Browse by Artist: CAGE, JOHN

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Cheap Imitation
Label:	AMPERSAND
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	AMPERE 003CD

Classic solo piano work, performed by Cage, 3/7/1976 at Mills College. "'...to take an interest in Satie,' Cage wrote, 'one must be, first of all, disinterested, letting a sound be a sound and a man a man, abandoning illusions about ideas of order, expression of feeling, and all the other aesthetic sales-talk we have inherited.' Humbly engaged but never over-determined, Cheap Imitation remains John Cage's most devotional and enduring homange to a lifelong contract between the Maestro of Stony Point and the Frenchman. Originally composed when he was refused permission to use the arrangement for two pianofortes for Satie's 'Socrates' as the 'accompaniment' to Merce Cunningham's choreography, the tempered, harmonically rich and wryly simple melodic lines that comprise this piano work in three movements presents what French Cage scholar Denis Charles refers to as 'a deforming transposition of Socrates' musical skeleton.' Recorded and engineered by David Behrman and 'Blue' Gene Tyranny during a brief stopover at the Mills College Concert Hall in the midst of a Bay Area downpour and subsequently released on the Italian Cramps label. This newly remastered edition marks the first US release of this historic recording and is filled with archival photographs and essays by Gene Tyranny, Charles, and two pieces by Cage himself (one of which is a cleverly assembled fantasy communication between himself and Satie originally written and published in Art News Annual in 1958)." Limited stock.

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Sonatas And Interludes
Label:	BRIDGE RECORDS
Format:	2CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	BRIDGE 9081CD

1998 release. Aleck Karis, prepared piano. Free bonus disc: John Cage reads his lecture Composition in Retrospect. "This celebratory special edition features Cage's masterpiece, his visionary Sonatas and Interludes performed by pianist Aleck Karis. A free bonus disc brings us to an intimate California living room, where Cage converses and gives a reading of his poem-cum-manifesto, Composition in Retrospect. Aleck Karis is the pianist of Speculum Musicae, and Professor of Piano at The University of California, San Diego."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	The 25-Year Retrospective Concert Of The Music Of John Cage
Label:	DOXY (ITALY)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$32.00
Catalog #:	DOZ 407LP

"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. Here Cage's interest in technology, Eastern philosophies, and the concept of 'silence' and 'chance' as related to composition come to the fore as he plays some of his most significant and controversial pieces of his career, several of which ('Six Short Inventions for Seven Instruments', 'She Is Asleep', 'Music for Carillon', and 'Concerto for Piano and Orchestra' [in which Merce Cunningham took the part of the conductor - the 'living clock' - and David Tudor that of the pianist]), were performed here for the first time ever. This concert created quite a stir for its time, with many journalists and audience members loudly complaining 'this isn't music'! Includes booklet with comments by Cage himself."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano
Label:	EL RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	ACMEM 088CD

New UK issue of what the premiere recording of this historic work, originally issued by Dial Records in 1951, as performed by Maro Ajemian; later reissued by CRI, but long unavailable on that label. "John Cage was one of America's most important avant-garde/classical/conceptual composers of the 20th century. The influence of his works such as sonatas and interludes for prepared piano in both jazz and underground popular music (Stereolab, Broadcast and the like). This vintage recording dates from the early '50s when nothing like it had ever been heard before and is the perfect introduction to Cage. Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano is John Cage's magnum opus. This is the first recording of this work, played by the Armenian pianist Maro Ajemian over 50 years ago, when the music was new and shocking. It still is."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Concert For Piano And Orchestra Etc.
Label:	EMI CLASSICS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	EMI 2344542CD

Featured works: Credo in Us; Imaginary Landscape No.1; Concert for piano and orchestra; Solo for voice 1 & 2; Rozart Mix; Suite for Toy Piano; Music for Carillon Nos.1, 2 & 3. Performed by Burkhard Wissemann, Michael Dietz, Christoph Keller, Johann Nikolaus Matthes, Hermann Danuser, Bell Imhoff, Doris Sandrock / Ensemble Musica Negativa, Rainer Riehn. "This selection of Cage's music provides a rare opportunity to get to know a range of works that were written between the years 1939-65, which were some of the composer's most productive years. Credo In Us is a ballet score written for Cage's long-time partner and collaborator the choreographer and dancer, Merce Cunningham. Imaginary Landscape is scored for four performers who play a muted piano and cymbal as well as two variable-speed phonographs with amplifiers, Imaginary Landscape No.1 is important for being one of the first examples of electro-acoustic music. Cage's Concert for Piano and Orchestra has no overall score, but all the parts are written out in detail. A performance of the Concert may include all of the instruments, but may also be performed as a solo, duet, trio or any combination of the given instruments, resulting in a change of title (e.g. solo for piano or Concert for piano, voice and 2 violins, in case it is combined with a Solo for Voice.) In this recording two solo voices are used. The Suite for Toy Piano is one of Cage's works for prepared piano and the Music for Carillon bring this collection to a fascinating conclusion."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Composition In Retrospect
Label:	EXACT CHANGE
Format:	Book
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	EC CAGE

2008 reprinting, originally published in 1993. Paperback, 184 pages. "Written in his characteristic 'mesostics' (linked lines of prose poetry), Composition In Retrospect is a statement of methodology in which John Cage examines the central issues of his work: indeterminacy, nonunderstanding, inconsistency, imitation, variable structure, contingency. Finished only shortly before his death in 1992, Composition In Retrospect completes the documentation of Cage's thought that began thirty years earlier with his classic collection Silence. Given Cage's vigilant attention to the present, the text can serve as an introduction and invitation to his work as much as a summary or conclusion. Also included in this volume (as Cage requested) is 'Themes and Variations,' a 1982 piece inspired by friends and heroes such as Jasper Johns, Buckminster Fuller, Marcel Duchamp, and Erik Satie. Together these two works make for a book that is both a testament to the artists Cage admired, and a clear statement of his own ars poetica."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Sonatas & Interludes for Prepared Piano
Label:	EXPLORE RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	EXP 004CD

2006 releases from this UK-based classical reissue label. This Cage CD features the historic performed of John Tilbury (prepared piano), first released on Decca's HEAD label in 1975. Recorded All Saint's, Petersham, December 1974. This is the first International CD release featuring this recording. "One of John Cage's most important works for prepared piano in a sought-after recording by one of the champions of twentieth-century piano music, English pianist John Tilbury (who will be 70 in 2006) sensitively played by an expert and recorded with obvious fascination for the sounds as such."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Thirty Pieces, Music For Piano
Label:	HUNGAROTON (HUNGARY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HUNG 12893CD

1987 release. "Thirty Pieces For Five Orchestras" (1981), performed by the Savaria Symphony Orchestra, conducted by L�szl� Tihanyi, Dieter Kempe, Zsolt Serei, Katalin Doman, and Mark Foster; musical direction by P�ter E�tv�s. "Music For Piano" Nos. 4-19, 21-84 (1952-56). (Realization by A. Wilheim). Performed by Zolt�n Jeney, Andr�s Wilheim, L�szl� Vidovszky, L�szl� Sary, Barnab�s Dukay (pianists). "Hungaroton continues its invaluable Cage series, this time moving away from the percussion works of past volumes. The works presented here make this self-recommending for anyone devoted to this important 20th century thinker/composer."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Works for Percussion, Vol. 2 (1941-1950)
Label:	HUNGAROTON (HUNGARY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HUNG 31845CD

2000 release, 2nd in a series of 4 percussion CDs on Hungaroton. Perfromed by the Amadinda Percussion Group. This CD features many of Cage's most famous and important works, from his peak era: 1941-1950): 'Third Construction' (1941); 'Credo in Us' (1942); 'Imaginary Landscape No. 3' (1942); 'Imaginary Landscape No. 2' (1942); 'The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs' (1942); 'forever and sunsmell' (1942); 'Amores' (1943);
'She Is Asleep' (1943); 'A Flower' (1950).

