[silence] silence Digest, Vol 79, Issue 17

[Joseph Zitt]

By the way, I believe 1O1 was commissioned by the Boston Symphony, who
performed it at Carnegie Hall. Did anyone here hear the performances?
Was anyone involved in it? Did you experience anything that might be
significant for this discussion?

On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 2:53 PM, Glenn Freeman <glenn@ogreogress.com> wrote:
> John Kennedy wrote:
>
>> But really, the most interesting question raised in this discussion to
>> me is if a performance by Berlin or the Chicago would somehow sound
>> more wonderful if observed ?faithfully?. The values of such orchestras
>> ? uniformity in string style on wonderful instruments, homogeneous
>> wind sound, technical virtuosity ? are not necessarily useful to a
>> work composed in the style of 103.
>
> I agree with everything you've written John, but we disagree on this
> idea of a Berlin or Chicago performance. What causes us to prejudge
> the result before hearing it? Are such highly educated habits and
> styles one aspect of what the Number Pieces are capable of changing
> within such musicians and institutions?
>
> I feel these 6+ late orchestral works [I've labeled them Cage's
> symphonies for historical reasons described below] deserve a much
> larger audience and I look forward to hearing the result of a Chicago
> Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, etc. performance or recording, soon.
>
> But why? Not because I already know how it will turn out, but simply
> to hear what happens. A fantastic experiment! I am extremely curious
> to hear the result. Was it simply chance that Cage chose to write so
> many of these late works for symphony orchestra, and without a
> conductor?
>
> After all, the whole weight of music history since around the 18th
> century, and up to the time of Cage's death, ran parallel to the
> development of the Symphony or large symphonic work. To suggest Cage
> did not have this in mind while writing 6+ such works in a such a
> short period of time is hard to believe.
>
> Glenn Freeman
> OgreOgress productions
> http://ogreogress.com
>
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