[silence] S.E.M. Ensemble Tonight

[PK SEM]

We would like to remind you of a major performance by the S.E.M. Ensemble
and Orchestra (under the direction of Petr Kotik), tonight at 9pm at the
Spiegeltent, Pier 17, South Street Seaport.

The following program will be performed:
Petr Kotik: Wilsie Bridge
Iannis Xenakis: Mikka and Mikka ³S²
A. Vincent Raikhel: go to, go by
Iannis Xenakis: Dikhthas
Karlheinz Stockhausen: Zeitmaße
John Cage: Concert for Piano and Orchestra

Call Ticket Central at 212/279-4200 for tickets.

We would like to especially highlight the presentation of Zeitmaße by
Karlheinz Stockhausen and Concert for Piano and Orchestra by John Cage. Both
composed in the mid-1950s, these seminal works have never been presented
together on the same program.

The idea of a composition where the individual parts proceed independently
has been around for centuries. Independence in music, however, is relative
to the style and technique. It might be more apt to describe this idea in
new music as a degree of coordination between various parts of the
composition. European composers have never entirely abandoned coordination,
and the transition from uncoordinated to coordinated material is very much
apparent in Zeitmaße. American composers, on the other hand, are known for
creating works that remain uncoordinated throughout the entire composition.
For that, there is no better example than Concert for Piano and Orchestra.
It excluded the possibility of having a general score; instead only
individual parts were composed as independent solos. Even the
instrumentation is not fixed: any number of the parts can be performed, from
a soloist up to the full ³orchestra² of 13 instruments. This flexibility was
not only a conceptual decision, but also a necessary adaptation to the
situation, as Cage only had access to a handful of musicians at that time.
This is the first time, to our knowledge, that these two contemporaneous
works have been performed together on one program.

For more than forty years, Petr Kotik has been performing music by both Cage
and Stockhausen. He met Stockhausen in 1965 in Cologne, a meeting that
resulted in a commission from Stockhausen to compose Contrabandt (1967), an
electronic piece, which Kotik realized at the W.D.R. Cologne Studio in 1967
and premiered at ³Music der Zeit² concert the same year. (Stockhausen was
the director of the studio at the time). Kotik also assisted Stockhausen
with the performance of Mixtur in Darmstadt in the summer of 1967. Kotik¹s
history with the Concert for Piano and Orchestra by John Cage started in
1964 when he performed the piece in Prague and Warsaw under Cage, with David
Tudor at the piano (SEM later released the work under Kotik, with Joseph
Kubera at the piano, on Wergo label: WER 6216-2). Since 1964, Kotik has
performed Concert for Piano and Orchestra many times, mostly as a conductor,
but on occasion as a flutist as well, often with the composer present. From
their fist meeting in 1964, Kotik continuously collaborated with Cage until
the composer¹s death in 1992, making him Cage¹s longest collaborator alive
today.

Zeitmaße (1955-56) was composed at the same time Stockhausen was working on
Gruppen for 3 Orchestras (1955-57). Both pieces use the idea of independence
between various parts at various sections of the composition. While Gruppen
(and later Carré for 4 orchestras and 4 choruses) employs conductors to lead
each orchestra (and chorus) independently,  Zeitmaße simultaneously assigns
various tempi and meters to each of the five woodwind instruments
(Stockhausen¹s woodwind quintet employs the English Horn instead of the
French Horn). The changes and transformation between coordinated and
uncoordinated sections are some of the most intriguing elements of the
composition.

The independent parts, or solos, of the Concert for Piano and Orchestra
(1957-58) form a cohesive musical landscape simply by co-existing in time
and space (this is one of the main aspects of Cage¹s conviction about the
feasibility of anarchy).  The vast discrepancy between opportunities
composers had (and still have) in Europe and America is obvious here: While
Stockhausen had almost unlimited means for producing his music (3 orchestras
with a total of 119 musicians, 4 orchestras and choruses, conductors, the
best-equipped electronic studio, etc.), Cage could not organize more than a
13-piece orchestra for the premiere of the Concert at his 25-year
retrospective concert at Town Hall in 1958. For subsequent performances, he
could have hoped only for a few instrumentalists at best. Therefore, the
³orchestra² is conceived of here as an open ensemble composed of
simultaneous solos (with or without the solo piano part) that can exist in
any combination and size. At the performance in Prague in 1964, Cage used 2
trombones. Similarly, 2 trumpets will be used for the Spiegeltent
performance. The piece was commissioned by Elaine de Kooning and the solo
part was written especially for David Tudor. Tudor performed the Concert for
Piano and Orchestra with Petr Kotik and SEM in 1993 at two of his last
concerts: at the Konzerthaus in Berlin and Alice Tully Hall in New York.





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