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Dec.8
2009

Sonata This!

Finish your Tuesday right with a nice chunk of Sonata XIV. I love to read the comments on John Cage videos on YouTube. The dude is still nearly inciting riots and he's been dead for 17 years. We should all be so lucky, as musicians, to make such a lasting impression. All kidding aside, the above is my favorite of the Sonatas & Preludes, and a truly excellent (and ludicrously expensive) performance from Gerard Fremy.

(And yes, I know. Like good Scotch, John Cage is an acquired taste. But like good Scotch, it's a taste worth acquiring.)

Comments:

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I even have arguments with myself about John Cage. Like when I see dudes on staging being ridiculously serious about stroking a mic'd cactus from a Cage etude, but then I read an amazing essay by Cage on the nature of sound and music. Art and music that are mostly conceptual always piss me off, but are intellectually interesting.

But I've always liked the notion and sound of prepared piano. Did you know there is some prepared piano on the first Bounte album?

posted December 8, 2009 by Bounte

I'm right there with you. I actually don't really care for 99% of his oeuvre, or pretty much any "art for art's sake" kinda stuff, but I'm also smart enough to know not to judge it. I do like almost all of the Sonatas though, and (unlike yelling in to a pot of water) they're incredibly difficult to perform, which makes them interesting from a technical standpoint as well.

-CR

posted December 8, 2009 by Chris Randall

One of my favorites is his Williams Mix for tape:
link [www.medienkunstnetz.de]

I only found out about it last year through a "20th-century" class. It still sounds awesome (kind of like Revolution 9 with frogs), and was composed in 1952 (this site says 1962, but really...). I'm split with a lot of his work, but this is firmly on the "great" side for me.

posted December 8, 2009 by thelizard

The prof in my "20th-century" class spent most of a lecture talking Cage while preparing a piano and then playing it. Very much an eye opener for me.

The sheet music was also interesting in that it included detailed instructions on placement of specific objects.
link [tinyurl.com]

posted December 8, 2009 by Dale

Being a study of piano tech-ness and tuning, I love prepared piano. link [www.hauschka-net.de] Hauschka has my ear from time to time. Prepared piano is like circuit-bending, old-skool. Awesome piece of music, Chris.

posted December 9, 2009 by thehipcola

On the subject of Scotch, any favorites?

I have an on-going thirst for Lagavulin...

k

posted December 9, 2009 by klemen

@Klemen

I'd say Talisker is similar but a bit better balanced.

Unless you really like the idea of an extreme-tasting whiskey, in which case knock yourself out with Laphroaig.

My favorite however is Santory's Yamazaki. Well balanced but still not at all boring! ...Not scotch but Japanese, so still hip enough :)

posted December 9, 2009 by onar3d

Love Scotch.

John Cage, not quite as much.

-W

posted December 9, 2009 by Wade Alin

I'm familiar with the name John Cage, but I've never heard any of his music before. This piece was amazing, I really liked it. I have to admit I don't even know what "prepared piano" is, but if this is it, good stuff.

I can't believe this piece was from the 1940's. If you told me this is a chunk of music that Richard James forgot to include on Selected Ambient Works I would have believed it.

posted December 9, 2009 by ZombieStomper

That piece was definitely full of techno. I immediately heard it as minimal techno remix material.

posted December 9, 2009 by chaircrusher

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