No Sounds Are Forbidden - Episode 8 - In Phase/Out of Phase: The Radical Simplicity of Minimalism

In the seventh episode of No Sounds Are Forbidden, “Music of Changes: Cage, Chance Operations, and Indeterminacy,” host Matthew Friedman explores the profound impact of the work and ideas of John Cage on the American avant-garde. Seeking to liberate sound from the restraints of conventional music, Cage introduced new compositional practice based on chance, and nurtured a generation of composers whose music was in a state of continual change.

This episode features an interview with the composer Christain Wolff, and music by Cage, Wolff, Henry Cowell, Morton Feldman, and Sonic Youth.

No Sounds Are Forbidden - Episode 7 - Music of Changes: Cage, Chance Operations, and Indeterminacy

No Sounds Are Forbidden - Episode 6 - Synthetic Sound: The Second Electronic Music Revolution

In the sixth episode of No Sounds Are Forbidden, “Synthetic Sound: The Second Electronic Music Revolution,” host Matthew Friedman explores sound synthesis, and how the invention of the electronic synthesizer inspired avant-garde composers, and transformed how listeners listened to music. This episode features music by Milton Babbitt, Morton Subotnick, Charles Wuorinen, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Raymond Scott, Gershon Kingsley, Tangerine Dream, Brian Eno, and Johann Sebastian Bach.

In the fifth episode of No Sounds Are Forbidden, “Space Explorations: Avant-Garde Music in Three Dimensions,” host Matthew Friedman explores how avant-garde composers rediscovered the spatial nature of sound in the 20th century, and explored the three-dimensional implications of their music. This episode features music by Charles Ives, Erik Satie, Edgard Varese, John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, David Tudor, and Henry Brant, as well as Giovanni Gabrielli, and Georg Philipp Telemann.

No Sounds Are Forbidden - Episode 5 - Space Explorations: Avant-Garde Music in Three Dimensions