A Selection Of Works By John Cage

Music for an Aquatic Ballet
This is a piece composed for flute, percussion and tape. The original score, designed to accompany synchronised swimmers, is lost and this is a realization of Cage’s lost score by Jonathan Faralli and Roberto Fabriciani. Even though it is not Cage’s original work, it is Cage’s concept.

The piece features flute sounds mostly in a low register and using contemporary techniques including a ‘blowing’ sound without an actual pitch. It also features percussion including ‘underwater gongs’, which were used in the original composition. A taped recording of ‘underwater’ bubbling and splashing sounds permeate the texture throughout.

I thoroughly enjoyed this work, and I think the concept of using percussion partly submerged in water is very interesting. The taped sounds complement the natural flute and percussion sounds very well, and the sound as a whole is very adept at portraying a peaceful, underwater landscape.

Sonata I 
This piece was composed for prepared piano – where a piano’s strings and hammers are manipulated by placing objects on or between them to drastically alter the piano’s sound. Notes are ‘prepared’ to a lesser or greater extent giving a strange or more familiar sound, depending on which key is being struck at the time. I could often hear short fragments of rhythms, but it still felt very random to me.

Sonata V
The fifth in Cage’s pieces for prepared piano, it was much easier to perceive the rhythm here with a rhythmic ostinato from the lower notes with occasional unexpected rests. A firmer sense of form and shape here made it easier to enjoy than Sonata I.

The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs
This piece, for voice and closed piano, features text from James Joyce’s book Finnegan’s Wake. The voice only sings three pitches, and is reminiscent of Gregorian chant especially when performed by a male. The pianist plays with closed lid, striking the surface of the piano in various ways with various rhythms. Although a hand striking a piece of wood might usually give a very ‘flat’ sound, the body of a piano acts as a resonator giving much more depth to the sound.

Imaginary Landscape No.1
This is an electronic piece for muted piano, cymbal, two amplified phonographs. The sound spectrum offered by the strange group of instruments paints a surreal landscape in the mind. The electronics give an ambience to the musical texture, often using a sliding, high pitched, ‘sonar’ type effect. The muted piano features a 4-note motif that is frequently reiterated during the piece.

Music of Changes I
This was one of Cage’s first pieces that was completely indeterminate, and is scored for piano. He composed the piece applying decisions based on the ancient Chinese text ‘I Ching’. The piece seems very random, and I wasn’t able to discern a regular melody or rhythm. As it is performed on a solo instrument, there were no other sounds to provide ambient or melodic interest, and thus I struggled to maintain my interest.

Imaginary Landscape No.4
Another of Cage’s early ‘chance’ pieces, he scored this for 12 radios and 24 performers. Timings, volumes and tuning are notated. The actual material is left to ‘chance’ as what will be heard depends on when and where the performers are (and hence what transmissions will be picked up by the radios). Strangely I did enjoy this work, and understand the concept behind it.