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viewing 1 To 25 of 26 items
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DPROM 079CD
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Jean-Hervé, Zappi, and Steve Pittis recorded their interpretations of Radio Music independently in 2007 and 2010. They all felt it important to keep to the score as much as possible, given the obvious ambiguities of having to adapt it from John Cage's original 1956 score. These recordings were released as a 10" vinyl EP and sold out instantly, so here they are on CD format with some extras. During "lockdown", it was obviously impossible to get together and perform, so an "ensemble" version culled from takes has been mixed and is included here. Also included is a version of "4'33"" recorded live at the amphitheater in Pompeii. This is a bonus track, as it's obviously not part of the Radio Music sessions. For this reason, it is presented on the sleeve as a "penalty track" in anticipation of the inevitable criticism it will encourage.
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3CD BOX
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RZ 1033-35CD
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From the liner notes by Jakob Ullmann (translated by Peter Gebert and Molly McDolan): "It was during a break in the inaugural meeting of the East German section of the IGNM (International Society for Contemporary Music) in March of 1990 when Reinhard Oehlschlägel, the long-standing music editor of Deutschlandfunk in Cologne, suggested taking advantage of the fact that John Cage was to attend the summer courses in Darmstadt as a special guest by inviting John Cage to East Berlin. . . . Making Giacinto Scelsi's works accessible in the concert hall, the discovery of the quiet and the intangible in the late works of Luigi Nono, the deeply impressed reception even of distant traditions beyond the realm of music by Morton Feldman, and more, had led to the development of a sound phenomenon that would almost have to be called a style, and Cage's works such as 72, and perhaps even more, 103, seem to fit in seamlessly. . . . Cage wrote In A Landscape in 1948 to a choreography of Louise Lippold; the rhythmic structure of the lyrical work echoes the structure of Lippold's dance with its 15 × 15 (5-7-3) measures, while the modal soundscape of the piece is clearly modeled on the aesthetic of Eric Satie. Thirty-four years later, Cage composed a piece for 1-20 concert harps, which was premiered in the same year in Minneapolis. In this piece, Postcard From Heaven, Cage draws on three double ragas, which are used both in their ascending and descending forms, and the characteristics of which may be utilized . . . The thirteen parts of Some Of The Harmony Of Maine for organ are based upon movements from a chorale book published in 1794 by Supply Belcher in Boston. Each piece is indicated by the title and, in abbreviation, the meter of the chorale. Cage did not change any of the notes of the original movements; instead, he used chance operations to decide which notes were to be carried over, which to be removed, the duration of these notes, and in which organ registers they were to be played." Performed by: SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, conductor Jonathan Stockhammer; Kölner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester, conductor: Arturo Tamayo; Gabriele Emde - harp; Jakob Ullmann - organ. Includes a booklet in German and English.
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LCD 2053CD
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1998 release. John Holzaepfel on Music Of Changes: "Like the Pierre Boulez Sonata, 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 and completed on 13 December of that year, 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 to 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." CD booklet includes John Holzaepfel's complete notes, as well as a memoir by Don Gillespie. Features Joseph Kubera on piano.
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2LP BOX
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OI 011LP
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Recorded live in the town hall of New York City on May 15, 1958, this historic concert (organized by Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg) was a retrospective of Cage's work from 1934 to 1958. Here Cage's interest in technology, Eastern philosophies, and the concept of "silence" and "chance" as related to composition come to the fore as Cage performs some of the 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") were performed here for the first time ever. Box includes two 180-gram LPs and a 12-page book containing comments by John Cage himself. Limited numbered edition of 500.
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WER 7320
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"Anyone performing John Cage's music cannot avoid silence. In all the works performed on percussionist Matthias Kaul's collection, silence is realized in the most concrete way. For this major project, Kaul used ninety different instruments and objects including conch shells and pine cones."
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CRS 117CD
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1989 reissue; originally released in 1977 as number 17 in the Nova Musicha series. Recorded at the Center for Contemporary Music, Mills College, Oakland, California, Cheap Imitation is a piece for solo piano by John Cage, composed in 1969. It is an indeterminate piece created using the I Ching and based, rhythmically, on Socrate by Erik Satie; it consists almost exclusively of a single melodic line, with occasional doublings, as an "imitation" of original score.
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WER 6797CD
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"Cage composed his Number Pieces during the last six years of his life. Their titles indicate the number of performers or parts. Their notation is based on fixed and flexible 'time brackets.' The fixed brackets show when a musician should begin and end a pitch or tonal event. With the flexible brackets, the interpreter decides, within a predetermined time frame, when an instrument enters and when it falls silent. This disc, featuring pianist Sabine Liebner, explores two of Cage's late masterworks."
