In re: ‘Experimental Music’

John Cage is universally associated with the phrase experimental music. But what did that phrase mean, for Cage and for Cage’s predecessors? I begin with Cage and Lejaren Hiller, both writing important texts on ‘experimental music’ in 1959. From there, I trace the phrase backwards, eventually reaching Emile Zola, Gertrude Stein, and William James. A final section traces the phrase forward to Cage and Hiller’s collaboration on HPSCHD (1969)