Wandelweiser

The '''Wandelweiser Group''' is a collective for composers and performers of contemporary classical music.{{sfn|Rutherford-Johnson|2017|p=45}} Inspired by the work of John Cage, the Wandelweiser Group writes experimental music, which is typically of a very quiet nature and often incorporates performance art. The musicologist Tim Rutherford-Johnson describes them as a "significant feature of art music in the 21st century."{{sfn|Rutherford-Johnson|2017|p=46}}

Based around the publisher '''Edition Wandelweiser''', they also have their own record label Wandelweiser Records. Prominent members of the group include Jürg Frey, Taylan Susam and Mark So.

==Overview== The Wandelweiser Group was founded in 1992 by Dutch-born flautist Antoine Beuger and German violinist Burkhard Schlothauer. In 1993 Swiss clarinetist Jürg Frey<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Ross |first=Alex |date=2019-10-29 |title=The Otherworldly Harmony of Jürg Frey |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-otherworldly-minimalism-of-jurg-frey |access-date=2026-05-15 |work=The New Yorker |language=en-US |issn=0028-792X}}</ref> was invited to join, followed by American guitarist Michael Pisaro, Swiss pianist Manfred Werder, then Austrian trombonist Radu Malfatti the following year, then American trombonist Craig Shepard, and others. The group runs its own publishing operation, '''Edition Wandelweiser''', and its own record label Wandelweiser Records.{{sfn|Rutherford-Johnson|2017|p=45}}

The music of the Wandelweiser collective is characterized by sparse, quiet, fragile soundscapes incorporating frequent silences.<ref name="Ross2016">{{cite web |last1=Ross |first1=Alex |author-link=Alex Ross (music critic) |title=The Composers of Quiet |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/09/05/silence-overtakes-sound-for-the-wandelweiser-collective |work=The New Yorker |access-date=2 July 2018}}</ref> According to Radu Malfatti, Wandelweiser music is about "the evaluation and integration of silence(s) rather than an ongoing carpet of never-ending sounds." Michael Pisaro suggests that Wandelweiser works, which often involve extended durations of hours or longer,<ref name="Ross2016"/> offer an alternative relationship to time; these pieces "become not a duration to mark, but a space to occupy".{{sfn|Gottschalk|2016|p=135}}

The composers John Cage and Morton Feldman are particularly influential to the group.{{sfn|Gottschalk|2016|pp=133–136}} According to Pisaro, "Beginning with the music of John Cage, it has become possible to see time as having its own structure: not as something imposed on it from the outside by music, but something which is already present, which exists alongside the music."{{sfn|Gottschalk|2016|p=135}}

==Performers== * Makiko Nisikaze * Mark So * Quatuor Bozzini<ref>{{Cite news |last=Molleson |first=Kate |date=2015-12-17 |title=Jürg Frey: Third String Quartet CD review – an audaciously fragile performance |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/dec/17/jurg-frey-third-string-quartet-bozzini-quartet-cd-review-jurg-frey |access-date=2026-05-15 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> * Cristián Alvear

==Composers== * Paul Beaudoin * Antoine Beuger<ref name="Ross2016" /> * Dante Boon * Daniel Brandes * Johnny Chang * Jürg Frey<ref name=":0" /> * Ben Glas * Mark Hannesson * Eva-Maria Houben * Carlo Inderhees * Alex Jang * Marcus Kaiser * Jukka-Pekka Kervinen * Ulrike Lentz * Bin Li * Sylvia Lim * Radu Malfatti * André O. Möller * Anastassis Philippakopoulos * Michael Pisaro * Kory Reeder * Christoph Schiller * Burkhard Schlothauer * Marianne Schuppe * Sam Sfirri * Craig Shepard * Thomas Stiegler * Taylan Susam * Stefan Thut * Gabriel Vicéns * Steven Vinkenoog * Emmanuelle Waeckerlé * Manfred Werder

==References== ===Citations=== {{Reflist}}

===Sources=== * {{cite book |last=Gottschalk |first=Jennie |title=Experimental Music Since 1970 |date=2016 |publisher=Bloomsbury |location=New York |isbn=978-1-6289-2248-6 }} * {{cite book |last=Rutherford-Johnson |first=Tim |year=2017 |title=Music after the Fall: Modern Composition and Culture since 1989 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |isbn=978-0-520-28314-5 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=kO2HDQAAQBAJ}} |jstor=10.1525/j.ctv1xxxq7 }}

==External links== *[http://www.wandelweiser.de Edition Wandelweiser homepage] *[http://www.paristransatlantic.com/magazine/monthly2006/07jul_text.html#2 The Sound of Silence article from Paris Transatlantic] *[http://www.lafolia.com/archive/covell/covell200212ramble.html CD review by La Folia] *[http://www.nmz.de/nmz/nmz1997/nmz9709/phono-buch-noten-video/19b.htm Article from Neue Musikzeitung] {{in lang|de}} *[http://www.anothertimbre.com/page145.html "Wandelweiser und so weiter" 6CD Box Set dedicated to Wandelweiser composers] *[http://erstwords.blogspot.co.uk/2009/09/wandelweiser.html History of Wandelweiser by Michael Pisaro] *[http://grisli.canalblog.com/tag/Wandelweiser Wandelweiser archives at le son du grisli] *[http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/09/05/silence-overtakes-sound-for-the-wandelweiser-collective Alex Ross on Wandelweiser ]

Category:International music organizations Category:Composition schools Category:Arts organizations established in 1992