|
|
John Cage (1912
- 1992)
|
|
|
Names Index:
A B
C D
E F
G H
I J
K L
M N
O P
Q R
S T
U V
W X
Y Z
| Authors
Index | Scholars
Index |
|
 John
Cage - The Seasons / Leng Tan, Russell Davies, et al
This
astonishing disc is possibly the best collection of John Cage's
music now on the market. It covers the gamut of Cage's radicalism
as well as his humor, and as such there is something for everyone
(newbies included). Of particular delight here is Suite for Toy
Piano (1948), which employs only the white keys in a single
octave, and the beautifully orchestrated version that follows
(done by Lou Harrison, a friend of Cage, in 1963). But three of
Cage's absolute masterpieces--each totally different from the
other--are also here: the eerie Seventy-Four (1992), the
ballet score for The Seasons (1947) and the riveting Concerto
for Prepared Piano and Chamber Orchestra (1950-51). Everything
you need to know about John Cage is right here. -- Paul
Cook 
 The
25-Year Retrospective Concert of the Music of John Cage
Hard
to believe that as early as 1958 there was a 25-year retrospective
concert of John Cage's music. But this 3-CD set documents both the
concert and its meaning for the history of New Music. Organized by
no less than Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Emile de
Antonio, the event sparked heated controversy--some of it
documented in the crowd's reaction to Cage's early tape- music
piece, Williams Mix. The expansive booklet accompanying the
CDs includes loads of prescient commentary, much of it from Cage
himself. Most telling is the simple formulation: "New Music.
New Listening. Just an attention to the activity of sounds."
Cage's earliest-prepared piano sonatas are abbreviated with
clangorous, percussive results, and the Concerto for Piano and
Orchestra sprawls noisily in myriad directions. The sound is broad
and warm for a 40-year-old live recording, and this is a
cornerstone document of post-World War II art. -- Andrew
Bartlett
|
John Cage (1912-1992)
COMPOSER
A composer, his works included Imaginary
Landscape 4, Williams Mix and Europera 5. His longtime
lover and collaborator was dancer Merce Cunningham.
|
|
Excerpt:
"It was at Harvard not quite forty years
ago that I went into an anechoic [totally silent] chamber not
expecting in that silent room to hear two sounds: one high, my
nervous system in operation, one low, my blood in circulation. The
reason I did not expect to hear those two sounds was that they
were set into vibration without any intention on my part. That
experience gave my life direction, the exploration of nonintention.
No one else was doing that. I would do it for us. I did not know
immediately what I was doing, nor, after all these years, have I
found out much. I compose music. Yes, but how? I gave up making
choices. In their place I put the asking of questions. The answers
come from the mechanism, not the wisdom of the I Ching, the most
ancient of all books: tossing three coins six times yielding
numbers between 1 and 64." --John Cage, 1990
|
|
From the Classical
Music Pages
Excerpt:
He left Pomona College early to travel in Europe
(1930-31), then studied with Cowell in New York (1933-4) and Schönberg
in Los Angeles (1934): his first published compositions, in a
rigorous atonal system of his own, date from this period. In 1937
he moved to Seattle to work as a dance accompanist, and there in
1938 he founded a percussion orchestra; his music now concerned
with filling units of time with ostinatos (First Construction
(in Metal), 1939). He also began to use electronic devices
(variable-speed turntables in lmaginary Landscape no.1,
1939) and invented the 'prepared piano', placing diverse objects
between the strings of a grand piano in order to create an
effective percussion orchestra under the control of two hands. He
moved to San Francisco in 1939, to Chicago in 1941 and back to New
York in 1942, all the time writing music for dance companies
(notably for Merce Cunningham), nearly always for prepared piano
or percussion ensemble. There were also major concert works for
the new instrument: A Book of Music (1944) and Three Dances
(1945) for two prepared pianos, and the Sonatas and Interludes
(1948) for one...
|
|
This site lists online writings, sound files,
and articles written about John Cage and his work.
Site includes:
|
|
|
Names Index:
A B
C D
E F
G H
I J
K L
M N
O P
Q R
S T
U V
W X
Y Z
| Authors
Index | Scholars
Index |
|
|
