Off the Charts
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But while it’s fascinating to see the scores, which sometimes constitute artwork in their own right, and to delve into the theory behind them, the music itself often completely abandons traditional harmony and rhythm–the elements that allow most people to understand and enjoy a piece of music. “When you listen to a lot of 20th-century music it’s not always that interesting,” says guitarist and trumpeter Nathaniel Braddock. In fact, if you don’t understand the relationship of the sounds to a graphic score, they can sound downright random. So when Braddock agreed last spring to assemble music for “Between Sound and Vision”–a new exhibit at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Gallery 400 that explores the concept of graphic notation–he wanted to guarantee that those relationships would be crystal clear. “I think it’s great to present an understanding of how this music is written with how it’s realized,” he says.
The show began as a class project under UIC art history professor Hannah Higgins, the daughter of Higgins and Knowles, in late 1999. Among her students was Jeremy Boyle, who contributes electronics to the experimental rock band Joan of Arc. Boyle recruited Braddock, an improviser and a member of another experimental rock band, the Ancient Greeks, knowing that he had a keen interest in graphic notation, and together they produced a CD for inclusion in the catalog. Most of the tracks are new works by artists featured in the show, but the pair also sought out six local groups and artists to record some of the old scores from Cage’s collection. Those new recordings will also be loaded into CD players installed near the corresponding scores in the exhibit.
Send gripes, leads, and love letters to Peter Margasak at postnobills@chicagoreader.com.
