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The Choral Music of John Cage Emily John

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The Choral Music of John Cage Emily John THE CHORAL MUSIC OF JOHN CAGE EMILY JOHN EEmilym i l y JJohno h n ddirectsi r e c t s ttheh e VVoxo x NNovao v a CChoirsh o i r s ((gradesg r a d e s 55-8)- 8 ) ooff ttheh e SSpecialp e c i a l MMusicu s i c SSchoolc h o o l aatt KKaufmana u f m a n CCenter,e n t e r, aandn d iiss aassistants s i s t a n t cconductoro n d u c t o r fforo r FFacea c e ttheh e MMusic,u s i c , ttheh e KKaufmana u f m a n CCenter'se n t e r ' s tteene e n nnewe w mmusicu s i c eensemble.n s e m b l e . SSheh e iiss aalsol s o aann aadjunctd j u n c t ffacultya c u l t y mmembere m b e r aatt QQueensu e e n s CCollege-CUNY,o l l e g e - C U N Y, AAarona r o n CCoplando p l a n d SSchoolc h o o l ooff MMusic,u s i c , aandn d a ffreelancer e e l a n c e hharpista r p i s t iinn ttheh e NNYCY C aarear e a <[email protected]>. lthough most musicians know the name John Cage, few have Afully explored the musical output of Cage’s innovations. Most often acknowl- edged regarding his composition, 4’33”, Cage’s other works (including pieces for prepared piano, traditional piano, percus- sion ensemble, solo instruments, toy piano, gamelan, found objects, electronics and voices) and his lectures and philosophical writings deserve performance and a more thorough examination by all artists. In this centenary year of Cage, there have been many representative concerts, includ- ing an extended festival in Washington D.C., gallery exhibits, and readings celebrating Cage’s output as a composer, writer, and artist. Many of the performances feature Cage’s well-known instrumental works and, although there have been performances of his vocal works, notably Alarm Will Sound staged a complete performance of Song Books, few choruses have fully embraced the vocal works of Cage. For many musicians trained in the Western classical tradition, Cage, although known, is often derided or ignored. As choral musicians, we may hesi- tate to approach works written by someone who acknowledges, “I don’t have an ear for music, and I don’t hear music in my mind before I write it. And I never have. I can’t remember a melody.”1 Yet, Cage’s music is ideal for choirs for just that reason; it takes us into new realms of vocal possibilities. His works are not composed top-down, with a clearly defi ned memorable melody that will provoke Ohrwürme [ear worms] but they will, to use R. Murray Schafer’s term, provide ear-cleaning.2 CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 53 Number 5 67 THE CHORAL MUSIC OF JOHN CAGE John Cage (1912–1992), the son of advocated for pan-tonality (rather than has had such an enormous impact on an inventor, had a tremendous impact the more commonly used term, atonal- global culture.”6 on art in every form. A prolifi c com- ity), Cage eventually embraced an idea poser, writer, philosopher, orator, and of sound equality: “Impose nothing. performer, Cage’s legacy is vast and Live and let live. Permit each person, PHILOSOPHY AND varied. In addition to his artistic output, and each sound, to be the center of COMPOSITIONAL PROCESS 4 Cage was an avid amateur mycologist creation.” (empahsis mine) In Cage’s Just as an appreciation of Bach’s and helped revitalize the New York My- works, there is not a hierarchy of sound. choral music can be enhanced by an un- cological Society. All too often though, Sounds are neither good nor bad; they derstanding of Lutheran theology, so too Cage is summarily viewed and dismissed simply are. This openness to sound and is an appreciation of Cage’s music ampli- through the lens of his most famous silence has led many to avoid Cage’s fi ed by acknowledging the philosophical work, 4’33.” This work, sometimes re- music, assuming that it is merely chaotic context. Many of the pieces suitable for ferred to as the Silent Piece, is signifi cant, noise or nothing. One need only read choral performance are from the later both in Cage’s musical oeuvre and in the comments of any YouTube performance years of Cage’s work and thus more fully music of the twentieth century. How- of a John Cage piece to see the antipa- refl ect the ideals and philosophies that ever, to look only at this work, when thy that many feel about his work. Yet, he learned and developed throughout considering Cage’s musical contribution, the popularity of Cage, as evidenced his life. In 1946, Cage met Geet Sarabhai, misses the point of Cage’s music. One by the interesting and varied centennial who had come to