Passing Tones : Meg's Reich2Radiohead Blog

John Cage is a funny man with a passion for music and mushrooms. Today's class was the first time I have ever heard his voice, and in that moment I realized how much he was one of the musical masterminds of the 20th century. Cage was straight out of the era of the Beat generation (the term is involved mostly with the literary contingency of the following list, but also can cover the artists and musicians of the time). Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Merce Cunningham, Jackson Pollack, Robert Rauschenberg, and Cage (among others) all shared ideas with each other. Cage in particular had close relations with Cunningham and Rauschenberg. Cage had a swagger to his voice, the same sound I have heard in a recording of Kerouac's voice when reading his poetry, these guys simply sounded intellectually cool. And cool they were; all of them were innovators and set up basically the second wave of modern thought in America in the 20th century.

Cage started out with Cowell as his teacher and then Schoenberg. Schoenberg made a deal with Cage; if Cage promised to spend the rest of his life dedicated to music Schoenberg would teach him for free. After Schoenberg's teachings Cage got involved in composing for dance companies across the west coast, and shortly after became composer for Merce Cunningham. Cunningham's dance company has been one of the premier dance companies in America since the 1950s (Cage had been working with Cunningham since the mid-40s). Of course then Cage invented the prepared piano and we have never looked back since. Compositions were composed on the prepared piano for the dance company because the majority of the spaces the dance company performed in could not accommodate a full instrumental ensemble. The sound of a prepared piano is amazing, when prepared the piano finally embodies its function as a percussion instrument.

On a modern note, Aphex Twin (Richard D. James) the ambient and IDM trailblazer has himself composed prepared piano pieces. While being a guest on a BBC radio show Aphex Twin heard one of Cage's Sonatas for prepared piano and was inspired to create. He took a Yamaha Disklavier and programmed his piece into it, prepared the piano and it sounds just like the works of Cage or Satie (both influence of Aphex Twin). Out of nowhere on his Drukqs album comes these beautiful odd sounding piano pieces that are set apart from the electronic soundscape built up during the progression of the album. Oh and did I mention that Aphex Twin cannot read a single note of music... His prepared piano works can be heard on the Drukqs album (on iTunes):
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?s=143441&playlistId=50235099

For a second afterthought in 2003 Merce Cunningham, Radiohead, and Sigur Ros tripled up for a set of concerts entitled Split Sides that were premiered in Brooklyn and toured around the world (Sigur Ros performed at the Brooklyn, London, and Paris premiers, Radiohead only performed at the Brooklyn premier). Until this point Sigur Ros and Radiohead had never seen the Merce Cunningham dance company, and Merce had no idea who Radiohead or Sigur Ros were until the bands were sent invitations to play. Finding parallels with his longtime composer, Cage, Cunningham agreed to do a set of 40 min dances to the commissioned pieces that each band composed. Composers and Choreographer went their separate ways to create Split Sides. Radiohead brought their synthesizers, modular drum machines, sequencers, samplers and computers. Sigur Ros invented a new rhythmic instrument that integrated ballet slippers, they also brought the usual synths, and keyboards. Radiohead (only bootlegs exist of this composition) went for more of a improvisational method of composition while Sigur Ros composed their piece beforehand and later released Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do (on iTunes):
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=5241760

Overall the entire event was an incredible success and won rave reviews, although there was some criticism over its overly improvisitory -open style, from the critics. A good article from The New Yorker can be found here:
http://www.newyorker.com/critics/dancing/?031103crda_dancing

Getting back to Cage, he was a Renaissance man with an extremely complex mind. Cage was a musician, an artist, writer, philosopher, eastern religious follower, mycologist, cook, the man was everywhere at once! Cage was innovative, he was wired for creativity; it was even in his blood, his father was an inventor. After his prepared piano phase Cage entered a new period, the Silence stage. He wrote his famous book: Silence that changed the mindset of not only music but the visual arts. 4'33" was composed which made everyday sounds music itself. Critics lashed back at Cage calling him more of a philosopher than a musician. As cage got more and more into western philosophy and the iChing he moved towards Chance Operations which totally turned the critics on their heads. Some claimed Cage was discrediting himself, however, Cage was an innovator and was breaking musical boundaries.

We viewed a video for Cage's 70th Birthday. A piece that particularly caught my ears was Roratorium which was based on Joyce's Finnigan's Wake. For the most part I am a huge fan of Cage and pretty much every composition I have heard from him up to Roratorium I have liked. At first I was undecided on Roratorium. From a musical aspect it combines so many interesting innovated elements such as Irish Fiddlers and tape effects with Cage speaking different phrases he put together from the text of Joyce that also spelled out his name. The method in which Cage arranged the words and phrases that made up the text of the piece was ingenious. I found it to be a massive cacophony of sound that after a while was almost an overload of so many different sounds. Overall the work is amazing mixing a folk element to avant-garde classical tape loops and spoken word. Seeing Cage in action explaining his own works was also an incredible experience. It truly came from the source.