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SR 361CD
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2021 restock. "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 tabletop devices: tape machines, phonograph cartridges, contact microphones, record players, portable radios, etc. He developed a soundworld that was utterly new, radical and demanding. It heralded the age of the loudspeaker, mass communication and Marshall McLuhan's 'global village.' The hiss, crackle and hum of electronic circuits, and the disembodied sounds, snatched by radio from the ether, spoke of the 20th century. Langham Research Centre works within the tradition firmly established by Cage, using resources that would have been available to him. For the realization of Cartridge Music, moving iron phonograph pickups were sourced and restored. These have a knurled screw designed to hold a steel phonograph needle and, in the piece, other objects are inserted and amplified: pieces of wire, toothpicks, paperclips, etc. The realization of 'Fontana Mix' includes the individual mono tracks from Cage's original tapes created in 1958. These are played using open-reel tape machines. These practices ensure we work within the limitations that Cage experienced and enable us to get close to the soundworld he inhabited." --Robert Worby, Langham Research Centre
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SR 361LP
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2018 repress; LP version; black vinyl. "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 tabletop devices: tape machines, phonograph cartridges, contact microphones, record players, portable radios, etc. He developed a soundworld that was utterly new, radical and demanding. It heralded the age of the loudspeaker, mass communication and Marshall McLuhan's 'global village.' The hiss, crackle and hum of electronic circuits, and the disembodied sounds, snatched by radio from the ether, spoke of the 20th century. Langham Research Centre works within the tradition firmly established by Cage, using resources that would have been available to him. For the realization of Cartridge Music, moving iron phonograph pickups were sourced and restored. These have a knurled screw designed to hold a steel phonograph needle and, in the piece, other objects are inserted and amplified: pieces of wire, toothpicks, paperclips, etc. The realization of 'Fontana Mix' includes the individual mono tracks from Cage's original tapes created in 1958. These are played using open-reel tape machines. These practices ensure we work within the limitations that Cage experienced and enable us to get close to the soundworld he inhabited." --Robert Worby, Langham Research Centre
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2CD
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NEOS 10703-4CD
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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."
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CRC 3137CD
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Performed by pianist Susan Svrcek. "[Ms. Svrcek] has established a versatile career that encompasses critically acclaimed solo, chamber, and orchestral appearances in the United States and abroad. A winner of the Concert Artists' Guild International Competition in New York, she made her debut in Carnegie Recital Hall. She has also had solo engagements from the Boston Museum of Fine Art to Tokyo's Zero Hall, Art Hall in Seoul, and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles... Ms. Svrcek is noted for her wide range of repertoire, from Mozart and Beethoven to Xenakis and Boulez. She has achieved mastery in her performances, as noted in the Los Angeles Times, 'because she has probed so carefully into, and brought so many facets out of the massive repertory for the solo piano, one comes to her recitals with high expectations, new thrills, rediscovered gems, unknown masterpieces.'"
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5CD BOX
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WER 6951
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"Wergo was one of the first labels to recognize the avant-garde genius of Cage and offered the début recordings of some of his most important works. In celebration of his 100th birthday Wergo presents this specially-priced anniversary boxed set containing five collector's item discs featuring a selection of Cage's key works." CD1: Sonatas & Interludes for Prepared Piano, performed by Joshua Pierce (prepared piano) (1975);
CD2: Piano Concerto, Atlas Eclipticalis, performed by Joseph Kubera (piano), The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble, Petr Kotík (conductor) (1992);
CD3: Introduction to the play 1982 performed by John Cage; An Alphabet performed by John Cage and friends (1990);
CD4: Variations II; Eight Whiskus; Music for Two; Ryoanji performed by Malcolm Goldstein (violin), Matthias Kaul (percussion, glass harmonica) (1998);
CD5: Etudes Boreales; Harmonies; 10'40.3" performed by Friedrich Gauwerky (cello), Mark Knoop (piano) (2009).
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EM 1104CD
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2014 repress. In October 1962, John Cage and his great interpreter/co-visionary David Tudor visited Japan, performing seven concerts and exposing listeners to new musical worlds. This legendary "John Cage Shock," as it was dubbed by the critic Hidekazu Yoshida, is the source of this series of releases -- three CDs and a "best hits" double LP compilation. Recorded primarily at the Sogetsu Art Center in Tokyo on October 24, 1962 (with two performances from October 17 at Mido-Kaikan in Osaka), all recordings in this series are previously-unreleased. A major historical trove, unearthed. The performances on this tour featured Cage and Tudor with some noteworthy Japanese musicians playing pieces by Cage and a number of other composers. Volume 1 begins with Toru Takemitsu's Corona for Pianists (1962), played by Tudor and Yuji Takahashi, an indeterminate piece scored using transparencies, a sign of Cage's influence on younger Japanese composers of the era. Following this is Duo for Violinist and Pianist (1961) by Christian Wolff, written specifically for David Tudor and violinist Kenji Kobayashi. The final piece, a near-20-minute realization of Variations II (1961), is a rare example of the rougher side of Cage, work that presaged much of the live electronic music and noise of the following decades, an aspect of his oeuvre which is woefully under-represented on CD. Cage and Tudor, using well-amplified contact microphones on a piano, deliver an electrifying performance, alternating distorted stretches of harsh '60s reality with bountiful silences. The John Cage Shock series features truly historical recordings, all previously-unreleased, of compositions by an amazing roster of international composers. The intensity of these has remained hidden and unheard for half a century, but remains undiminished. Features rare photos plus liner notes in Japanese and English with commentary by Toshi Ichiyanagi.
