[silence] silence Digest, Vol 81, Issue 24
John Kennedy
john@sfnm.com
Tue Feb 24 15:08:58 EST 2009
I would also be very interested in knowing if the 1958 premiere of the
dance, at a small festival by Merce + Co, was for the piano 4-hands or
full instrumental version. The story I heard is that the Cage
arrangement of Ixion for piano 4 hands, played by Cage and Wolff, was
made because the NYC Ballet orchestra was disagreeable to graphic
notation when the piece was done by NYCB in 1966. I am unaware of Cage
making an arrangement of the full instrumental version, that is,
"scoring" Feldman's numbers in boxes for instruments, so I am not sure
about Carolyn's quote - maybe others can clarify. The 4-hands
arrangement, as I understood it, also enabled the Cunningham Company
to tour with the dance for Summerspace with their small core of
composer/musicians.
In any case in the quote you cite, the piece is not for 10 instruments
because he is counting strings as one. The score calls for 3 to 7
celli and 2 to 4 bassi, and the low end is very important. So the
minimum number would be 13. Both the orchestral and piano versions of
Ixion are available from Peters. However, whether there is an extant
"arrangement" of these scores I do not know.
The EOS recording is of Feldman's original graphic notation; I
confirmed this today with musicians who played on it.
I conducted the revival of Summerspace/Ixion for NYC Ballet in 1999 to
celebrate Merce's 80th birthday, and into the next couple of
repertoire seasons at NYCB, and we used the graphic notation for
orchestra. But something I could not confirm is if the 1999 revival
was actually the first to use the orchestra with the dance. The NYCB
assigned simpatico musicians to the revival and they were fine with it
with practice. The piece is easily interpreted by being conducted in 5
(one beat per box) and I prepared the parts with color code to
facilitate reading it in units of 5.
There is a big question about the piece's instructions and its
duration for the dance. In the C.F. Peters score, in what looks to be
Feldman's original instructions, it says "each box equal to MM or
thereabouts". No number assigned to MM, most logically to allow for
accompanying the choreography, but this does not give an answer for
concert performance. The choreography for Summerspace takes 19'10",
which sets below MM=40. The BMG recording is about 12 minutes, which
means they took it at MM=60, a MM used frequently for these kind of
scores. We found in the revival at NYCB, that the choreography is very
busy and noisy, the design by Rauschenberg was bright and lively, and
it truly helped aesthetically for the music to be busier than MM=40
(Carolyn Brown concurred), because it is a relatively small ensemble,
playing softly, in the huge NY State Theater. It was so much more
wonderful when we made this very sparse material more dense, but this
meant we would run out of music in relation to the dance. The slow
tempo did not feel and sound as right as a more typical tempo for a
Feldman graphic score (some of which go up to MM=90, I believe). To
make the question more interesting, both the music and the dance have
very clear sections, an increase in density at the end, and Feldman
also makes a dramatic textural change utilizing a kind of periodicity
(one sound per box per instrument, for a long while), before a "coda".
We took some different approaches, but settled on a repeat (!) of
about half of the material, to match the duration of the score to the
duration of the choreography, and to try and preserve the relationship
of Feldman's sections. To me, this seemed more appropriate to the
circumstance, than stretching out the score into a slow tempo below
anything you see in other work of Feldman. This raises the very
interesting discussion of how some of Cage's compositional methods of
flexibility enabled attachment to dance of variable duration, which
perhaps Ixion did not anticipate. And Merce of course did not match
the duration of the dance to the score, so as interpreters years later
we had some compromises and decisions to make.
On Feb 24, 2009, at 5:42 AM, silence-request@list.mail.virginia.edu
wrote:
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>
> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Re Cage's arrangement of Feldman's "Ixion" (Richard Leigh)
> 2. Re: Etudes Australes and Etudes Boreales spelling (kkrka kr)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:16:37 -0800 (PST)
> From: Richard Leigh <yiddishlambs@yahoo.co.uk>
> Subject: [silence] Re Cage's arrangement of Feldman's "Ixion"
> To: silence@list.mail.virginia.edu
> Message-ID: <654642.25204.qm@web24616.mail.ird.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Here are two quotes about the above. Can anyone help with
> clarification? Which version is closer to the truth? Can anyone tell
> me which version is on the BMG recording, which I've never seen?
