John Cage
American composer, philosopher, writer and printmaker. He was educated in California and then made a study tour of Europe (1930-31), concentrating on art, architecture and music. On his return to the USA he studied music with Richard Buhlig, Adolph Weiss, Henry Cowell and Arnold Schoenberg; in 1934 he abandoned abstract painting for music. An interest in extending the existing range of percussion instruments led him, in 1940, to devise the 'prepared piano' (in which the sound is transformed by the insertion of various objects between the strings) and to pioneer electronic sound sources.
American composer, philosopher, writer and printmaker. He was educated in California and then made a study tour of Europe (1930-31), concentrating on art, architecture and music. On his return to the USA he studied music with Richard Buhlig, Adolph Weiss, Henry Cowell and Arnold Schoenberg; in 1934 he abandoned abstract painting for music. An interest in extending the existing range of percussion instruments led him, in 1940, to devise the 'prepared piano' (in which the sound is transformed by the insertion of various objects between the strings) and to pioneer electronic sound sources.
Winter Music (1957)
John Cage’s 1957 composition in a visceral realisation for four pianos, played by John Tilbury, Philip Thomas, Mark Knoop and Catherine Laws.
“Chance procedures were used to assign each of the pianists five of the twenty pages of the score. The pianists agreed an overall duration of 40 minutes and prepared their parts independently. At the recording there was no rehearsal and the piece was played once only.” Winter Music was written in 1957 at a time when Cage was exploring different ways …
Variations IV, Vol. II
A 1965 journey into found sound; this is John Cage. Another seminal volume of indeterminate music, from an icon of experimental sounds. Reissued for the first time and thematically on gorgeous clear vinyl! It could be argued that there is no more controversial figure in music history as avant-garde electronic composer John Cage. Perhaps best known for his composition “4'33"" which consisted of Cage sitting at a piano for four-plus minutes of total silence, Cage was both loved and loathed …
Variations IV, Vol. I
"Due to unprecedented demand" for the first volume of Everest's 1965 release of John Cage's Variations IV (perhaps unique at the time given the experimental nature of the material), a second selection of music culled from Cage and associate David Tudor's marathon six-hour concert at the Feigen-Palmer Gallery in Los Angeles was released. Whereas the first volume indicated roughly at what moment of the performance the recordings were sourced from (its four extracts document events taking place in …
John Cage / Christian Wolff
Jeanne Dielman present a reissue John Cage and Christian Wolff's self-titled album, originally released in 1963 on legendary Times Records. This album was an early showcase of both 20th century composers's experimental chops, and is highly regarded as some of their finest work. Cage's piece, which spans the whole of the first side, was originally composed in 1960, and like many of his pieces, would never be performed the same way twice. "My hope is that it forms a possible landscape on one …
Complete Song Books
... to consider the Song Books as a work of art is nearly impossible. Who would dare? It resembles a brothel, doesn't it?" --John Cage. Complete Song Books, volume three in the Perihel series on Karlrecords, along with La Legende d'Eer and Douze Inventions en Six Modes De Jeu is dedicated to one of the most iconic composers of 20th century, John Cage. All 92 pieces of Song Books are presented here, with stunning interpretations by Reinhold Friedl, recorded at Rashad Becker's Clunk Studio who a…
Early Electronic & Tape Music
2016 repress. "I believe the use of noise to make music will continue and increase until we reach a music produced through the aid of electrical instruments which will make available for musical purposes any and all sounds that can be heard." --John Cage, 1937."Although John Cage occasionally worked in large, sophisticated studios -- for example, when he composed 'Fontana Mix' in 1958 -- his approach to electronic and tape music was often uncomplicated, makeshift, and pragmatic, employing simple…
San Francisco Museum Of Art, January 16th, 1965
Recorded live by KPFA Radio in the halls of the sculpture court of the San Francisco Museum of Art on January 16, 1965, the day of 39th birthday of fellow pianist and longtime associate David Tudor, this historic concert with John Cage opens with a duet for Cymbal with contact microphones agitated by a wide gamut of objects and concludes with Variations IV in which loudspeakers outside the performance space interacted with speakers next to the audience. First release on vinyl for a very importan…
Variations IV
Anything can happen and often does. This is John Cage. A seminal example of indeterminate music from an icon on experimental sounds. This work was originally used as music for the choreographed piece by Merce Cunningham, "Field Dances," with stage and costume design in the original version by Robert Rauschenberg (from 1967 the designer was Remy Charlip). Variations IV is the second work in a group of three of which Atlas Eclipticalis is the first (representing 'nirvana', according to Hidekaz…
The 25-Year Retrospective Concert Of The Music Of John Cage
Recorded live at Town Hall, NYC in May of 1958, this historic concert (organized by Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg) was a retrospective of Cage’s work from 1934 to the present. The set documents the concert held in the town hall of New York City on May 15, 1958, where 25 years' worth of John Cage's compositions were performed, the largest such event at that point in his career. Presented chronologically, the works increasingly tested the patience of the audience, eventually prompting aud…
John Cage Anniversary 1912-2012, The Number Pieces
Some of the most mysterious and meditative pieces by the legendary John Cage’s (1912-1992) performed by The Barton Workshop, an Amsterdam-based ensemble founded by the legendary American composer-trombonist James Fulkerson. Number Pieces, fortyeight in all, belong to the final six years of his life. They are so called because their titles, plus the actual construction of each composition, are based on numbers. They were created with the aid of software designed by Andrew Culver who had worked w…
Hildegard von Bingen : John Cage
Two ways of hearing these two sets of 9 pieces:first separate, then alternating. And all of a sudden 800 years of temporal distance seem to dissolve and the pieces communicate with each other. Isn’t one even tempted to think, that John Cage wrote his pieces to be combined this way with Hildegard von Bingens songs, as an attempt to overcome the “nasty ditch” (Lessing) between two completely different historical situations?