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Works For Percussion, Vol. 4 (1940-1956)
Label:	HUNGAROTON (HUNGARY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HUNG 31847CD

New 4th volume. Performed by the Amadinda Percussion Group. "'27' 10.554' for a Percussionist is part of a series Cage prepared between 1953 and 1956, referred to in his sketches at the time as 'The ten thousand things'. The idea of the series was that each of the works -- all of which were composed using the same rhythmical structure (which in this case is rather a layout in time, as a regular beat is no longer present in the pieces) could be performed in any combination, and even that some works sectionalized at the relevant structural points might be performed if desired by several performers at the same time. (The possibility of a layered assemblage is the fundamental idea of the series Music for Piano also being written at the same time.) Eventually five of the planned series of works were completed: two compositions for prepared piano, one for string instruments, the percussion composition here recorded and a performance with words. We have no data concerning the performance of the cycle using full forces. (One vocal work and a composition intended for recorded tape remained in sketch form.)"

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Works For Percussion, Vol. 5 (1936-1991)
Label:	HUNGAROTON (HUNGARY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HUNG 31848CD

5th volume. Performed by the Amadinda Percussion Group. "A decade and a half after John Cage's death, his oeuvre still has much to offer in the way of surprise. Cage had always said he was a poor historian when it came to his own works -- and we are only now beginning to understand what exactly he meant by that. When in 1962 he finally found a publisher and set out to draw up a catalog of his works, he created a selection without including every piece in the inventory, but had apparently forgotten about certain pieces whose manuscripts were, for one reason or another, no longer in his possession. He never looked the lost works up in his earlier lists of works and never tried to find them either. Yet the odds of them turning up then were probably higher than today when, more often than not, it is a matter of chance that for example bequests, from dancer or musician contemporaries of Cage, which end up public libraries, are sifted through properly. In the near past, several works by Cage came to light this way; most recently two pieces from the library of Mills College (Oakland, CA) one of whose title even had not been known to scholars. 'Dance Music (for Elfrid Ide)' was composed in 1940 for a dance production completing the studies of Elfride Ide (it received its premiere, and probably its only performance, on May 20, 1940 at Mills College)."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Works For Percussion Vol. 6 (1975-1991)
Label:	HUNGAROTON (HUNGARY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	HUNG 31849CD

Performed by Amadinda Percussion Group. Featured works: Haikai (for eight performers on gamelan degung); Improvisation Ia: Child of Tree (for percussionist using plant materials [with or without amplification], at least one of which is a pod rattle from a Poinciana tree and at least one [preferably several] are cacti); Improvisation Ib: Branches; Five4 (for soprano saxophone in B flat, alto saxophone in E flat and three percussionists); c /Composed Improvisation (for any solo or combination of snare drum, Steinberger bass guitar, and one-sided drums with or without jangles -- version for bass guitar and snare drum); But What About The Noise Of Crumpling Paper Which He Used To Do In Order To Paint The Series Of "Papiers Froiss�s" or Tearing Up Paper to Make "Papiers d�chires"? Arp Was Stimulated by Water (Sea, Lake, and Flowing Waters like Rivers), Forests. (in celebration of the work of Jean Arp on the occasion of the centenary of his birth for three to ten percussionists each using at least two only slightly resonant instruments, also involving water, paper, etc. -- version for ten performers).

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Four Walls
Label:	LONG ARMS RECORDS (RUSSIAN FEDERATION)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	CDLA 2048CD

Performed by: Alexei Lubimov (piano), Marianne Pousseur (soprano). Live performance at Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival, Austria In the night of July 8/9, 1994, recorded by WDR Koeln. Music for the Dance Drama, choreographed by Merce Cunningham, New York 1944, for piano solo and voice. "What are 'Four Walls'? Is it no so that the four noble truths comprise a series of four sounds? Incidentally, when there are four, there always will be a place for a fifth. However when there are more than seven -- it starts to be dangerous. A piece begins with a chord -- the sound emblem of the name joHn CAGE (the letters correspond with the Latin names for the notes) and is all constructed on diatonic permutations of the motto, derived from the name, with the addition of the notes D and F, which add up to an octave. (If one has the wish, one could assemble other words from this set of notes-letters.)"

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Music Of Changes
Label:	LOVELY MUSIC
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	LCD 2053

Performed by Joseph Kubera, the first complete recording of this important solo piano work. "Music of Changes is a manifesto. It marks Cage's first comprehensive 'exploration of non-intention' through the systematic use of chance operations to create a complete, major work. Begun in May 1951, Music of Changes was named in honor of the I Ching, or Book of Changes, the ancient Chinese book of oracles that had become Cage's means of synthesizing chance with rigorous discipline. Cage's notation heralded a new concept of musical time, placing the performer in a new relation to the score, one in which orientation is the occurrence of events rather than to the relations between them, which is to say to action rather than to memory. Performances of Music of Changes have been rare since David Tudor ceased playing the work in the late 1950s; Herbert Henck and, more recently, Joseph Kubera are among the few pianists to have assayed the obstacles posed by its innovations. For all its prominence in the history of postwar music, Music of Changes has remained more discussed than heard, more treatise than artwork." --John Holzaepfel.

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Trombone & Piano
Label:	MDG SCENE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.50
Catalog #:	MDG 6131510CD

Performed by Mike Svobda (trombone) and Steffen Schleiermacher (piano). "The entirety of music for the trombone by maverick composer John Cage is on this one CD. Michael Svoboda was born 1960 on the island of Guam and grew up in Chicago. After winning several prizes (BMI Award to young composers 1982), he came to Europe. He has collaborated with Karlheinz Stockhausen, performing the role of Luzlfer as trombone soloist in Stockhausen's opera cycle Licht, and in many more works by that composer. Svoboda performs regularly at major festivals throughout the world and as soloist with major European orchestras. In addition, he performs his own works and plays in various jazz settings. He collaborated with Frank Zappa on a project with Ensemble Modern on Zappa's Yellow Shark project. For nearly 20 years, Mike Svoboda has committed himself to expanding his instrument's repertoire and has premiered over 300 works for trombone in various settings from composers such as Wolfgang Rihm, Sandeep Baghwatl, Toshio Howokawa, Martin Smolka, Peter Eotvos and Helmut Lachenmann."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Violin & Piano
Label:	MDG SCENE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	MDG 6131607CD

"Steffen Schleiermacher's recording of the complete piano works of John Cage has brought him his international breakthrough. These recordings earned the pianist numerous prizes, including three ECHO Klassik awards. Schleiermacher, teaming up with Andreas Seidel (violin), returns to Cage's music, in a recording of the composer's complete oeuvre for piano and violin. These four pieces spanning five decades in Cage's life are also a perfect fit for the CD format. Seidel, the former first violinist of the Leipzig String Quartet and a member of Schleiermacher's Ensemble Avantgarde, is a musician who with his joy of performance and technical brilliance today enriches the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Variations VII
Label:	MICROCINEMA
Format:	DVD
Price:	$21.00
Catalog #:	MC 749DVD

"In 1966, 10 New York artists and 30 engineers and scientists from Bell Telephone Laboratories collaborated on a series of innovative dance, music and theatre performances, 9 Evenings: Theatre & Engineering, held in October at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York City. The artists were John Cage, Lucinda Childs, �yvind Fahlstr�m, Alex Hay, Deborah Hay, Steve Paxton, Yvonne Rainer, Robert Rauschenberg, David Tudor and Robert Whitman. Archival material has been assembled into 10 films, each of which reconstructs the artists' original work and uses interviews with the artists, engineers and performers to illuminate the artistic, technical and historical aspects of the work. Variations VII, performed at 9 Evenings, was the next to last in John Cage's series of indeterminate works that he had begun in 1958, which made increasing use of electronic equipment and systems. This DVD documents the only complete performance of Variations VII and also presents a stereo audio recording of the full 85 minutes of the performance. This rare and historical film is the second in the 9 Evenings series from E.A.T. (Experiments in Art and Technology) and ART PIX and was produced by Billy Kl�ver and Julie Martin of E.A.T. and directed by Barbro Schultz Lundestam." All-region DVD, two-sided for both NTSC & PAL formats. 41 minutes + 85 minute audio track.

