Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[Philip Thomas <>]

It’s a really strange instruction and I have no idea. But worth noting that earlier in the piece the B a semitone lower, held for a bar or so, has the instruction to ‘relax the pitch’. The C at the end, a semitone higher, is part of a dyad, a 9^th above the lower B, with the instruction to ‘tighten the pitch’. My guess is it’s something to do with the tuning too, but which way, and in what relation to ‘relaxing the pitch’, is anyone’s guess!

 

Philip Thomas

Professor of Performance

Admissions Tutor, Music and Music Technology

T 01484 471336

mailto: www.hud.ac.uk

Department of Music and Drama

University of Huddersfield | Queensgate | Huddersfield | HD1 3DH

www.philip-thomas.co.uk

 

From: [mailto:] On Behalf Of Rob Haskins
Sent: 12 April 2018 19:46
To: silence <>
Subject: [silence] Cage Nocturnes

 

A friend is performing the Cage Nocturnes for Violin and Piano and called me today to ask a question about an instruction in the violin part: something about how the violinist, playing a B and C, is instructed to "tighten" the C. I thought it might refer to make the C sharper, narrowing the distance between the two notes. The violinist thinks it is to emphasize the C, making it rougher as played on the string. Does anyone know? I'm sorry that I don't have the score and have no more info than this.

 

--

Rob Haskins, D.M.A., Ph.D.
Professor of Music

College of Liberal Arts
University of New Hampshire
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603-862-3987 (office)
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<http://unh.edu/music/>
<http://robhaskins.net>

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