancy, 4

Turtle

Bay

M usic School, xx-xxii

Tzonis, Alexander, xviii-xix

Ullm an, Michael , 23

unit structures: Taylor's concept

of, xix-xx

urb an m orphology , 108-11

van

Doesburg,

Theo, 8,

18-19;

"Private House" (with

v an

Eesteren),

19

van Eesteren, Cornelis: "Private

House" (with

van

D o e s b u r g ),

19

Varese,

Edgard : Poeme Electro-

nique (w ith Le Co rbu sier) ,

57-58

variation: rhythm

and, 21-24

Village

Voice, 39-40

ville radieuse (L e

Co rbusier),

69,

74,78

vision and music, xii-xiii

West, Mark,

xv

Wilmer ,

V alerie, xxiii

Wilson, Mabel, 74

work songs,

Afr ican

A m e r ic a n ,

xxix

Yates, Peter,

38

Zwerin, John,

39-40



David P. Brown is associate professor

of architecture at University of

Illinois

Chicago.

noise orders jazz, improvisation

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