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Atlas Eclipticalis with Winter Music
Label:	MODE
Format:	3CD
Price:	$46.00
Catalog #:	MODE 003/6CD

Originally released as a 4-LP set on Mode in 1986, finally reissued on CD for the first time. Featured compositions: "Atlas Eclipticalis' (1961, for chamber ensemble); "Winter Music" (1957, for 3 pianos); "Atlas Eclipitcalis" (1961, for orchestra); "Winter Music" (1957, for 20 pianos). "The long awaited reissue of Mode's second LP set, remastered with bonus tracks. Cage's relationship with the Cornish Institute in Seattle dates back to the 1930s, when he taught there and performed as accompanist for many dance pieces. Cornish was also the scene of several of his musical discoveries and innovations. Cage's celebrated return to the Cornish Institute in 1983 led to these recordings of his conducting 'Atlas Eclipticalis' performed simultaneously with 'Winter Music' -- a rare opportunity to hear Cage perform his own works. Two complete 80-minute long performances are presented here, captured live in concert. New 96khz/24-bit mastering made from the original analog tapes. The original liner notes by John Cage and the New Performance Group's Matthew Kocmieroski are supplemented with new essays on 'Atlas Eclipticalis' by Cage's long-time colleague and publisher Don Gillespie, and on 'Winter Music' by Stephen Drury."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	The Complete String Quartets Volume 1
Label:	MODE
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	MODE 017CD

Mode is an interesting NY label, perhaps best known for their intention of releasing a recording of every John Cage piece ever composed! An almost complete listing of their CD catalog is listed here. Volume 3 in the Music of Cage series (first 2 volumes are o/p LPs only, awaiting CD reissue). First of 2 CDs containing Cage's string quartets, performed by the Arditti Quartet. Recorded live at Wesleyan, 1988 Beautiful cover art of an original etching by Cage; liner notes by Cage & Arditti. Cage's string quartet works can be dazzlingly abstract and well worth absorption.

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Music For Merce Cunningham
Label:	MODE
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	MODE 024CD

2008 repress, featuring a 24-bit Hi-Definition remaster; originally released in 1991. Volume 4 in the Music of Cage series. The first audio document between Cage & Cunningham. It includes a 55-minute piece called "Five Stone Wind" performed by David Tudor (live electronics), Takehisa Kosugi (amplified violin, live electronics, bamboo flute) and Michael Pugliese (clay pots and tapes) as well as a 19-minute version of the classic "Cartridge Music" (same 3 performers, "using phonograph cartridges to play various objects, toys and furniture to create a cosmos of unusual sound" ). Essential.

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	The Complete String Quartets Vol 2
Label:	MODE
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	MODE 027CD

Repressed, new 2003 24-bit remastering. Volume 5 in the Music of John Cage Series. 2nd volume of String Quartets, performed by the Arditti Quartet. Two pieces are played: "String Quartet in Four Parts" (1950) -- "A pivotal work in Cage's oeuvre, the quartet shows the composer's transition between the rhythmically complex percussion works before it and the extravagant chance works of the 1950s." "Four," from 1990, was composed specifically for Arditti and "opens a world of microtones, the 4 independent players forming constantly shifting textures and harmonies." Extensive liner notes by James Pritchett.

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Roaratorio
Label:	MODE
Format:	2CD
Price:	$31.00
Catalog #:	MODE 028/29CD

Repressed. Volume 6 of the Music of Cage series. 1987 Performance of this legendary radio-play, featuring the Joyce-inspired text "Writing For the Second Time Through Finnegan's Wake" mixed over a live group of Irish Folk musicians. "Some merely listening to the radio at home wrote to the BBC to complain of a concert which sounded like crossed wavelengths with liberal helpings of static and feedback." Comes with a thick booklet of information and some of the most supremely disorienting music you could desire.

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	The Piano Works 2
Label:	MODE
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	MODE 050CD

A new recording of "Sonatas And Interludes" for prepared piano, performed by Philippe Vandre. This is the first version to use a Steinway "O"-type baby grand piano (as Cage originally composed and designed the piece for). "Cage's masterwork is quite different -- a big piece with a quiet voice. The prepared piano operates entirely by muting: by attaching objects to the strings of the piano. Cage alters their sounds in various ways, turning the piano into a percussion orchestra akin to a gamelan. The results are different from note to note -- but always quieter than before."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	The Piano Concertos
Label:	MODE
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	MODE 057CD

Volume 16 of the Complete Cage Works. Includes "Concert For Piano & Orchestra" (performed by David Tudor & Ensemble Modern; "...an ever expanding galaxy of sonic possibilities with the principle of independence"); "Concerto For Prepared Piano and Chamber Orchestra (performed by Stephen Drury); "Fourteen" (perf. by Drury; "the solo piano is not played conventionally, rather its strings are bowed with rosined nylon fishing line, producing an ethereal, mysterious sound.")

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Cage Performs Cage: The Text Pieces I: The Artists Pieces
Label:	MODE
Format:	2CD
Price:	$31.00
Catalog #:	MODE 084/85CD

"Cage's reading of his text pieces was legend -- as recited in his unique, gentle voice -- often had a 'musical', soothing quality. And just as often, a humorous side. These are not stories in the traditional sense with a plot; rather they are based on mesostics. Basically, a mesostic uses a person's name or word as a vertical center for each stanza of the text. Cage would then choose texts and, using chance operations, search them for sentences containing a letter of this word. Each subsequent line of the stanza would have to contain the next letter of the word, and would be aligned underneath until the complete word was composed to form one stanza. The process would then be repeated over and over until the writing was completed (based on the parameters Cage would select for that work). In this way, Cage would be able to write something relevant about that person without knowing what he was going to say. This first set of Cage Performs Cage centers around mesostics for his friends and associates; the artists Jasper Johns and Morris Graves. And, in the 'Series re Morris Graves', we get the rare opportunity to hear John Cage sing." Volume 20 of The Complete John Cage Edition.

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	The Orchestral Works, 2
Label:	MODE
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	MODE 086CD

Includes "Etcetera: For Chamber Orchestra With 3 Conductors" (1973), "Etcetera 2/4 Orchestras: For Large Orchestra Divided Into 4 Smaller Ensembles With Their Own Conductors" (1986). "The first recording of two major orchestral works by John Cage, recorded under the composer's supervision at the New England Conservatory's John Cage festival in 1991. These works are about 'multiplicity' -- of performing options, of ensembles, of conductors; tape music or live music, standard or unconventional notation, repetition or non-repetition. Each piece also contains a tape recoding of the environment where the work was created -- in the country for "Etcetera", the city for 'Etcetera 2/4 Orchestras'. The ensembles are directed by Cage specialist Stephen Drury." Volume 21 of The Complete John Cage Edition.

