4' 33'': John Cage's Utopia of Music
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EMPTY WORDS Other
EMPTY WORDS Other Wesley an University Press books by John Cage Silence: Lectures and Writings A Year from Monday: New Lectures and Writings M: Writings '67-72 X: Writings 79-'82 MUSICAGE: CAGE MUSES on Words *Art*Music l-VI Anarchy p Writings 73-78 bv WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS Middletown, Connecticut Published by Wesleyan University Press Middletown, CT 06459 Copyright © 1973,1974,1975,1976,1977,1978,1979 by John Cage All rights reserved First paperback edition 1981 Printed in the United States of America 5 Most of the material in this volume has previously appeared elsewhere. "Preface to: 'Lecture on the Weather*" was published and copyright © 1976 by Henmar Press, Inc., 373 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10016. Reprint pernr~sion granted by the publisher. An earlier version of "How the Piano Came to be Prepared" was originally the Introduction to The Well-Prepared Piano, copyright © 1973 by Richard Bunger. Reprinted by permission of the author. Revised version copyright © 1979 by John Cage. "Empty Words" Part I copyright © 1974 by John Cage. Originally appeared in Active Anthology. Part II copyright © 1974 by John Cage. Originally appeared in Interstate 2. Part III copyright © 1975 by John Cage. Originally appeared in Big Deal Part IV copyright © 1975 by John Cage. Originally appeared in WCH WAY. "Series re Morris Graves" copyright © 1974 by John Cage. See headnote for other information. "Where are We Eating? and What are We Eating? (Thirty-eight Variations on a Theme by Alison Knowles)" from Merce Cunningham, edited and with photographs and an introduction by James Klosty. -
A Performer's Guide to the Prepared Piano of John Cage
A Performer’s Guide to the Prepared Piano of John Cage: The 1930s to 1950s. A document submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS in the Keyboard Studies Division of the College-Conservatory of Music By Sejeong Jeong B.M., Sookmyung Women’s University, 2011 M.M., Illinois State University, 2014 ________________________________ Committee Chair : Jeongwon Joe, Ph. D. ________________________________ Reader : Awadagin K.A. Pratt ________________________________ Reader : Christopher Segall, Ph. D. ABSTRACT John Cage is one of the most prominent American avant-garde composers of the twentieth century. As the first true pioneer of the “prepared piano,” Cage’s works challenge pianists with unconventional performance practices. In addition, his extended compositional techniques, such as chance operation and graphic notation, can be demanding for performers. The purpose of this study is to provide a performer’s guide for four prepared piano works from different points in the composer’s career: Bacchanale (1938), The Perilous Night (1944), 34'46.776" and 31'57.9864" For a Pianist (1954). This document will detail the concept of the prepared piano as defined by Cage and suggest an approach to these prepared piano works from the perspective of a performer. This document will examine Cage’s musical and philosophical influences from the 1930s to 1950s and identify the relationship between his own musical philosophy and prepared piano works. The study will also cover challenges and performance issues of prepared piano and will provide suggestions and solutions through performance interpretations. -
Extremal Overlap-Free and Extremal Β-Free Binary Words Arxiv
Extremal overlap-free and extremal β-free binary words Lucas Mol and Narad Rampersad∗ Department of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Winnipeg [email protected], [email protected] Jeffrey Shallity School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo [email protected] Abstract An overlap-free (or β-free) word w over a fixed alphabet Σ is extremal if every word obtained from w by inserting a single letter from Σ at any position contains an overlap (or a factor of exponent at least β, respectively). We find all lengths which admit an extremal overlap- free binary word. For every extended real number β such that 2+ ≤ β ≤ 8=3, we show that there are arbitrarily long extremal β-free binary words. MSC 2010: 68R15 Keywords: overlap-free word; extremal overlap-free word; β-free word; extremal β-free word arXiv:2006.10152v1 [math.CO] 17 Jun 2020 1 Introduction Throughout, we use standard definitions and notations from combinatorics on words (see [11]). For every integer n ≥ 2, we let Σn denote the alphabet ∗The work of Narad Rampersad is supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), [funding reference number 2019-04111]. yThe work of Jeffrey Shallit is supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), [funding reference number 2018-04118]. 1 f0; 1;:::; n-1g. The word u is a factor of the word w if we can write w = xuy for some (possibly empty) words x; y.A square is a word of the form xx, where x is nonempty. -