for seven players
Seven (1988), 15 similar events (2002) Let’s assume, that art music as a field of creative cognitive activity is interrelated with the scientific paradigm and that its structure, therefore, at least partially reflects the contemporary way of looking at the world. The essential paradigmatic elements of the early 21st century would then entail all kinds of demands on music. Having lost certainties, for example, the issue of probabilities should be broached. Fields of possibilities should be desi…
One9
“sounds brushed into existence as in oriental calligraphy" (Cage) the sounds in one9 are single tones and chords, up to six part harmonies. how do sounds come into existence, how do they gain focus, how do they resolve, how do they merge into one another, how can one quietly and attentively, in all modesty, follow their unfolding? these are the questions that guided edwin alexander buchholz in his interpretation of the piece. over the years he played one9 time and again - for himself an…
early music
“The room I entered was a dream of this room.” “It wasn't the hole in the landscape that gladdened us, it was the invitation to the weather to drop in anytime.” John Ashbery (both quotations from: Your Name Here 2000) “...all the hard dry studied Rules that ever was prescribed, will not enable any Person to form an Air any more than the bare Knowledge of the four and twenty Letters, and strict Grammatical Rules will qualify a Scholar for composing a Piece of Poetry, or properly adjust…
Empty Words
"Empty Words" begins by omitting sentences, has only phrases, words, syllables and letters. The second part omits the phrases, has only words, syllables and letters. The third part omits the words, has only syllables and letters. And the last part ... has nothing but letters and sounds. A mix of words, syllables, and letters obtained by subjecting the Journal of Henry David Thoreau to a series of I Ching chance operations. What was interesting to me was making English less understandab…
Beuger.Cage
Composed by Antoine Beuger (1) and John Cage (2)
Kathryn Gleasman Pisaro: oboe
Recorded in Hohenferchesar, August 1998 Engineer: Peter Hecker Produced by Antoine Beuger Layout by Daniel Bechem Includes liner notes in German and English by Kathryn Gleasman Pisaro
Accordion Music
Fold in; fold out: the breathing of the accordion. On this CD the accordion unfolds in a very special way, unusually close to the instrument. Four works, four worlds that seem to know each other; refer to each other like a greeting from far away. Hearing John Cage's ,,Cheap Imitation" played on accordion gives you the impression of folk music from an unknown, probably non-existent country. This music comes from nowhere, goes nowhere, is forever on its way.....Like ,,Sam Lazaro Bros". The Swiss c…
Die Natur der Klange: Neue Musik fur Harfe
Gabriele Emde-Hauffe was born in 1953 in Darmstadt, Germany. She received a humanistic education at a local grammar school in Darmstadt and started studying the harp after her A-levels, first in Darmstadt and finishing in Cologne. Conducted by Péter Eötvös, she worked out modern chamber music and modern improvisation by J. G. Fritsch and Vinko Globokar. Passing her exams in 1980 and 1981, she continued her studies of musical science at Cologne University, based on her thesis, "The Harp bet…
A composer's confessions
"A single sound by itself is neither musical nor not musical. It is simply a sound. And no matter what kind of a sound it is, it can become musical by taking its place in a piece of music. This point of view requires some adjustment of the definition of music which was given by my Aunt Phoebe. She hadsaid that music was made up of melody, harmony, and rhythm. Music now seemed to me to be the organisation of sound, organisation by any means of any sounds. This definition has the advantage …
The American Avant-Garde in the 20th Century
Following on from our popular primer A Young Person's Guide to the Avant-Garde, LTM now offers a more comprehensive overview of American avant-garde music in the 20th century.Commencing with early pioneers Charles Ives and George Antheil (including the celebrated, Futuristic Ballet Mechanique of 1924), this chronological double disc collection also includes pieces by émigré arrivals in the New World such as Leo Ornstein, Dane Rudhyar and Edgard Varèse, as well homegrown composers including Henry…