In this playlist, vintage performances mix with reinterpretations of scores by contemporary artists. Like the earlier Dada movement, Fluxus commented on politics in poetry, music, and dance performed in social settings. Countering traditions of musical practice, these artists proposed that readings of scores could be experimental and experiential, adapted according to the instrument, the number of players, performance spaces, and timings.
Making this list, it was impossible not to include songs by Yoko Ono’s Plastic Ono Band along with John Lennon’s visionary “Imagine,” now a contemporary anthem. Terry Riley’s sound and performances were informed by his longtime studies of Indian music, streaming waves, and cycles of sound. This, in sharp contrast to Dick Higgins’s piece featuring the sound of warped words; or the concentration required to listen to John Cage’s 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence.
These selections demonstrate how musicians and composers challenged conventions and traditions of music in the same way that Fluxus artists sought to re-imagine categories for creation in the visual arts.
