Henry Flynt, an avant-garde revisionist and un-reformable contester, was born in 1940 in the southern town of Greensboro.  As a young artist he became known through his association with Yoko Ono’s studio in New York, which yielded him an unwelcomed link with Fluxus, and at the same time contributed to the formulation of his artistic creed: “There is no avant-garde beyond ultra-individualism!”.  From the very beginning, Flynt did not want to be identified with any avant-garde movement or even be regarded as an artist.  He consistently opposed all systems and norms in art, since, in his opinion, they violated individual taste.  In his manifesto article “Concept Art” from 1961, he referred to the European artistic tradition using a new term of “structure art”, that is art that refers to the scientific method.  In his definition, the representatives of such structure art would be restricted by the norms of scientism, and their artistic creation would only illustrate certain scientific rules (mathematical or logical).  He stated: “Now there are two things wrong with structure art.  First, its cognitive pretensions are utterly wrong.  Secondly, by trying to be music or whatever (which has nothing to do with knowledge), and knowledge represented by structure, structure art both fails, is completely boring, as music, and doesn’t begin to explore the aesthetic possibilities structure can have when freed from trying to be music or whatever.”¹  Such a vision of art produced artists-analysts, that is artists who act more as scientists than creators of artistic phenomena.  To illustrate his point of view, Flynt considers the fugue and the contemporary serial composition, which both respect the rules of mathematical order.  Moreover, he discovers the same rules not only in Bach, but also in the “high-priests” of avant-garde: Cage and Stockhausen.  Music understood in this way resembles the esoteric view of the orphic “objective music”, postulated years ago by Gurdjieff (and having its origins in antiquity), music that serves to “communicate knowledge” and thus is based on identifying hidden harmonies between the cosmos and a musical order.  Flynt argues that this is not art, but rather a tyranny of rationalism and elitist aesthetic tastes that monopolized European and American culture, destroying the fundamental link between artists, the world, and life.  His answer to the terror of “structure art” was concept art with its postulated dematerialization of the art work, in addition to the formation of the group Action Against Cultural Imperialism (that also included the two veterans of the New York scene – Tony Conrad and Jack Smith).  But this is a topic of a completely different story…

            Were the criticisms that were formulated by Flynt against the academic character of avant-garde and his contemporary composers of the so-called “new music” (whom he considered as the direct continuators of classicistic aesthetics in music – i.e., aesthetics formalized and governed by mathematical rules)?  Were his critical arguments justified or was this yet another usurpation, another provocation?  Does music by Cage and Feldman really follow the same tradition of Western music (which, of course, represents “structure art”!) as does music of Bach and Mozart, from which it supposedly departs, questioning or ridiculing it?  It is difficult not to agree with Flynt – already Manfred Eigen and Ruthild Winkler in their work “Laws of the Game:”How the Principles of Nature Govern Chance”² noted that Rameau’s laws of harmony (1722) and the contrapuntal theory of Johann Fux (1725) were used both by 18^th century composers and by Paul Hindemith, and “although Arnold Schönberg in the end completely stopped using the tonal harmony codified by Rameau, he did at the same time propose new, equally rigorous rules”.  Thus, according to Eigen and Winkler, all “new music” is based on so-called “sound games”, which, while attempting to identify new solutions in composition (solutions alternative to the purely mathematical, traditional procedures), yield in the end equally formalized structures.  Thus, at the ontological level, there are no significant differences between the “old” and the “new” music, as they both draw from the same original source; both are subjected to the same rigors characteristic of European rationalism and scientism.

