Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[Miguel Frasconi <>]

Thanks Eric & Christian (& Stephano),

This helps. I also have been in touch with Jesse Stiles at the Cunningham company. All very helpful.

Eric, the throat mic was in reference to the amplified activities. Certainly the most difficult of all the electronics! The dial pieces are (blissfully) un-directed. And yes, I agree, Christian; the dial settings are definitely for processing, not to generate sounds on their own.

Any other thoughts, let me know!

Thanks again.

best,

Miguel

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On Feb 16, 2011, at 1:02 PM, Eric Theise wrote:

Hi Miguel,

The Cornelius Cardew Choir performed from the Song Books last April at
San Francisco's Meridian Gallery.  I wish I had a copy of the score in
front of me before posting this answer, but my recollection from the
research I did at the time is that the dial references have a fairly
literal mapping to the equipment Cage was using: "wireless throat
microphones (designed by Paul Ketoff) [that] permit the amplification
and transformation of vocal sounds".

I'm left with the impression that that equipment included a console
with a number of dials on it.

Now I'm curious, so I will try and get a look at the scores again over
the weekend.  Endlessly fascinating, the Song Books.

--Eric