Game piece
Encyclopedia
Game piece is a concept of experimental music
having its roots with composers Christian Wolff
and John Zorn
. Game pieces may be considered controlled improvisation
An essential characteristic is that there is no pre-arranged sequence of events. They unfold freely according to certain rules, like in a sports game. Therefore, game pieces have elements of improvisation. A number of methods can be used to determine the direction and evolution of the music, including hand gestures and shuffled cards, as in his file-card compositions. Zorn's game piece "Cobra", which has been recorded several times for various labels, uses a combination of cards and gestures and can be performed by an ensemble of any size and composition. Zorn's game pieces, written in the late 1970s and mid-1980s, include Cobra
, Hockey
, Lacrosse
, and Xu Feng
. His file-card compositions include Spillane
and Godard
.
As well as a sports game, a game piece may also be considered analogous to language
: The performance is directed by a well defined set of rules (a grammar
) but by no means fixed or predetermined (just as all sentence
s generated by the same grammar are not the same). The length of a piece may be arbitrary, just as a sentence can be of any imaginable length while still conforming to a strictly defined syntax.
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...
having its roots with composers Christian Wolff
Christian Wolff (composer)
Christian G. Wolff is an American composer of experimental classical music.-Biography:Wolff was born in Nice in France to German literary publishers Helen and Kurt Wolff, who had published works by Franz Kafka, Robert Musil, and Walter Benjamin. After relocating to the U.S...
and John Zorn
John Zorn
John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...
. Game pieces may be considered controlled improvisation
Improvisation
Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
An essential characteristic is that there is no pre-arranged sequence of events. They unfold freely according to certain rules, like in a sports game. Therefore, game pieces have elements of improvisation. A number of methods can be used to determine the direction and evolution of the music, including hand gestures and shuffled cards, as in his file-card compositions. Zorn's game piece "Cobra", which has been recorded several times for various labels, uses a combination of cards and gestures and can be performed by an ensemble of any size and composition. Zorn's game pieces, written in the late 1970s and mid-1980s, include Cobra
Cobra (Zorn)
Cobra is an unpublished but recorded and frequently performed musical composition by John Zorn that was conceived as a system with very detailed rules but with no pre-conceived sequence of events, or game piece, for a group of musical improvisors and a prompter. Zorn completed Cobra on October 9,...
, Hockey
Hockey (album)
Hockey is an album by John Zorn featuring his early "game piece" composition of the same name. The album, first released on vinyl on Parachute Records in 1980, , and later re-released on CD on Tzadik Records with additional bonus tracks as part of the The Parachute Years Box Set in 1997 and as a...
, Lacrosse
Lacrosse (album)
Lacrosse is a double live album by John Zorn. It is made up of different takes his early game piece, "Lacrosse". The first disc is from WKCR in June 1978 where Mark Abbott, Polly Bradfield, Eugene Chadbourne, and LaDonna Smith and Zorn recorded 6 different takes. Takes 3, 4 and 6 were originally...
, and Xu Feng
Xu Feng
Xu Feng: John Zorn's Game Pieces Volume 1 is an album by American composer and saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist John Zorn consisting of game pieces...
. His file-card compositions include Spillane
Spillane (album)
Spillane is an album by American composer and saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist John Zorn, composed of three file-card pieces, as well as a work for voice, string quartet and turntables...
and Godard
Godard/Spillane
Godard/Spillane is a compilation album by American composer and saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist John Zorn consisting of music created through Zorn's file-card compositional process...
.
As well as a sports game, a game piece may also be considered analogous to language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
: The performance is directed by a well defined set of rules (a grammar
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
) but by no means fixed or predetermined (just as all sentence
Sentence
Sentence or sentencing may refer to:* Sentence , a grammatical unit of language* Sentence , a formula with no free variables* Sentence , a particular type of musical phrase...
s generated by the same grammar are not the same). The length of a piece may be arbitrary, just as a sentence can be of any imaginable length while still conforming to a strictly defined syntax.