Editing Christian Wolff (composer) (section)

==Music==
[[File:Foc09 - 3538997353.jpg|thumb|Wolff in 2009]]
Wolff's early compositional work included a lot of silence and was based initially on complicated rhythmic [[Serialism|schema]], and later on a system of aural cues. He innovated unique notational methods in his early scores and found creative ways of dealing with improvisation in his music. During the 1960s he developed associations with the composers [[Frederic Rzewski]] and [[Cornelius Cardew]] who spurred each other on in their respective explorations of experimental composition techniques and [[musical improvisation]], and then, from the early 1970s, in their attempts to engage with political matters in their music. For Wolff this often involved the use of music and texts associated with protest and political movements such as the [[Wobblies]]. His later pieces, such as the sequence of pieces ''Exercises'' (1973-), offer some freedom to the performers. Some works, such as ''Changing the System'' (1973), ''Braverman Music'' (1978, after [[Harry Braverman]]), and the series of pieces ''Peace March'' (1983&ndash;2005) have an explicit [[politics|political]] dimension, in that they respond to contemporary world events and express political ideals.

Wolff collaborated with [[Merce Cunningham]] for many years and developed a style which is more common now, but was revolutionary when they began working together in the 1950s – a style where music and dance occur simultaneously, yet somewhat independently of one another.<ref>{{cite web|last=Lindholm|first=Jane|title=Composer Reflects On Legendary Dance Company: Christian Wolff's Collaboration With Merce Cunningham|url=http://www.vpr.net/news_detail/91303/composer-reflects-on-legendary-dance-company/|publisher=Vermont Public Radio|access-date=29 June 2012}}</ref> Wolff stated, of any influence or affect, the greatest influence on his music over the years was the choreography of Cunningham.<ref>{{cite web|last=Hoffer|first=Jason|title=Slowly turning yourself into a composer with Christian Wolff|url=http://www.goingthruvinyl.com/?p=2661|publisher=Going Thru Vinyl|access-date=29 June 2012|location=29:38|format=.mp3 audio}}</ref>  Wolff recently said of his work that it is motivated by his desire "to turn the making of music into a collaborative and transforming activity (performer into composer into listener into composer into performer, etc.), the cooperative character of the activity to the exact source of the music. To stir up, through the production of the music, a sense of social conditions in which we live and of how these might be changed."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ocnmh.cz/s_i.php?a=143 |title=Archived copy |access-date=2007-01-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070607030749/http://www.ocnmh.cz/s_i.php?a=143 |archive-date=2007-06-07 }}</ref>

Wolff's music reached a new audience when [[Sonic Youth]]'s [[SYR4: Goodbye 20th Century|''SYR4: Goodbye, 20th Century'']] featured works by avant-garde classical composers such as [[John Cage]], [[Yoko Ono]], [[Steve Reich]], and Christian Wolff played by Sonic Youth along with several collaborators from the modern avant-garde music scene, such as [[Christian Marclay]], [[William Winant]], [[Wharton Tiers]], [[Takehisa Kosugi]] and others, as well as Wolff himself.