John Cage - In a landscape

[Nightscape]

This was recommended to me for 'dining room' music a while back, and I just recently came across the sheets for it and thought I'd share it.  Might change some opinions about Cage (mabye not though).

[Derek]

I don't think I'll ever understand why the academic music world is trying so hard to convince the rest of the world that Cage was something other than unremarkable.  I can't distinguish this piece from the tens of thousands of "new age" pianists' music out there, and the rest of his output cannot by any reasonable definition of the term even be called music (not counting the mildly interesting works for prepared piano).

Still, pleasant to listen to.

[thracozaag]

  Played this piece with that was choreographed beautifully with Baryshnikov; it ended up being my favorite work on the program, actually.

koji

[Nightscape]

Yes, I would very much like to see this performed as a dance, since that was what it was composed for.

And I happen to think that John Cage is pretty remarkable.  I know he has an infamous reputation for 4'33'' but obviously he is more than a 'sound engineer', you can't possibly say that this or his sonatas and interludes are mere products of an engineer.  And he is often very humorous, such as his in suite for toy piano which always makes me smile when I hear it.

And I can see how this would sound 'new age-y', but it certainly predates that movement by several decades.

[thracozaag]

Yes, I would very much like to see this performed as a dance, since that was what it was composed for.

And I happen to think that John Cage is pretty remarkable.  I know he has an infamous reputation for 4'33'' but obviously he is more than a 'sound engineer', you can't possibly say that this or his sonatas and interludes are mere products of an engineer.  And he is often very humorous, such as his in suite for toy piano which always makes me smile when I hear it.

And I can see how this would sound 'new age-y', but it certainly predates that movement by several decades.

  I found this piece much less "new age-y" and more Satie-ish.

koji

[ahinton]

I don't think I'll ever understand why the academic music world is trying so hard to convince the rest of the world that Cage was something other than unremarkable.

No, nor will I, I fear; it's not the entire academic world, mind, but it' surely more than enough of it!

One argument that used frequently to be put forward is that Cage's work encouraged people not to take anything for granted in musical expression; whilst this, as a principle is, of course, laudable, I have never been able to extrapolate from it the notion that Cage actually played a rôle of any real significance in this regard. Cage once (apparently) famously criticised another composer by claiming that "he doesn't treat sounds as sounds - he treats them as Varèse"; well, the composer concerned WAS Varèse, so what else was he supposed to do and what was so wrong with doing what he did? One can only suspect that tere was no real intended meaning in this statement, as seems to be the case with many others that Cage made at one time or another. In some of Cage it appears that we are, amongst other things, supposed to see - and accept - some kind of abnegation of creative responsiblity, as though this were some kind of virtue. To me, however, it is, curiously, when considering some of Cage's less obviously controversial - and, dare I suggest it - more conventionally laid out - piece such as the Freeman Études and the Thirty Pieces for String Quartet that I become the most aware of his chief weaknesses as a composer seeming to come to the fore.

Cage's one-time teacher Schönberg famously considered to him to be not a composer at all but an inventor; a fair comment, perhaps, but one which was in part founded upon the fact that Schönberg considered that his pupil lacked any meaningful sense of harmony. Now, had Schönberg also taught Xenakis (which of course he never did - indeed, I'm almost certain that the two composers never even met), he might have felt it incumbent upon him to make a similar observation about his Greek pupil - but at least there seems often to be real substance, originality and individuality in Xenakis's inventions, whereas in the case of Cage there appears to me to be comparatively little to arrest the listener's attention. As it was, I think that Schönberg had only one distinguished Greek pupil (Skalkottas) - and he could hardly have been more different from Xenakis!

Best,

Alistair

[Derek]

You know whose music I think is remarkable? Leos Janacek's.

[Nightscape]

Hey, look at that! Derek and ahinton agreed on something!

no, I'm just kidding of course....

[Derek]

I assure you my previous antagonism was more rooted in the last vestiges of my adolescence finding their way out safely in a web site rather than something representative of my actual views.  That is to say, I do despise Xenakis' music, but...if other people like it more power to them. It's just music---it can't hurt anyone.  Unless you listened to it at a high volume. JUST LIKE DEATH METAL.

[ahinton]

You know whose music I think is remarkable? Leos Janacek's.

The relevance of this observation in the context of the present thread escapes me but, that said, I can't disagree with you there...

Best,

Alistair

[ahinton]

Hey, look at that! Derek and ahinton agreed on something!

no, I'm just kidding of course....

Indeed - so I wouldn't lose any sleep over it, if I were you (especially as you may now notice another one above...). There are some who make a profession of disagreeing for the sake of so doing - and there are others who express disagreement when it is appropriate; I'd like to think that, in general terms, I more often fall into the latter category...

Best,

Alistair

[soliloquy]

I think that Schönberg had only one distinguished Greek pupil (Skalkottas)

Have you ever heard Skalkottas' 4 Greek Dances for String Orchestra?  Great piece.


Oh and to get a bit off topic, loved the Cage piece.  Do Bacchanal now ^^

[arensky]

Nice piece. Who says modern music is diisonant?

Good job Nightscape on staying so consistent in your phrassing and tone production throughout this performance. You created an austere yet beautiful mood.

On a personal note this reminded me of a girl I used to know (a non-musician), when she was at my apartment she would sit at the piano and improvise on the white keys, in a very similar manner as this piece. An extroverted person, she would become lost in the sounds she made, and they revealed an introspective and pensive aspect or her personality that I never observed at other times.

[pikko]

John Cage Year Lublin 2012

Lublin, Poland

01.01.2012 - 31.12.2012

John Cage Year Lublin 2012

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!