John Cage – Sonata V

I’m aware this isn’t on the list, but as I’ve been focusing on this piece quite a bit this semester, I decided that I may as well analyse it on this blog.

This Sonata comes from Cage’s group of works Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano. Preparing the piano involved a complex insertion of screws, coins, felt, rubber, wood and other objects between the strings. Listeners would be “expecting to be battered by some unholy racket; the preparation process […] is conceptually violent, but the sounds themselves are innately sweet” (Ross, A. The Rest Is Noise) Sonatas and Interludes is one of his most well known works for prepared piano, and its most intricate. It can take up to three hours to add all the necessary objects, and involves forty-five notes. The individual pieces are said to symbolise each of the eight “permanent” emotions, and their tendency towards tranquility: the erotic, heroic, anger, wondrous, sorrow, disgust, the humorous and fear. For the purpose of this analysis I will be focusing on the fifth Sonata.

Cage’s Sonata V for Prepared piano is very percussive in its rhythms and sounds. Cage has mentioned that the within his Sonatas and Interludes “pieces with bell-like sounds suggest Europe and others with a drum-like resonance suggest the East”. It seems from both listening to the work and studying the score that this Sonata would fall into the second category. The continuous quaver ostinato in the left hand, combined with the prepared piano, achieves a very percussive texture and timbre. Indeed, at first listening I nearly forgot that this was a piano piece, and thought I was hearing multiple percussion instruments. Hence, the use of rhythm within this piece is innovative in that, strictly speaking, there are no individual percussion instruments, rather the piano being altered to sound more like its percussive side than its melodic side. The melody uses quite a limited range, moving between three (altered) pitches. It gives off a very oriental type sound, especially at points like 1:36. This is a clear example of Cage’s influence by Eastern music. As the entire work was influenced by eight emotions, and Cage never quite made it explicit which emotion goes with which movement, I decided to analyse the timbre in order to determine for myself which emotion it fits into. Everything about this piece is very staccato, especially the left hand, whilst the melody has syncopated and bell like sound.

I thoroughly enjoyed this piece, and understanding the innovations behind made me appreciate it even more. The different timbres that were produced made for a very interesting and surprising listen.

Emma

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Ophelia- John Cage

Ophelia is a solo piano piece written in 1946, its title is most likely in relation to the Shakespeare character of the same name from the play Hamlet.

The piece is very reminiscent of expressionist music, with stark contrast in dynamics, variations in articulation and an unclear sense of tonality. The overall form and structure of Ophelia is sectional based, with different themes undergoing several variations and transformations throughout the piece. Giving a basic structure of A1-B1-C1-B2 etc.

This block form structure is also relevant to how he incorporates articulations into the work. Some sections make heavy use of the pedals and feature wide ranging crescendos/de-crescendos, whereas others are more staccato and static in terms of dynamics.

On first listen, this makes the piece sound like a combination of fragments, rather than a cohesive idea. However, themes and motifs from the initial stages of the piece re-occur in a transformed state throughout, giving a point of reference and a sense of direction in the music.

Shannon Barnes

John Cage’s “TV Koeln”

Writing a post about this particular piece will be somewhat difficult as the library does not have the musical notation for it. Can you access that Russell? In any case, I will do my best with the materials that I have: the recording, and two separate descriptions of the score.

The CD jacket describes the score as “…completely graphic… conventional musical staves are abandoned and the exact pitches are left to the discretion of the performer… Two keyboard chords near the end have a definite number of notes in each – 8 in one, 3 in the other – but the actual pitches are selected at the discretion of the performer.”

Based on the recording, I actually have a number of points which I wish to make. I loved the spontaneity of the work – there was very little repetitive structure, yet the nature of the indeterminacy present in this piece is not alienating, but engaging. I found myself constantly wondering what would happen next. This is furthered by the fact that Cage utilises the following sound sources: “Four systems of two, three or four lines each, one for interior piano construction, one for exterior piano construction, one auxiliary noise and the bottom line for the keyboard.” Not only are the rhythmic and harmonic features of this work unpredictable, the sound sources vary to the extent that even an audience would surely be unable to predict the pianist’s movements.

However, I noticed what I think is a performative issue with this work. The pianist on this recording appeared to choose (perhaps unintentionally) pitch sequences that could have been present in Chopin’s work, or possibly even a composition by Mozart. In short, the possible harmonic choices appeared to be limited by the pianist’s typical repertoire; and the nature of this composition had the potential to show the audience more about the performer than the composer.

Essentially, what I am trying to demonstrate is that I think that the more indeterminacy I utilise in my composition, the greater spontaneity will be present in my work, and the more performances of a particular piece will vary. I think, however, that in all indeterminate compositions we should be mindful that our performers will have natural tendencies based on their education. Truly indeterminate music will thus sound more like a lose connection of cultural influences, as opposed to a set of organised random variables.

Timothy

John Cage – TV Köln

This has nothing to do with anything

• Solo Piano
• 4 Systems with 4 staves (single lines)
• Indeterminacy
  • the 4 staves are not separations of register in the traditional sense, but rather indicate how particular musical events should occur
  • staves are labelled I (played on the inside of the piano), O (played on the outside of the piano), K (played on the keys of the piano, with numbers indicating how many notes to play) and A (an auxiliary noise).
  • the duration of each system is equal, and note heads are to be played relative to their position along the line
  • position of the note vertically with respect to the line gives relative pitch, duration or amplitude
  • aside from the above, nothing is specified
  • stave type “P” in the third system is not specified, could mean anything
  • stave type “A” can be any noise at all not produced on the piano
  • the duration of the piece is up to the performer

This piece is typical of Cage’s idea of “performance situations” rather than “works of art”. The music an audience would hear would be different for every performer, as they form their own methods of playing, and interpretations of the “A” and mysterious “P” types. This demonstrates that a musical score need not be a definition of the music that should be produced by a performer, but rather the instructions by which a performer may follow how they choose, to create music of their own.

- Dean

John Cage- 27’10.554″ For a Percussionist

‘Daaaaamn, you know you’re pimp when you got John Cage shoes’

27’10.554 is a great listen for anyone working on the percussion assignment and studying the score has been much of the inspiration for my own piece.

The score itself is organized so that each page equals one minute, with numerical seconds scattered above the stave on certain parts, to indicate where you are within the piece. The stave’s are not strictly organized  but it doesn’t make the piece harder to follow and lends towards a more free form approach (considering there’s no meter either), with time being your main guide.

The introductory page is brief, describing certain symbols, note values and ways of interacting with the different instruments (the main ones being metal, wood, skin(?) and interestingly, a stave which, well, can be anything such as a synth sound, whistles or whatever really). The zig-zag horizontal lines that curve up and down on each stave generally indicates dynamics and for a long, sustained drone sound to be made (most commonly with a sheet of metal). The result of these drones lead to some interesting sounds and are quite obscure (similar to the bow being played on the cymbal or the stick with the rubber ball being used on the surface of the bass drum, except more creative), most often when the sounds are called for on the ‘miscellaneous’ stave, so it’s not really clear exactly what you’re hearing.

The general structure of this piece lends towards a contrast between clusters of sound, to long drawn out silences and very low drones. These silences can last up to almost a minute or more, which is a signature of many John Cage pieces, but I feel it almost disrupts the flow of the piece (listening for the first time, I thought my speakers had a faulty connection).

Overall, this is still a very well crafted piece and worth checking out.

Shannon