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EM 1105CD
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2014 repress. Volume 2 in EM Records' John Cage Shock series lifts off with a fiery example of David Tudor's piano virtuosity, his mastery of dynamics well-evident in a performance of Klavierstücke X (1961) by Karlheinz Stockhausen. The titular shock of this series is delivered even more forcefully with the next piece, John Cage's 26'55.988" for 2 Pianists and a String Player (1961), which was first performed the year before in Darmstadt by Tudor and Kenji Kobayashi, a combination of two of Cage's solo pieces. The performance here, from Osaka, has a slightly altered title and the composition becomes a seismic quartet with the addition of Toshi Ichiyanagi and Yoko Ono, with the four performers providing acutely-angled blasts of sound. Features rare photos plus liner notes in Japanese and English plus commentary by Toshi Ichiyanagi.
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EM 1106CD
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2014 repress. The final CD of the John Cage Shock series features John Cage's 0'00" (1962), also referred to as 4'33" No. 2, performed by the composer, with daily activities such as writing and drinking coffee amplified by contact microphones into sonic abstraction, following the score's directions: "with maximum amplification (no feedback), perform a disciplined action." Next is Composition II for 2 Pianos (1960/1961) by Michael von Biel, lovely and sparse, performed by David Tudor and Toshi Ichiyanagi. The disc closes with Ichiyanagi's Piano Music #7 (1961), performed also by Tudor and Ichiyanagi, beds of silence disrupted by pianistic stabs, music box madness, traffic recordings, percussive thumps, tape manipulations and more. Features rare photos plus liner notes in Japanese and English plus commentary by Toshi Ichiyanagi.
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3LP BOX
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JC 433-2012LP
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Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano (1946-48). New recording by Nurit Tilles in a deluxe 3LP (45 rpm) audiophile box set. The release of this limited edition (433 numbered copies) is in honor of John Cage's Centennial Year, produced in conjunction with the John Cage Trust. Includes archival material, a 40-page color book with essays, pressed on 200 gram vinyl and slipcase. "If the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 marked the end of the 19th century, then John Cage's birth that year represented the start of a new one, musically speaking. Cage created hundreds of works and to my ears Sonatas and Interludes is one, more than any other, that will stand the test of time. Like a Merce Cunningham dance, there is something new to experience with each encounter of this magnificent piece. By my count, there are over 20 recordings of Sonatas and Interludes with each performer (and production and engineering team) bringing something new to the realization. However, this is the first recording of this seminal piece ever presented in a 45 rpm format for the audiophile. It is my hope that listeners will marvel at the breathtaking sonics of the recording, but more than that -- the superlative performance by Nurit Tilles. When Laura Kuhn and I first discussed this project we immediately locked on Nurit. Her preparation and playing is nothing short of magnificent. And as wonderful is her playing, Nurit's beautiful spirit comes through with verve in these grooves. A noted filmmaker said there is no history, only historians. This recording is historic." --Anthony B. Creamer III. Performed by Nurit Tilles, piano, at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, Sosnoff Stage March 21-23, 2011. Recording Engineer: Andreas Meyer; Mastering Engineer: Kevin Gray; Creative Direction: Donna Wingate and Naomi Yang.
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3LP BOX
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MIR 100204LP
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Limited restock, last copies... 180 gram vinyl. "When John Cage took to the stage at Milan's Teatro Lirico on 2 December 1977 to read from a portion of his not yet published book, Empty Words, little did he know that he was about to incite one of the great art riots of the twentieth century! As Cage reads aloud in what sounds like a nonsensical language (the result of using the I-Ching to extract a series of sounds and syllables from the journal of Henry David Thoreau), the Italian audience (many of whom did not really know who Cage was or what to expect from the performance) begins to grow increasingly unruly, eventually yelling for Cage to get off the stage! Cage, however, simply ignores it and keeps right on reading above the din for over 2 full hours. This fully remastered triple LP box set of this historic performance also features an explanatory text along with accompanying illustrations and photographs of the event."
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CD
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HUNG 31849CD
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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 Froissés" or Tearing Up Paper to Make "Papiers déchires"? 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).
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ZKR 009CD
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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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CD
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WER 6718
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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 Antonín Becvár 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."
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WER 6713
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"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.'"
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MDG 6131510CD
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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."
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MODE 186CD
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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.
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MODE 147CD
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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."
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CDLA 2048CD
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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.)"
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