[silence] Lecture on the Weather

[Miguel Frasconi]

Hello all,
I was one of the 12 performers in Lecture on the Weather, way back in  
the mid-70s. The piece was a commission from CBC-Radio in 1975 for  
the American Bicentennial in '76 and Cage specified that it be  
performed by Americans living in Canada. We first performed it in  
1976 at York University in Toronto (I was a student there at the  
time) then again in Buffalo, either late '76 or early '77. It was a  
wonderful experience (and the beginning of my long friendship with  
Cage) as we each got to work one-on-one with Cage developing our own  
interpretation of the score, which was made up of fragments of Henry  
David Thoreau's texts and drawings. Maryanne Amacher created the  
wind, rain, and thunder soundtrack and film-maker Luis Frangella  
created a projected montage of the Thoreau material. Some of the  
other performs at that time were percussionist William Winant,  
Carnatic music scholar John B. Higgins, and composers David Rosenboom  
and James Tenney. It was quite a group.

The Toronto performance was recorded and later broadcast by CBC-Radio  
on their new music show "Two New Hours." I don't know if they have an  
on-line archive, but they must still have the recording. I did make  
an "air-check" recording of the broadcast. I'll dig through my old  
tapes. If I find it (and it still plays), I will let you know.

Best,
Miguel

Miguel Frasconi
Well Weathered Music
72 Park Terrace West  #E45
NY, NY 10034
www.newalbion.com/NA111

On Jun 14, 2006, at 12:30 PM, Dr Vesty wrote:

> I was at a performance circa 1978 at the Albright-Knox Gallery in
> Buffalo of Cage performing Lecture on the Weather. This was before it
> appeared in print in his book. Cage read the talk straight through,
> amplified at a podium. Simultaneously, 20 readers were without
> amplification reading from Thoreau. So there was a mumbling crowd-
> like ambience. David Tudor projected slides; stark graphic positive/
> negative images. At the same time were amplified sounds of nature; I
> recall the rumbling of thunder. I made a pocket recording of the
> event, and it is poorly labeled and buried in my archive.
>
>

> On Jun 14, 2006, at 10:18 AM, <jannika@rockdiva.de>  
> <jannika@rockdiva.de> wrote:
>> Dear Cage Aficionados:
>>
>> I am looking for a recording of Cage's "Renga" (with or without  
>> "Apertment House 1776") and his "Lecture on the Weather."
>>
>> I need both recordings for research purposes (i.e. my PhD thesis).
>>
>> I searched local and online music stores but couldn't find them.  
>> If someone on this list is in the possession of recordings of  
>> those two compositions, I would appreciate it immensely if I could  
>> get a copy.
>>
>> Thanks in advance.
>>
>> Jannika Bock
>>
>>




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