John Zorn

My knowledge of John Zorn was marginal at best before this talk, although I did perform some Cobra improvisations while studying abroad in Prague two semesters ago. It was refreshing to hear someone speak with such strong opinions and no reservations about making them known plainly—Zorn can, of course, afford to do this because he is a well-established figure in the experimental music world. With past Forum guests, I’ve found that there has been more of an emphasis on playing and speaking about their music in a more piece-by-piece way, versus Zorn pulling examples from his catalogue or anecdotes from his sprawling career as it seemed appropriate based on the questions he was receiving.

Zorn’s talk put a large emphasis on the composer-performer relationship, which he views as the central pillar of musical performance. Most composers, myself included, have been told time and again to write for friends and/or familiar players with a specific level of difficulty or aesthetic in mind that suits those players. Zorn takes this idea to an extreme, establishing lifelong relationships with players that are the sole performers of his music—once again, a privilege afforded to Zorn due to his status in the music world. (For example, a percussionist friend of mine told me that his teacher’s duo, which tours internationally and frequently performs new work, was asked personally by Zorn to immediately cease performing a piece of his because he didn’t like the way they were playing it.) For early-career composers like myself, it is more than possible to write for the performers I know and trust, but I will rarely turn down the opportunity to expand that circle and write for people I am less familiar with, or have complete strangers play my music (a rare occurrence at best).

Zorn is an avid reader and consumer of art outside of music, and makes a purposeful effort to allow those things to inspire and influence his own compositional process. His talk was peppered with a myriad of references to various artists, philosophers, and other thinkers. One that caught my ear was Antonin Artaud, specifically his collection of essays The Theatre and Its Double. I did a small amount of research and read the Preface of the book to see what aspects of Artaud’s outlook influences Zorn’s.

As I understand it, The Theatre and Its Double describes culture and its artifacts as an extension of life itself, and critiques humanity’s unique ability to “observe our acts and lose ourselves in considerations of their imagined form instead of being impelled by their force”. To Artaud, form only exists to guide and focus force, the essential (and distinctly human) element that feeds culture/life: “the intensity of the forms [of art] is there only to seduce and direct a force which, in music, would produce an insupportable range of sound.” This reminded me of the way Zorn described his process in the studio—repeated takes in which his trusted players’ talents are harnessed and shaped through Zorn’s vision, but never outright boxed into a foregone musical conclusion. Artaud’s abstract “force” seems to manifest to Zorn as emotional commitment to the performance of his, or any, music. His career is defined by unflinchingly high standards relating to this emotional commitment, which he finds lacking in many established ensembles (and was not afraid to say so). This observation made me think critically about how I engage with players past ensuring they play correct notes and rhythms: how can a composer best draw the requisite emotional commitment out of their players without the resulting performance seeming inauthentic? How does this translate to notation (in terms of expression markings, program notes, etc?) These are particularly interesting questions to me, having a background in theatre and a fascination with the theatrical capabilities of ‘concert’ music, and will definitely be something I explore in my future work.

If anyone’s curious, here’s a link to the translation of The Theatre and Its Double I read: https://www.scribd.com/document/52524875/artaud-the-theatre-and-its-double