Música experimental

: conceitos, formas, contextos e limites : contributos para uma percepção alargada

Abstract

The application of the concept ofexperimental in musical contexts has been the subject of great controversy since John Cage introduced the termexperimental music in the world of sound-musical production.
An in-depth search on the subject underlines the predominant aspect of non-uniformity of definitions, the lack of broad consensus and the plurality of interpretations regarding the term. From this diversity of problems originated in the most diverse sectors (academics, journalists, music producers, programmers of related events, musical publishers, among others),comes the fundamental motivation of this investigation.
Considering specialized literature and the existing theoretical production, one can infer that social and technological factors have operated as major engines of rupture and opening given the formal structure of music and simultaneously as active agents in the emergence of musical vanguards. Observing the predominant characteristics of the styles, of the instrumentation used (modified, expanded and elaborated), of the process and of the result, one can notice the diversity of the methods and the artistic ends, and the contradictions generated by the use of the term experimental music, which seems to be commonly employed as music meta-genre.
To this term is attributed a provocation to the forms and paradigms of traditional music and concert music, especially that begun in the transition of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It is considered that the Industrial Revolutions changed the form, the understanding, the social dynamics and the relations between man and the environment, and consequently the own art. From the technological events, we understand the so-called new music, prophesied byLuigi Russolo (1913) in his futurist manifesto The Art Of Noise.
Developments have been made in sound-testing laboratories and in research centers, especially the French, German, English and North American, which have helped to intensify music production and empirical exploration through easier access to electronic instruments as well as writing on a wide range of technical and philosophical issues arisen out of thesenew achievements. Since then, varied mutations have emerged and continue to emerge in the sonorous perspectives, in the forms and foundations of the development of experimental creation. These mutations cause difficulty in understanding the concept of experimental linked to sounds and the limits of their application. The central question of this investigation is therefore identified:
Where does the application of the term experimental music begin and end?

Date of Award	28 Jul 2017
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Vitor Joaquim Paredes Fernandes (Supervisor)