Experimental Music Catalogue
Encyclopedia
The Experimental Music Catalogue (commonly known as the EMC) was founded in 1968 by Christopher Hobbs
in order to provide an outlet for new music by composers of the English experimental movement, Publications appeared mainly as generic anthologies, such as the Verbal Anthology,String Anthology, Rhythmic Anthology and the Scratch Anthology of Compositions. These anthologies featured music by British composers such as Cornelius Cardew
, Hugh Shrapnel
, Howard Skempton
, Gavin Bryars
, John White
, and other experimental composers, including those in the Scratch Orchestra
, but also others, including Robert Ashley
and Terry Jennings
.
As the Catalogue grew in the 1970s, Hobbs released control to a committee including Gavin Bryars
and Michael Nyman
. However, due to the change in music and publishing needs after experimental music turned to minimalism
and other post-modern styles, the EMC was wound down in the early 1980s. Hobbs re-established the EMC in 1999 as an online not-for-profit publishing house and information centre, a source for reprints of some of the original EMC music, new music by Hobbs, Dave Smith
, Dominy Clements, Hugh Shrapnel
, a new edition of Erik Satie
's Fils d'etoiles; plus recordings by Michael Parsons, Hobbs, Smith, and British free improvisers such as Hobbs, Bruce Coates, Paul Dunmall
, Mike Hurley, and Walt Shaw. The EMC website also contains information on the works of experimental composers, an archive of articles and writings and the Journal of Experimental Music Studies, or Jems (edited by the musicologist Virginia Anderson), a peer-review journal consisting of new articles on experimental music, postmodernism, and minimalism, as well as a reprint archive of articles from Contact: A Journal of New Music and other sources. The slogan of the renascent EMC is 'Experimental Music Since 1969', reflecting the first dated publication, rather than the first output.
Christopher Hobbs
Christopher Hobbs is an English experimental composer, best known as a pioneer of British Systems music.-Life and career:...
in order to provide an outlet for new music by composers of the English experimental movement, Publications appeared mainly as generic anthologies, such as the Verbal Anthology,String Anthology, Rhythmic Anthology and the Scratch Anthology of Compositions. These anthologies featured music by British composers such as Cornelius Cardew
Cornelius Cardew
Cornelius Cardew was an English experimental music composer, and founder of the Scratch Orchestra, an experimental performing ensemble. He later rejected the avant-garde in favour of a politically motivated "people's liberation music".-Biography:Cardew was born in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire...
, Hugh Shrapnel
Hugh Shrapnel
Hugh Shrapnel is an English composer of contemporary classical music and oboist. He was a student of Cornelius Cardew and a member of the Scratch Orchestra. He also co-founded the Promenade Theatre Orchestra in 1969....
, Howard Skempton
Howard Skempton
Howard Skempton is a British composer and accordionist. Since the late 1960s, when he helped organize the Scratch Orchestra, he has been associated with the English school of experimental music...
, Gavin Bryars
Gavin Bryars
Richard Gavin Bryars is an English composer and double bassist. He has been active in, or has produced works in, a variety of styles of music, including jazz, free improvisation, minimalism, historicism, experimental music, avant-garde and neoclassicism.-Early life and career:Born in Goole, East...
, John White
John White (composer)
John White is an English composer and musical performer.-Life:White trained and taught at the London Royal College of Music...
, and other experimental composers, including those in the Scratch Orchestra
Scratch Orchestra
The Scratch Orchestra was an experimental musical ensemble founded in the spring of 1969 by Cornelius Cardew, Michael Parsons and Howard Skempton....
, but also others, including Robert Ashley
Robert Ashley
Robert Ashley , is a contemporary American composer, best known for his operas and other theatrical works, many of which incorporate electronics and extended techniques. Along with Gordon Mumma, Ashley was also a major pioneer of audio synthesis.Ashley was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan...
and Terry Jennings
Terry Jennings
Terry Jennings was an American minimalist composer and performer.Terry Jennings was born in Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, California, in 1940. Coming from a background in jazz, he played piano, clarinet, and saxophones...
.
As the Catalogue grew in the 1970s, Hobbs released control to a committee including Gavin Bryars
Gavin Bryars
Richard Gavin Bryars is an English composer and double bassist. He has been active in, or has produced works in, a variety of styles of music, including jazz, free improvisation, minimalism, historicism, experimental music, avant-garde and neoclassicism.-Early life and career:Born in Goole, East...
and Michael Nyman
Michael Nyman
Michael Laurence Nyman, CBE is an English composer of minimalist music, pianist, librettist and musicologist, known for the many film scores he wrote during his lengthy collaboration with the filmmaker Peter Greenaway, and his multi-platinum soundtrack album to Jane Campion's The Piano...
. However, due to the change in music and publishing needs after experimental music turned to minimalism
Minimalist music
Minimal music is a style of music associated with the work of American composers La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass. It originated in the New York Downtown scene of the 1960s and was initially viewed as a form of experimental music called the New York Hypnotic School....
and other post-modern styles, the EMC was wound down in the early 1980s. Hobbs re-established the EMC in 1999 as an online not-for-profit publishing house and information centre, a source for reprints of some of the original EMC music, new music by Hobbs, Dave Smith
Dave Smith (composer)
Dave Smith is an English experimental composer and musical performer. After attending Solihull School, he read music at Magdalene College, Cambridge. In the 1970s, Smith was a member of the Scratch Orchestra and a performer/composer in ensembles with John Lewis, Michael Parsons, Howard Skempton,...
, Dominy Clements, Hugh Shrapnel
Hugh Shrapnel
Hugh Shrapnel is an English composer of contemporary classical music and oboist. He was a student of Cornelius Cardew and a member of the Scratch Orchestra. He also co-founded the Promenade Theatre Orchestra in 1969....
, a new edition of Erik Satie
Erik Satie
Éric Alfred Leslie Satie was a French composer and pianist. Satie was a colourful figure in the early 20th century Parisian avant-garde...
's Fils d'etoiles; plus recordings by Michael Parsons, Hobbs, Smith, and British free improvisers such as Hobbs, Bruce Coates, Paul Dunmall
Paul Dunmall
Paul Dunmall is a British jazz saxophonist who plays tenor and soprano saxophone as well as the baritone and the more exotic Saxello and the Northumbrian pipes.He has a long discography on the Duns Limited Edition label....
, Mike Hurley, and Walt Shaw. The EMC website also contains information on the works of experimental composers, an archive of articles and writings and the Journal of Experimental Music Studies, or Jems (edited by the musicologist Virginia Anderson), a peer-review journal consisting of new articles on experimental music, postmodernism, and minimalism, as well as a reprint archive of articles from Contact: A Journal of New Music and other sources. The slogan of the renascent EMC is 'Experimental Music Since 1969', reflecting the first dated publication, rather than the first output.