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Digital Adaptions of the Scores for Cage Variations I, II and III

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Digital Adaptions of the Scores for Cage Variations I, II and III Edith Cowan University Research Online ECU Publications 2012 1-1-2012 Digital adaptions of the scores for Cage Variations I, II and III Lindsay Vickery Catherine Hope Edith Cowan University Stuart James Edith Cowan University Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworks2012 Part of the Music Commons Vickery, L. R., Hope, C. A., & James, S. G. (2012). Digital adaptions of the scores for Cage Variations I, II and III. Proceedings of International Computer Music Conference. (pp. 426-432). Ljubljana. International Computer Music Association. Available here This Conference Proceeding is posted at Research Online. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworks2012/165 NON-COCHLEAR SOUND _ I[M[2012 LJUBLJANA _9.-14. SEP'l'EMBER Digital adaptions of the scores for Cage Variations I, II and III Lindsay Vickery, Cat Hope, and Stuart James Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Edith Cowan University ABSTRACT Over the ten years from 1958 to 1967, Cage revisited to the Variations series as a means of expanding his Western Australian new music ensemble Decibel have investigation not only of nonlinear interaction with the devised a software-based tool for creating realisations score but also of instrumentation, sonic materials, the of the score for John Cage's Variations I and II. In these performance space and the environment The works works Cage had used multiple transparent plastic sheets chart an evolution from the "personal" sound-world of with various forms of graphical notation, that were the performer and the score, to a vision potentially capable of independent positioning in respect to one embracing the totality of sound on a global scale. Table another, to create specifications for the multiple unique 1 gives a summary of the evolution of Cage's approach instantiation of these works. The digital versions allow to the score, sound sources and the performance space in for real-time generation of the specifications of each the Variations series. work, quasi-infinite exploration of diverse realisations of the works and transcription of the data created using Score sound performance Cage's methodologies into proportionally notated specification sources space scrolling graphical scores. 1. INTRODUCTION I (1958) instruments quasi- Jolm Cage's eight Variations (1958-67) occupy a unique determinate sound position in the composer's output. By the late 1950s, II unspecified producing Cage had made significant progress in exploring the use (1961) means of indeterminate sound sources (such as radio and LP 1 III indeterminate recordings ) , a range of chance procedures for actions generating notation2 and indeterminacy of n otation3 His (1963) score attention now turned towards the indeterminacy and sound IV topographical producing "flexibility" of formal structure itself: "a way to further (1963) map the diversity and flexibility of his compositions by means r em oving the fixity of the score itself' [28]. v astronomical 5 The eight Variations were the principal vehicle for the (1965) chart electronic exploration of this idea, constituting nearly a quarter of sound system VI sound systems component integrated his compositional output during this period. Following (1966) the completion of Variations VIII, the most open of the diagram works in every respect, Cage returned, for the most part, VII real-time to more traditional compositional outcomes marked by (1966) sounds remarks [13] his exploration of the "recomposition" of pre-existing "silence" VIII works. (ambient (1967) sounds) Table 1: A summary of Variations I to VIII. 1 An early example is Credo in US (1942) [34]. 2 These included the use the I Ching as a source of aleatoricism Although Decibel created digital versions of Variations in Music of Changes (1951) [29 pp. 78-88], "found systems" I-VI, this paper focuses upon the digital realization of such as "folded paper templates" in Music for Carillion No. 1 Variations I, II and III, works that employ multiple (1952) [29 p. 92] and the "paper imperfection technique" in transparent plastic sheets inscribed with either points Music for Piano (1952-6) [29 p. 94]. Cage's use of lines or circles, for the p~ose of creating a unique Astronomical maps as "found systems" dates from Music for score for a performer to read . Carillion No. 4 (1961) [29 p. 211] and was incorporated in Variations V (196 5). 