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84-655: Zorn engaged New York City's downtown music scene in the mid-1970s, collaborating with improvising artists and experimenting with compositional strategies and arrangements. Over the next decade he performed throughout Europe and Japan and recorded on independent US and European labels. He released The Big Gundown , reconstructing the film scores of a formative musical influence, Ennio Morricone , to acclaim in 1986. Spillane and Naked City further demonstrated Zorn's ability to merge and blend musical styles in new and challenging formats. Zorn spent significant time in Japan in

168-1073: A "Lifetime Achievement in the Theater" award from the National Endowment for the Arts , the PEN American Center Master American Dramatist Award, a MacArthur Fellowship , and in 2004 was elected an officer of the Order of Arts and Letters of France. Foreman's archives and work materials have been acquired by the Fales Library at New York University (NYU). Richard Foreman was born in New York City, but spent many of his formative years in Scarsdale, New York. At Scarsdale High School (SHS), from which he graduated in 1955, Foreman

252-436: A "compositional workshop" to test the limitations of a rock band format. Featuring Zorn (saxophone), Bill Frisell (guitars), Fred Frith (bass), Wayne Horvitz (keyboards), Joey Baron (drums), and vocalist Yamatsuka Eye (and later Mike Patton ), Naked City blended Zorn's appreciation of hardcore punk and grindcore bands like Agnostic Front and Napalm Death with influences like film music, country or jazz often in

336-692: A Virgin (1991) and Buried Secrets (1992), also featured short grindcore and free jazz -inspired compositions. They released their first live album, Rituals: Live in Japan , in 1993, followed by the double CD Execution Ground (1994), which featured longer dub and ambient-styled pieces. A second live album, Talisman: Live in Nagoya , was released in 2002 and the band was featured on Zorn's 50th Birthday Celebration Volume 12 (2005) with Hamid Drake replacing Harris on drums and guest vocalist Mike Patton . Both bands attracted worldwide interest, particularly in Japan, where Zorn had relocated following

420-414: A day for a week, just orchestrating these file cards. It was an intense process. Zorn's file-card method of organizing sound blocks into an overall structure largely depended on the musicians he chose, the way they interpreted what was written on the file cards, and their relationship with Zorn who stated "At the end of the day, I want players to say: this was fun—it was a lot of fucking work, and it's one of

504-556: A freshman, he starred as Willie Loman in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman , receiving much acclaim, despite his later stated antipathy for Miller’s work. Later at Brown, Foreman founded the Production Workshop , Brown University's student theatre group, while taking part in other student theater productions. In 1993, Brown presented him with an honorary doctorate. At Yale, Foreman studied under John Gassner ,

588-632: A group called the Crowley Quartet. A 2009 performance of the album's centerpiece Necronomicon was described as "... frenetic vortexes of violent, abrasive motion, separated by eerily becalmed, suspenseful sections with moody, even prayerful melodies. The music is sensational and evocative, but never arbitrary; you always sense a guiding hand behind the mayhem". Later works expanded to include vocal and operatic works; Mysterium released in 2005 featured Frammenti del Sappho for female chorus; Rituals (2005) featured Zorn's opera composed for

672-476: A learning how to look at 'A' and 'B' and see not them but a relation that cannot be 'seen.' You can't look at 'it' (that relation) because it IS the looking itself. That's where he looking (you) is, doing the looking." Davy points out that "by eliminating internal punctuation in long complicated sentences," Stein's writing produces a similar effect for her readers who have to actively take part in discerning Stein's words. The Ontological-Hysteric Theater (OHT)

756-402: A masterful bebop alto player, but when he does perform in something approaching that style his playing has little of the tension and none of the relaxation of the great beboppers, often sounding more strangulated than anything". Zorn stated that "After my record The Big Gundown came out I was convinced that a lot of soundtrack work was going to be coming my way". While interest from Hollywood

840-753: A player's trust before they can play my music." Leaving Webster after three semesters, Zorn lived on the West Coast before returning to Manhattan where he gave concerts in his apartment and other small NY venues, playing saxophone and a variety of reeds, duck calls , tapes, and other instruments. Zorn immersed himself in the underground art scene, assisting filmmaker Jack Smith with his performances and attending plays by Richard Foreman . Zorn's early major compositions included many game pieces described as "complex systems harnessing improvisers in flexible compositional formats". These compositions "involved strict rules, role playing, prompters with flashcards, all in

