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Introduction
In this topic, we will look into three significant musical trends of the second half of the 20th century. (1) Aleatoric music incorporates random chance or performer choice into the composition. Thus no performance of an aleatoric piece will be the same due to these indeterminate elements. There were some interesting experiments in (2) Electronic music in the art music arena with early electronic recording and sound generation technologies. (3) Minimalism is a return to a simpler, tonal style and an emphasis on repeated patterns. It is the most recent to gain prominence..
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John Cage (1912–1992) was an American composer, music theorist, writer, and artist. He one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde. Cage was also instrumental in the development of modern dance, mostly through his association with choreographer Merce Cunningham, who was Cage’s romantic partner for most of their lives.
John Cage was a philosopher as well as a composer – challenging readers and listeners with questions about the nature of sound versus music and whether there is in fact any difference. Two concepts are associated with Cage: (1) prepared piano and (2) aleatoric music. This topic provides a concise overview of Cage’s impact on the world of music.
4’33”. A 1952 composition performed in silence without sound. The intention of the composer in this work is to be aware of sounds of the environment – such as circulation fans, the audience rustling and coughing plus, sounds outside ther concert hall. The work’s challenge to assumed definitions about musicianship and musical experience made it a popular and controversial topic both in musicology and the broader aesthetics of art and performance.
Cage’s teachers included Henry Cowell (1933) and Arnold Schoenberg (1933–35), both known for their radical innovations in music, but Cage was also influenced by in various East and South Asian cultures. Through his studies of Indian philosophy and Zen Buddhism in the late 1940s, Cage came to the idea of aleatoric or chance-controlled music, which he started composing in 1951. I Ching, an ancient Chinese classic text providing inspiration to the worlds of religion, philosophy[1], literature, and art , was a major influence in Cage’s standard composition for the rest of his life. In a 1957 lecture, Experimental Music, he described music as “a purposeless play” which is “an affirmation of life—not an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply a way of waking up to the very life we’re living.”
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Prepared piano: Cage was a pioneer of the prepared piano.The concept of prepared piano is fairly simple. A piano’s sound was altered by placing objects such as nails and screws called preparations between or on its strings or hammers). One could obtain a nearly infinite range of sounds with this preparation. Cage wrote numerous dance-related works and a few concert pieces, the best known being Sonatas and Interludes (1946–48). His first prepared piano work was a commission for “Bacchanale,” a dance by Syvilla Fort in 1938. It was meant to be for a percussion ensemble. However the hall where Fort’s dance was to be staged had no room for a percussion group. Cage produced a range of unconventional sounds on the prepared piano which were equivalent of an entire percussion orchestra with just one musician.
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Aleatoric music: Aleatoric music (from the Latin word alea, meaning “dice”) is music in which some element of the composition is left to chance, and/or some primary element of a composed work’s realization is left to the determination of its performer(s). The term is most often associated with procedures in which the chance element involves a relatively limited number of possibilities. John Cage became a strong proponent of aleatoric techniques.
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Figure 1. A piano prepared for a performance of Sonatas and Interludes
Sonatas and Interludes is a collection of twenty pieces for prepared piano composed in 1946–1948, shortly after Cage’s introduction to Indian philosophy. Sonatas and Interludes is generally recognized as one of Cage’s finest achievements.
The cycle consists of sixteen sonatas The aim of the pieces is to express the eight permanent emotions of the rasa Indian tradition. In this work, Cage elevated his technique of rhythmic proportions to a new level of complexity. In each sonata a short sequence of natural numbers and fractions defines the structure of the work and that of its parts, informing structures as localized as individual melodic lines.
Listen to Sonata V by performed by Inara Ferreira. (Recorded at the FAU Theater – Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton – FL). Screws and pegs inserted among the strings cause the altered sounds. (see this in the video) The work has repetitive motives and figures.
The prepared (altered) sounds are played on conventional piano keys but yielding sounds which are not conventional.
Listen: Sonatas
Sonata II
Please listen to a short excerpt from Sonata II, which is clearly inspired by Eastern music:
Sonata XVI
Please listen to a short excerpt from Sonata XVI, the last of the cycle, which is “clearly European”. It was the signature of a composer from the West.
Figure 2. John Cage with the pianist Maro Ajemian, to whom he dedicated Sonatas and Interludes
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Cage dedicated Sonatas and Interludes to Maro Ajemian, who performed one of the first performances of the complete cycle on January 12, 1949, in Carnegie Hall. On many other occasions in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Cage performed it himself. Critical reaction was uneven, but mostly positive. Cage met Olivier Messiaen in 1949, who helped organize a performance of the Sonatas for his students in Paris. In 1949 Cage befriended Pierre Boulez, who became an early admirer of this work and wrote a lecture about Sonatas and Interludes for a performance in 1949 Paris.
In 1946, Cage met Gita Sarabhai, an Indian musician who came to the United States concerned about Western influence on the music of her country. Through her Cage became acquainted with Indian music and philosophy. The purpose of music, according to Sarabhai’s teacher in India, was “to sober and quiet the mind, thus rendering it susceptible to divine influences,” and this definition became one of the cornerstones of Cage’s view on music and art in general. All of these experiences influenced Cage’s life and music.
View this video of John Cage’s lecture on his outlook and views. It is quire revealing and human.