            The technique of composition that postulates a creative function of chance utilizing the throwing of dice, supposedly discovered by Cage (!), was first described in 1793, and is usually attributed to… Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  Incidentally, a related technique, described by Hummel at the end of 18^th century as the Instruction for composition of new contredanses by chance selection of pre-made musical material composed by others, precedes by more than 200 years the supposedly revolutionary (!) concept of John Zorn’s “game pieces”, and resembles the “Plunderphonics” advertised by Oswald, Marclay, and their successors, or the related sampling technique (by the way, all these techniques were “discovered” by the New York artists….).  Interestingly, historians argue that such techniques, quite popular in 18^th century salons, were thought of as particularly well suited for those lacking in musical talents.  Not surprisingly, Henry Flynt, continuously exposing the traditionalism and historical baggage of avant-garde, will often repeat the memorable sentence: “I became very angry about the fact that I'd been talked into going to these Cage concerts when I was in college, that I'd sat and tried to make myself like that stuff and think in those terms.”³

            The contemporary culture broke into two, equally nonsensical factions – the commercialized pop-culture, the next version of the “opium for the masses”, and the removed-from-reality, ignoring-social-problems academic avant-garde of the John Cage style.  In Flynt’s opinion, both of these art forms deserved total damnation; first, because they served as a tool in stupefying the society; second, because they represented an abstract model for art, not only detached from life but also incomprehensible for most of its recipients.  Flynt offered them a different vision of art – art born of a new, aesthetic sensitivity, formed in the process of social transformations.  It derives from the spontaneous creativity of naïve, folk artists, and it originates not from intellectual theories and academic concepts, but from the authentic “self-borne” art created as a result of continuous dialog between art and life.  Formulated in this way, Flynt’s thesis fits perfectly in the context of pragmatic aesthetics (very American and New York-like in character) presented by John Dewey, e.g. in “Art as Experience”, 1934.

            The vitalizing force that could finally lead to the formation of “new art”, in particular - “new music”, was found by Flynt in neglected or mocked traditions of cosmic extravagancies, the “black myth” of Sun Ra, in archaic forms of tribal music that still exist in some regions of the Appalachians, in blues protest-songs, or finally in born-from-the-street noise and chaos music of urban folklore.  Flynt may have been the first white intellectual who publicly announced that “black music” represents an authentically new language of artistic expression in contemporary America – honest and full of intense emotions, breaking through the calcified canons; in contrast to the conceptualized, classicistic, and “lacking an emotion and true life experience” compositions by Cage, Feldman, or Stockhausen.  Jazz is also an art that is socially and politically engaged, fighting against racism and artistic discrimination.  Flynt argued that it is because of this active engagement that jazz music was typically ignored or persecuted, regarded as primitive, lacking aesthetic sublimation, or intellectually feeble, etc.  Flynt also noticed the great importance of the expansion of rock&roll, noting its ethically and aesthetically revolutionary character (as a new, “industrial folklore”), warning however, that it could become infantile and commercialized – what indeed soon became a fact.

            Flynt found the most faithful supporters of his “cultural sabotage” in New York, where in the mid-60ties all kinds of contesters, non-conformists and revisionists would concentrate, bringing together Fluxus and happening artists, conceptualists, seekers of new sounds and new sources of music, including La Monte Young’s Theater of Eternal Music, Cale’s and Conrad’s Dream Syndicate, Angus MacLise’s Universal Mutant Repertory Company, and The Velvet Underground.  However, even in this environment, Flynt appears rather unexpectedly, as a “visitor from nowhere”.  Although he admires The Velvet Underground, he relatively early notices the purely commercial aspect of the rock&roll revolt.  Although he shares with Young his fascination with the music of the Far East, he also finds an inspiration in the local American (country, hillbilly) tradition, what is considered by the New York intellectualists as an aesthetic provocation.  Thus, paradoxically, in the background of the New York underground, Flynt looks “too American”.

             The artist himself recalls the beginnings of his career in this way: “All my formal musical education was based on the European classics.  The instrument that I was then learning was the violin.  Thus, until 1961, I was a composer of “new music” of the post-Cage generation.  But already in 1958-1962 my outlook on music completely changed.  The initial impetus for this change was provided by the music of Ali Akbar Khan, John Coltrane, and blues singers, such as Robert Johnson.  La Monte Young drew my attention to the artists of such caliber as Nazakat, Salamat Ali Khan, and Ram Narayan.  In the mid 60ties I started to listen to recordings of Bismallah Khan and African tribal music.”⁴ 