924-469: A playwright. She abandoned the theatrical conventions of narrative structure in favor of a theatrical experience that focuses on the real-time consciousness—one in which "the spectator can move 'out' of the composition, or stop, at any moment without creating syncopated emotional time." Foreman's theatrical experiences invoke Stein's theories in that they both abandon narrative, focusing on the here-and-now, and they seem to include Foreman's "process of making

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1008-627: A profound impact on Foreman. In The Lower East Side Biography Project documentary, Foreman states, "those [films] really got to me. I thought this is the most poetic, beautiful, creative art that I've seen Americans producing." Foreman claims that, for a long time, he was too shy to introduce himself to Judith Malina and Julian Beck (the founders of The Living Theatre) or to Jonas Mekas, but fascinated by Mekas' work, Foreman and his wife, Kate Manheim , began following Mekas as he filmed various projects in New York. Foreman finally inserted himself into

1092-734: A series of commercial soundtracks for the advertising firm Wieden+Kennedy , including one directed by Jean-Luc Godard , a long-term Zorn inspiration. Zorn used his film commissions to record new ensembles like Masada and the Masada String Trio . From the mid-1990s, Zorn composed film music for independent films dealing with BDSM and LGBT culture , documentaries exploring the Jewish experience, and films about outsider artists . In 2013, after releasing 25 volumes in his Filmworks Series, Zorn announced that he would no longer be releasing music for film. Zorn established Naked City in 1988 as

1176-461: A series of duets by Zorn with Michihiro Sato on shamisen , which received limited release on the Yukon label in 1984. Zorn has subsequently reissued these early recordings. Zorn's breakthrough came in 1986 with the acclaimed The Big Gundown released on Nonesuch Records . The album was endorsed by composer Ennio Morricone, who said: "This is a record that has fresh, good and intelligent ideas. It

1260-418: A single composition. The band performed pieces by film composers Ennio Morricone, John Barry , Johnny Mandel and Henry Mancini and modern classicists Alexander Scriabin , Claude Debussy , Charles Ives , and Olivier Messiaen and recorded heavy metal and ambient albums. In 1991, Zorn formed Painkiller with Bill Laswell on bass and Mick Harris on drums. Painkiller's first two releases, Guts of

1344-473: A special benefit night at The Stone which was also released on The Stone: Issue Three on CD. In December 2016 Zorn announced that The Stone would close in February 2018 but that he was hopeful that a new location could be found, stating "Venues come and go, but the music continues on forever!" By March 2017 Zorn had negotiated with The New School to move The Stone to Greenwich Village. On February 25, 2018,

1428-439: A suite dedicated to Jean Genet , was released in 1992. The establishment of Tzadik allowed him to release many compositions which he had written over the previous two decades for classical ensembles. Zorn's earliest released classical composition, Christabel (1972) for five flutes, first appeared on Angelus Novus in 1998. He credits the composition of his 1988 string quartet Cat O' Nine Tails (commissioned and released by

1512-460: A theater collective in 1968 called "A Bunch of Experimental Theaters of New York Inc," which included seven theater companies: Mabou Mines , The Manhattan Project, Meredith Monk/The House , The Performance Group , The Ridiculous Theatrical Company, Section Ten, and Foreman's company, Ontological-Hysteric Theatre. From this point on, Foreman began producing works under the moniker "Ontological-Hysteric." A number of scholars have called attention to

1596-701: A three-month residency in Tokyo. In 2006, Zorn formed the voice/bass/drums trio of Mike Patton, Trevor Dunn , and Joey Baron as "a compositional challenge, as a song cycle, songs without words" as he decided "I want to work with Patton more; Patton was very hungry to do more work together. ‘OK, so let's start it with just bass, drums, and voice". Rolling Stone said Moonchild was "a band that, much like Naked City, mutated radically across its lifespan as Zorn kept raising his compositional bar. While it touched on similar extremes as that group... its episodes are more sustained, its structures more conventionally songlike" noting "For

1680-421: A year. So in the first month, I popped out a hundred tunes; the second month, another hundred; in the third month, a third 100 tunes. I had no idea that was going to happen. Zorn released thirty-two volumes of Masada Book Two compositions performed by many varied artists. The titles of many Masada Book Two compositions are derived from demonology and Judeo-Christian mythology . The Masada quartet performed at

