ABSTRACT
Changing the System is a piece by Christian Wolff for a variable number of musicians but clearly suggesting the possibility of large-scale performance groupings with multiple quartets or other possible configurations. Changing the System is essentially an indeterminate piece with respect to its performance. Its roots lie in the development and discussions of the New York composers around Cage in the 1950s. Both Cage and Wolff seemed to share particular characteristics in their development of indeterminacy which set them apart from their colleagues Earle Brown and Morton Feldman. Wolff, involved as he was in teaching for most of his working life, would have been well aware of these debates; as an American he would also have been witness to the growing anti-Vietnam-war stance amongst students and within the broader American social fabric. Wolff's music of the earlier 1970s connects with this notion that political music should unite with a text in order to deliver a message or figure an allegiance.
