Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[Tom Bickley <>]

Dear Silence Colleagues,

I'm working on a realization of Cage's Variations Ii for our student new music ensemble (Orchestre dB at California State University East Bay where I'm on the faculty and sitting in as a guest with the ensemble). I've enjoyed the various articles and chapters on Variations II, especially the ones written by people I know from this list (wonderful work!). I've searched the SILENCE archives, and found remarkably little on Variations II. I'm interested in ideas/examples/etc. of your experiences in realizing Variations II. 

Our ensemble will likely have 13 - 14 performers for the Spring Quarter, in a fairly balanced mixture of woodwind, brass, strings and three pianists. The students are marvelously open to this genre of experimental music, and I give great thanks to my colleague Jeff Miller, who directs the ensemble, for encouraging their engagement with a wide range of styles. 

David Miller does a great job of describing his method(s) of realizing this score (see Miller, David P., 2003. "The shapes of indeterminacy: John Cage's Variations I and Variations II." Frankfurter Zeitschrift Für Musikwissenschaft 6, 18. RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, EBSCOhost (accessed March 25, 2013)). James Pritchett similarly explains David Tudor's approach. (Pritchett, James, (Author). 2004. "David Tudor as composer/performer in Cage's Variations II." Leonardo Music Journal 14, 11. RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, EBSCOhost (accessed March 25, 2013)).

I'm particularly curious about the approach others have taken in developing performances of Variations II for western musical instruments such as we have in our ensemble. 

I'm also intrigued by the playful aspect of dealing with the lines and dots on the transparencies. Presently I'm holding and dropping the lines one at a time from about 15 inches above a sheet of letter-size paper (i.e., 8.5 x 11 in). I fix those in place temporarily, then drop the dots similarly. (I am a bit puzzled by the benefit of dropping all five dots then measuring, vs dropping one dot, measuring that, removing that dot, dropping a second, measuring that and so on. I am working from the understanding that one dot = one event.)

I'll risk asking further questions: my inclination is to make a separate realization for each performer: the disadvantage being the amount of work involved; the advantage being greater variety of sonic textures. Any guidance based in your experience?

I'm envisioning a duration of 11 minutes, and likely each performer having 6 events to perform (which will include the complex events that emerge from the "castings"). Our ensemble performs silence well, and my thought is that this approach will allow opportunities for that silence.

Thanks for your thoughts! Pax, -Tom

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Tom Bickley

http://about.me/tombickley