1764-458: Is a play without a plot, it produces its own kind of structure of "thematic webs of visual and verbal ideas and references." Foreman achieves this visual structure through "picturization.' By picturization, Kirby means that Foreman's staging is presented as "sequences of static pictures" in which the actors adjust themselves into tableaux as opposed to moving continuously throughout the play. Kirby also notes that Foreman makes use of written text that

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1848-653: Is an American avant-garde playwright and the founder of the Ontological-Hysteric Theater . Foreman has written, directed and designed over fifty of his own plays, both in New York City and abroad. He has received three Obie Awards for Best Play of the Year, and received four other Obies for directing and for sustained achievement. Foreman has received the annual Literature Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters ,

1932-512: Is an embrace of the creative attitudes of John Cage , though this is not universal; Zorn in particular has downplayed his influence. Some Downtown music, particularly that of Philip Glass , Steve Reich , John Zorn , and Morton Feldman , has subsequently become widely acknowledged within the more mainstream history of music. More than a continuous scene, Downtown music has resembled a battlefield on which, from time to time, various groups have reigned ascendant. In chronological order of dominance,

2016-425: Is not solely specific to Manhattan ; many major cities such as Chicago , San Francisco , even Birmingham, Alabama have alternative, Downtown music scenes. There is a considerable overlap between Downtown music and what is more generally called experimental music , especially as that term was defined at length by composer Michael Nyman in his influential book Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond . Nyman opposes

2100-415: Is projected on screens on the set. These projected words, Kirby describes, are both direct addresses to the spectator and "expository information". Kirby also writes about how Foreman literally controlled the pace and tempo of every performance of "Sophia." During the performance, Foreman would sit at a table in front of the stage, controlling the projections and sound cues. By acting as stage manager, Foreman

2184-598: Is realization on a high level, a work done by a maestro with great science-fantasy and creativity ... Many people have done versions of my pieces, but no one has done them like this". Zorn followed with Spillane in 1987, his second major-label release, featuring performances by Albert Collins , the Kronos Quartet , and the sprawling title track, an early "file-card" composition. This method of combining composition and improvisation involved Zorn writing descriptions or ideas on file-cards and arranging them to form

2268-729: The Bayreuth Opera Festival in 1998; and La Machine de l'Être composed in 2000, premiered at the New York City Opera in 2011, and recorded for the 2012 album Music and Its Double . Zorn's concert works have been performed all over the world and he has received commissions from the New York Philharmonic , Brooklyn Philharmonic and BBC Radio 3 . Conversations with Joey Baron led Zorn to explore and embrace Jewish culture. A further file-card composition Kristallnacht (1992) reflected on

2352-752: The Judson Memorial Church , The Kitchen , Experimental Intermedia, Roulette , the Knitting Factory , Dance Theater Workshop , Tonic , the Gas Station, the Paula Cooper Gallery, and others. Brooklyn Academy of Music has also shown a predilection for composers from the Downtown scene. Downtown music is not distinguished by any particular principle, but rather by what it does not do: it does not confine itself to

2436-540: The Juilliard School at Lincoln Center and Columbia University would soon occupy. Ono's gesture led to a new performance tradition of informal performances in nontraditional venues such as lofts and converted industrial spaces, involving music much more experimental than that of the more conventional modern classical series Uptown. Spaces in Manhattan that supported Downtown music from the 1960s on included

2520-457: The Kronos Quartet on Short Stories ) to awakening him to the possibilities of writing for classical musicians. This composition also appeared on The String Quartets (1999) and Cartoon S/M (2000) along with variations on "Kol Nidre", inspired by the Jewish prayer of atonement which was written at the same time as the first Masada Book. Aporias: Requia for Piano and Orchestra (1998)

2604-590: The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in March 2007 for what were billed as their final concerts. Zorn reformed the band as a sextet with Uri Caine and Cyro Baptista in 2009 saying: I felt like we kind of hit a plateau a little bit with it in 2007 and I said, "Well, maybe the quartet is really done. Maybe we've accomplished what we can accomplish. Maybe it's time to put this to bed." And then I

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2688-695: The Night of Broken Glass that violently and destructively targeted Jews in Germany and Austria in 1938. Several movements used the Phrygian dominant and Ukrainian Dorian scales common to klezmer music . Zorn set himself the task of writing 100 compositions using the scale within a year. In 1993 Zorn engaged Baron along with Dave Douglas (trumpet) and Greg Cohen (double bass) to provide musical cues for Joe Chappelle 's first film Thieves Quartet (later collected on Filmworks III: 1990–1995 ) and established