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	A Cage Of Saxophones I
Label:	MODE
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	MODE 104CD

The Works for Saxophones 1, performed by Ulrich Krieger. "Between 1983 and 1991 John Cage wrote three pieces specifically for saxophone or including saxophones, Four5, Five4 and Hymnkus, which are combined here for the first time on one CD. In addition, Cage authorized Ulrich Krieger's arrangement for saxophone of Ryoanji. Krieger also made a saxophone arrangement of Five, one of the few compositions from this period performable on any instruments. Krieger is joined here by a top group of German new music performers, including noted pianist Mario Bertoncini."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	The Works for Piano 4
Label:	MODE
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	MODE 106CD

"Until recently at Cage's publisher in New York, C.F. Peters, there was a box of works which Cage had held off publishing or had simply forgotten about. Among them were the dance pieces, Triple Paced and Ad Lib, Jazz Study and the film score, Works of Calder, all composed between 1942 and 1950. At Peters' request, Margaret Leng Tan was enlisted to edit these works as part of a new volume of Cage's piano pieces -- they have been recorded here in conjunction with that publication."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	The Orchestral Works 3
Label:	MODE
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	MODE 108CD

"Cage scored 108 for the largest number of players in any of the Number Pieces -- its duration of 43'30" makes an oblique reference to his groundbreaking 4'33' (1952). 108 can be played on its own or with either of two solo works from the same year, One (for cello) and One for the sho, a mouth organ with bamboo pipes that acts as one of the harmony-producing instruments in Japanese gagaku. Both solo works were composed for artists very important in Cage's final years -- cellist Michael Bach and Mayumi Miyata, who had pioneered the sho as a contemporary concert instrument. When One? is performed with 108, it becomes a concerto but a very unusual one, and a fine example of Cage's aesthetic. The orchestra disappears entirely in two sections of the piece, but not to herald a grand cadenza: the sho music continues much as it had before, a quiet, serene, almost timeless utterance. Indeed, the regal simplicity of the sho makes it an ideal instrument for Cage, who tried to make his final work like writing on water -- an action, incomparably graceful, that would leave no traces."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	The Works For Violin 5
Label:	MODE
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	MODE 118CD

"Irvine Arditti continues his acclaimed traversal of the complete music for violin by John Cage. This disc contains music from two different periods of Cage's composition.The Chorals have their origins in Erik Satie's Douze petits chorals, dating from Satie's years of study at the Schola Cantorum (1905-8). Its notation calls for precise microtonality, and demonstrates Zukofsky's suggestion 'to make a continuous music of disparate elements, single tones, unisons, and beatings'. 'One' is, perhaps, the most unusual of Cage's violin works. The first note, a single F, is sustained for an extremely long duration. This note is followed, after a short silence, by another F, and then another! Other notes appear eventually, but the result is one of the listener losing all sense of relating one to another, verging on a kind of trance."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	The Works For Piano 5
Label:	MODE
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	MODE 123CD

"Hayd�e Schvartz (piano); Jack Bruce (vocals). 'Four Walls' (1943-44), 'Soliloquy' (1945), '3 Easy Pieces' (1933). 'Four Walls'is a powerful and pivotal work in Cage's oeuvre. This large-scale piece was written as a 'dance-drama' with text and dance by his long-time collaborator Merce Cunningham. Cage said that 'Four Walls' deals with the 'disturbed mind.' This feeling is accentuated by the dramatic music, whose use of repetition, intense ostinatos, and silence evokes at times a harrowing closed-in sensibility. 'Four Walls' shows Cage's seminal ideas on silence, repetition and gradual change, as well as influences of Eastern philosophy and music -- its use of repetition foreshadows later minimalist music."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Variations I-III
Label:	MODE
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	MODE 129CD

'Variation 1' (1958), 'Variation II' (1961), 'Lecture On Nothing' (1959), 'Variation III' (1962-63). Performed by the Motion Ensemble. "John Cage's 'Variations' are from his most experimental period. They are graphically notated pieces which allow the performers to create their own scores within specific guidelines. 'Variations I, II, and III' are scored for any number of players and any sound producing means. The goal of this project is to produce a document in sound of Cage's musical philosophy, which allows for aesthetics that are rather independent of those in traditional western music. Each piece is presented here in a very different manner. The realization of 'Variation I' uses traditional instruments in combination with typical 'Cagean' toys and gadgets (eg. whistles, squeaky toys, etc.) that were common to many Cage-supervised orchestra pieces. 'Variation II' introduces the idea of simultaneous performance with the addition of 'Lecture on Nothing' (as an 'instrument' for the Variations II score) as well as featuring extensions of the traditional violin and double bass sounds. Finally, 'Variations III' uses only electronic instruments to bring the spectrum of sounds as far from the traditional instruments as possible."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	From Zero
Label:	MODE
Format:	DVD
Price:	$27.00
Catalog #:	MODE 130DVD

"Four films on John Cage by Frank Scheffer and Andrew Culver. 84 minutes (plus extras). DVD only release with bonus extras of 'Making of' film and interviews. A Major film on John Cage by renowned Dutch director Frank Scheffer in collaboration with Cage's associate Andrew Culver. The group of films, entitled From Zero are: '19 Questions': Cage answers 19 questions on a variety of subjects, using chance operations to determine the duration of his colorful and often witty answers. 'Fourteen': The acclaimed Ives Ensemble perform Cage's piece of the same name. Filmed with multiple cameras using chance operation to determine the position, angle, focus and aperture settings of each shot. 'Paying Attention': Agreeing on a predetermined duration, Scheffer worked with the video portion and Culver the audio from an interview with Cage. 'Overpopulation and Art With Ryoanji': The audio combines Cage's spoken performance of his text Overpopulation and Art simultaneously with his Ryoanji four voices and percussion."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	One8
Label:	MODE
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	MODE 141CD

"Cage's 'One8' was composed for cellist Michael Bach, an artist who had a very important place in Cage's late work. Its duration of 43' 30" makes an oblique reference to Cage's groundbreaking 4'33" (1952)." "Using both standard and curved bows, he made his way through Mr. Cage's 43-minute sequence of sustained notes, sustained chords, progressions of chords, and eerie, high-pitched harmonics with a sense of serenity that invited a listener to regard the work not as a collection of disparate, disjointed sounds, but as an other-worldly ritual." -- The New York Times.

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	44 Harmonies from Apartment House 1776/Cheap Imitation
Label:	MODE
Format:	2CD
Price:	$31.00
Catalog #:	MODE 144/45CD

Volume 33 of Mode's Complete John Cage Edition. Features 2 long works: "Cheap Imitation" (1977, for solo violin; performed by Irving Arditti); "44 Harmonies from Apartment House 1776" (1976, for string quartet, performed by Arditti Quartet). World Premiere Recording of "44 Harmonies" which is 103 minutes long. "Irvine Arditti completes his complete traversal of Cage's works for solo violin with 'Cheap Imitation' in this set. In 1969, John Cage transcribed a two piano version of Erik Satie's 1918 music drama 'Socrate' to accompany Merce Cunningham's choreography 'Second Hand'. At the last minute, the French firm that held the copyright to Satie's score refused to allow the performance. With an ingenious rewriting, Cage retained the rhythmical architecture of the musical lines, but replaced each note with a new tonal value, creating a melodically original work with an identical rhythmic structure."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	The Works For Piano 6
Label:	MODE
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	MODE 147CD

6th volume Mode's continuing series. Features: "Music Of Changes" (1951); "Suite For Toy Piano" (1948); "Seven Haiku" (1952); performed by Martine Joste (piano, toy piano), recorded 2003. "This disc collects three early piano works of John Cage, including his classic work for toy piano and early works composed using chance. 'Music Of Changes' is a seminal piece in 20th century composition because it is the first work to be fully composed using chance operations. The title makes reference to the ancient Confucian book the I-Ching which, together with lectures by the Japanese Zen master Suzuki, introduced Cage to the concepts of chance. The title also makes reference to Cage's change in musical direction with this work. Cage prepared charts of squares which indicated numbers for tempo, dynamics, sounds, duration, rests and overlapping of material. He then used chance operations based on these numbers to compose a piece -- devoid of personal choice and influences -- which was then conventionally notated. The element of noise is also introduced into the composition, with indications for sound to be made by closing the piano lid, pedal noise, playing inside the piano, knocking under the keyboard, etc."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	The Works For Piano 7
Label:	MODE
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	MODE 158CD

