1994
In his analysis of Earle Brown, John P. Welsh explores the concept of "Open Form"—a compositional style where the sequence and relationship of musical elements are left to the performer's choice during the act of playing.
While the essay focuses on Brown's mobile structures, it provides the structural and philosophical lineage for Max Neuhaus, who began his career as the definitive interpreter of these "Open Form" works.
The transition from Earle Brown's mobile scores to Max Neuhaus's site-specific installations represents a move from performer-directed openness to listener-directed openness:
The Shared Lineage: In the early 1960s, Neuhaus was a world-class percussionist famous for performing Brown's Available Forms and Twenty-Five Pages. Welsh’s description of Brown’s “modular” approach—where parts can be reordered—mirrors how Neuhaus would later treat urban sounds as modules to be highlighted or reshaped.
The "Mobile" Listener: Welsh notes that in Brown's work, the "score" is a physical object the conductor navigates. Neuhaus famously took this "Open Form" out of the score and into the city. In his installations (like Times Square), the "composition" is only completed by the listener's movement through the space. The listener effectively becomes the "conductor" Welsh describes, choosing the duration and perspective of the piece.
Indeterminacy and Perception: Welsh argues that Open Form requires an active, creative engagement with the material. This directly feeds into the "metaperceptual" approach identified by Blake Johnston; Neuhaus realized that if the form is open, the "work" of art actually happens inside the listener's head as they try to make sense of the changing soundscape.
Theoretical Intersection
Earle Brown (Open Form): The artist provides the elements; the performer determines the structure.
Max Neuhaus (Open Environment): The artist provides the acoustic signal; the listener determines the structure through their physical presence and attention.
Welsh's essay helps frame Neuhaus not as a "sound designer," but as a Post-Minimalist architect who applied the high-modernist theories of the 1950s avant-garde to the 1990s urban reality.