> 1.? from Mats Persson's essay in the recording of Feldman's 2-piano
> music on Alice records. "Feldman abandoned? graph notation for a
> while though he did occasionally return to it in the late 50s and
> during the 1960s, often when writing for larger chamber orchestras
> and orchestras. The first of these was Ixion for ten instruments,
> which was composed in August 1958 together with Merce Cunningham's
> choreography Summerspace......John Cage worked out a re-modified
> version of the tempo scheme for Ixion, perhaps because of the huge
> difficulties it imposed upon the musicians. Feldman himself arranged
> it foir two pianos without changing the tempo -an extremely
> virtuosic music."
> ?
> 2.? from Carolyn Brown's book "Chance and Circumstance", an account
> of her 20 years working with Cunningham, page 220. " Morton Feldman
> had been commissioned to write music for orchestra. Titled Ixion, it
> was one of Feldman's graph pieces..............The problem was,
> Morty either didn't know how to or didn't want to transribe his
> score for orchestra, so it was John who had to?do it at the last
> moment............"
> Both of these people seem to know what they're talking about - I'd
> strongly recommend both the CD and the book. So which is right, or
> more right? Does Cage's version still exist - is it perhaps the one
> used on the MBG recording? Is there anything about the work and its
> arrangements elsewhere in the literature?
> Richard Leigh
>
> --- On Mon, 23/2/09, silence-request@list.mail.virginia.edu <silence-request@list.mail.virginia.edu
> > wrote:
>
> From: silence-request@list.mail.virginia.edu <silence-request@list.mail.virginia.edu
> >
> Subject: silence Digest, Vol 81, Issue 23
> To: silence@list.mail.virginia.edu
> Date: Monday, 23 February, 2009, 5:04 PM
>
> Send silence mailing list submissions to
> silence@list.mail.virginia.edu
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
> https://list.mail.virginia.edu/mailman/listinfo/silence
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
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>
> You can reach the person managing the list at
> silence-owner@list.mail.virginia.edu
>
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of silence digest..."
>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Korean unison in other of Cage's works (David Badagnani)
> 2. Re: Korean unison in other of Cage's works (Brian Brandt)
> 3. Etudes Australes and Etudes Boreales spelling (kkrka kr)
> 4. Re: Etudes Australes and Etudes Boreales spelling (Thomas Moore)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2009 14:16:00 -0800 (PST)
> From: David Badagnani <davidbadagnani@yahoo.com>
> Subject: [silence] Korean unison in other of Cage's works
> To: silence@list.mail.virginia.edu
> Message-ID: <283708.87185.qm@web63402.mail.re1.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> The South Korean-born komungo player/composer Jin Hi Kim, who
> interviewed many
> contemporary composers for a Korean music magazine from about 1982
> to 1988 after
> immigrating to the U.S. in 1980, just recalled the following in this
> interesting
> email to me (see below).? Can anyone share more information about
> "Etcetera
> II/4 Orchestras"--is it recorded and is it indeed reminiscent of
> Korean
> court music?? I knew, due to Cage's own performance notes, that
> "Ryoanji" was inspired by the concept of "Korean unison"
> (this concept, as earlier discussion on this list has shown, was
> probably passed
> to Cage by Henry Cowell, who, it is believed, coined it to describe
> the
> sometimes not-quite-together attacks in Korean ritual music, which
> is extremely
> slow in tempo), but I didn't know about this work, "Etcetera II/4
> Orchestras."
>
> *******************
>
> Jin Hi Kim wrote, on 22 February 2009:
>
> "Long time ago you sent me information about John Cage's Korean
> Unison.? What I remember was about this is that people were blogging
> if
> there is any proof for this.
