BROWN, EARLE

born Dec. 26, 1926, Lunenburg, Mass., U.S. one of the leading American composers of avant-garde music, best known for his development of graphic notation and the open-form system of composition. Brown had been trained in engineering and mathematics before he began to study music theory and composition. In 1952 he developed a system of graphic notation, the use of non-traditional notational syllables across a writing surface in such a way that they are analogous to the passage of music through time. In 1953 he further put forth an open-form technique of composition, such that the conductor or performer determines the sequence of a group of musical units. Brown's first open-form composition, Twenty-five Pages (1953) for 125 performers, has a score of 25 pages that are to be arranged in a sequence chosen by the performer(s). Most of Brown's later work utilizes both graphic notation and open form.