2772-1039: The Paris Opera , Don Giovanni at the Opera de Lille, Philip Glass 's Fall of the House of Usher at the American Repertory Theater and The Maggio Musicale in Florence , Woyzeck at Hartford Stage Company, Molière's Don Juan at the Guthrie Theater and The New York Shakespeare Festival , Kathy Acker 's Birth of the Poet at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the RO theater in Rotterdam, Gertrude Stein 's Doctor Faustus Lights

2856-591: The Tzadik record label to ensure the availability of his catalogue and promote other musicians. The label's releases are divided into series: Tzadik also releases special-edition CDs, DVDs, books and T-shirts. Since 1998, the designs of Tzadik releases have been created by graphic artist Heung-Heung "Chippy" Chin. Zorn's earliest New York performances occurred at small artist-run performance spaces including his own apartment. As his profile grew, he became associated with several Lower East Side alternative venues such as

2940-561: The Vienna Festival . Foreman has collaborated (as librettist and stage director) with composer Stanley Silverman on eight music theater pieces produced by The Music Theater Group and The New York City Opera . He has also directed and designed many classical productions with major theaters around the world including, The Threepenny Opera , The Golem and plays by Václav Havel , Botho Strauss , and Suzan-Lori Parks for The New York Shakespeare Festival , Die Fledermaus at

3024-421: The cartoon scores of Carl Stalling into his first recordings and discovered Anthony Braxton 's groundbreaking solo album For Alto which inspired him to take up the instrument. "I'm not going to sit in some ivory tower and pass my scores down to the players." said Zorn, "I have to be there with them, and that's why I started playing saxophone, so that I could meet musicians. I still feel that I have to earn

3108-649: The "New Music New York" festival presented by The Kitchen in 1979, which visibly showcased the music referred to as Downtown; the term remained in widespread use during the years of the New Music America festival (1979–1990). Due to its obvious and inconvenient applicability to many types of music, use of "new music" as describing a specific type of contemporary composition has fallen off in recent years. Notes Sources Richard Foreman Richard Foreman (born June 10, 1937 in New York City )

3192-401: The "continuous present." Stein's method of writing is meditative practice that requires the writer's "deliberate detachment of oneself from the external world while documenting one's own consciousness in the act of writing." Therefore, this type of writing is said to reflect the workings of the writer's mind in its presentation. Stein adopted this theory of the "continuous present" to her work as

3276-411: The 1960s. The scene the term describes began in 1960, when Yoko Ono , one of the early Fluxus artists, opened her loft at 112 Chambers Street , in a part of Lower Manhattan later named Tribeca , to be used as a performance space for a series curated by La Monte Young and Richard Maxfield . Prior to this, most classical music performances in New York City occurred "uptown" around the areas that

3360-812: The 1980s and early '90s returning to Lower East Side Manhattan to establish the Tzadik record label in 1995. Tzadik enabled Zorn to establish independence, maintain creative control, and ensure the availability of his growing catalog of recordings. He prolifically recorded and released new material for the label, issuing several new albums each year, along with recordings by many other artists. Zorn performs on saxophone with his Naked City , Painkiller , and Masada bands, conducts ensembles such as Moonchild, Simulacrum, and several Masada-related groups or encourages musicians toward their own interpretations of his work. He has composed concert music for classical ensembles and orchestras, and produced music for opera, sound installations, film and documentary. Tours of Europe, Asia, and

3444-652: The Blueprint Series for emerging directors. In 2005, OHT reorganized their emerging artists program under the name INCUBATOR, "creating a series of linked programs to provide young theater artists with resources and support to develop process-oriented, original theatrical productions." The INCUBATOR programs include a residency program, two annual music festivals, a regular concert series, a serial work-in-progress program called Short Form, and roundtables and salons. The program received an OBIE grant in 2010. Foreman's work has been primarily produced by and performed at

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3528-672: The Book of Angels project, Azazal and Haborym . In 2003, Zorn formed Electric Masada, a band featuring Zorn, Baptista, Baron, and Ribot, along with Trevor Dunn (bass), Ikue Mori (electronics), Jamie Saft (keyboards), and Kenny Wollesen (drums) releasing their debut live album from Zorn's 50th Birthday Concert series and a double live CD recorded in 2004. In 2019, Zorn formed the New Masada Quartet with Julian Lage (guitar), Jorge Roeder (bass), and Kenny Wollesen (drums). A Tenth Anniversary Series of Masada recordings