> I interviewed John Cage few times for my writing for Eumak-Dong A
> Music
> Magazine.?At
> that time (1989?) He was working on a new piece for Tokyo premiere,
> and
> he mentioned <Korean unison> as slow tempo court orchestration.He
> said he
> was composing <Etcetera II/4 Orchestras> with the influence of Korean
> unison.I meant to tell you about this, but sorry that it took so
> long.??Jin--
> Jin Hi Kimwww.jinhikim.com
>
> --
> David Badagnani
> Kent, Ohio
> USA
>
>
>
>
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2009 17:52:30 -0500
> From: Brian Brandt <mode@moderecords.com>
> Subject: Re: [silence] Korean unison in other of Cage's works
> To: David Badagnani <davidbadagnani@yahoo.com>,
> silence@list.mail.virginia.edu
> Message-ID: <49A1D72E.2030007@moderecords.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Dear David
>
> "Etcetera I/4 Orchestras" was recorded on Mode 86:
> http://www.moderecords.com/catalog/086cage.html
> Unfortunately this title is out of stock at the moment because we are
> out of the printed matter (books and inlays). Reprinting the books is
> the most expensive aspect of repressing a CD or DVD, and some titles
> suffer this fate for a while due to cash flow. However, you should be
> able to find it on iTunes or some other service where the Mode catalog
> is available as a download.
>
> Regards
> Brian Brandt
>
>
>
> David Badagnani wrote:
>> The South Korean-born komungo player/composer Jin Hi Kim, who
>> interviewed many contemporary composers for a Korean music magazine
>> from about 1982 to 1988 after immigrating to the U.S. in 1980, just
>> recalled the following in this interesting email to me (see below).
>> Can anyone share more information about "Etcetera II/4
> Orchestras"--is
>> it recorded and is it indeed reminiscent of Korean court music? I
>> knew, due to Cage's own performance notes, that "Ryoanji"
> was inspired
>> by the concept of "Korean unison" (this concept, as earlier
> discussion
>> on this list has shown, was probably passed to Cage by Henry Cowell,
>> who, it is believed, coined it to describe the sometimes
>> not-quite-together attacks in Korean ritual music, which is extremely
>> slow in tempo), but I didn't know about this work, "Etcetera II/4
>
>> Orchestras."
>>
>> *******************
>>
>> Jin Hi Kim wrote, on 22 February 2009:
>>
>> "Long time ago you sent me information about John Cage's Korean
>> Unison. What I remember was about this is that people were blogging
>> if there is any proof for this.
>>
>> I interviewed John Cage few times for my writing for Eumak-Dong A
>> Music Magazine.
>> At that time (1989?) He was working on a new piece for Tokyo
>> premiere,
>> and he mentioned <Korean unison> as slow tempo court orchestration.
>> He said he was composing <Etcetera II/4 Orchestras> with the
> influence
>> of Korean unison.
>> I meant to tell you about this, but sorry that it took so long.
>> Jin
>> --
>> Jin Hi Kim
>> www.jinhikim.com <http://www.jinhikim.com>
>>
>> --
>> David Badagnani
>> Kent, Ohio
>> USA
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>
>> --
>> 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
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:48:27 +0300
> From: kkrka kr <haajg5@gmail.com>
> Subject: [silence] Etudes Australes and Etudes Boreales spelling
> To: silence@list.mail.virginia.edu
> Message-ID:
> <abb8b5010902230148p7bbb2265x2591c59638b3e8c7@mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Dear Silence members,
>
> there is an ongoing debate at the English Wikipedia article about
> Etudes
> Australes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etudes_Australes, the debate
> is at
> the talk page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Etudes_Australes)
> as to
> whether the title of this work and Etudes Boreales should be spelled
> with an
> accent. Prof. Jerome Kohl, whom some of you will know, argues that
> "e'tudes", "australes" and "bore'ales"
> are all French words, and so the
> correct titles are in French and should be spelled "E'tudes
> australes" and
> "E'tudes bore'ales". However, such spelling is only rarely
> encountered, and
> it seems that the accepted norm is to use no accents whatsoever,
> probably
> because "australes" and "boreales" aren't French, but
> derived from the Latin
> titles of star charts Cage used, and the word "e'tude" is
> frequently
> encountered in English without the accent.
>
> The question I'd like to ask is, has anyone ever heard Cage himself
> speak
> about these works? As Mr. Kohl pointed out, I quote, "If the
> recordings of
> Cage's interviews could be accessed, it would be a simple matter to
> discover
> whether he was thinking in French or in Latin, since the identically
> spelled
> words are pronounced quite differently. French is something like
> "oh-STRAHL", whereas Latin is more like "ow-STRAHL-ees"
> (the final E is long
> in Latin)." Perhaps some of you have spoken to Cage about these
> works, or
> heard an interview in which he discussed them?
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated; replies are welcome both here
> and at
> the talk page specified above.
