John Zorn’s File Card Works

Maurice Windleburn holds a PhD in Musicology from the University of Melbourne, Australia. His research focuses on avant-garde music, music philosophy, and ekphrastic relations between music and other artforms. His work has been published in a number of journals, including Organised Sound, Tempo, and the Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics.

“A meticulously researched study of John Zorn’s file-card compositions, an aspect of Zorn’s output which has previously not been explored in this way. The history of Zorn’s engagement with file card composition in its various stages is explored and his musical materials and processes are explained with great clarity. It will be of interest to readers interested in Zorn’s music, contemporary jazz, classical composition, experimental music, recording studio processes and techniques as well as those interested in music theory, the philosophy of music, musical ontology, hermeneutics and semiotics. It’s also an enjoyable and informative read.”Edward Campbell, Professor of Music, School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture. King's College, University of Aberdeen, UK“Deeply researched and profoundly theorized, Maurice Windleburn widens the lens of John Zorn's musical context to place his output within the larger contexts of literature, media theory, philosophy, linguistics, computing, filmmaking, psychoanalysis, and visual art. Through a meticulous and micro-focused examination of one specific body of Zorn's vast and prodigious output, this book charts a path forward for a much needed field of Zorn studies.”Kenneth Goldsmith, University of Pennsylvania, USA“John Zorn’s File Card Works is a masterful study, one which clearly shows the author’s love for the subject material and commitment to inventive modes of analysis…For readers with an interest in experimental music, intermedial art, and new possibilities for music analysis, John Zorn’s File Card Works is an essential and generous guide to this occasionally opaque body of work.”Alex Tripp, University of Chicago, in Notes, September 2025

• 1. The File Card Work and its Model Listener 2. The Hypotexts of Sound Blocks 3. Hypertextual Hermeneutics 4. From Metatext to Hypertext via Uncreativity