[silence] to gf/pk/jz and other participantsRE: silence Digest, Vol 79, Issue 12

[Neal W. Meyer]

Hi, Everybody,

Another mainly-lurker drawn into the fray . . .

Re umbilical cords, oral tradition and performer freedom:

Around 1985, as a graduate student at the University of Washington, I organized a performance of Cage's "Music for Piano," for four pianos.  At the time I'd read Cage's published writings, Kostelanetz's monograph, and seen an inspiring performance by Cage conducting Atlas Eclipticalis at the Cornish School.  I also had the counsel and encouragement of Professors William O. Smith and Stuart Dempster, both of whom had worked with Cage.

Cage was quite important for me, and it was thus emotionally and morally important for me to present a performance that was true to Cage's spirit and intentions.  I was excited that I had succeeded in having this music presented as a concert in the UW's official "Contemporary Group" concert series.

One aspect of Cage's teaching that was crucial to me as I prepared the performance, involved freedoms he granted to performers, with the understanding that these freedoms should be used with consideration and responsibility.  Another aspect was Cage's interest in theater, multi-media, and giving thought to the entire performance situation.

Combining these two aspects, I created a detailed plan for the "Music for Piano" performance.  Having decided to realize the work in a version for four pianists (and to be titled "Music for Four Pianos, in line with Cage's instructions in the scores), I used chance operations to place the four pianos in the "black box" performance space, including details such as the orientation of each piano in its chosen spot.   Each performer had an approximately equal number of pieces to perform in sequence.  Also using chance operations I'd created a kind of score directing when each pianist would be performing a piece, or else not playing.  Therefore, one two three or four pianists could be performing at any given time.  A second "score" directed the pianists to travel from one piano to another at certain points, which meant that situations of more than one pianist at an instrument developed.  Finally, an elaborate, chance-determined lighting scheme was composed in collaboration with a skilled and enthusiastic L.D.  Since this lighting design could occasionally leave the entire space or parts of it completely dark, the pianists wore bicyclist's head-lamps which would allow them both to move safely through the space, and be able to read their music.  While the head-lamps were included purely for utility, they made the lighting elements yet more complex and interesting.  While there was a conventional seating area provided for the audience, there were in addition around 20 chairs placed in the performance space itself, location and orientation determined by chance.  Audience members were also encouraged to wander freely in the space during the performance.

The following challenges arose in the course of putting this show together:

1)  I'd initially enlisted three of the most proficient student pianists in the School of Music to perform (I was to be the fourth).  None of these were Cage specialists, and were ultimately put off by both the technical challenges and the "weirdness" of the performance concept.  I then asked three other musicians, enthusiastic about adventurous music, though certainly not pianists of the same skill level, and who furthermore now had less time to learn the pieces.

2)  With the given time-frame, I was pleased with the good faith effort each musician made to learn our parts.  One musician, a good friend was adamant about taking certain improvisational freedoms, essentially finding "loopholes" for license with Cage's intentions.  I was not happy about his take on this, but I knew his aims were neither  sabotage or mockery, so for the sake of friendship and expediency, I didn't confront or insist here.

3)  Despite our best efforts, this was a lot of music to learn in a short time, and we ultimately agreed that we would perform some of the pieces in less-practiced form.  We were all four experienced improvisors, and some of the more densely notated pieces were essentially performed as springboards for improvisation.  While it would have been possible to simply not perform the under-rehearsed pieces, I felt like maintaining a certain density and variety of textures superceded technical issues for this performance.

4)  Cage's score requires lots of inside-the-piano work:  
     plucking, muting, harmonics, but the theater management would only allow inside playing on one of the four pianos.

5)  On the evening of the performance, it turned out that a dance rehearsal had been scheduled in a studio directly above the theater, so a signficant portion of the show included loud tromping from above.

6)  Sometime after this performance I read something Cage had written about the piece, and that a major concern of the "Music for Piano" had been to explore spatially dispersed sounds, through surrounding the audience with pianists.

Looking back, I wish we would have had more rehearsal time, and pianists genuinely adequate to the task of this music.  I wish those in charge at Meany Theater had been a bit more tolerant and relaxed regarding plucking and muting.  I wish all the pianists had been ready to simply interpret the music according to Cage's clear intentions on the page.  I wish someone had noticed and rescheduled the dance rehearsal upstairs.  I wish I'd  found Cage's account of "Music for Piano" beforehand--I would have given much more thought to spatial dispersion of the sounds.

