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Danger music
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Danger Music is an experimental form of avant-garde 20th and 21st century classical music. It is based on the concept that some pieces of music can or will harm either the listener or the performer. Since the performances must nearly always be canceled before they can be performed, danger music can also be thought of more as a philosophical or political statement than as a composition of music. For example Takehisa Kosugi’s composition Music for a Revolution[1] directs the performer to gouge out one of his or her eyes five years from now. Works such as this are also sometimes referred to as antimusic because they seem to rebel against the concept of music it’s self. Danger Music is often closely associated with the Fluxus school of composition.
Although many extreme examples of danger music direct performers to use sounds so loud that they will deafen the participants, or ask performers to throw antipersonnel bombs into the audience, danger music can also be used in a more mundane way. For instance a piece could be written in which the volume of the music steadily increases causing the audience to fear that it will increase to a dangerous level (although it might never reach that point).
- Cope, David Techniques of the Contemporary Composer (ISBN 0-02-864737-8)