[silence] Performing Number Pieces with Major Orchestras

[Rob Haskins]

Unfortunately I've been without power for the past few days and unable to read all of this discussion--and pending exams will make it difficult to comment at length. However, on the general subject of conducted vs. conductorless performances of the Number Pieces, I might make a few general remarks:

1) Petr Kotik wrote about his method of working out in advance aspects of duration in all performers' time brackets for his performance of, I believe, 103 on Asphodel records. (He either figured out the entire length or figured out when the bracket would begin, I can't remember now.) (Briefly, he wanted to try to create a performance that would be in the spirit of Cage's chance procedures and forestall the tendencies of performers unfamiliar with the works to do whatever they wanted. He cited the famous performance by Julius Eastman and others of Song Books at the June in Buffalo series as justifying his actions. I found his argument very persuasive.

2) Glenn Freeman's methodology for preparing ensemble performances (quoted below) is very much like what Stephen Drury advised me to do when I prepared a performance of Fourteen in 1999 at the Eastman School of Music (no relation to Julius Eastman)--meetings with individual musicians if warranted followed by one general rehearsal and discussion.  I've since folllowed this method for performances of Two5, Four2, and Four6. If it's good enough for Stephen Drury, who is to me one of the great twentieth-century music performers, it's good enough for me.

3) I've heard performance of the large Number Pieces in which there are all sorts of cliched modernist gestures wih the performers (sudden changes of amplitude ending in close-to-distortion, etc.) that remind me more of music from the 50s and 60s than the 90s. I'd prefer to hear performances that sound utterly unlike anything I've ever heard before. But you can't legislate imagination.

 
All best,
Rob


Rob Haskins
Assistant Professor of Music
University of New Hampshire
rob_haskins@yahoo.com
http://robhaskins.net
http://musicandmiscellaneous.blogspot.com/

"Heroism doesn't consist in brilliantly combatting someone else. . . .  What is heroic is to accept the situation in which you find yourself."  -- John Cage




________________________________
From: Clemens Gresser <cgresser@gmail.com>
To: silence@list.mail.virginia.edu
Sent: Sunday, December 14, 2008 12:34:46 PM
Subject: Re: [silence] Performing Number Pieces with Major Orchestras

I completely agree with that: to me, the whole point of the number
pieces, and Rob Haskins might have something to add here, seems to me
a conductorless performance. I would hope (!) that orchestral
musicians can follow the instructions without a person constructing a
score or parts (there are parts already, why create performance
parts?), and I have seen the Radio Symphony Orchestra Frankfurt
perform some of the number pieces at the Frankfurt Feste in 1992, and
they looked happy enough and concentrated - following their part and
the synchronised clock being shown on several monitors.

Indeed, I think a rehearsal (e.g. as in playing the whole piece with
the ensemble) or a "run-through" couldn't be more counter-intuitive,
as some traditional-minded musicians might try to find nice
harmonies/clashes etc... I just think Zurich and Europeras here. This
is also somewhere more eloquently expressed in my Ph.D. thesis, but
I'm actually trying to do something other than reading through that,
at the moment  :-)

Clemens

2008/12/14 Glenn Freeman <glenn@ogreogress.com>:
> Based on my experience recording these works with orchestral players
> (both in Grand Rapids and in Prague) here is my suggestion to
> conductors:
>
> Instead of a rehearsal or rehearsals provide a copy of Cage's written
> instructions along with the parts. The conductor meets alone with each
> musician for 10 minutes or longer. Ask each musician to play his part
> (from the beginning) for 1 minute and then randomly choose another 4
> minutes of the piece to be played. Make comments based on what
> happens. Take questions from the performer. The conductor is
> encouraged to not provide any approach or interpretation but rather to
> simply be there in order to help increase the other musician's
> understanding of the rules Cage makes so clear in the music. Schedule
> additional appointments for musicians who still seem unclear.
>
> There are potentially numerous other methods ... but this is how I
> would do things.
>
> Glenn Freeman
> OgreOgress productions
> http://ogreogress.com
>
> --
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-- 
cgresser@gmail.com
*****
Chevy Chase  - "Parrots make great pets. They have more personality
than goldfish."

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