Nicholas Isherwood Performs John Cage
aria nicholas isherwood performs john cage nicholas isherwood BIS-2149 BIS-2149_f-b.indd 1 2014-12-03 11:19 CAGE, John (1912–92) 1 Aria (1958) with Fontana Mix (1958) 5'07 Realization of Fontana Mix by Gianluca Verlingieri (2006–09) Aria is here performed together with a new version of Fontana Mix, a multichannel tape by the Italian composer Gianluca Verlingieri, realized between 2006 and 2009 for the 50th anniversary of the original tape (1958–2008), and composed according to Cage’s indications published by Edition Peters in 1960. Verlingieri’s version, already widely performed as tape-alone piece or together with Cage’s Aria or Solo for trombone, has been revised specifically for the purpose of the present recording. 2 A Chant with Claps (?1942–43) 1'07 2 3 Sonnekus (1985) 3'42 4 Eight Whiskus (1984) 3'50 Three songs for voice and closed piano 5 A Flower (1950) 2'58 6 The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs (1942) 3'02 7 Nowth Upon Nacht (1984) 0'59 8 Experiences No. 2 (1945–48) 2'38 9 Ryoanji – version for voice and percussion (1983–85) 19'36 TT: 44'53 Nicholas Isherwood bass baritone All works published by C.F. Peters Corporation, New York; an Edition Peters Group company ere comes Cage – under his left arm, a paper bag full of recycled chance operations – in his right hand, a copy of The Book of Bosons – the new- Hfound perhaps key to matter. On his way home he stops off at his favourite natural food store and buys some dried bulgur to make a refreshing supper of tabouleh. -
PROGRAM NOTES My Entire Recital Takes Place Within the Context of a Cage Piece Consisting Only of Written Directions for Translating a Book Into Music
Fink 1 MATRICULAPHONY, a percussive circus on Van Meter Ames’ A BOOK OF CHANGES (title of composition) (adjective) (author) (title of book) PROGRAM NOTES My entire recital takes place within the context of a Cage piece consisting only of written directions for translating a book into music. The piece requires the creation of an original title followed by “circus on” and then the name of the book being used. As might be inferred from “circus,” the piece becomes a pandemonium of the book’s contents. In his directions, Cage calls for reducing the book’s words to a mesostic poem (think acrostic but with the spine down the middle. See example on page 4) and finding recordings of all sounds and from all places mentioned in the book. These sounds, after chance-determined manipulation, become the contents of an audio track that makes up the piece. Accordingly, my recital will be an hour of non-stop music and text, both live and pre-recorded. In the premiere of this piece, Cage used James Joyce’s novel, titling his piece “Roaratorio, an Irish Circus on Finnegan’s Wake.” In my realization, I am using an unpublished manuscript written by late UC philosophy professor Van Meter Ames, which I discovered while working at UC’s Archives and Rare Books Library. The manuscript details Ames’ friendship with Cage and consists largely of stories from Cage’s one year in residence at CCM in the 1966-67 academic year. Cage and Ames bonded over their shared interest in Zen philosophy and the aesthetics of art/music. -
Digging in John Cage's Garden; Cage and Ryōanji
Stephen Whittington, University of Adelaide Digging In John Cage’s Garden; Cage and Ryōanji1 To me a composer is like a gardener to whom a small portion of a large piece of ground has been allotted for cultivation; it falls to him to gather what grows on his soil, to arrange it, to make a bouquet of it, and if he is very ambitious, to develop it as a garden. It devolves on this gardener to collect and form that which is in reach of his eyes, his arms – his power of differentiation. In the same way a mighty one, an anointed one, a Bach, a Mozart, can only survey, manipulate and reveal a portion of the whole flora of the earth; a tiny fragment of that kingdom of blossoms which covers our planet, and of which an enormous surface, partly too distant, partly undiscovered, withdraws from the reach of the individual, even if he is a giant. And yet the comparison is weak and insufficient because the flora only covers the earth, while music, invisible and unheard, pervades and permeates a whole universe. (Ferruccio Busoni) 2 There is something very appealing about likening composition to gardening; both activities are part art, part science, and part manual labour. Busoni’s gardening analogy seems particularly appropriate for John Cage, who was a keen gardener himself; tending plants was part of his daily routine. My work is what I do and always involves writing materials, chairs, and tables. Before I get to it, I do some exercises for my back and I water the plants, of which I have around two hundred. -
John Cage's "The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs"