All this said, that performance stands as one of the high points of my musical life, both as performer and as experiencer.  It was an evening full of mystery, magic, wonder, and humor.  To myself and others it successfully conveyed much that is essential and unique in Cage.  Sounds were free to be themselves;  A red spot would fall on a silent performer-less instrument.  All four pianists would find themselves at one instrument and do our level best to perform the music in front of us.  Long silences; constantly changing light; both performers and audiences quietly traversing the room.

It seems to me that my experience might illustrate something important for the conversation in progress here.  The producers and performers had some knowledge of how to play Cage, though this knowledge was imperfect.  In addition, license was taken in several areas, and decisions were made to go ahead with non-ideal situations.  The result?  A presentation of "Music for Piano" that certainly could have been better, but that nonetheless gave its audience a pretty good and compelling experience of at least a few important factors in the Cagean experience.

An orthodox "Freemanian" in my shoes in 1985 might have put something together using only what he found in the score.  By contrast I used a great deal of knowledge, and made a great many judgments based on Cage tradition outside the score, and I'm certain the performance was better for the application of this "extra-textual" tradition.

An orthodox "Kotikian" in my shoes in 1985 might well have scrapped the whole project at any number of points along the development.  But I'm glad I went ahead with this show; I'm glad I didn't insist on virtuosi; I'm glad I didn't get in my friend's face about his performance choices; I'm glad I settled for mostly conventional piano sounds; I've actually come to look forward to the tromping sounds of upstairs dancers on our recording; I would have liked more actual exploration of sound coming from different directions, but I'm also glad we had fun with the other elements that got explored instead.

I guess what is most essential to me in Cage performance is a good faith engagement with the score, which I think must always include genuine curiosity and interest in how others have done it, and especially in what Cage was interested in.  That's what I find lacking in Glenn Freeman's take, at least as expressed in this thread.  Also, Cage invites a liberated imaginative engagement in a way that other composers don't always do, and if that active playful attitude is not present and encouraged, I don't think such a performance is going to be authentically Cagean.  That's where I'd find fault with Petr Kotik, at least as presented in this thread.

Thanks,

Neal Meyer  
----- Original Message ----- 
  From: susan j. 
  To: pksem@semensemble.org ; glenn@ogreogress.com ; silence@list.mail.virginia.edu 
  Sent: Sunday, December 14, 2008 9:03 AM
  Subject: [silence] to gf/pk/jz and other participantsRE: silence Digest, Vol 79, Issue 12


  I am on the fringes of this group.., a lurker.., lover/appreciator of Cage-as-he has-made-his-mark-on-me.., and have oft so enjoyed the minds at work here at this site. 
   
  I rarely have sent any lines to the group over the past decade.
   
  I've only taken a smidge of a look at  the recent volley.., and feel that the part of my being that is attracted to the best in ya'll is the part that wants to speak now to agree: trust musicians and people. 
   
  The grandmother in me wants to add: Likely you all agree more than this exchange of late reveals. 
   
  And I do enjoy the intellect and life and awareness I read here.
   
  Maybe it's the full moon...? or the price of oil..? or..? 

  Susan




  > Date: Sun, 14 Dec 2008 11:04:37 -0500
  > From: pksem@semensemble.org
  > To: glenn@ogreogress.com; silence@list.mail.virginia.edu
  > Subject: Re: [silence] silence Digest, Vol 79, Issue 12
  > 
  > "Distrust of musicians" ??? "and people" ???
  > What other idiotic nonsense one has to read on these pages...
  > PK
  > 
  > 
  > On 12/14/08 7:12 AM, "Glenn Freeman" <glenn@ogreogress.com> wrote:
  > 
  > > Brian,
  > > 
  > > I simply disagree with your's and Petrs view and distrust of musicians
  > > and people. It is precisely this negative attitude/tradition that
  > > causes things to remain as they are. George Bush is gone.
  > 
  > 
  > 
  > --
  > To join or leave the Silence mailing list, please go to https://list.mail.virginia.edu/mailman/listinfo/silence.
  > You can find searchable list archives at http://list.mail.virginia.edu/pipermail/silence/



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