I am extremely grateful to The Ohio State University for their generous support of this project and particularly for the bestowal of the Presidential Fellowship in the 2010–2011 academic year. It is difficult to imagine the completion of this project without it. I am also thankful for the careful consideration and gracious recommendations provided to me by Rob Haskins, David Nicholls, Marjorie Perloff, and Barry Shank. Their kind words provided considerable support, both material and spiritual, throughout the research and writing process.
I am grateful to Arved Ashby for years of guidance, support, and encouragement. His restlessness and experimental spirit were important guides in this undertaking, as was his willingness to endure the knots and strains that came with its genesis. I am grateful to Barry Shank for his immense friendship and intellectual generosity, for teaching me to read creatively and to challenge easy assumptions, and for counsel in both joyous and fraught times.
For their careful reading and thoughtful questioning, I am grateful to Barry Shank, Ryan Skinner, Gregory Jusdanis, Marjorie Perloff, Christoph Cox, Rob Haskins, Brian Hulse, and all the readers provided by Bloomsbury. Thank you Ally Jane Grossan and Michelle Chen for editorial support and encouragement, for facilitating the production of this work, and for your advice.
I am also thankful to all those who provided opportunities to present portions of this book as they were developing. Thanks to Graeme Boone and my fellow students at The Ohio State University for allowing me to present portions of various chapters as part of the Ohio State University’s Lectures in Musicology series in 2009. In 2011, Fabio Oliveira and Claudia Zanini invited me and Greg Stuart to participate in a series of concerts, workshops, and lectures alongside the students at the Universidade Federal de Goiás. The Seminário Nacional de Pesquisa em Música da UFG (XII SEMPEM) provided an opportunity to present early versions of these materials as a keynote address entitled, “Intention and Silence: Post-Cagean Resonances.” Fabio, Claudia, and the extremely capable and curious students at UFG provided tremendous hospitality and an environment of openness, experimentation, and thoughtful critique that informed much of the development of this volume, and I am immensely appreciative. Many thanks to Sarah Williams and the faculty and students of the University of South Carolina for the opportunity to explain, refine, and practice in their company at the start of 2013. Thank you to Greg Stuart, Michael Pisaro, and Barry Shank (once more) for their encouragement and use of early versions of these materials in the classroom. The measure of a philosophy’s value is its capacity to reconnect as practice, and I am thankful for the testing ground they provided.
This work benefited immeasurably from the encouragement and example of friends. An far-from-complete list would include: Jon Abbey, Jason Brogan, B.W. Diederich, Blake Edwards, Joe Foster, Jesse Goin, Jennie Gottschalk, Sarah Hennies, Ryan Jewell, Jesse Kudler, Kat McTee, Charles McGovern, Bhob Rainey, Justin Ridgley, Michael Shiflet, Kevin Parks, Nirav Soni, Sam Sfirri, Ruby C. Tapia, Jason Toynbee, Jason Zeh, and many, many more.
For their invaluable assistance to my family, I am thankful for Collette Peugeot, Alyssa Lavoy, and everyone at North Broadway Children’s Center. For a timely intervention of insight, encouragement, and guidance, I thank Dr. Marlene Kocan. I thank Kate and Eric Panzner for a lifetime of inspiration and friendly competition. For their patience, love, and generosity, I thank my parents, Drs. Joseph and Margaret Panzner. This book is dedicated to—and impossible without—Wendy Carole Panzner, Joseph Elliott Panzner, and Ramona Carole Panzner.