![]() Michael Gordon’s For Madeleine, dedicated to his now deceased mother, juxtaposes a hovering piano line and long sweeping glissandi to create a quietly mournful incantation. Sun Ray by David Lang delicately cycles unresolved phrases that shimmer like dappled light and gradually morph into an energising stabbing, syncopated conclusion. The remainder of the American Descendants concert consisted of works by three of the Bang on a Can All-Stars’ founding members (who were not present, the current touring party consisting of Stewart and musical guns for hire, and excellent marksmen at that). ![]() It’s an interesting technique (one employed also to great effect by The Books) suggesting an embodied and material sense of the man and his words. This lyricism is ramped up and formalised by the middle of the piece where the text is subsumed completely and the piece finds its own jazzy rock style. This technique can often result in abrupt and jagged, rhythmic figures, but Cage was a measured and lyrical speaker so the music develops a lilting edge within the uneven rhythms and phrases. In An Open Cage, composer Florent Ghys took a recording of the man himself reading from the eighth part of Diary: How to improve the world (You will only make matters worse) and scored the ensemble parts according to the cadence of Cage’s voice. The next piece offers us even more of Cage’s wisdom, and better still, in his own voice. The master of ceremonies, guitarist (and one of the founding members of the band) Mark Stewart, tells us that the players each have “rigorously prepared” their part separately but not yet together. This was exemplified by the first concert of the two-day mini festival, titled John Cage and his American Descendants, which opened with two pieces by Cage performed simultaneously: Indeterminacy from 1959, a collection of Cage’s texts to be spoken in differing orders and Variations II from 1961, for any number of players producing sounds by “any means,” guided by a graphic score of dots and lines that can be arranged in an almost infinite number of permutations. ![]() This situation was to some degree perpetuated by the Sydney Opera House’s John Cage Centenary Celebration presented by Bang on a Can All-Stars from New York, which offered a small selection of Cage musical experiences complemented by a rich collection of his utterances and philosophising. The paradox of Cage is that, arguably, his writing is better appreciated than his music-I’d suggest he’s more often quoted than played. AND WHICH PEARL OF WISDOM TO CHOOSE? HE WROTE SO PROLIFICALLY. IT SEEMS TOO EASY TO START THIS ARTICLE WITH A QUOTATION FROM JOHN CAGE-A BON MOT THAT LIKE A GOOD HAIKU SAYS SEEMINGLY NOTHING AND EVERYTHING. Bang on a Can All-Stars, The Composers 2: John Cage Centenary Celebrations, Sydney Opera House
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