Earle Brown (December 26, 1926 – July 2, 2002) was an American composer. Among his many innovations, he near-singlehandedly re-invigorated classical music with improvisation by establishing his own formal and notational systems. He was the creator of open form, a style of musical construction that has influenced many waves of composers since — notably the downtown New York scene of the 1980s (see John Zorn). Among his most famous works are 'December 1952' with its use of a 'radical' (entirely graphic) score, and the open form pieces 'Available Forms' I & II. December 26 is the 360th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, 361st in leap years. ... 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... July 2 is the 183rd day of the year (184th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 182 days remaining. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... Aleatoric (or aleatory) music or composition, is music where some element of the composition is left to chance. ... Downtown music is a major subdivision of American music. ... John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer and saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist. ...

Open form

For a great deal of Brown's compositions the material is composed, but the order is left free to be decided during performance, by the conductor. The material is divided in numbered sequences. Along with the number of the page the sequence appears on, the conductor uses his hands to sign the players and inform them of the part to be played. Through this procedure, no two performances of an open form Brown score are the same. Brown relates his work in open form to Alexander Calder's mobile sculptures Alexander Calder Alexander Calder (July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976), also known as Sandy Calder, was an American sculptor and artist most famous for inventing the mobile. ... A simple modern mobile in the style of Alexander Calder A mobile is a type of kinetic sculpture constructed to take advantage of the principle of equilibrium. ...

December 1952

December 1952 is perhaps Brown's most famous and notorious score. It is part of a larger set of graphically represented music called Folio. Consisting purely of horizontal and vertical lines varying in width, spread out over the page, it is a landmark piece in the history of graphic notation of music. The role of the performer is to interpret the score visually and translate the graphical information to music. Musical Graphic notation is a form of Music notation it refers to the use of non-traditional symbols and text to convey information about the performance of a piece of music. ...

External links

• Earle Brown Music Foundation
• Art of the States: Earle Brown three works by the composer
• Earle Brown interview
• Del Sol Quartet: Tear includes Brown's 1965 String Quartet performed by Del Sol Quartet