3 Cage' s exploration of indeterminate notation began in Music for Piano (1953) and culminated in 1958 with the magnum 5 The instructions read "as though there were a dmwing of the opus Concert for Piano and Orchestra, [29 p. 109], [33 p. 132], controls available and - on transparency - transcription from [2]. astronomical atlas which (if it were superimposed) would give 4 Examples are recomposition of pitches of Satie's Socrates suggestions for use of controls" [12]. (1918) in Cheap Imitation (1969) [4], "subtraction" ofmaterial 6 Variations IV- VI generate specifications for the placement of from anthems and congregational music Apartment House sounds in the space, for electronic controller variables and for 1776 (1 976) and "rubbing" of Satie Chorales in Song Book the assembly of electronic components in the space (song 85) [27]. respectively. _426 _427 NON-COCHLEAR SOUND _ ICMC21ZJ12 UUBUANA _9.-14. SEPTEMBER There is relatively strong documentation of the evolving Brown's December 1952 (1954) which may be read in non-digital performance practice of the Variations as any direction (Left to Right, Top to Bottom, Right to performed by David Tudor (Variations 11-1961 [30], Left, Bottom to Top). [31], [22]), John Cage (Variations III-1963 [28]), John Cage, Merce Cunningham et al (Variations V-1965[26], [19]), David Miller (Variations 1 and 11-2003 [24]), .:zoviet (*france:, Wand, and Tanaka (Variations VII- 'OV 2008 [1 ]). Traditionally, the realisation of Variations I and if in . - l ,. Q.\ T 'Till{££ t.A~6E (II ll.lj. t-1.~E $ot/t1D$),'>~ particular has necessitated time-consuming manual U V 1-1:~ I.AA&£ ~ :lo111i.PS\ !o ~Ll. [No measurement and collation of multiple coordinates. In !>o\ltiP5J, li. ~ sw.L.L- PoltiT~ (;rH61-i o;.oo~ . 2006 digital versions of Variations 11 were created '!1c 5 LINe~ AtfD 'f)IE If '&()1)!\PA!tlf~ 1D SE independently by Nicholas Knouf and Pierpaolo Leo \]SED ~ Itt &B Attt> ~. Wile~ ol!frP.JNI)[6- (Variations 11-2006 [20], [23]). Both of these I-1EASU~Eifl'~ FOR, 3 f'U"~IE~ \)'>£ 3 adaptations were " installation" -based, in that they [>IP~Eit$ri'l' uPIE5 Att.t> Llkewl51' Fort. anu:~ generated both the score and a sanification of the score ~E'4~RU~E~. for viewers to manipulate in an art gallery, rather than scored materials for live performance. Figure 1: The BV notation from Cage's Concert for Piano (1958) [61 . The impetus behind Decibel's realisation of these works has been principally performative: to create practical The precisely defmed multi-parametrical nature of tools for the realisation of these works that retain both Variations I also suggests the influence of the integral the indeterminacy and the precision of the Cage's serial methods of the European Avant Garde, which had specification. dominated Cage's "chart" compositions [29 p. 78-90]. But most importantly, in these works Cage demarcates a 2. VARIATIONS I AND II new end point for the act of composition, leaving not In Variations I and II, Cage's materials generate what only the interpretation, but also the final realisation of might best be described as a blueprint for the creation of the works to the performer. a determinate score. (Miller describes them as "toolkits" The materials for Variations I comprise six square [23 p. 21]. Although Cage states that the score resulting tra11Sparencies: the first printed w ith points and the other from the application of " rules" of this work may be five printed with lines. Square 1 consists of 27 points of "simply observed" by the perfonner, there are four sizes con·esponding to the number of sounds they significant challenges involved in actualising Variations represent as illustrated in Table 2. I or II in this way (as will be di scussed below). Square 1 27 Points No. of Sounds At first glance these works appear to be a deconstruction of traditional score, w ith only the five stave lines and 13 Very Small I the noteheads remaining and left to tloat freely in t\vo 7 Small but Larger 2 dimensions. The lines and points are in fact used by the Greater size performed to generate a unique score, in w·hich the 3 3 distance of each point from each line determines one of 4 Largest 4+ five musical parameters: frequency, duration, amplitude, Table 2: The contents of Variations I square 1 timbre and point of occurrence. James Pritchett identifies the "B V" notation from Each of the five additional squares is printed with five Cage's Concert for Piano (1958), illustrated in Figure I lines corresponding to the five parameters shown in as the origin of this approach [29]. The connections Table 3. The performer may freely choose which between the ''paper imperfection technique" works such parameter to apply to each line. as Music for Piano (1952-6), in which points representing events were spacially located on the page at Squares 2-6 5 Lines knots in the surface of the paper and to and the "folded 1 frequency paper templates" of Music for Carillion No. 1 ( 1952), in which points were notated at intersections between 2 overtone structure creases in folded paper, are also significant. In 3 amplitude Variations 1 the notation is, more mobile, as the lines 4 duration and points are printed on transparent sheets, however the "fixes the number and structure of eves nts" is till 5 occurrence fixed [289 p.
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