Philip Corner Biography
Philip Corner was born on April 10, 1933. He is a traditionally trained American composer and pianist. He was influenced by two great musicians, John Cage and Olivier Messiaen, who introduced him to the world of total sound and the technique of juxtaposing extreme elements. During the late 1950s, Corner's scores had already become graphic drawings. However, his experience as a conscript in Korea allowed him to definitively free himself from Western musical writing, using calligraphy and oriental inspiration.
Corner developed a system of graphic musical notation, based on signs rather than notes, which he transformed into a pure autonomous visual art form. Music is always implied in the suggestion of the relationships between time and space, even when the drawings are not scores for performances. This path has given unity to all the works, both visual and performative. Many of Corner's works have been supported by some visionary publishers and collectors such as Francesco Conz, Rosanna Chiessi, Caterina Gualco and Carlo Cattelani.
Since performative events are closely connected to visual works, the collaboration with his wife, the dancer Phœbe Neville, was and is fundamental.
