Series and place

The phrase ‘site-specific music’ is commonly used to describe developments in music since the latter part of the twentieth century in which the exact environment chosen is integral to the conception of the piece or the installation. In this essay, I shall argue that the alternative term ‘place-specific music’ may help describe one of the most important characteristics of many pieces and projects by Wandelweiser composers: a relationship to the place of performance which is rarely a predetermining factor in the structure of the piece, but which arises from the composers’ and performers’ own predilection for particular types of performance space, and the dynamic and temporal structure typical of the Wandelweiser aesthetic. In this regard, I will also explore the role of the principle of series in this music. The essay will focus particularly but not exclusively on the composer Carlo Inderhees, and especially the project 3 Jahre—156 musikalische Ereignisse—1 Skulptur, which he realized together with the artist Christoph Nicolaus.