Heiner Goebbels and Curatorial Composing After Cage: From Staging Works to Musicalising Encounters

I introduce the notion of curatorial composing to account for certain musical practices that emerged from the 1960s as the founding concepts of music as an art – instituted in the modern era – were systematically dismantled. It raises the key question of how musical value and authority might be produced without recourse to an external principle, origin, transcendental framework, or other foundation. I argue that these practices do not dismiss the issue of value or simply relativise it but shift the paradigm to a curatorial concern for composing public encounters and staging events. Lydia Goehr’s elaboration of the work-concept provides a framework that, I show, was transformed by John Cage in his work from 0’00” (1962) onwards. Heiner Goebbels’ approach then offers a contemporary exemplar. I introduce his practice and focus on his role as Artistic Director of the Ruhrtriennale (2012-14), which I argue was an extension of his curatorial composing.