John Cage's "The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs" Lauriejean Reinhardt John Cage's setting of "The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs" signals the beginning of what would become a profound and enduring fascination with the writings of James Joyce. Subsequent to this setting, composed in the fall of 1942, Cage would return to Joyce repeatedly throughout his career, using Joyce's words as the basis not only for a variety of musical compositions,1 but also a series of literary projects including the mesostichic2 and chance-inspired "writings" through Finnegans Wake and Ulysses.3 It is Finnegans Wake, however, a novel Cage once described as "endless and attractive,"4 that exerted the greatest influence on his work, and it is Finnegans Wake on which this early setting is based. The centrality of Joyce's novel to Cage's aesthetic outlook is captured in the composer's observation some forty years after his first encounter with the work that "we live, in a very deep sense, in the time of Finnegans Wake."5 Cage composed "The Wonderful Widow" in response to a commission from the soprano Janet Fairbank (1903-1947), whom he had met during his brief appointment at the Chicago Institute of Design in 1941-1942. Fairbank was an ambitious amateur singer from a wealthy family with close ties to the Chicago arts community. Her grandfather, the turn-of-the-century industrialist Nathaniel K. Fairbank, had been a trustee and major benefactor of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Club. Her mother was the novelist and political activist Janet Ayer Fairbank; and her aunt, Margaret Ayer Barnes, was a popular, Pulitzer prize-winning author. -
EXAUDI Repertoire List
EXAUDI Repertoire 20th-CENTURY AND CONTEMPORARY A Ignacio Agrimbau The Humanist wp Georges Aperghis Récitations Richard Ayres No.33 (Valentine Tregashian considers…) UKp B Joanna Bailie Artificial Environment no.6 wp Harmonizing (Artificial Environment no.7) wp Sam Belinfante Radio Music wp Luciano Berio E si fussi pisci Harrison Birtwistle Three Latin Motets The Last Supper On the Sheer Threshold of the Night Carmen Paschale Pierre Boulez cummings ist der Dichter C John Cage The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs Nowth upon Nacht A Flower Living Room Music Four2 Five Hymns and Variations Litany for the Whale Ear for EAR Song Books Radio Music Cornelius Cardew Ode Machines from Paragraph 5 of The Great Learning Ah, Thel Aaron Cassidy A painter of figures in rooms wp Niccolò Castiglioni Hymne Stephen Chase Jandl Songs Aldo Clementi Im Frieden dein, o Herre mein D Peter Maxwell Davies Four Carols from O Magnum Mysterium Jesus autem hodie; Carol on St Steven; Nowell James Dillon Hyades E Peter Eötvös SCHILLER: Energische Schönheit Gabriel Erkoreka Hymni Sacri F Morton Feldman Christian Wolff in Cambridge Voices and Cello Brian Ferneyhough Missa Brevis Stelae for Failed Time Finis terrae wp Michael Finnissy Anima Christi Seven Sacred Motets Descriptive Jottings of London wp Maldon Vertue Palm-Sunday Now wp Kiss me as if wp Marriage wp Gesualdo: Libro Sesto wp Robert Fokkens Flytrap wp Christopher Fox Catalogue Irraisoné Open the Gate American Choruses A Glimpse of Sion’s Glory Rendered Account Preluding wp comme ses paroles wp four-piece suo -
10. John Cage Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano: Sonatas I–III
10. John Cage Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano: Sonatas I–III (For Unit 6: Further Musical Understanding) Background information and performance circumstances John Cage (1912-92) is now recognised as one of the most influential figures in twentieth- century music, although in his own time he was widely maligned and misunderstood, almost inevitably as he questioned so many of the fundamentals of western music. His principal achievements were to: ● develop the use of percussion ● exploit elements of chance and indeterminacy in performance ● explore new sound sources (including the prepared piano) ● use new forms of graphic notation ● be open to the influence of eastern philosophy on western art, both in his music and in his extensive writings. During the late 1930s, Cage moved towards composing music for percussion instruments. He considered rhythmic duration to be the most significant of the musical elements. Consequently, the system that Cage developed for giving rhythmic structure to music depended on using mathematical proportions to govern both the large-scale and small-scale dimensions of a work. Cage described his technique of rhythmic structure as ‘micro- macrocosmic’; it was first used significantly in the First Construction (in Metal), and then it dominated his compositions up to and beyond the Sonatas and Interludes. Composition for percussion and for modern dance led to the invention of the prepared piano. From the late 1930s, Cage was the musical director for a number of dance companies, eventually leading him to work for Merce Cunningham, who required him to write music to a predetermined number of beats, not necessarily organised or regular in terms of metrical schemes. -
