listen to complete piece

composer	John Cage (1912-1992)
performers	Pacific Rims Percussion Quartet: Gunnar Folsom, percussion Paul Hansen, percussion Matthew Kocmieroski, percussion Rob Tucker, percussion with Bonnie Whiting Smith, percussion
publisher	C. F. Peters (ASCAP)http://www.edition-peters.com
recording	Live concert performance at Drums Along the Pacific festival, Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle, Washington, March 28, 2009
duration	06:23

about the music

James Pritchett:

"The first three Imaginary Landscapes (1939-1942) have in common the use of various electronic devices as instruments. Cage was originally inspired to use electronic instruments while at the Cornish School [now College], which had a recording and broadcasting studio. [...]

"While he was in Chicago [in 1942], he had access to the CBS radio studios when he was commissioned to compose music for [a] radio play ... this experience no doubt inspired the second and third entries in the Imaginary Landscape series. In Imaginary Landscape No. 2 (1942), one performer plays a coil of wire that is amplified by attaching it to a phonograph tonearm (this was a sound Cage discovered from his work with radio sound-effects men). The only other unusual instruments are two electric buzzers. The rest of the battery comprises three sets of tin cans, a conch shell horn, a ratchet, drums, gons, a lion's roar, and a metal wastebasket."

about the composer		back to top

John Cage (1912-1992), whose career spanned over 50 years, is arguably the most influential American composer of the 20th century. His influence extended well beyond the musical community into the worlds of dance, theater, visual art, and philosophy.

Born in Los Angeles, California, Cage attended Pomona College for two years, and in 1931 began compositional studies with pianist Richard Buhlig. He travelled to New York City to study with Henry Cowell at the New School for Social Research and later with Adolph Weiss. Cage then began work with Arnold Schoenberg, whom he followed to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1934. Schoenberg was an important influence on Cage, whose early pieces attempt to extend his teacher's twelve-tone systems.

In 1938 Cage moved to Seattle, Washington to work as a dance composer and accompanist at the Cornish School of the Arts. There he met choreographer and dancer Merce Cunningham, who would become a lifelong artistic colloborator. Cage's early innovations grew out of his work with dance: he focused on the use of time as the primary source of musical structure, created percussion works such as First Construction (in Metal) (1939) using all kinds of objects from tin cans and brake drums to Asian instruments, and worked with electronic devices including variable-speed turntables and frequency recordings as in Imaginary Landscape No. 1 (1939). The lack of percussion space for a particular dance performance led Cage to experiment with 'preparing' a piano, placing objects on the strings to create a variety of sounds and percussive effects.

Cage's percussion ensemble toured throughout the West Coast and collaborated with composer Lou Harrison's group in San Francisco. In 1941 Cage moved to Chicago, Illinois to teach at the Chicago School of Design; the following year he continued east to New York City, where his work with prepared piano and increasing interest in Indian music and philosophy resulted in the breakthrough Sonatas and Interludes (1946-1948) for prepared piano. For this work he received awards from the Guggenheim Foundation and National Academy of Arts and Letters.

After a year travelling in Europe, Cage returned to New York in 1949 and met composer Morton Feldman, with whom he shared an intense exchange of ideas and music for many years. Cage, Feldman, Earle Brown, and Christian Wolff later became known as the New York School of composers. During this creative period, silence began to play a significant role in Cage's music, an outgrowth of his growing interest in Zen Buddhism and Japanese culture. "Lecture on Nothing" (1950) was the first of many literary expressions of his developing musical philosophy, which Cage later described in an autobiographical statement:

"In the late forties I found out by experiment ... that silence is not acoustic. It is a change of mind, a turning around. I devoted my music to it. My work became an exploration of non-intention. To carry it out faithfully I have developed a complicated composing means using I Ching chance operations, making my responsibility that of asking questions instead of making choices."

Inspired by Feldman and the I Ching, an ancient Chinese coin-tossing oracle, Cage began to incorporate these 'chance operations' in his work, making room for "whatever sound comes along" (Cage). Notable compositions from this period include Music of Changes (1951) and the now-infamous silent work 4'33" (1952). Cage's use of chance grew to include what he called 'indeterminacy,' or ambiguous systems of notation which are realized differently with each performance. It is found in works such as the Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1957-1958) and Variations II (1961).

By the early 1960's Cage had achieved an international reputation, in part due to the publishing of his seminal Silence: Lectures and Writings (1961). As a result his commissions, performances, and speaking engagements increased considerably. Among his significant later compositions are the multimedia orchestral work Renga (1975-1976), the radio play Roaratorio: an Irish circus on Finnegans wake (1979), and the five Europeras (1987-1991). Cage also became more active in other media including poetry, painting, printmaking, and film. The final phase of his musical output began with the composition Two (1987), in which fragments of music are strung together through overlapping periods of time, later referred to as 'number' or 'time bracket' pieces. Cage composed 43 such works in the last five years of his life.

related websites
http://www.johncage.info

about the performers		back to top

Formed in 1996 in Seattle, Washington, the Pacific Rims Percussion Quartet performs music from the 1930's to the present, including works by John Cage, Steve Reich, Amadeo Roldán, Toru Takemitsu, and Iannis Xenakis. The quartet's members individually perform with the Pacific Northwest Ballet, Seattle Opera, Seattle Symphony, 5th Avenue Theatre, and on numerous major movie and video game soundtracks. In addition to producing their own concerts, they have appeared with the Seattle Chamber Players, Seattle Creative Orchestra, and Sonora; on series such as the Cornish Music Series, Methow Valley Chamber Music Festival, and Seattle Chamber Music Society; and at venues including the Seattle Asian Art Museum and St. James Cathedral, where they helped celebrate Olivier Messiaen's centenary in 2008. Educational performances include Cornish College of the Arts, Music Works Northwest, Seattle Public Schools, and Seattle Symphony Tiny Tots series.

Percussionist Bonnie Whiting Smith explores the boundaries between music and other artistic disciplines, commissioning and performing diverse works for percussion and integrating text and movement into her performances. Smith spent three years working as the percussionist with Tales & Scales, a national touring ensemble integrating contemporary chamber music, modern dance, and theater for audiences of children and families. With the ensemble she gave over 400 performances in 25 states and collaborated with orchestras across the US. Currently pursuing a doctorate at the University of California, San Diego, Smith performs with the university's resident ensemble, red fish blue fish, as well as Asterisk and the Seattle Percussion Collective. She has given world premieres of music by many composers and worked intensively with Frederic Rzewski, Steve Reich, and George Tsontakis. Her educational history also includes the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio, and University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

related websites
http://sites.google.com/site/bonniewhitingsmith