tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28154988.post1786276253679439323..comments2024-03-26T01:59:52.206-04:00Comments on Just outside: Brian Olewnickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08567239067604835372noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28154988.post-8322245281285189052012-04-15T09:07:21.542-04:002012-04-15T09:07:21.542-04:00thanks, brian, this beautifully sensitive descript...thanks, brian, this beautifully sensitive description of your listening experience!<br /><br />to try and answer a few questions, that occurred to you, here is cage's performance "instruction":<br /><br />"Searching (outloud) for a way to read. Changing frequency. Going up and then going down: going to extremes. Establish (I, II) stanza's time. That brings about a variety of tempi (short stanzas become slow, long become fast). To bring about quiet of IV (silence) establish no stanza time in III or IV. Not establishing time allows tempo to become naturally constant. At the end of a stanza simply glance at the second hand of a watch. Begin next stanza at next 0 or 30. Instead of going to extremes (as in I and II), movement toward a center (III.and IV). A new breath for each new event. Any event that follows a space is a new event. Making music by reading outloud. To read. To breathe. IV: equation between letters and silence. Making language saying nothing at all. What's in mind is to stay up all night reading. Time reading so that at dawn (IV) the sounds outside come in (not as be fore through closed doors and windows). Half-hour intermissions between any two parts. Something to eat."<br /><br />as you see, a drier approach is definitely not what cage is asking for.<br />really, i think, that cage’s music is reflective of the way he used to work, when composing a piece: extremely dedicated, patient, caring, very quietly focussed, absolutely attentive, pensive.<br />this is, in my view, what cage meant by “discipline”, the concept, that was so important to him. <br />it doesn’t mean stubborn, cold, prussian, or anything like that.<br />it means: care, affirmation, dedication, short (and i am not at all wary to use this word in connection with cage and his music): love.<br />just listen to cage performing (e.g. speaking) his (or any other) music. you’ll encounter an atmosphere characterized by beauty, care and emotion (!!). of course, i do not mean emotion in terms of being expressive. it is the emotion of attention, which is not made or added, it just emerges in the innumerable tiny shades of vocal inflection, of touch (ever saw him play cactus needles?).<br />this is painfully missing in the more “avant garde” type approaches to performing cage, that are more showy, colder, seemingly more objective (drier), more “matter of fact”, hands-on.<br />i am definitely furthering a warmer, subtler, gentler (in one word: more musical) approach to playing cage’s music.<br />one reason for us to put out this empty words release (or basically any release of cage’s music on EWR) was to show, how this can be done.<br /><br />as to the word “oborozuki”: thanks for finding this meaning of it. i didn’t know it, but it perfectly fits!<br />i met the word in a beautiful poem by kenneth rexroth (“on flower wreath hill”), where it refers to a noh theater play. in this case it means: “drowned moon” (moon reflecting in water).<br /><br />sorry this comment became so extended. you inspired me.<br /><br />antoineantoine beugernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28154988.post-50099910149204353642012-04-14T23:06:16.681-04:002012-04-14T23:06:16.681-04:00says cage on this piece: "I let it be known t...says cage on this piece: "I let it be known to my friends, and even strangers, as I was wandering around the country, ... that what was interesting me was making English less understandable. Because when it's understandable, well, people control one another, and poetry disappears --and as I was talking with my friend Norman O. Brown, and he said, "Syntax [which is what makes things understandable] is the army, is the arrangement of the army."<br /><br />So what we're doing when we make language un-understandable is we're demilitarizing it, so that we can do our living....<br /><br />It's a transition from language to music certainly. It's bewildering at first, but it's extremely pleasurable as time goes on. And that's what I'm up to. 'Empty Words' begins by omitting sentences, has only phrase, words, syllables and letters. The second part omits the phrases, has only words, syllables and letters. The third part omits the words, has only syllables and letters. And the last part...has nothing but letters and sounds."<br /><br />you probably already know all that; not having the wandelweiser discs, i have no idea if the liners go into this, but it's fascinating context for the piece. (from: http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88v/cage-radio.html)ryannoreply@blogger.com