New York to learn way to view Cage is through his love celebrations, speaks to the enduring about Western music because she was 3 of sound. Just as Arnold Schoenberg nature of his music. concerned about the impact it was Cage’s use of indeterminacy and having on traditional Indian music. From chance in his compositions paved the Sarabhai, Cage learned, “the traditional way for much of the aleatoric music that reason for making a piece of music in choirs embrace today. Although Cage India: ‘to quiet the mind thus making it didn’t have students that carried on his susceptible to divine infl uences.’”7 Cage ideas per se, his infl uence on composers embraced the idea of music serving, not and performers is widely acknowledged. as a mode of communication or as an When asked, “John Cage, what does he emotional expression, but as a tool to communicate?” Yoko Ono responded: calm the mind, and to open the pathway “History of Western music can be di- to divinity. vided into B.C. (Before Cage) and A.C. The idea of music as a way to “quiet (After Cage). I was a lucky girl to have the mind” (meditation, contemplation) bumped into him in my roller coaster 5 harks to the role of music in the early of life.” Many contemporary choral church. Recall the Council of Trent’s composers have embraced the ideas of concern that complex polyphony would time brackets, aleatoric principles, and a distract from music’s purpose of serving duration of silence as a musical idea, all the church’s function. Or, look further concepts present in the works of John back, to Pythagoras and the Music of the Cage. Spheres.8 In fact, if, as Cage writes, “mu- Cage’s friendships and interactions sic is continuous and it is we who turn with Schoenberg, Cowell, Virgil Thom- away,”9 then his music, refl ecting aware- son, e. e. cummings, Peggy Guggenheim, ness of the ongoing music (silence, music Merce Cunningham, Pierre Boulez, of the spheres, divine sound, call it what Marcel Duchamp, Yoko Ono, and John you will) is perhaps the ultimate musical Lennon, make him a pivotal fi gure in expression. Cage explains, “when I write the shaping of twentieth-century artistic a piece, I try to write it in such a way that thought. As biographer, David Nicholls it won’t interrupt this other piece which writes, “With the possible exception of (sic) is already going on.”10 At the same Andy Warhol, no American artist work- time that there is a process of connec- ing in a fi eld other than popular music tion or awareness of the larger world 68 CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 53 Number 5 in Cage’s music, there is also a quest are intended to support a truly musical excepting Song Books and 4’33”, are for disconnecting, for not engaging the performance. It may seem that Cage’s seldom referenced in scholarly discus- emotions. Cage’s music is not meant to ideas push live performance beyond sion. Perhaps it is because the later vo- communicate or represent. The follow- the breaking point, into absurdity. There cal works (ear for EAR, Four2, Litany for a ing interchange, from Conversing with are recordings and accounts of perfor- Whale) so clearly represent Cage’s style Cage, sheds light on Cage’s philosophy: mances where the performers dissolved and philosophy that they scarcely need the music into misunderstood chaos.14 analysis or deconstruction. They are the Question: A great many people Yet, although Cage espoused a total summation of Cage’s philosophies as would be baffl ed by the suggestion acceptance of all sounds, he expressed expressed in music.17 that they should respond neither disappointment and anger when per- emotionally nor intellectually to music. What else is there? formers misinterpreted his works. This ambiguity of performance, (how, in fact, ENSEMBLE PIECES Cage: They should listen. Why should can someone incorrectly “make a gift they imagine that sounds are not of an apple or some cranberries to a Four2 – SATB choir, composed for the interesting in themselves? I’m always member of the audience?”)15 can be Hood River Valley High School (1990) amazed when people say, ‘Do you intimidating, but if one fully embraces This late work is the only choral mean it’s just sounds?’ How can they the joyfulness of Cage’s work, and his imagine that it’s anything but sounds work in Cage’s catalogue. Composed is what’s so mysterious.11 inherent love of sound and humanity, for a high school choir in Oregon, Cage the answers of performance practice uses the letters in the state’s name to Cage’s music is both universal and become clearer.
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