3612-480: The Knitting Factory and Tonic. On Friday April 13, 2007, Zorn played the final night at Tonic before it closed due to financial pressures. Zorn was the principal force in establishing The Stone in 2005, an avant-garde performance space in New York's Alphabet City which supports itself solely on donations and the sale of limited-edition CDs, giving all door revenues directly to the performers. Zorn holds

3696-665: The Lights at the Autumn Festivals in Berlin and Paris. In 2024, The Wooster Group staged a new interpretation, with Foreman's permission, of Symphony of Rats. Seven collections of his plays have been published, and books studying his work have been published in English, French, and German. In 2004, Foreman established The Bridge Project with Sophie Haviland to promote international art exchange between countries around

3780-539: The Masada Books. Zorn completed the third Masada book, titled The Book Beriah , in 2014. Zorn released one of his most popular albums, The Gift , in 2001, which surprised many with its relaxed blend of surf, exotica and world music. On February 29, 2008, at St Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, Zorn premiered The Dreamers , which saw a return to the gentle compositions first featured on The Gift and established

3864-572: The Masada String Trio, composed of Greg Cohen (bass), Mark Feldman (violin), and Erik Friedlander (cello); and the Bar Kokhba Sextet which added Marc Ribot (guitar), Cyro Baptista (percussion), and Joey Baron (drums), both of which were featured on 1998's The Circle Maker . The Masada String Trio were also featured on Zorn's Filmworks series , as part of his 50th Birthday Celebration , and released two albums as part of

3948-553: The Middle East have been extensive, usually at festivals with musicians and ensembles that perform his repertoire. John Zorn was raised in a Jewish family in New York City where he attended the United Nations International School and studied piano, guitar and flute. Zorn's mother, Vera (née Studenski; 1918–1999), listened to classical and world music ; his father, Henry Zorn (1913–1992),

4032-659: The Ontological-Hysteric Theater in New York, though he has gained acclaim as director for such productions as Bertolt Brecht 's The Threepenny Opera at Lincoln Center and the premiere of Suzan-Lori Parks 's Venus at the Public Theater . Foreman's plays have been co-produced by The New York Shakespeare Festival , La Mama Theatre , The Wooster Group , the Festival d'Automne in Paris and

4116-476: The audience member who cannot project themself into the experience of the character. Through Foreman's alienating characterization, the audience is made to look at Foreman's actors as "self-enclosed units," or theatrical props, rather than characters. Therefore, Foreman's aesthetics demand that the spectator not escape into the play, but become conscious of their own process of interpretation. In Foreman's essay, "14 Things I Tell Myself," he elaborates, "Our art then =

4200-628: The avant-garde scene when police interrupted a screening and seized a copy of the 1963 film, Flaming Creatures , and charged Jonas Mekas , Ken Jacobs , and Florence Karpf for violating New York's obscenity laws. Foreman called Mekas, offering his help, and over the following years, Foreman and Mekas became close friends and collaborators. Through his connection to Jonas Mekas, Foreman became acquainted with architect and artist, George Maciunas . Foreman began working for Mekas and Maciunas, overseeing their movie theater, Film-Maker's Cinematheque at 80 Wooster Street. Foreman also became heavily involved in

4284-726: The band of the same name. The Dreamers released their second album, O'o , in 2009, an album of Zorn's Book of Angels compositions in 2010 and a Christmas album in 2011. In 1992, John Zorn curated the Avant subsidiary of the DIW label and released several Naked City recordings on the label as well as many other albums featuring Zorn affiliated musicians including Derek Bailey , Buckethead , Eugene Chadbourne , Dave Douglas , Erik Friedlander , Wayne Horvitz , Ikue Mori , Bobby Previte , Zeena Parkins and Marc Ribot . In 1995, in co-operation with jazz producer Kazunori Sugiyama, Zorn established

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4368-501: The charts out and said, "OK, just watch me because I'll be conducting. Let's just do it." And it was one of those magical clicks on the bandstand that sometimes happens. So yeah, this band is taking off again. After 15 years of doing this music, we can still find new things. Zorn's Masada compositions and associated ensembles have become a central focus of many concerts and festivals and he has established regular 'Masada Marathons' that feature various bands and musicians performing music from

