Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[Rod Stasick <>]

https://neumarecords.bandcamp.com/album/zeitgeist-john-cage-music-for-4

Newly released recording on Neuma of a concert in Croatia in 1985.

From the notes:

Spirits change with the times but, in the case of Zeitgeist new music 
ensemble, some elements have stayed constant over the last 45 years: their 
quartet instrumentation (always keyboard, reeds, two percussion) and their 
commitment to exploring what’s just around the musical corners. Having 
commissioned over 400 works (from icons to unknowns), St. Paul-based 
Zeitgeist’s broad repertoire for its idiosyncratic combo chronicles American 
musical ideas in many stripes and shades, and is as relevant today as ever.

So it’s high time to revisit a concert they gave with John Cage in Croatia in 
1985. This was the occasion of the premiere of Music For [the title completed 
by the number of players in the group, in this case, 4]. Zeitgeist (with 
different personnel from its current line-up) had commissioned the work with 
three other groups — the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the New York New 
Music Ensemble, and the Cincinnati Percussion Group – and this was its 
international premiere at the illustrious Zagreb Biennale.

There is no full score, just precisely notated, but loosely synched, parts. 
This kind of coincidental polyphony parallels the way Cage was working with 
the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. It banked on serendipity as much as it 
saved on group rehearsal time.

During that April evening, Cage also, in his own inimitable way, performed 
two of his new text works, Mushroom et Variationes and Muoyce (involving some 
of his favorite topics, mushroom hunting and Finnegans Wake). In the spirit 
of authenticity, these have been randomly recombined with the instrumental 
music for the present thirty-minute recording. The result is an incantatory, 
haunting, wistful, linguistic-tonal-melodic mix; mysteriously both of its 
time and out of it.

John Cage: Music for [4] (1984)

Zeitgeist: Jay Johnson and Joseph Holmquist, percussion
Robert Samarotto, clarinet and saxophone
Gregory Theisen, piano

With

John Cage reading from

“MUSHROOM et Variationes” from The Guests Go Into Supper, and

“MUOYCE” from Writing for the Fifth Time Through Finnegans Wake) from X

Recorded live, Zagreb Biennale, Croatia, Small Hall, April 21, 1985

Music for
Parts for voice and instruments without score (no fixed relation), title to 
be completed by adding to “Music for” — the number of players performing.

Written for the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the New York New Music 
Ensemble, the Cincinnati Percussion Group, and Zeitgeist

From the score instructions:

“Each part is a sequence of “pieces” and “interludes.”

“Each “piece” is written on two systems. It begins and ends at any time 
within the time brackets given. It is made up of one or the other or of both 
of two kinds of music: a) a single held tone, p, preceded and followed by 
silence, repeated any number of times, and b), a number of tones in 
proportional notation (space = time), not to be repeated, characterized by a 
variety of pitches, dynamics, timbres, and durations within a limited range…

“Each player should prepare his part by himself and learn to play it with his 
own chronometer. There should be no joint rehearsal until all the parts have 
been carefully prepared. They are then to be played as though from different 
points in space. The players may sit anywhere within the auditorium with 
respect to the audience and to each other.” 
credits
released April 29, 2022

Thanks to
Heather Barringer
David Dunn
Warren Burt
John Driscoll
Amy Beal
Joseph Finkel

Simultaneous audio mix, Philip Blackburn, 2022


Rod




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