PRESERVING THE SACROSANCT

Chapter:

CHAPTER 2 Indeterminacy

Source:

MUSIC IN THE LATE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Author(s):

Richard Taruskin

As always, the allowance for discretion (particularly discretionary tempo or tempo rubato) reintroduces personal interpretation, even self-expression, into an ideal realm from which Cage, the consummate Apollonian, had sought to exclude it. That realm, as we have seen, is the ideally autonomous artwork. Cage's most zealous competitor in the pursuit of esthetic autonomy was Morton Feldman. Their approaches were very different. Cage's involved a meticulous and demanding methodology. Feldman, who studied in the 1940s with Stefan Wolpe (not a Cageian by any means but also a sympathetic friend of surrealist and abstract expressionist painters), tried more spontaneously to achieve l'acte gratuit, the wholly unmotivated gesture.

Citation (MLA):

Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 2 Indeterminacy." The Oxford History of Western Music. Oxford University Press. New York, USA. n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2025. <https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume5/actrade-9780195384857-div1-002010.xml>.

Citation (APA):

Taruskin, R. (n.d.). Chapter 2 Indeterminacy. In Oxford University Press, Music in the Late Twentieth Century. New York, USA. Retrieved 27 Apr. 2025, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume5/actrade-9780195384857-div1-002010.xml

Citation (Chicago):

Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 2 Indeterminacy." In Music in the Late Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press. (New York, USA, n.d.). Retrieved 27 Apr. 2025, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume5/actrade-9780195384857-div1-002010.xml