6.5: Avant-Garde

The Avant-garde

The term Avant-garde is a difficult concept to define, mainly because there are so many conflicting views about its origins in the arts. Put broadly, the Avant-garde pushes the boundaries of what is accepted by the mainstream, and is often known for its shock value. Some refer to the Avant-garde as synonymous with the postmodernist movement. Unlike the modernists of the early 20th century, which still held onto some semblance of tradition, the post-modernists often rebelled against all forms of tradition. The Avant-garde makes us reconsider our own artistic values, while often simultaeously mocking us and our sensibilities. Its roots lie in the 20th century Dada movement, which often sought to create satirical, comical, and slightly offensive art. Visit this website on the Dada movement, and scroll through some of the paintings and sculptures, and you'll probably find yourself chuckling to yourself (the Mona Lisa with a mustache is particularly amusing).

By Marcel Duchamp - NPR arthistory.about.com, Public Domain

A great example of this can be seen above: Marcel Duchamp's famous photograph titled Fountain (1917), which depicts a urinal as a water fountain. There's so many things wrong with this picture, which is rooted in sarcasm and satire. Clearly, one wouldn't drink water from a urinal, but again, the effect is comical, offensive, satirical, and sarcastic.

John Cage and the Avant-garde in Music.

You may recall from the first page of this text, the question "What is music?" was proposed to you. Up until now, the music we've looked at is mostly conventional --- though you may not like some of the Expressionist, Modernist, or even Impressionist works, it still sounded like music. But the 1950s and 60s Avant-garde movement really makes us ask what music really is. As you watch some of these pieces listed below, keep in mind that the composers are trying to be funny, satirical, philosophic, or even a combination of all three!

The Avant-garde in music was popular in the 1950s and 1960s, particularly in New York. A small group of like-minded Avant-garde musicians often wrote short pieces that questioned our very understanding of what music is, what it isn't, and what it should be. This group of composers became known as the "New York School." Among them was John Cage (1912-22, pictured left), who is known for his famous saying that "Everything we do is music." With that being said, take a listen to his piece 4'33'' and see if you agree with this saying! (He used the name 4'33'' because that was the length of the first performance of this piece.) If this is music, then what can't be music?

Cage was known for his innovative approach to piano music, especially with his music for prepared piano. Take a listen to this short piano work, and you'll notice that it sounds nothing like a real piano. That's because you'll see that the performer has inserted nuts, screws, bolts, and rubber stoppers in between many of the string. Sometimes, they place bicycle chains on top of the piano strings to make a tinny effect. Prepared piano pieces take hours to set up, as the performer needs to follow a chart that tells them what type of hardware to place in between the strings!

One of his other famous works is his sonata for Toy Piano. Take a listen to this performance of his sonata for toy piano. Part of the Avant-garde nature of this piece is that it's a "serious" work for a toy!

Arguably one of his most Avant-garde works is called Water Walk. Watch this short video of him performing this piece on the TV show I've got a Secret, live in 1960. If this can be considered music, then what isn't music?

You'll find in the Video Presentation to this page a longer discussion on Cage's philsophy on music and art in general, and will see a short discussion of his work Child of Tree. Before watching the video presentation, watch this performance of Rosie Bergoniz perform Child of Tree, which is short improvisatory work for a variety of percussion instruments and things found in nature: leaves, beans, acorns -- it's truly an innovative work, and it continues to raise the qusetion of "what is music?"

When you're done reading and listening to these pieces above, watch the Video Presentation on this composer and time period.

(above): Photgraph of John Cage from Percussive Arts Society. Fair use under US law.