Zaj was an experimental music

Experimental music

Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...

 and performance art

Performance art

In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...

 group formed in 1959 in Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 by composers and intermedia artists Walter Marchetti and Juan Hidalgo

Juan Hidalgo Codorniu

Juan Hidalgo is a Spanish contemporary composer born in Las Palmas, Canary Islands in 1927. After studying piano and composition in Barcelona and Paris with Nadia Boulanger and Bruno Maderna, in 1957 participates in the XII Internationale Ferienkurse Für Neue Musik festival in Darmstadt with his...

 with the support of the American composer John Cage

John Cage

John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...

. The group received major contributions by different artists from the Spanish avant-garde scene, notably from the writer and diplomat José Luis Castillejo and from the interdisciplinary artist Esther Ferrer

Esther Ferrer

Esther Ferrer is a Spanish interdisciplinary artist and performance art teacher. She is regarded as one of the major Spanish artists of her generation...

. During the 1960s, members of Zaj took part in different Fluxus

Fluxus

Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...

 events organised by George Maciunas

George Maciunas

George Maciunas was a Lithuanian-born American artist. He was a founding member of Fluxus, an international community of artists, architects, composers, and designers...

. With the help of John Cage and his agent Mimi Johnson

Mimi Johnson

Mimi Johnson is a New York City-based arts administrator.Through her nonprofit organization Performing Artservices, Inc. , Johnson assists, promotes, and presents artists working in the fields of contemporary music, theater and dance. The agency was developed so that artists could obtain services...

, Zaj also toured in different cities in the United States in the late 1970s. The group was disbanded in 1993 by Walter Marchetti.

Sources

• Barber, Llorenç, Juan Hidalgo, Ritmo. Vol. 566, 1986, pp.112-13, ISSN 0035-5658
• Charles, Daniel, Performance (art et esthétique), Encyclopedia Universalis, France
• Hidalgo, Juan (w. John Cage, Morton Feldman, Leopoldo La Rosa, Walter Marchetti), Rumoriallarotonda, CD booklet (32 pages), ALGA MARGHEN, ITALY, ALGA 031CD, 1998
• La Motte-Haber, Helga de, Die Gruppe Zaj: Cage-Rezeption in romanischen Ländern (Grupo Zaj: Cage reception in Romance countries), Positionen: Beiträge zur Neuen Musik. no. 21, pp.32-33. Nov 1994, ISSN 0941-4711
• Leyva Sanjuan, Antonio, Zaj: A conversation with Juan Hidalgo, Crónica. Vol. 3, no. 42, 1991, pp.32-33, ISSN 1131-6705
• Medina Álvarez, Ángel, Primeras oleadas de vanguardistas en el área de Madrid (The first waves of the avant-garde in the Madrid area), in López-Calo, José (ed.), Spain in Western Music, Madrid, Spain: Ministerio de Cultura, 1987. 403, 504 pp
• Sarmiento, José Antonio, Críticas a un concierto Zaj (Reviews of a concert by Zaj), Cuenca, Spain: Ediciones + 491, 1991

External links

• Site of Juan Hidalgo
• Interview with Walter Marchetti in Mute Magazine
• Conversation between José Luis Castillejo (In French) and André Éric Létourneau
  André Éric Létourneau
  André Éric Létourneau is a French Canadian media and transmedia artist, author, musician, composer and curator based primarily in Montreal, Canada. He uses several pseudonyms, most notably François Quoirez and algojo)André Éric Létourneau (born September 25, 1967) is a French Canadian media and...
  
   - Website of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
  Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
  The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
  
  
• Interview with Esther Ferrer (in French) in Esse
  Esse
  Esse is a former municipality of Finland, now a village of Pedersöre. It has a population of about 3,000 people, of whom approximately 94% are Swedish-speaking Finns and the rest are Finnish-speaking. The village is in the northeast part of Pedersöre municipality.Esse was consolidated to Pedersöre...
  
  Magazine