The Wandelweiser Group is a

collective A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together to achieve a common objective. Collectives can differ from cooperatives in that they are not necessarily focused upon an ...

for composers and performers of

contemporary classical music Contemporary classical music is classical music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included seria ...

. Inspired by the work of

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...

, the Wandelweiser Group writes

experimental music Experimental music is a general label for any music or music genre that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilities radically opposed to, and questioning of, ...

, which is typically of a very quiet nature and often incorporates

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

. The musicologist Tim Rutherford-Johnson describes them as a "significant feature of art music in the 21st century." Based around the publisher Edition Wandelweiser, they also have their own record label Wandelweiser Records. Prominent members of the group include

Jürg Frey Jürg Frey (born 15 May 1953) is a Swiss composer and clarinettist. He is a member of the Wandelweiser Group. Biography Jürg Frey was born in 1953 in Aarau, Switzerland. He studied clarinet in Concervatoire de Musique de Genève, composition ...

Taylan Susam Taylan Susam (born November 18, 1986) is a Turkish-Dutch composer of experimental music. He is a member of the Wandelweiser group, which has been described by ''The New Yorker'' as "an informal network of twenty or so experimental-minded compos ...

and

Mark So Mark So (born June 14, 1978 in Syracuse, NY) is an American Experimental music, experimental composer and performer living in Los Angeles. His works, numbering over 800 (including a group of about 300 concerning poems of John Ashbery), are mostl ...

Overview

The Wandelweiser Group was founded in 1992 by Dutch-born flautist

Antoine Beuger Antoine Beuger (born 3 July 1955 in Oosterhout, Netherlands) is a Dutch composer, flautist, and music publisher. He is a founder of the Wandelweiser group. Biography Beuger studied composition from 1973 to 1978 with Ton de Leeuw at the Conservatori ...

and German violinist Burkhard Schlothauer. In 1993 Swiss clarinetist

was invited to join, followed by American guitarist

Michael Pisaro Michael Pisaro (born 1961 in Buffalo, New York) is a guitarist and composer. A member of the Wandelweiser Composers Ensemble, he has composed over 80 works for a great variety of instrumental combinations, including several pieces for variable ins ...

, Swiss pianist

Manfred Werder ''Manfred: A dramatic poem'' is a closet drama written in 1816–1817 by Lord Byron. It contains supernatural elements, in keeping with the popularity of the ghost story in England at the time. It is a typical example of a Gothic fiction. Byr ...

, then Austrian trombonist

Radu Malfatti Radu Malfatti is an Austrian trombone and harmonica player, and composer. He was born in Innsbruck, in the province of Tyrol, on December 16, 1943. Malfatti is associated with the style of music known as reductionism and has been described as "a ...

the following year, then American trombonist Craig Shepard, and others. The group runs its own publishing operation, Edition Wandelweiser, and its own record label Wandelweiser Records. The music of the Wandelweiser collective is characterized by sparse, quiet, fragile soundscapes incorporating frequent silences. According to Radu Malfatti, Wandelweiser music is about "the evaluation and integration of silence(s) rather than an ongoing carpet of never-ending sounds." Michael Pisaro suggests that Wandelweiser works, which often involve extended durations of hours or longer, offer an alternative relationship to time; these pieces "become not a duration to mark, but a space to occupy".

is a figure of central importance to the Wandelweiser composers; their music is often referred to as "silent music," taking as its starting point Cage's work 4'33", the first composition to consist largely of silence, after the "Marche Funebre" by the Frenchman

Alphonse Allais Alphonse Allais (20 October 1854 – 28 October 1905) was a French writer, journalist and humorist. Life Allais was born in Honfleur, Calvados. He died in Paris. Work He is the author of many collections of whimsical writings. A poet as much as ...

. According to Pisaro, "Beginning with the music of John Cage, it has become possible to see time as having its own structure: not as something imposed on it from the outside by music, but something which is already present, which exists alongside the music."

Performers

* Makiko Nisikaze *

* Quatuor Bozzini * Cristián Alvear

Composers

* Dante Boon * Daniel Brandes * Johnny Chang *

* Ben Glas * Mark Hannesson * Eva-Maria Houben * Carlo Inderhees * Marcus Kaiser * Jukka-Pekka Kervinen * Bin Li *

* André O. Möller * Anastassis Philippakopoulos *

* Kory Reeder * Burkhard Schlothauer * Sam Sfirri * Craig Shepard * Thomas Stiegler *

* Stefan Thut * Emmanuelle Waeckerlé *

References

Citations

Sources

* *

External links

Edition Wandelweiser homepage

* ttp://erstwords.blogspot.co.uk/2009/09/wandelweiser.html History of Wandelweiser by Michael Pisarobr>Wandelweiser archives at le son du grisliAlex Ross on Wandelweiser
International music organizations Composition schools Arts organizations established in 1992 {{music-org-stub