So Surreal – Anarchy Under the Arch! Innovators, Radicals, Mavericks and Game-changers
September 18, 2023 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm EDT
$30
In 1917 a group of young artists stole to the top of the Washington Square Arch and there held a fete, complete with balloons and cap-guns, declaring the free and independent Republic of Greenwich Village. Among the group was surrealist Marcel Duchamp, who created some of his most controversial pieces, including “Fountain” in his East Village studio.
Surrealism and its immediate predecessor, the Dada movement, had an immense effect on the New York music scene. The Dadaists rejected traditional “bourgeois” ideas about high art and questioned the very essence of what makes a work of art. This of course leads to John Cage and his experiments with “found” music and aleatory music The surrealists were also intensely interested in new technological developments, and had a fascination for machines, leading directly to the repetitive rhythmic patterns of minimalism. Our program traces these various influences through the music of innovators like Charles Ives,Yoko Ono, Eric Satie, John Cage and Morton Feldman.