            By accusing the New Music artists of academism, intellectualism, and detachment from life, Flynt put himself in a rather uncomfortable situation as a composer.  He says: “I was inspired then by Ornette Coleman, who at the beginning of his career presented himself, in an avant-garde statement, as an uneducated country musician”.  At that time Flynt realizes that both jazz and rock&roll have common roots in the ignored-by-the-media-and-connoisseurs American ethnic music, such as blues or hillbilly.  Thus, it is not the composition, but rather the improvisation and the “primitive” musical styles that will form a point of reference in the search for new avant-garde language.  Therefore, Flynt reached for a new, in his opinion neglected, source of inspiration (but present in a certain stream of American culture, due to Ives, Partch and Cowell) – native American folklore, formed at the junction of various European, Indian and African musical traditions – to construct from them a “new American ethnic music”.  In terms of the passion with which he worked to save disappearing forms of American musical folklore, Flynt equals another tireless documentalist – Harry Smith, whose Anthology of American Folk Music created a unique record of the “song of old America” rescued from the noise of the big city.  Flynt registers, however, his own versions of traditional themes (for example, by combining a violin improvisation in the Appalachian style with a form of an Indian raga), thus placing them in a completely new cultural context.  This gives his work a completely distinct dimension. 

            Two albums published in the recent years by the priceless, Chicago-based Locust label; Back Porch Hillbilly Blues Volume 1 and 2, and an excellent disc Graduation And Other New Country & Blues Music (the title piece of which is a “revisionist” country ballade, presented in the vocal mannerism of Pandit Pran Nath!), present the material that documents the most intense period in Flynt’s musical experimentation.  It consists of reconstructions and interpretations of classical American blues, folk and country themes, often confronted with the elements of traditional music of India, or jazz and rock&roll.  Also the three albums produced by Recorded, as a part of a New American Ethnic Music series initiated by Flynt – You Are My Everlovin’/Celestial Power (which includes two long, improvised jams that combine India with ethnic America), Spindizzy, and Hillbilly Tape Music – illustrate uniquely Flynt’s approach to the homegrown musical tradition.  Another important album, C Tune, documents a nearly-hour-long hypnotizing drone study for tampura and violin, providing a good illustration of Flynt’s instrumental capabilities.  Finally, Raga Electric, documents experiments from 1963-1971, presenting study on the “liberated” voice, guitar, and alt sax, in addition to the “intuitive Indian music”.  On these discs Flynt presents himself as a bravura improviser and multi-instrumentalist who does not avoid risky experiments – a violinist (benefiting from the expertise of Cale and Conrad, but also from Indian virtuosos and un-named hillbilly classics), a guitar and alto sax player with a good sense of musical style and intuitive feeling for the instrument, searching for his own style of expression, between the American folk tradition, acoustic-ethnic ambient music and the free improvisation.

            What is then this New American Ethnic Music?  Flynt: “My music is a sophisticated, personal extension of the ethnic music of my native region of the United States. In all of my experimentation, I assert myself as an autochthon (colloquially, a “native” or “folk creature”)--siding with the emotional experience and the musical languages of the autochthonous communities. ... Of course the musical languages of the autochthonous communities need to be renewed--to absorb new techniques and to respond to changing social conditions--and they also need to be refracted through an iconoclastic sensibility, an ennobling taste”⁵.  Thus, Flynt has a good reason to define his musical concepts as the “avant-garde of blues, country, and hillbilly music”.

            Flynt’s interest in rock&roll as an “industrial folk music” are illustrated in his excellent, legendary album I Don’t Wanna, recorded with an ephemeral formation The Insurrections (including, among others, Walter De Maria, a collaborator of the Velvets, who later created “land art”.  In its musical layer, the album presents over thirty minutes of an electric, but raw and aggressive/carnivorous blues, rooted in the delta of Mississippi, played with an incredible passion.  These recordings bring to mind the anonymous pioneers of the country blues, but also the hypnotic trips of the Capitan Beefheart band and the first incarnation of the Velvet Underground, with whom Flynt actually collaborated for a short period of time.  The whole piece is dominated by the rackety and wobbly electric guitar of the leader, while the motor rhythmic section pulsates steadily in the background, adding the rock&roll claw to these works.  The texts render Flynt’s formula for protest songs, drawing also from the traditional blues and proletariat urban folklore.  Rock&roll was meant to serve as a tool, functional and effective, to unmask the repressive character of the official culture.

