Umberto Eco 'The Poetics of the open work' 1962

Umberto Eco
The Poetics of the open work 1962
‘A number of recent pieces of instrumental music are linked by a common feature: the considerable autonomy left to the individual performer in the way he chooses to play the work. Thus, he is not merely free to interpret the composers instructions following his own discretion (which in fact happens in traditional music), but he must impose his judgement on the form of the piece, as when he decides how long to hold a not or in what order to group the sounds: all this amounts to an act of improvised creation.’ (pp20 Participaton. Bishop, 2006)
Eco was a theorist of reader response theory and he wrote about the notion of the ‘open work’. This is the open ended nature of modern music – as well as art and literature.
I think her book ‘Participation’ is a relevant book to be reading alongside our other texts for social relations and critical spaces. In her chapter on Echo, Bishop’s writing expands from the realm of the visual arts to explain how participatory practice developed during modernism amongst other fields of practise (in this case music).
The musician interpreting the composers instructions is the same as the viewer participating in the work of a contemporary visual artist. Similar problems could emerge as in Bishops other article and its responses by Liam Gillick – as in the case of Tiravanija’s work at one instance only the art crowd where participating. The musical ‘open work’ once again could only include participation from a person trained in music to be able to play the instrument and attempt the piece in the first place.