Experimental

Ubuweb (extensive sound, video archives, etc.)

Tacet (experimental music review)

Early Avant Garde/Experimental

• Culture Shock 1913 (WNYC podcast)
• MOMA Celebrates 1913
• Princeton’s Blue Mountain Project (downloadable archive of early 20th century avant garde magazines)–descriptions of magazines

Luigi Russolo

• “The Art of Noises” (1913)
• “How the Art of Noise Revolutionized 20th Century Music” (Oscar Paul Medina)

Charles Ives

• charlesives.org
• A Pre-Concert Talk for the Concord Sonata (Kyle Gann, 2015)
• Three Quarter-Tone Pieces: Largo 

Edgard Varèse

• “Amériques” (1918-21)
• “Intégrales” (1924-25)
• “Ionisation” (for percussion ensemble, 1930-31)
• Edgard Varèse, Charlie Parker, and the New York Improv Sessions
• Frank Zappa article on Varèse (June 1971, Stereo Review, pp. 62-63); Zappa on Saturday Night Live (10/21/1978)
• List of works and dates
• Virtual Electronic Poem Project
• Edgard Varèse–Poeme électronique–film

Henry Cowell

• henrycowell.org
• “Dynamic Motion” (1916) (with score); analysis on cowellpiano.com
• “Aeolian Harp” (1923), Elif Onal, piano
• “The Banshee” (1925), Elif Onal, piano
• “Sinister Resonance” (1930), Fausto Bongelli, piano

John Cage

• John Cage, list of works
• johncage.org (autobiographical statement); Guggenheim grant application for a Center of Experimental Music at Mills College (about 1940)
• John Cage Unbound (NY Public Library multimedia project), preparing the piano for Bachannale
• Life chronology  (cagecomp.home)
• Life magazine article on Cage MMA concert (March 1943)
• “Four Artists in a ‘Mansion’” (Harper’s Bazaar, 7/1952)
• Peter Greenaway’s Four American Composers, Part 1: John Cage
  
• Sonatas and Interludes (1946-48)
  • Complete (Vicky Chow)
  • Sonata V (Inara Ferreira)
  • Stephen Drury preparing the piano
• Water Walk (on I’ve Got a Secret, 1960)
• 1963 performance of Erik Satie’s “Vexations”
  • John Cale and audience member on I’ve Got a Secret (1963)
  • New York Times review
  • Warhol and Cage’s performance of Vexations
• Imaginary Landscape #4 (for 12 radios), 1951
  • Italy 2007, Hunter College NY 2008
• 4’33” (Wesleyan Orchestra, 2020): We begin with a 40-second “tutti” of our collective silences, followed by a 5-second “solo” silence from each participant, and end with another “tutti” (Nadya Potemkina, conductor)
• Variations V (1965) (German tv broadcast, 1966)
• Rozart Mix (1965)

• A Tribute to John Cage, a film by Nam June Paik (1973, re-edited 1976); part 2 (in Harvard Square)
• VV letter to editor, 25th anniversary retrospective Town Hall concert, May 1958
• Marjorie Perloff’s review of the 50th anniversary edition of Cage’s book Silence
• Lawsuit from Cage’s publisher against Mike Batt for copyright infringement of Silence
• Jonathan Katz articles on queer culture and the 1950s avant garde (including Cage)
• John Cage and ars combinatoria
• John Cage and Recorded Sound: A Discographical Essay
• Glass House Happening with Merce Cunningham, Velvet Underground (1967)
• “What Silence Taught John Cage: The Story of 4’33”” (James Pritchett)
• Cage and Duchamp (Dreams that Money Can Buy segment)
• David Tudor piano performance programs (davidtudor.org)

Earle Brown

• “December 1952“
• Piet Mondrian:  paintings at MOMA
• Alex Calder’s hanging mobiles

Christian Wolff

• List of works

Morton Feldman

• List of works

Fluxus

• Fluxus portal
• Anthology, Young and MacLow (1963)
• Fluxus works
• Fluxus Performance Workbook
• Catalog of all known La Monte Young recordings
• georgemaciunas.com
• Fluxus Festival 1962

