Walter Zimmermann’s Desert Plants: Conversations with Twenty-Three American Musicians

German composer Walter Zimmermann once likened American experimental musicians to desert plants. He was not being condescending. On the contrary, he was expressing a deep appreciation of the new music originating from this side of the Atlantic. In 1975, Zimmermann flew across the ocean to meet and interview 23 composers. The resulting material was transcribed and published in a book which Amy C. Beal, in New Music, New Allies, calls “a milestone in codifying the American experimental tradition.”

Indeed, Zimmermann’s long out-of-print Desert Plants helped canonize the leading figures of the post war experimental music scene. The book, which was published in 1976 by the Aesthetic Research Center of Canada, provided a unique insight into the challenges faced by artists in North America.

Desert Plants includes interviews with Morton Feldman, Christian Wolfe, John Cage, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Robert Ashley, Alvin Lucier, Pauline Oliveros, Joan La Barbara, Charles Morrow, La Monte Young, Charlemagne Palestine, and David Rosenboom to name but a few.

Zimmermann writes:

“I found out what they have in common besides being different.

The ways of SUBSISTENCE.

How to survive under hard conditions and the resulting beauty and vigour of this existence, which is one precondition for the necessary revolutionary changes.”

Desert Plants continues to be available thanks to the generosity of its author and contributors. The various chapters of the book remain available online for those of you interested in revisiting the works and ideas of seminal experimental music composers.

A printable PDF of the book can also be obtained by contacting the author directly (photos and scores – unfortunately – not included due to copyrights reasons). Follow this link and scroll down to Desert Plants for details.