ABSTRACT
The term 'experimental' came to prominence in music discourse towards the end of the 1950s, in particular with the widespread success of John Cage's collected writings, Silence, published in 1961. It is well known how Cage's conceptions, as soon as they were expressed in practice and in his writings, were received in the European circles of new music, especially on the occasion of his lectures and performances in Darmstadt in 1959: Cage's radicalism and consistency, as well as the manner with which he expressed them, especially in his signature lecture-performances, succeeded in being very appealing and stimulating. One of the main and more radical experiences emerging from this climate is certainly that of Joan La Barbara. From Berberian's plain, speaking voice, a complex polyphonic vocal construction is built, made of different and mixed extended techniques by La Barbara, whose resulting effect is meant as a reply to Berberian.