Yoko Ono

• “Cut Piece” (MOMA); Albert and David Maysles film (1965, Carnegie Recital Hall); 1971 interview talking about Cut Piece (start 4:44)
• Yoko Ono – One(1966) (aka Match)
• Grapefruit
• John Lennon, Imagine album cover with Yoko Ono’s Cloud Piece
• John Lennon & Chuck Berry (RARE concert from 1972)
• One Woman Show at MoMA (2015) (catalog)

La Monte Young

• La Monte Young – Theatre Of Eternal Music 1960 & 1963
  • The Fire Is A Mirror (NYC, 12 – ’63, evening) (La Monte Young, 1963)
    • 17 XII 63 NYC The Fire Is a Mirror (from Todd Haynes VU film soundtrack)

  • Bb Dorian Blues (Fifth Day Of The Hammer) (La Monte Young, 1963)

• 1964

  • Cale, Conrad, Maclise, Young, Zazeela – The Dream Syndicate 2 IV 64-4. (possibly earlier in the year, before February 1964 when MacLise left–Sunday Morning Blues, January 1, 1964?)

  • Le Monte Young – Pre-Tortoise Dream Music [EXPERIMENTAL DRONE MUSIC] (April 2, 1964)

  • Pre-Tortoise Dream Music, Part 2 (April 2, 1964)

• The Dream Syndicate – Day Of Niagara (1965)

• Henry Flynt at 119 Bank Street

NamJune Paik, “Beatles Electronique” (1966-69)

• Nam June Paik and Charlotte Moorman, “TV Bra” (1969)

African American experimentalists

• Ben Patterson
  • “Ben Patterson, Cornerstone of Fluxus, and Experimental Art, Dies at 82” (Art News, 6/27/2016)
• Anthony Braxton
  • “Celebrating a Master of the Avant-Garde” (NYT, 104/2011)
• George Lewis
  • “Outspoken Composer to Lead International Contemporary Ensemble” (NYT, 4/8/2022)
• Tyshawn Sorey
  • “The Composer Tyshawn Sorey Enters a New Phase” (NYT, 1/7/2021)
  • “Review: At Rothko Chapel, A Composer is Haunted by a Hero” (NYT, 2/21/2022)

MISC

• Henry Flynt in New York (video interview series)
• American Mavericks on Public Radio (interviews, etc.)
• Avant guide to NY (map)
• A Feast of Astonishments Charlotte Moorman and the Avant-Garde, 1960s-1980s (NYU Grey Art Gallery)

• Alvin Lucier, “I am Sitting in a Room” (1970)
  • youtube video, “I am Sitting in a Room“
  • I am streaming in a room (start at 4:20)
  • Talking Tom take on “I am Sitting in a Room“
• “Give My Regards to Eighth Street” (NYSS exhibition by Olivia Matthis)

Experimental instruments

• Sea organ, Croatia
• Wave organ, San Francisco; VOA news report; local News report
• Blackpool high tide organ
• Aeolian Harp (Douglas Hollis)
• Singing, Ringing Tree
• Acoustic Wind Pavillion (Aeolus, Eden Project)

1970s Minimalists

• Steve Reich
  • South Bank Show documentary, part 1, 2, 3
  • BBC Arts interview on “It’s Gonna Rain”
  • Q interview
  • Interview (“It’s Gonna Rain,” “Come Out”), American Mavericks, 7/2002
  • The Story of “Come Out” (pitchfork, 4/28/2016)
  • “Come Out” as classic minimalism (Michael Schnell, 10/3/2016)
  • “Come Out,” digital lecture (Rami Stucky)
• Philip Glass
  • Peter Greeway’s Four American Composers, part 1
  • Another Look at Philip Glass: Aspect of Harmony and Formal Design (Rob Haskins, JEMS)
• History of Experimental Music in Northern California