Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[Louis Goldstein <>]

The division between right and left hands creates a kind of choreography of arm movements for the performer,
like the extremely difficult Etudes Australes.

The instructions for One5 do not say one hand may assist the other.  And they also do not say that the notes in each
bracket must be played as chords.  When I worked on this piece, I kept the division of hands strictly as indicated,
but freely played one note at a time.  I think in the end I played almost all of the notes one at a time within their
brackets, even the notes that were within an easy reach. 

This approach also assists in realizing this written statement of Cage's - I think Rob brought this to our attention
at some point.  From the Cage Collection at Northwestern U. Library, from a letter to Ellsworth Snyder:

        "I have had an idea about One5.  I think it should be played hermetically (which I think you could do superlatively).  That is, it             should be basically inaudible.  So that the actually inaudible, the silences, would be thick with sounds that are not heard or the sounds that are touched are the tips that project from a sea of silence.  So that people listening would not be sure whether they were hearing anything.  You would have to listen very hard.  And fail to hear.  (The music.)"

Louie

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On 11/14/2010 1:06 PM, Dionisis Boukouvalas wrote:

I don't believe this to be canonical. Moreover, One does not follow the same logic as One^5.

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Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2010 12:16:25 -0500
From:
To: ;
Subject: [silence] Re: RE: One^5

Ah . . . probably that's in One.  But that's common for Cage. He assumes you know all of his performance instructions, I believe.

2010/11/14 Dionisis Boukouvalas <>

The indication "one hand assists the other" is not to be found here (I mean in the instructions of the piece). You must be referring to another piece.


Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2010 12:06:58 -0500
From:
To:
CC:
Subject: [silence] Re: One^5

I think of it as two columns of events, not left hand/right hand. Many of the events in both columns can only be played by two hands, thus "one hand assists the other."

Many silencers have played this piece--I hope they will weigh in.

Rob

2010/11/14 Dionisis Boukouvalas <>

Same old, I guess, but what is the meaning of dividing between the two hands, since the material given cannot usually be played by one hand alone? Would it make sense to play the material with one hand arpeggiando? Or, should one pick some of the notes for each case?

--
Rob Haskins, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and
     Coordinator, Graduate Studies
Department of Music, College of Liberal Arts
University of New Hampshire
M-105, Paul Creative Arts Center
30 Academic Way
Durham, NH 03824
603-862-3987 (office)
603-862-3155 (fax)
<http://unh.edu/music/>
<http://robhaskins.net>
<http://musicandmiscellaneous.blogspot.com/>

--
Rob Haskins, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and
     Coordinator, Graduate Studies
Department of Music, College of Liberal Arts
University of New Hampshire
M-105, Paul Creative Arts Center
30 Academic Way
Durham, NH 03824
603-862-3987 (office)
603-862-3155 (fax)
<http://unh.edu/music/>
<http://robhaskins.net>
<http://musicandmiscellaneous.blogspot.com/>