Performed by Margaret Leng Tan (piano, prepared piano). Features: "Chess Pieces" (1944; first recording); "Sonatas & Interludes" (1946-48; for prepared piano); plus Vittorio Rieti's "Chess Serenade" (1944, first recording). "In 1944, John Cage was invited to participate in 'The Imagery of Chess' exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York City. The artists included Calder, Noguchi, Motherwell, Breton, Duchamp, Ernst, Man Ray, Tanning and other leading surrealists. Cage contributed a painting entitled 'Chess Pieces.' It was purchased at the show and went into a private collection. For decades it was deemed lost and was (almost) forgotten by Cage aficionados and scholars. Re-assembling the original artworks for 'The Imagery of Chess Revisited' show (2005-06) at the Isamu Noguchi Museum in New York led to the tracking down of the Cage painting. Cage expert Margaret Leng Tan set about transcribing the music in the painting into a playable score which receives its premiere recording here. 'Chess Pieces' is from 1944, an emotional and creative year for Cage; besides echoes of Satie, 'Chess Pieces' contains prophetic touches of minimalism and has features in common with his monumental piano piece, 'Four Walls,' from the same year."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	The Works For Piano 7
Label:	MODE
Format:	DVD-AUDIO
Price:	$27.00
Catalog #:	MODE 158DVD

DVD-audio version in 5.1 surround sound. With 3 additional documentary videos: John Cage's Prepared Piano (an insightful look at the history of the prepared piano narrated and performed by Ms. Tan); CAGE: Music/Art/Chess (a visit to 'The Imagery of Chess Revisited' exhibit at the Isamu Noguchi Museum with curator Larry List and Ms. Tan). John Cage's Box Of Preparations. The DVD-audio features the same music as on the CD version, but in 24-bit surround sound DTS and Dolby Digital surround. Dedicated 24-bit stereo mix. 'Chess Pieces' is presented with full performance video. Region 0, NTSC, Total running time approx. 172 mins.

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	A Cage Of Saxophones 2
Label:	MODE
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	MODE 160CD

The Works for Saxophones 2, again performed by Ulrich Krieger. "Ulrich Krieger follows up his successful A Cage of Saxophones 1 volume with the second installment of Cage works for saxophone(s), spanning a period of over 50 years. For this volume, Krieger combines works specifically composed for saxophone with works of no specified instrumentation that are suited for saxophones and winds. This CD collects three rarely heard early works, all written without indications for specific instruments. Krieger has arranged them here for his ensemble of saxophones and other instruments. For the middle period works, Krieger has excerpted the solo instrumental parts related to saxophones from the scores to Concert for Piano and Orchestra and Atlas Eclipticalis -- Cage permitted the option for the various instrumental parts to be performed as solos. The late works are covered by Two, originally composed for flute and piano, here premiered in the Cage-sanctioned version for saxophone."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	One11 and 103
Label:	MODE
Format:	DVD
Price:	$27.00
Catalog #:	MODE 174DVD

"John Cage has always linked various media and tried out new techniques in his work -- in addition to music he was a writer, artist, painter, philosopher and more. He never lost the will to try out new experiments: 'I am quite old now, and so when I have the opportunity to do something I take it immediately, rather than hesitating, as I don't have much time left.' Cage said this about his first and only film -- One11 --produced in the year he died. He started to address the perception of emptiness and at the same time the random quality of what happens in a prescribed space as early as 1952 in his piece '4:33,' which consisted entirely of silence. Forty years later he said: 'Of course the film will be about the effect of light in an empty space. But no space is actually empty and the light will show what is in it. And all this space and all this light will be controlled by random operations.' This simple concept was implemented professionally and with a great deal of technical input in a Munich television studio under the direction of Henning Lohner. The film One11 and the musical piece ('soundtrack') 103 run in parallel, without relating directly to each other, but each has 17 parts. Each of the parts is based on approx. 1200 random operations devised by a computer and determining how the lighting is controlled and the movements of a crane-mounted camera. The result, aided by the distinguished cameraman Van Theodore Carlson, is a film entirely without plot or actors, which Cage hopes will enable viewers to find themselves. New high-resolution digital transfer from the original film print." One11 (1992) -- a film without subject by John Cage, produced and directed by Henning Lohner with 103 for large orchestra (1992) -- the WDR Sinfonieorchester Koln. Additional features include: a choice of two orchestral soundtracks; The Making of One11: 1 43-minute documentary on the creative process and realization of the film made for television by Henning Lohner at that time -- with new narration by Joan La Barbara; Interview with Van Carlson & Henning Lohner discussing their work with Cage and the film, the technical challenges, and more. Filmed for this DVD in 2006 (33 minutes). Region 0, NTSC; Total running time: 2 hrs 46 mins; 2.0 24-bit PCM stereo; aspect ratio: standard; subtitles: English, German, French.

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Complete Short Works For Prepared Piano
Label:	MODE
Format:	2CD
Price:	$33.00
Catalog #:	MODE 180/81CD

Performed by Philipp Vandr�, recorded 2001/2. "The complete short prepared piano works collected on two CDs. John Cage's works for prepared piano expose his earliest experimentations in finding new and exotic sounds. Brief and attractive, they are among his most accessible work. This release marks the first time all of his short works for prepared piano have been made available in one set. All the prepared piano works are included aside from the magnum opus, 'Sonatas and Interludes.' Pianist Philipp Vandr� has recorded 'Sonatas and Interludes' for Mode to great critical acclaim, including the recommended performance of the piece from Gramophone Magazine. Liner notes by Cage scholar James Pritchett." Volume 37 in Mode's Complete John Cage Edition.

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	The Number Pieces 4
Label:	MODE
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	MODE 186CD

Performed by Trio Dolce (on 3 recorders), recorded 1998. "The first recording of Cage's large scale composition for 3 recorder players. The Trio Dolce wrote Cage for permission to perform 'Solo with Obbligato Accompaniment' on three alto recorders, one octave higher than the prescribed range. In a letter from March 1987, Cage replied: 'Of course you may use the 3 alto recorders. I am glad that you are playing that piece.' They performed it on July 1988 with Cage in attendance. Cage's enthusiastic reaction to this performance encouraged Trio Dolce to ask Cage if he would consider writing a work for them which 'could take into account the ranges of the recorders' the Trio then owned. Upon meeting the members of the Trio during his residency at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague in November 1988, Cage agreed to write a work for the Trio. 'Three' was completed in July 1989 and dedicated to Trio Dolce, who premiered it in July 1990 in the presence of the composer during a concert at the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music. The performance instructions state that the indication 'as legato as possible.' It requires great virtuosity and breath control, while at the same time changing recorders and maintaining a continuous legato, resulting in a sometimes fragile balance between the durations and dynamics." Volume 38 in Mode's Complete John Cage Edition.