4452-412: The development of Maciunas' Fluxhouse Cooperatives , which consisted of converted SoHo lofts designed to be living and working spaces for artists. During the 1960s, Foreman also got to know theater director Robert Wilson , filmmaker and actor Jack Smith , and theater director and scholar Richard Schechner , all of whom encouraged Foreman to start producing his own work. With Schechner, Foreman formed

4536-606: The drama critic and former literary manager at The Theatre Guild . Richard Foreman moved to New York City directly after graduating from Yale School of Drama and worked as a manager of apartment complexes. Before finding his footing as a theater practitioner, Foreman became an avid patron of New York's downtown experimental theater and film scene. Foreman described feeling "overwhelmed" upon seeing The Living Theatre 's productions of The Connection and The Brig . Foreman also attended screenings of avant-garde filmmaker Jonas Mekas at The Living Theatre. Mekas' early cinematic work had

4620-596: The early 1980s, Zorn was heavily engaged in improvisation as both a solo performer and with other like-minded artists. Zorn's first solo saxophone recordings were originally released in two volumes as The Classic Guide to Strategy in 1983 and 1986 on the Lumina label. Zorn's early small group improvisations are documented on Locus Solus (1983) which featured Zorn with various combinations of other improvisers including Christian Marclay , Arto Lindsay , Wayne Horvitz , Ikue Mori , and Anton Fier . Ganryu Island featured

4704-574: The ensembles, performance tradition, and musical rhetoric of European classical music, nor to the commercially defined conventions of pop music. The only thing that all Downtown music might be said to have in common is that, at least at the time of its original appearance, it was too bizarre – by dint of excessive length, stasis, simplicity, extemporaneity, consonance, noisiness, pop influence, vernacular reference, or other purported infraction – to have been considered "serious" modern music by proponents of "uptown" music. Another generalization one could point to

4788-405: The first Masada group to perform his recent compositions using the instrumental lineup and improvisational approach of Ornette Coleman 's pioneering free jazz quartet. Within three years, the number of compositions had grown to 205 and became known as the first Masada Book. Zorn explained: The project for Masada was to create something positive in the Jewish tradition something that maybe takes

4872-409: The first book, I thought "Maybe it'd be nice to write some more tunes." And I wrote 300 more tunes. When I started writing those it was "Let's see if I can write a hundred songs in a month this time." I've been working on these scales and playing these tunes all this time. In the back of my head somewhere are lodged all kinds of new ideas. Let's see if I can come up with 100 tunes in a month instead of in

4956-465: The first five of Moonchild's seven albums, released from 2006 through 2014, Patton utilized his full whisper-to-scream range while operating entirely without lyrics". As Zorn's interest in Naked City waned, he "started hearing classical music in [his] head again." Zorn started working on compositions that drew on chamber music arrangements of strings, percussion and electronic instruments. Elegy ,

5040-507: The following movements have been prominent Downtown: The above list of movements and idioms is far from exhaustive – in particular, it omits the continuous history of electronics in Downtown music, which have tended toward process-oriented and interactive music rather than fixed compositions. The history of sound installations should be taken into account, along with the more recent advent of DJing as an art form. Likewise, despite its origin in New York musical politics, "Downtown" music

5124-409: The hardest things I've ever done, but it was worth the effort." Three further releases on Nonesuch followed; Spy vs Spy in 1989, Naked City in 1990, and Filmworks 1986–1990 (1992) before Zorn broke with the label. All the various styles are organically connected to one another. I'm an additive person—the entire storehouse of my knowledge informs everything I do. People are so obsessed with

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5208-443: The idea of Jewish music into the 21st century the way jazz developed from the teens and 1920s into the '40s, the '50s, the '60s and on ... My initial idea was to write a hundred tunes. And then I ended up writing over 200 for the first book and then performed it countless time for years. In 1996, Zorn released Bar Kokhba featuring Masada compositions recorded by a rotating group of musicians. Two ensembles arose from this album:

5292-422: The intentional manipulation of an audiences emotional responses by eliminating the 'lifelike' qualities of drama (clearly developing situation involving imaginary people in imaginary places), thereby creating a world into which the spectator has great difficulty projecting himself." Davy gives the example of Foreman's characters often referring to themselves in the third person, which creates an alienating effect for

5376-459: The last performance was held at the original venue and Zorn moved operations to The New School's The Glass Box Theatre on the basis of a handshake deal . In September 2003, Zorn celebrated his 50th birthday with a month-long series of performances at Tonic in New York, repeating an event he had begun a decade earlier at the Knitting Factory . He conceptualized the month into several different aspects of his musical output. Zorn's bands performed on

