Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[Marc Thorman <>]

Cage describes the 1st meeting as a "collection of materials, some of them musical, most of them literary." All of the literary materials are mesostics. Chance operations determine which texts are used "in a single performance." The texts include the 18 "Russian egg" mesostics on Thoreau's Essay, which Cage recorded, his recordings becoming the basis of "Essay," "Stratified Essay," and "Voiceless Essay."
"Voiceless Essay" exists in four mixes, one of which became the accompaniment for Cunningham's "Points in Space." 
There are also sets of "kus," :  7 Relakus (Duchamp) 17 Mesdamkus (Joyce), 14 Musikus (Chris Mann), 6 Cinekus (McLuhan). The 9  Sonnekus (from Genesis) were set for solo voice and published separately in 1985.
The final text is a long renga, "Variations with Interludes and Variations," freely written mixed with cut-ups. 
"Throughout this meeting some music of Satie is being played in another part of the same building, not a series of short pieces but a long works: [sic] an excerpt from Vexations for instance, or one or several or all of the Musique d'Ameublement played simultaneously, or the Socrate in the two piano arrangement by the author and Arthur Maddox, time left between the movements so that its presence if felt throughout the meeting. The singer of the Sonnekus may also sing popular songs by Satie but not in the same room with the audience. They use of course the accompaniments written by Satie."

On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 5:35 PM, Stefano Pocci <> wrote:

On 11/17/2010 06:42 PM, Thomas Moore wrote:

I see now the exhibition in 1994 at Susan Sheehan’s gallery:
SUSAN SHEEHAN GALLERY, 41 East 57th Street. "The First Meeting of the Satie Society," Cage's written homage to Erik Satie; drawings and prints by Cage, Stephen Bastian, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns, Sol LeWitt, Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Ryman and Michael Silver.  (Damn, how the hell did I miss that? Hah!)

Also, digging further, the performance version received its premiere in 1985:
March 31, 1985. Bonn, Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Satie-Workshop (March 29-31): gave first performance (voice) of The First Meeting of the Satie Society with Klaus Schöning (voice), Amy Leverenz (voice), Grete Wehmeyer (piano), Bonner Ensemble für Neue Musik, Toni Roeder (co-ordination), including first performance of Sonnekus2, given by Amy Leverenz (afternoon); attended closing performances of the worskhop (evening, Mosaiksaal) (Deckenbrock 1985a; Deckenbrock 1985b; Erdmann 1985; Hilger 1985). (From http://www.xs4all.nl/~cagecomp/1972-1992.htm)

Nelson, can you shed light on the Osiris Press or Limited Editions publications?

TM

--

Thomas Moore
Director, Arts Management
UMBC
1000 Hilltop Circle
Baltimore, MD 21250
410-455-3370

Thanks for the detailed emails Thomas, really appreciated. Yes, I do have the "Letters to Satie" from the Jstor archive. No wonder the making of a limited edition involving such names made the price un-affordable! To say the least.

I thought that since literary works were there gathered as well as artwork from his great associates in the painting field maybe a sort of "authorized-limited-not-too expensive" edition was available. The Osiris Press maybe?

Thanks again for the wealth of information provided. Cheers

-- 
Stefano

"The rest of them were just artists. Duchamp collects dust" - John Cage