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	The Number Pieces 5
Label:	MODE
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	MODE 193CD

"Two2" (1989) for two pianos; performed by Rob Haskins and Laurel Karlik Sheehan, pianos. "Laurel Karlik Sheehan gave the Canadian premiere of 'Two' with Jack Behrens in 1990. Rob Haskins is a respected Cage expert and scholar. Together they bring an authority and expertise to this performance of 'Two.' In most of the Number Pieces, all the performers have some freedom through Cage's use of time brackets, and flexible measures that show a range of possible starting and ending times. The time bracket system of notation used in these works allow a certain amount of flexibility in the performance: individual notes or chords may always occur in the same general time frame, but their specific order and duration varies slightly and unpredictably from performance to performance. In this way, Cage could create a new kind of harmony of '...several sounds... being noticed at the same time.' Cage based 'Two' on renga, a Japanese poetic design of five, seven, five, seven, and seven syllables expressed at least 36 times. Each line of music is divided into five measures, just like the five lines of the poetry. The first measure contains five separate musical events -- chords or single tones, usually shared between the two pianists -- which correspond to the five syllables of the first line; the second meas�ure has seven events, and so on. There are a total of 36 such five-measure sections in the piece. While the pianists can take any amount of time to perform each measure, each pianist must wait until both have finished the same measure before proceed�ing to the next. Given this flexibility, Haskins and Karlik Sheehan's performance is the longest of the recordings to date -- emphasizing the sense of spaciousness and interest in harmony that marks many of Cage's late pieces. Liner notes by Rob Haskins. 96khz, 24-bit high definition recording."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	The Revenge of the Dead Indians
Label:	MODE
Format:	DVD
Price:	$30.00
Catalog #:	MODE 197DVD

"Director Henning Lohner worked with John Cage during his later years, including collaborating with Cage on his only film, One11. During that time, Lohner filmed interviews and footage with Cage, and after Cage's death decided to assemble some of it into this unique 'composed film' based on musical principles. The film also features 42 personalities -- from the well known (actors, architects, artists, choreographers, composers, theoreticians, writers) to the unknown (like street cleaners and market vendors) -- in conversation with each other. The result is an unexpected and fascinating combination of intellectual thought, viewpoints and opinions. The Revenge of the Dead Indians is neither documentary nor feature film. The thematic story development is a combination of 'found' video and audio landscapes along with theatrically-directed readings and interviews. Each scene of the film is complete in itself as its own narrative entity, yet simultaneously contributes to the linear progression of the story line. Lohner's goal was to honor the creative credo of composer John Cage, to whom the film is dedicated. Attention is paid to 'forgotten' landscapes: places we overlook because they are the everyday and the ordinary. Concert performances incorporated in the film were recorded live during the 'Musicircus' homage at Symphony Space in New York, November 1, 1992, and at the John Cage music festival at the 'Akademie der Sch�nen K�nste' in East Berlin, August 1, 1990. This sound and visual material was edited to more than 1200 cuts before the final film length of 130 minutes was reached. The shortest scene has the duration of exactly one frame, the longest scene has the duration of exactly 4 minutes, 33 seconds." NTSC format DVD, region 0. Total time: 2 hours, 53 minutes.

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Cage Performs Cage: Empty Words With Music For Piano/One7
Label:	MODE
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	MODE 200CD

Featured works: "Empty Words (1973-74) with Music For Piano (1953)" and "One7" (1990). Performed by John Cage and Yvar Mikhashoff (piano). "Mode celebrates its 200th release with a special installment in its John Cage Edition works performed by John Cage himself, released for the first time. These recordings were made in Buffalo, New York in April 1991. Cage and Mode Records were in Buffalo to work on the premiere of his 'Europera 5,' which he wrote for Yvar Mikhashoff, a longtime collaborator and specialist in New Music. Cage and Mikhashoff had performed this special duet of 'Empty Words' simultaneous with 'Music For Piano' in concert several times, and decided to make this recording, without an audience, especially for Mode. The single sounds of 'Music For Piano,' many of them quiet, make for a beautiful counterpoint with the mysterious and somewhat lonesome voice of the elderly Cage. As part of the events surrounding 'Europera 5,' Cage gave a performance of the solo piece 'One7,' recorded in a live performance here. Like most of the other 'Number Pieces,' 'One7' is written in what Cage called time brackets, flexible measures whose start times and end times are specified. In this work, the performer has more freedom in that Cage gives no specific content for these time brackets, but rather a series of 10 numbers from 1 to 12 (1 and 10 do not appear) which represent sounds that performer chooses himself. 21. "

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	49 Waltzes For The Five Boroughs
Label:	MODE
Format:	DVD
Price:	$27.00
Catalog #:	MODE 204DVD

"A complete video realization by Don Gillespie, Roberta Friedman, and Gene Caprioglio. Cage's 49 Waltzes For The Five Boroughs gives its executants no clues about how they might perform it. Originally created as an invitation by Rolling Stone magazine in 1977, as part of a gala issue celebrating the magazine's recent move from San Francisco to New York, which featured literary and art contributions honoring its new home. Cage constructed his 'waltzes' as a series of 49 multi-colored triangles superimposed on the Hagstrom map of New York City, each point derived by the use of chance operations. The finished composition is a design of singular beauty. Cage was an inveterate New Yorker, and even after his death in 1992 his most unequivocal composition about the city, the 49 Waltzes remained totally neglected. Wanting to celebrate Cage's memory, Don Gillespie (who worked with Cage at his publisher, C.F. Peters) decided to collect the sights and sounds from all the locations specified in 49 Waltzes. This ambitious project of filming Cage's 147 specific locations in New York's five boroughs took a year to complete (1994-1995). It is a film whose subject is the unintentional music made by people, birds, planes, automobiles, police and fire sirens, and countless other debris of sounds. Tidbits of hectic Manhattan contrast with glimpses of quiet outer borough streets, parks and cemeteries. Deciding that two hours was an optimal length, composer Andrew Culver was asked to determine the durations of the 147 locations. Using Cage's computerized I Ching software, Culver arrived at a string of durations ranging from 16 seconds to 3:44. The results proved tantalizing and also somewhat frustrating, since some of the most interesting locations were very brief and some of the more prosaic were lengthy, forcing one to accept their ordinariness. The film is also an amazing video time capsule document of a New York that has long changed, disappeared and evolved. The video and the audio has been restored for the DVD release, and this is the first time that all of the waltzes are shown in their full duration with previously-cut footage (due to time constraints) restored. Additional features: Actual waltz location viewing, a 16-page booklet with an essay by Don Gillespie and a complete list of each Waltz location; bonus audio realization of 'Waltz #9,' recorded by Gillespie in March of 1979. Region 0, NTSC format DVD. Total running time: 2 hr, 7 mins (Feature: 122 minutes, Waltz #9: 6 minutes); Production year: 1994. Aspect ratio: 4:3. 2.0 Dolby stereo. Liner notes: English, German, French."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	A Cage Of Saxophones 3 & 4
Label:	MODE
Format:	2CD
Price:	$25.00
Catalog #:	MODE 222CD

"Ulrich Krieger completes his A Cage Of Saxophones survey of Cage's works composed for saxophone, or which can be played on any instrument or instruments. For this volume, Krieger combines works specifically composed for saxophone with works of no specified instrumentation that are suited for saxophones and winds. Most of these are 'indeterminate' works, which require the performer to create the realization based on materials supplied by Cage. In some situations, Krieger used Cage's compositional 'tools' to create his own parallel works. The set includes the only available recording of 'Party Pieces,' composed in collaboration with Henry Cowell, Lou Harrison and Virgil Thomson. One composer would write a bar of music plus two notes, folded the paper at the bar, passing it to the next composer, who would use the two notes as a base for continuing the composition. Composed for any melody or keyboard instruments, Krieger has made a realization for saxophone quartet. Acclaimed German saxophonist Ulrich Krieger studied classical/contemporary saxophone, composition, and electronic music at the Hochscule der Kunste (Berline) and the Manhattan School of Music (New York). He currently tours with Lou Reed in the Metal Machine Trio and is a professor at CalArts University. He worked with leading artists such as La Monte Young, Phill Niblock, David First, Lee Ranaldo, Elliott Sharp, Mario Bertoncini, Merzbow, and many others."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Music For Piano 1-84
Label:	NEOS (GERMANY)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$42.00
Catalog #:	NEOS 10703/4CD