5460-632: The mid 1970s, however, OHT gained traction with relatively popular works such as Sophia = (Wisdom) Part 3: The Cliffs (1972). In his 1973 essay, "Richard Foreman's Ontological-Hysteric Theatre," theater critic Michael Kirby aptly breaks down the aesthetics of OHT through the case study of Foreman's play Sophia = (Wisdom) Part 3: The Cliffs. Kirby uses the elements of setting, picturization, speech, written material, control, movement and dances, sound, objects, relation to film, structure, content , and effect to analyze Foreman's theatrical vocabulary. Among his observations, Kirby notes that although "Sophia"

5544-473: The name of melding structure and improvisation in a seamless fashion". Zorn's early game pieces had sporting titles like Lacrosse (1976), Hockey (1978), Pool (1979), and Archery (1979), which he recorded and first released on Eugene Chadbourne 's Parachute label. His most enduring game piece is Cobra , composed in 1984 and first recorded in 1987 and in subsequent versions in 1992 , 1994 and 2002 , and revisited in performance many times. In

5628-478: The parallels between the theories of Gertrude Stein and Richard Foreman's theatrical aesthetics. Foreman himself has spoken about the significance of her writings to his work. In 1969, Foreman declared, "Gertrude Stein obviously was doing all kinds of things we haven't event caught up to yet." Kate Davy analyzes Stein's influence on Foreman in her article, Richard Foreman's Ontological-Hysteric Theatre: The Influence of Gertrude Stein . The primary connection between

5712-412: The piece. Zorn described the process in 2003: I write in moments, in disparate sound blocks, so I find it convenient to store these events on filing cards so they can be sorted and ordered with minimum effort. Pacing is essential. If you move too fast, people tend to stop hearing the individual moments as complete in themselves and more as elements of a sort of cloud effect ... I worked 10 to 12 hours

5796-496: The play" in the presentation of the play. In his essay, "How I Write My (Self: Plays)," Foreman explains his process of taking text to performance: "The writing tending towards a more receptive, open, passive receiving of 'what wants to be written' and the staging tending towards more active organization of the 'arrived' elements of the writing -- finding ways to make the writing inhabit a constructed environment." Davy notes that like Stein, Foreman tends to avoid "'emotional traps' or

5880-653: The surface that they can't see the connections, but they are there. —John Zorn Zorn demonstrated his hard bop credentials as a member of the Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet, recording Voodoo in 1986. News for Lulu (1988) and More News for Lulu (1992) featured Zorn, Bill Frisell and George E. Lewis performing compositions by Clark, Kenny Dorham , Freddie Redd , and Hank Mobley . He recorded Spy vs Spy featuring hardcore punk versions of Ornette Coleman 's compositions in 1989. According to Cook, "Zorn's admirers often consider him

5964-441: The term to avant-garde , as generally being American/British versus Continental, experimental music being more open to process, surprises, and accidents and less focused on the artistic personality. In this respect, as a general descriptive, and without reference to any particular scene, experimental and Downtown have sometimes been used synonymously. Another, even more coextensive term is new music , which took on currency following

6048-508: The title of artistic director and regularly performs 'Improvisation Nights'. Zorn feels that "The Stone is a unique space and is different from Tonic, the Knitting Factory, and most of the other venues we have played at as there is no bar ... so there is NO pressure to pack the house with an audience that drinks, and what night you perform has nothing to do with your power to draw a crowd or what kind of music you might play". On January 10, 2008, Zorn performed with Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson at

6132-468: The weekends, classical ensembles were featured on Sundays, Zorn performed improvisations with other musicians on Mondays, featured his extended compositions on Tuesdays and a retrospective of game pieces on Wednesdays. A total of 12 live albums were released on his 50th Birthday Celebration Series. Downtown music Downtown music is a subdivision of American music , closely related to experimental music , which developed in downtown Manhattan in

6216-470: The works of Stein and Foreman, she proposes, is the writers' conception of consciousness in writing. Stein preferred "entity writing" over "identity writing." According to Stein's model, "entity writing" is "the 'thing-in-itself' detached from time and association, while identity is the 'thing-in-relation,' time-bound, clinging in association." "Entity writing" is free from any notion of remembering, relationships, or narratives, and it expresses what Stein called

