Category:Event Pieces

A note from the archivist:

In the Masada canon, there is a type of piece that Zorn refers to as an “event piece.” In these pieces, the score indicates a series of phrases that require a cue of some sort to trigger the start of each subsequent phrase. Occasionally these phrases will simply be the word NOISE, or another non-traditional music notation. This type of piece is, if not unique to the Masada canon, then awfully rare outside of it. This type of piece being such a prominent form in the Masada canon, it seemed like a useful task to identify them and take a stab at categorizing them to a certain extent.

I have put them into three categories.

• The most common type is what I call the cartoon style, as they are similar to Zorn's longform cartoon compositions. These tend to have a jerky stop-start/stop-start feel. Hath-Arob is one of the most frequently recorded compositions of this type.
• The second most common type is what I call the long phrase style. These are smoother in feel from one phrase to another, though they still require a cue of some sort for each phrase to start. I'd draw your attention to Rahtiel as an example of this type of piece.
• I refer to the remaining event pieces as the "short phrase" style. The most often performed of these is Kol Nidre - the performers require a cue for phrases one to three notes in length. The only other one of these I'm aware of is Chesed, which has never been professionally recorded, and to the best of my knowledge only exists on an early audience recording from 1994.

I compiled this list for the most part from listening to existing recordings. If you can make a compelling case that a tune should be added or removed from this list, I'd love to hear it. Or if you think they can be categorized better. I'm still on the fence about several of them, notably Piram and Jair.

Thanks y'all!
Mark