Performed by Sabine Liebner, piano; recorded Oct., 2003. "Cage had discovered small irregularities, elevated points, or tiny spots on the surface structure of the paper, distributed completely irregularly. Within a predetermined interval of time he marked with ink as many of these irregularities as he could find. Thus he obtained an absolutely random constellation of a field of points. Then he placed a sheet of transparent music paper over it to convert the dots into exact pitches by means of the key signature and ledger lines. Using chance procedures, each of the notes determined in this way was assigned a dynamic value between pianissimo and fortissimo as well as, in some cases, a sharp or flat. 'Music for Piano 1' was produced in this way in 1952 and choreographed by Jo Anne Melcher as was 'Music for Piano 2' of the following year, for the dancer Louise Lippold. As a balance to his incessant efforts as an artist to make chance graspable in new ways in the points of coincidence and intersection of series of events that occur independently of one another, in 1954/55 he became increasingly at home in the universe of mycology. Perhaps he was haunted by another metaphysics of finding? Wherever he found an opportunity to find and identify mushrooms, Cage pursued this passion with professional depth -- in part, as he explained with a smile, because the word 'mushroom' immediately precedes 'music' in many dictionaries. Over the years he became an expert on mushrooms. He wrote a book on mushrooms with illustrations covered with Japanese silk paper; on an Italian television quiz show he won a lot of money with his expert knowledge. He meditated on the mysterious subterranean grow of mycelia, lichen, and carpophores in Japanese Zen gardens or American forests, and he could enthuse and sympathize with the horizons of sound and silence of this or that mushroom, whether they grew alone or in collections, or in bundles of five to six individual growths, saying that a such a spot of earth is precious."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Seven/Quartets I-VIII
Label:	NEOS (GERMANY)
Format:	CD/SACD
Price:	$21.00
Catalog #:	NEOS 10720CD

Stereo/5.1 multichannel hybrid CD/SACD release that can be played on any CD player. Featured works: "Seven" (for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, viola and violoncello; 1988); "Quartets I-VIII" (for 24 instruments, 1976). Performed by: Orchester Jakobsplatz M�nchen, conducted by Daniel Grossmann. "John Cage's Quartets I-VIII is one of the most unusual and sophisticated orchestral works I know. It was written for the bicentennial of the United States of America. Cage used eight old American chorales, which he then reformed into an entirely new work with the help of the Chinese oracular work, the I Ching. The basic idea is to have just four instruments of the orchestra playing together at any time. As a result, new groups are constantly forming into variously composed quartets. Cage used the I Ching to determine which notes are played by a given instrument. The piece seems very simple from looking at the score. But in fact the fragmentary character of the instrumentation makes it a great challenge to perform. Every musician has to count precisely so as not to miss his or her entry. But the most difficult requirement is fitting the few notes to be played into the overall structure such that meaningful phrases ultimately result. Only by carefully listening to and following the music can players cause the piece to resound." --Daniel Grossmann

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	ASLSP
Label:	NEOS (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$21.00
Catalog #:	NEOS 11042CD

Performed by Sabine Liebner (piano). "Liebner is active primarily as a performer of new music. Numerous recordings for radio, television, and CDs as well as invitations to international festivals, both as chamber musician and as soloist, document her work as an artist. She has collaborated on projects with the composers Olga Neuwirth, J�rg Widmann, Franco Donatoni, and Christian Wolff, among others, and given numerous world and national premieres. In recent years Sabine Liebner's interests have focused on American composers of the twentieth century. Her repertoire of American music includes Henry Cowell, Earle Brown, Christian Wolff, Pauline Oliveros, and Tom Johnson. She plays nearly all of the piano works of John Cage, and her recording of Cage's Music for Piano 1-84 is legendary."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	One - One2 - One5
Label:	NEOS (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$21.00
Catalog #:	NEOS 11043CD

Featured works: One for piano solo (1987); One2 for 1-4 pianos (1989); One5 for piano solo (1990). "Sabine Liebner is active primarily as a performer of new music. Numerous recordings for radio, television, and CDs as well as invitations to international festivals, both as chamber musician and as soloist, document her work as an artist. She has collaborated on projects with the composers Olga Neuwirth, J�rg Widmann, Franco Donatoni, and Christian Wolff, among others, and given numerous world and national premieres. In recent years Sabine Liebner's interests have focused on American composers of the twentieth century. Her repertoire of American music includes Henry Cowell, Earle Brown, Christian Wolff, Pauline Oliveros, and Tom Johnson. She plays nearly all of the piano works of John Cage, and her recording of Cage's Music for Piano 1-84 is legendary."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Daughters Of the Lonesome Isle
Label:	NEW ALBION
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	NA 070CD

Works for conventional, prepared, string, bowed and toy piano, written over the a 13 year period (1940-953) that encapsulates the evolution of Cage's asthetic (beginnings of prepared piano through chance-derived abstraction). Performed with intensity and pure intuition by my favorite Cage performer, Margaret Leng Tan. Includes "In A Landscape" & "Dream" ("By sustaining the damper pedal throughout these works, modal melodic tones fuse and fade into harmonic resonances. Both works are early examples of ambient music, while their non-directional non-emotive meanderings and repetitions anticipate minimal music"), "In The Name Of The Holocaust" ("an uncompromising dramatic testament with its haunting pizzicato of muted strings shattered by the brutal jangling of loose screws and its culmination, a cataclysm of massive forearm clusters") & more. A glowing and beautiful Cage document; a good introductory piece for those that have been unsure about Cage recordings, or absolutely necessary for the developed follower of his music.

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	How To Get Started
Label:	SLOUGHT FOUNDATION
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	MC 1210CD

"John Cage conceived How To Get Started almost as an afterthought -- a performance substituting for another that was previously planned in 1989 for delivery at 'Sound Design: An Invitational Conference on the Uses of Sound for Radio Drama, Film, Video, Theater and Music' presented by Bay Area Radio Drama at Sprocket Systems, Skywalker Ranch, in Nicasio, California. In his introduction, Cage talks about the difficulty of initiating the creative process, while exploring the usefulness of improvisation, a subject about which he had long been deeply ambivalent. He proposes a collaborative framework in which sound engineers capture and subsequently layer his extemporized monologue, which consisted of ten brief commentaries on topics then of interest. This amounted to an experiment having to do with thinking in public, before a live audience." DVD-sized tri-fold packaging, including a 20-page book with commentary by Laura Kuhn, Aaron Levy and Arthur J. Sabatini.

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Music For Keyboard 1935-1948
Label:	SONY (JAPAN)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$43.00
Catalog #:	SICC 076/77CD

A series of Japanese-only reissues from 2003 by Sony of John Cage-related documents, rescuing these historic recordings back to the public view after decades of exclusion. Music For Keyboard is THE famous double LP of Cage's early piano music (including his first prepared piano works), originally issued by Columbia in 1970. Produced by David Behrman, performed by Jeanne Kirstein (prepared piano, piano, toy piano). Recorded 1969; reproduction of the original Richard Kostelanetz liner notes included. Features: "Two Pieces" (1938); "Metamorphosis" (1938); "Bacchanale" (1938), "The Perilous Night" (1944); "Tossed As It Is Untroubled" (1943), "A Valentine Out of Season" (1944), "Root of an Unfocus" (1944); "Two Pieces" (1946); "Prelude for Meditation" (1944); "Music for Marcel Duchamp" (1947); "Suite For Toy Piano" (1948); "Dream" (1948). From Richard Kostelanetz's liner notes: "...their distinctive rhythms and unusual tonalities make these pieces as instantly recognizable as Cage's own face and voice; for the paradox is that although many of his compositional constraints function to deny both personal habit and tasteful choice, they also create a particular style of sound in time that is unmistakably Cagean." This was a Japanese-only CD for a long time, but just recently issued in the U.S. on the New World Records label...