6300-585: Was Edward L. Friedman. Foreman’s birth mother was an orthodox Jew, and his birth father was Catholic “with artistic talent,” according to information he received from the Jewish adoption agency, Louise Wise Services. Both his adopted parents were Jewish. Foreman says, "...my parents were very supportive, but nevertheless, I didn't feel that close to them in certain ways." Richard Foreman went on to study at Brown University (B.A. 1959), and received an MFA in Playwriting from Yale School of Drama in 1962. As

6384-598: Was Zorn's first full-scale orchestral release featuring pianist Stephen Drury , the Hungarian Radio Children's Choir and the American Composers Orchestra conducted by Dennis Russell Davies . Much of Zorn's classical work is dedicated or inspired by artists who have influenced him: Several of Zorn's later concert works drew inspiration from mysticism and the works of Aleister Crowley in particular; Magick (2004) featured

6468-522: Was a starting point for many artists making their mark in New York City and internationally including David Herskovitz, Artistic Director of Target Margin Theater, Damon Keily Artistic Director of American Theater in Chicago , Radiohole , Elevator Repair Service , Pavol Liska , NTUSA , as well as Richard Maxwell , Sophie Haviland, Bob Cucuzza, DJ Mendel , Ken Nintzle and Young Jean Lee ." In 1993, OHT began their emerging artists program by initiating

6552-574: Was able to insert himself into he performance as it unfolded. Kirby also discusses the role of sound in Foreman's plays. He writes, "Noise, too, serves as both background and as an explicit part of the action." At times, recordings of lines take over for the actors' actual voice, creating a sense of alienation. The Ontological-Hysteric Theater prides itself on nurturing the talents of young and emerging theater practitioners. According to their website, "the OHT

6636-506: Was asked by the Marciac Jazz Festival to put together a slightly larger group. They asked me what if I added a couple of people to Masada and I said, "I can't add anybody to the quartet. The quartet is the quartet, that's what we do." But then I thought, "Well, if I was going to add someone I would probably ask Uri and Cyro." So we tried it at Marciac and it was unbelievable. We didn't even have any rehearsal time. I just passed

6720-654: Was founded by Foreman in 1968. The core of the company's annual programming has been Richard Foreman's theater pieces. Foreman mounted his first production with Ontological-Hysteric Theatre in 1968 at the Film-Maker's Cinematheque on Wooster Street, where he worked under the Fluxus leader George Maciunas . Ontological-Hysteric Theatre balances a primitive and minimal art style with extremely complex and theatrical themes. OHT's first productions, Angelface (1968) and Ida-Eyed (1969), received almost no critical attention. By

6804-514: Was heavily involved in the theater department. A 2018 documentary produced by the Lower East Side Biography Project outlined Foreman's early motivations for pursuing work in the theater. The documentary maintains that Foreman suffered from extreme shyness as a child. The documentary also reveals that Foreman was adopted — a fact he did not discover until he was in his 30s. The name given to him by his birth mother

6888-762: Was interested in jazz , French chansons , and country music ; and his older brother collected doo-wop and 1950s rock and roll records. Zorn spent his teenage years "listening to The Doors and playing bass in a surf band " while also exploring the experimental and avant-garde music of György Ligeti , Mauricio Kagel and Karlheinz Stockhausen and listening to cartoon soundtracks and film scores. Zorn taught himself orchestration and counterpoint by transcribing scores and studied composition under Leonardo Balada before enrolling at Webster College where he attended lectures by Oliver Lake . While at Webster he incorporated elements of free jazz , avant-garde and experimental music , film scores , performance art and

6972-422: Was not forthcoming, eventually independent filmmakers like Sheila McLaughlin and Raúl Ruiz sought his talents. Filmmaker Walter Hill rejected his music for a film to be called Looters . Although Zorn's score did not make the final cut he used the money he received to establish the record label, Tzadik, on which he released Filmworks II: Music for an Untitled Film by Walter Hill in 1995. Zorn also produced

7056-588: Was released by Zorn beginning in 2003. The series featured five albums of Masada themes including Masada Guitars by Marc Ribot , Bill Frisell , and Tim Sparks ; Masada Recital by Mark Feldman and Sylvie Courvoisier ; Masada Rock by Rashanim; and two albums featuring various artists, Voices in the Wilderness and The Unknown Masada . In 2004, Zorn began composing the second Masada Book, The Book of Angels , resulting in an additional 316 compositions. Zorn explained: After 10 years of performing

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