>
> - Jashiin
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2009 07:34:23 -0500
> From: Thomas Moore <tmoore@umbc.edu>
> Subject: Re: [silence] Etudes Australes and Etudes Boreales spelling
> To: kkrka kr <haajg5@gmail.com>, Silence
> <silence@list.mail.virginia.edu>
> Message-ID: <C5C801FF.39CE5%tmoore@umbc.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> On 2/23/09 4:48 AM, "kkrka kr" <haajg5@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> there is an ongoing debate at the English Wikipedia article about
>> Etudes
>> Australes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etudes_Australes, the
>> debate is at
> the
>> talk page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Etudes_Australes) as to
> whether
>> the title of this work and Etudes Boreales should be spelled with an
> accent.
>> Prof. Jerome Kohl, whom some of you will know, argues that
> "e'tudes",
>> "australes" and "bore'ales" are all French words,
> and so the correct titles
>> are in French and should be spelled "E'tudes australes" and
> "E'tudes
>> bore'ales". However, such spelling is only rarely encountered,
> and it seems
>> that the accepted norm is to use no accents whatsoever, probably
>> because
>> "australes" and "boreales" aren't French, but
> derived from the Latin titles of
>> star charts Cage used, and the word "e'tude" is frequently
> encountered in
>> English without the accent.
>>
>> The question I'd like to ask is, has anyone ever heard Cage himself
> speak
>> about these works? As Mr. Kohl pointed out, I quote, "If the
> recordings of
>> Cage's interviews could be accessed, it would be a simple matter to
> discover
>> whether he was thinking in French or in Latin, since the identically
> spelled
>> words are pronounced quite differently. French is something like
> "oh-STRAHL",
>> whereas Latin is more like "ow-STRAHL-ees" (the final E is long
> in Latin)."
>> Perhaps some of you have spoken to Cage about these works, or heard
>> an
>> interview in which he discussed them?
>
>
> Jashiin,
>
> John said Australes in three syllables, as far as I remember, and we
> talked
> about the pieces a number of times. (Also my recollection with
> Boreales.)
>
> The lengthy debate on the wikipedia page is quite amusing, but
> anyone who
> had taken time to read John's introductory note for the Etudes
> Australes
> would see that it begins, "Etudes Australes are thirty-two piano
> etudes
> ...
> The Title comes from Atlas Australis, a book of star maps..." At no
> point
> does the word "etude" have an accent (even when written in lower
> case, "Each
> etude has eight systems..."), and the word Australes is capitalized
> when
> the
> title of the pieces is written out in the text ("Etudes Australes").
>
> Best,
> Tom
>
> --
>
> Thomas Moore
> Director, Arts & Culture
> Institutional Advancement
> UMBC
> 410-455-3370
>
>
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:41:27 +0300
> From: kkrka kr <haajg5@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [silence] Etudes Australes and Etudes Boreales spelling
> To: Thomas Moore <tmoore@umbc.edu>, silence@list.mail.virginia.edu
> Message-ID:
> <abb8b5010902240441t5d95a154nf5085b2c1fb4aef5@mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Tom, thank you very much! The debate *is* perhaps a bit too
> extensive for
> such a minor point, but I actually *have* wondered about the
> pronunciation
> long before the accent question appeared. Thanks for clearing this up.
>
> On Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 3:34 PM, Thomas Moore <tmoore@umbc.edu> wrote:
>
>>
>> Jashiin,
>>
>> John said Australes in three syllables, as far as I remember, and
>> we talked
>> about the pieces a number of times. (Also my recollection with
>> Boreales.)
>>
>> The lengthy debate on the wikipedia page is quite amusing, but
>> anyone who
>> had taken time to read John's introductory note for the Etudes
>> Australes
>> would see that it begins, "Etudes Australes are thirty-two piano
>> etudes ...
>> The Title comes from Atlas Australis, a book of star maps..." At no
>> point
>> does the word "etude" have an accent (even when written in lower
>> case, "Each
>> etude has eight systems..."), and the word Australes is capitalized
>> when the
>> title of the pieces is written out in the text ("Etudes Australes").
>>
>> Best,
>> Tom
>>
>> --
>>
>> Thomas Moore
>> Director, Arts & Culture
>> Institutional Advancement
>> UMBC
>> 410-455-3370
>>
>>
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