John Zorn’s File Card Works - Hypertextual Intermediality in Composition and Analysis

This book is the first study of John Zorn's 'file card' works, with special focus made on the pieces Godard (1985), Spillane (1986), Interzone (2010), and Liber Novus (2010). It explains the unique creative process behind these compositions, contextualizing them in relation to the history of file cards, the 'open work' concept, cinematic listening, and uncreative aesthetics. Semiotic, hermeneutic, and ekphrastic analyses draw hypertextual links between the four file card compositions and the worlds of their respective dedicatees: author Mickey Spillane, filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, novelist William S. Burroughs and painter Brion Gysin, and psychiatrist C. G. Jung.
This book will appeal not only to those interested in Zorn's music, but also to scholars of music semiotics and hermeneutics, intermedia studies, and avant-garde music.

List of contents

1. The File Card Work and its Model Listener 2. The Hypotexts of Sound Blocks 3. Hypertextual Hermeneutics 4. From Metatext to Hypertext via Uncreativity

About the author

Maurice Windleburn holds a PhD in Musicology from the University of Melbourne, Australia. His research focuses on avant-garde music, music philosophy, and ekphrastic relations between music and other artforms. His work has been published in a number of journals, including Organised Sound, Tempo, and the Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics.

Product details

• Authors: Maurice Windleburn
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 26.12.2025
• EAN: 9781032342887
• ISBN: 978-1-032-34288-7
• No. of pages: 140
• Weight: 453 g
• Illustrations: schwarz-weiss Illustrationen, Raster,schwarz-weiss, Zeichnungen, schwarz-weiss, Tabellen, schwarz-weiss
• Series: Ashgate Studies in Theory and Analysis of Music After 1900
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Music > General, dictionaries; MUSIC / General, MUSIC / Instruction & Study / Theory, MUSIC / Individual Composer & Musician, MUSIC / Genres & Styles / Classical, MUSIC / Instruction & Study / Appreciation, Theory of music & musicology, Musicians, singers, bands and groups, 20th Century & Contemporary Classical Music, Art music, orchestral and formal music, Theory of music and musicology, Orchestras