            Invariably and consistently, Flynt warned against the hidden, normative aspect of aesthetic canons (classical, popular, and avant-garde), seeing them as a form of brainwash.  With time, he turned into aesthetic subjectivism, and concluded that even individual art pieces possess normative character, acting to “impose the individual tastes on others”.  In the end, in 1968, Henry Flynt announced the absolute and irreversible “end of art” and destroyed all his works created before the conceptual period, declaring war on the academic and conventionalized “serious culture”, aiming at the irrevocable destruction of art, which was to be replaced with its critique, defined in Flynt’s texts using a rather vague term brend.  However, this split-up turned out not be final, since even in the 80ties and 90ties the hero of this sketch would return as an artist-conceptualist, presenting his reductionistic-tautological works, also through the Internet.

            Most recently, the field of analytical interests of Henry Flynt grew substantially, in addition to aesthetics and ethno-musicology containing now such phenomena as analytical philosophy, sociology – the theory of anarchy (Escaping “Social” Reality: Principles of a Higher Civilization) – psychology, and hypnosis or psychedelic experience (Hypnosis and the Delusiveness of Normal Perception and Logic; The Psychedelic State).  All this, of course, did not remain without consequences on the theory, built consistently through many years, of avant-garde (non)-art, which must not be an academic intellectual program, but rather a provocative and polemic dialogue with the reality, including its social, economic, and political dimensions.  Such a vision of art, despite of its utopian and purely theoretical character, remains thus-far one of the most radical voices of the twentieth century avant-garde.  It should at any cost avoid the codification and formation of new aesthetic norms in place of the traditional ones.  It must not become normative and petrify into an academic system, rather, it should lively react to any changes in the social and aesthetic sensitivity, continuously reminding us about basic avant-garde “values” – speculative character, ironic distance, provocation, and political engagement.  For Flynt, however, the artistic concept itself, in addition to its power to reverse “the brainwashing process, particularly in terms of its mathematical and logical capabilities”, can become the source of an aesthetic bliss.  And the essence of this pleasure is – ”creating art through thinking” or even “thinking through art”!

Dariusz Brzostek

translated by Magda Konarska

This article has been written for and published in the second issue of „Glissando” (December 2004).

Bibliography:

An excellent selection of sketches, essays, and manifestos by Henry Flynt can be found in Concept Art: Fragments and Reconstuctions, Backworks, 1982.  Most of these texts (including the above cited The Meaning of My Avant-Garde Hillbilly and Blues Music) are available in the electronic form on Flynt’s web page: www.henryflynt.org

Discography

(when two dates are shown, the first indicates the recording date and the second – the publication date of the album)

Back Porch Hillbilly Blues Volume 1 [Locust Music, 2002]

Back Porch Hillbilly Blues Volume 2 [Locust Music, 2002]

C Tune [Locust Music, 1980, 2001]

Raga Electric [Locust Music, 1963/71, 2002]

I Don’t Wanna [Locust Music, 1966, 2004]

Purified by the Fire [Locust Music, 1981, 2005]

Graduation And Other New Country & Blues Music [Ampersand, 1975/79, 2001]

You Are My Everlovin’/Celestial Power [Recorded, 1980/81, 2001]

Spindizzy [Recorded, 1968/83, 2002]

Hillbilly Tape Music [Recorded, 1971/78, 2002]

_______________________

[1] H. Flynt, Essay: Concept Art, in: Henry Flynt, Blueprint for a Higher Civilization, Milan 1975.

[2] M. Eigen, R. Winkler, … (M. Eigen, R. Winkler: Laws of the Game:
How the Principles of Nature Govern Chance – or - The Rules of the Game, 1993, Princeton University Press, ISBN 0691025665)

[3] cited from S. Home,

[4] H. Flynt, The Meaning of My Avnt-Garde Hillbilly and Blues Music, in: H. Flynt Concept Art: Fragments and Reconstructions, Backworks, 1982.

[5] www.henryflynt.org/aesthetics/meaning_of_my_music.htm keyphrase: personal extension