[silence] Fwd: Petr Kotik's Umbilical Cord

[Daniel Wolf]

Mr. Kotik's attitude puzzles me no end.  On the one hand, he claims to  
have some attachment to the performance practice preferred by the  
composer, but on the other, he gives very little evidence of actual  
respect for the composer's intentions.  A dramatic example of this was in  
the case of a work by La Monte Young, performed by Kotik in Germany, in  
which he insisted on performing it without the either the participation  
required by the composer (which Young can insist upon as he has never  
licensed a first recording nor published the complete score materials  
(score, instructions, notes) which the composer insists upon).   In the  
case of Cage, on this list, he has indicated numerous points of criticism  
— especially regarding over Cage's notation or explicit instructions, many  
of which go to the substance of the work in question — and one wonders if  
the more useful result of his critique would not simply be to compose  
works of his own.  Mr. Kotik is a gifted and interesting composer and that  
would seem to be a more useful exercise of his energies.

There were many musicians with whom Cage worked closely over the years,  
none more so than Tudor, but numerous musicians came to have his trust.   
Certainly other Cunningham Company musicians, certainly Cathy Berberian,  
and of course the soloists associated with Apartment House and  
Roaratorio.  Many individual pieces are inescapably connected with  
individual performers or assistants.  Who is more authoritative about  
Rozart Mix than Alvin Lucier?  Heinz-Klaus Metzger and Rainer Riehn for  
one of the Variations?  Maryanne Amacher for Lecture on the Weather?  Or  
Andrew Culver for many of the late pieces?   I was fortunate, to have  
played in both Atlas Eclipticallis and Etcetera at Wesleyan in 1988, the  
first of which Cage participated in the rehearsals and the second of which  
he actually performed as one of the three conductors (with whom the  
players volunteer to be conducted (the other conductors were Richard  
Winslow and Alvin Lucier).   In the rehearsals for both works, Cage was  
refreshingly open to the coaching by the experienced Cage performers in  
the ensemble.  These included, in Atlas,  conductor Melvin Strauss, Neely  
Bruce, Gordon Mumma, and the Arditti Quartet, who cheerfully joined a  
largely student orchestra for the performance. (One other aspect of the  
Wesleyan performance that should be noted was the presence of many of the  
dedicees at the time (the individual parts are mostly dedicated to  
Wesleyan faculty couples)).  For Etcetera, in addition to Winslow and  
Lucier, a group of specialists in non-western instruments made very  
valuable suggestions and Cage's authorization of performances like this —  
in which the "viola" part, for example, may be played by any bowed string,  
or the "flute" part, by flutes other than the modern western orchestral  
instrument, etc. — is definitely part of an oral tradition beyond the  
score, but one which is not contradicted in any meaningful way by the  
score itself.

There were of course performers of Cage's works whose work profoundly  
disatisfied the composer.  His anger over such performances was, at times,  
quite deep, and, unfortunately, some of these performers continue to play  
Cage despite the disatisfaction.   In some cases, when Cage's critique was  
pointed and well-documented, it can be still be very useful in preparing  
new performances, if only as a negative example.  We learned, for example,  
in Darmstadt, that flutists should not "feel free to add fluttertongue" to  
Ryoanji, for example.  Or this:  Cage was very enthusiatic about Richard  
Bunger's preparations; he appeared to be less enthusiastic about some of  
Bunger's musical decisions, but the preparations remain very useful  
examples.  And, of course, Paul Zukofsky has very usefully pointed out to  
Cage's critique of the Buffalo performance of Song Books (with Julius  
Eastman), a critique which has bearing on several aspects of Cagian  
performance practice.

Daniel Wolf