Open form is a designation on a type of composition that is in some degree open. It is also a term in relation to understanding a genre. This means that I do not include for example Bach´s Die Kunst der Fuge (circa 1740), but Stockhausen´s Aus den sieben Tagen (1968) could be included. This project, however, is centered around the composers from The New York Scool, and composers related to The New York School: Christian Wolff, Pauline Oliveros, John Cage, Earle Brown, Morton Feldman and Cornelius Cardew.
An Open form composition is graphic, text- or number-based. It may also be a combination of these three notational techniques and/or in combination with conventional staff line-notation.