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Sonatas & Interludes For Prepared Piano
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	WER 60156

Written in 1946-48 for prepared piano, recorded in 1975 by Joshua Pierce. "...represents the culmination of his work with the solo prepared piano, which had been his musical invention a decade before. Essentially, into the bed of piano strings he put such objects as large wooden screws, bolts of various sizes, pieces of plastic and rubber -- in short, a panoply of devices that transformed the sound of the piano strings... it, more than anything he had done to that time, showed his colleagues that Cage should be considered an important composer." --Richard Kostelanetz

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	25 Year Retrospective Concert
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	3CD
Price:	$47.50
Catalog #:	WER 6247

The legendary performance at Town Hall, NY May 15, 1968; previously available as a ltd. private pressing 3LP box set. "The pieces performed were written over a period of 25 years, between 1934 and 1958. Presented together, they reflect not only Cage's search for new compositional processes and means of expression, they also already contain the seed for all the technical procedures and the ideological basis of his later compositions: the interest in Eastern philosophies, the involvement with 'silence', and the introduction of chance as compositional procedure." Includes classic early prepared-piano works, "Imaginary Landscape No. 1" (a recording of constant and variable frequency records, cymbal and piano), percussion ensemble, tape music, "Concert for Piano & Orchestra," etc. Comes with a 92 page booklet, with in-depth notes, historic photos, score reproductions, etc. One of the nicest Cage items you could imagine.

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Roaratorio - An Irish Circus on 'Finnegans Wake'
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	WER 6303

An excellent, indecipherable code of radio work based on James Joyce's text, with Cage reading. "...Cage's experiences with music and poetry, oral recitation and tape montage, and his close association with Zen Buddhism, lead to an all-inclusive cosmology built out of human voices, natural sounds, sounds coming out of his environment, noises, singing, and music...the montage is expanded by the inclusion of Irish ballads, jigs, and instrumental music which he recorded in Ireland." --Klaus Schoning

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	James Joyce, Marcel Duchamp, Erik Satie: An Alphabet
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$44.00
Catalog #:	WER 6310

"James Joyce, Marcel Duchamp, Erik Satie: An Alphabet is a poetic, philosophical spoken piece by John Cage, based on his memories of decades of studying the works of Joyce, Duchamp and Satie. Live performances in German and English took place in 1987 at the 'NachtCageTag' of WDR Cologne to mark the 75th birthday of the composer and in 1990 at the WDR Sound Art Festival '2nd Acustica International' in New York. Both versions feature an outstanding cast, including some of the giants of 20th century composition."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Credo In US... More Works For Percussion
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	WER 6651

"Ten years after their first highly esteemed Cage CD Works for Percussion Quatuor Helios present a second with works by the inventor of the prepared piano. In the wake of this process comes the series of the five 'Imaginary Landscapes'. 'Credo in US' is another heroic work, particularly in the ambiguity of its title: is Cage patriotically referring to the United States, or is he simply humanistically proving allegiance to the first person plural? Collages, layerings and overlaps clash with omnipresent wild and scattered piano bits, strewn with explosions and streaked with silences that are in themselves aggressive. In 'Inlets', the performers let Nature do the composing. Quatuor Helios has always been open to collaboration with composers in order to develop new contemporary percussion languages, often associating 'classical' instruments, new technologies and musical theatre." Features: 2000 recordings of: "Credo In US" (1942, for piano, cans, buzzer and records), "Imaginary Landscape No.1" (1939, for piano, 2 oscillators and a Chinese cymbal), "Inlets" (1977, for three players of water-filled conch shells), "Imaginary Landscape No. 3" (1942, for coil, gongs, oscillators, tin cans, marimbula, buzzer), "But What About the Noise of Crumpling Paper Which He Used to Do in Order to Paint the Series of 'Papiers froiss�s' or Tearing Up Paper to Make 'Papiers d�chir�s?' Arp Was Stimulated by Water (Sea, Lake and Flowing Waters Like Rivers), Forests" (1986).

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Solo For 'Cello
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	WER 6693

"The works for violoncello solo recorded and compiled on this CD by Friedrich Gauwerky are reference works for John Cage's unusual way of composing. Apart from the tones, Cage also helped to put the varied forms of silence on the musical map. '59 1/2 Seconds,' one of his time-length pieces, ranks among Cage's most radical 'graphic' compositions. Stars become notes or noises in 'Atlas Eclipticalis' -- again without a score. 'Variations I,' written for any number of people using any sort and number of sound-producing means, Cage's composition reached the outmost limit on the way to absolute indetermination. But, if one hears 'Etudes Bor�ales' for cello solo, however, one experiences that it is a piece whose status can only be compared with J.S. Bach's cello compositions."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Dream
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6713

"John Cage had a particular predilection for poetry. 'Poetry,' he wrote, 'is not poetry by reason of its content or ambiguity, but by reason of its allowing musical elements (time, sound) to be introduced into the world of words.' And the composer said about Stefano Scodanibbio, who transcribed the 'Freeman Etudes' and 'Dream' for contrabass and in this recording also serves as the conductor of 'Concert for Piano and Orchestra' and 'Radio Music,' 'I haven't heard better double bass playing than Scodanibbio's. He's really extraordinary... absolutely magic.'"

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Etudes Boreales/Harmonies/10'40.3''
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6718

Friedrich Gauwerky - cello, Mark Knoop - piano. "The enormous technical challenges presented by Cage's Etudes Boreales demand careful coordination of fingers, instrument and intellect. On this CD, the work is presented twice, in versions for piano solo and for cello and piano. As in its sister works, Etudes Australes and Freeman Etudes, Cage based his composition on a star chart, in this case, one of the northern sky created by Czech astronomer Anton�n Becv�r in 1962. Apartment House 1776 for four singers and any number of instrumentalists was written for the American bicentennial. It consists of 14 Tunes, 4 Marches, 2 Imitations and 44 Harmonies. On this disc, Friedrich Gauwerky plays his own arrangements for cello and piano of four of the Harmonies."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Etudes Australes
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	4CD
Price:	$64.00
Catalog #:	WER 6740

"John Cage's Etudes Australes, performed here by pianist Sabine Liebner, launched a series of virtuoso studies born out of the composer's renewed interest in traditional instrumentation and notation. This complex work consists of a total of 32 etudes divided into four books, which John Cage based on maps of the southern night sky. From these maps, locations of planets were selected via chance and translated into pitches, transforming indeterminacy into a new aesthetic category. For Cage's Etudes Australes, the moment of performance is its only moment of reality. Only what is in the present can be heard: in this case, a constantly changing kaleidoscope of sound."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Old School
Label:	ZEITKRATZER (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	ZKR 009CD

John Cage's compositions have been part of Zeitkratzer's repertoire since the very first day. The pieces presented here justify Zeitkratzer's reputation as sound specialists. Avant-garde composer Cage is played in a conservative, precise and sensual way, apart from all philosophical ambitions, and hopefully as seductive as a Schubert quintet! Wire magazine acclaimed: "Zeitkratzer convinced us that Cage's music can still live with all its complexities, stripped of the debris of its iconic-ironic status, if we only give ourselves time, space and ears to hear!" Pieces performed: "Four⁶" (1992), "Five" (1988), "Hymnkus" (1986). Recorded live at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, UK, November 24, 2006. Performed by: Frank Gratkowski (bass clarinet, clarinet), Hayden Chisholm (clarinet), Franz Hautzinger (trumpet), Reinhold Friedl (piano), Maurice de Martin (percussion), Burkhard Schlothauer (violin), Anton Lukoszevieze (cello), Uli Phillipp (double bass) and Ralf Meinz (sound).

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