': John Cage's Utopia of Music
STUDIA HUMANISTYCZNE AGH Tom 15/2 • 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.7494/human.2016.15.2.17 Michał Palmowski* Jagiellonian University in Krakow 4’ 33’’: JOHN CAGE’S UTOPIA OF MUSIC The present article examines the connection between Cage’s politics and aesthetics, demonstrating how his formal experiments are informed by his political and social views. In 4’33’’, which is probably the best il- lustration of Cage’s radical aesthetics, Cage wanted his listeners to appreciate the beauty of accidental noises, which, as he claims elsewhere, “had been dis-criminated against” (Cage 1961d: 109). His egalitarian stance is also refl ected in his views on the function of the listener. He wants to empower his listeners, thus blurring the distinction between the performer and the audience. In 4’33’’ the composer forbidding the performer to impose any sounds on the audience gives the audience the freedom to rediscover the natural music of the world. I am arguing that in his experiments Cage was motivated not by the desire for formal novelty but by the utopian desire to make the world a better place to live. He described his music as “an affi rmation of life – not an at- tempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply a way of waking up to the very life we’re living, which is so excellent once one gets one’s mind and desires out of its way and lets it act of its own accord” (Cage 1961b: 12). Keywords: John Cage, utopia, poethics, silence, noise The present article is a discussion of the ideas informing the radical aesthetics of John Cage’s musical compositions. -
John Cage in Buffalo, NY, 1987
John Cage in Buffalo, NY, 1987 26 May / June 2012 Jimmy Heath outside the Dorie Miller apartments, 2005 JOHN CAGE AND THE ENSEMBLE The composer’s output both embraces and deconstructs the very notion of chamber music togetherness. His centenary offers us an opportunity for an overview. J OH N AT s it heresy to canonize the compositions of John Cage, or to hope that they Cmight someday attain the AGstatus of E standard repertoire? Maybe so, if one Iadheres strictly to the composer’s artistic philosophy. Cage wanted to free music—and ultimately all the arts—from routine, pre- dictability, and hierarchy. This aesthetic was shared by his life partner, the choreographer Merce Cunningham, who died in 2009 and whose dance company (for whom Cage served as music director for nearly half a century) was disbanded soon thereafter, according to Cunningham’s wishes. Yet the music of John Cage (1912-1992) deserves to be admired and enjoyed by today’s performers and audiences, especially IBY Frank OO J. Oteri 27 “Cage composed tons of works Of course, viewing Cage’s entire output as chamber music is a bit whimsical—and impractical. Since I hope to for unconventional, one-of-a-kind encourage performances by today’s ensembles, let’s combinations, ranging from an abide by Chamber Music America’s definition of its realm—i.e., music for 2 to 10 players, scored one to a array of non-Western instruments part, and generally not requiring a conductor. Even when Cage’s oeuvre is pared down to fit within these to rocks and even cacti.” boundaries, we are left with 279 works to consider. -
„Music – What For? “ John Cage's Musical Ideas for a Better World
Doris Kösterke „Music – what for? “ John Cage’s Musical Ideas for a Better World Lecture held during the Cairo Contemporary Music Days in collaboration with Department of Arts (AUC) on April 27th 2017 – 1:00 p.m. at Malak Gabr Arts Theatre American University New Cairo “For many years I have noticed, that music – as an activity separated from the rest of life – doesn’t enter my mind. Strictly musical questions are no longer serious questions” John Cage, 19761. „My ideas certainly started in the field of Music. And that field, so to speak, is child’s play. (We may have learned … in those idyllic days, things it behoves us now to recall.) Our proper work now if we love mankind and the world we live in is revolution”. John Cage, 19672 “… art is a sort of experimental station in which one tries out living“. John Cage, 19543 „Music – what for? “ 4 - Some answers by John Cage I think, it is a good idea to ask oneself “Why do I do what I am doing? “ - No matter whether you are an employee, an employer, a soldier, a teacher, or a musician. And - please, never be satisfied with the answer “for money”, Most composers don’t ask themselves. They take it for granted what music is made for. 1 John Cage: Empty Words. Writings `73-`78. Middletown, Conn. 1979 (JCE) p. 177. 2 Preface to A Year from Monday, John Cage: A Year from Monday. New Lectures and Writings. Middletown, Conn. 1967(JCA), p. IX; 16, cf. JCE, p. 182. 3 Lecture on Something, John Cage: Silence.