This paper was submitted as my Master's Thesis at Mills College, in December of 1996. The majority of the paper was written during the preceding year under the insightful guidance of my readers, Annie Janiero Randall, Chris Brown, and Alvin Curran, with additional input from Glenn Spearman. David Bernstein also helped tremendously with the final edition.
I am considering the possibility of publishing this paper, something which my readers, and the respected scholar Frank Kofsky have suggested. That edition of the paper will be altered somewhat from this one.
In addition, the paper was submitted with an accompanying audio tape of the Tape Selections. While I did not mind submitting the tape within the school environment, I feel it would be unethical post the audio portions of the concert. As conducive as the Web is to this kind of mixed medium, it is nonetheless a public access space, and I feel that such a posting would require the permission of all 42 musicians who performed, as well as explicit permission from Cecil Taylor.
I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Several people, however, have read the paper without the audio portions, and said that it still held up. The graphic diagrams help to facilitate the understanding. If a future version of this paper is published, there will be a few revisions so that it is not so dependent on the audio material.
I am interested in feedback on this paper, especially from people who attended the concert, so please feel free to email me with you comments.
-Matthew Goodheart
February 22, 1997