This is another release of John Cage’s music on Glenn Freeman’s
OgreOgress
label, and another of those improbably long DVD audio discs
in digital stereo – not playable on a standard CD player.
John Cage’s Number Pieces were the product of his last
years, and are representative of that strange mixture of precision
and chance which became one of the composer’s trademarks. The
timing for 108: 43’30”, might lead you to expect an extended
version of the notoriously ‘silent’ 4’33”, which dates
all the way back to 1952. In fact 108 has the largest
ensemble of any of the 50 or so number pieces, and with its
full orchestra is the closest the composer came to writing a
traditional symphony. That is not to say that the music is ‘symphonic’.
The military ranks of the Beethovenian orchestra dissolve here
into individual voices, and the overall effect is of a chamber
music performance with a huge variety and breadth of instrumental
colour. Contrasts between sound and silence, texture and stillness,
timbre and suspension of timbre are the typical elements of
such extended works, and the idea of listening to a symphony
should be left aside. The mind needs to become immersed in the
relationships of instruments to each other, pitches of notes
and their duration, the moments of dissonance and more often
of surprising harmony allowed to work a subtle spell.
The techniques John Cage uses place unusual demands on the players.
Durations of notes, dynamics and technical details like bow
positions for string players are all left to the performer.
If some notes sound strange or slightly out of tune, this is
due to microtonal shifts in conventional pitch, indicated by
small arrows on the accidentals: sharps, flats or naturals,
in front of the notes. This again shows that precision and freedom
which guarantees both the qualities in the music and its typical
atmosphere when played correctly, while also ensuring that no
two performances or recordings will ever be the same.
As with all of the number pieces, certain works can be combined,
and 108 can be played with One8
for cello solo. This is labelled for this release as a Cello
Concerto though I don’t believe this title is Cage’s. The
score for One8 consists of 53 flexible
and overlapping time brackets with single sounds produced on
one, two, three or four strings, using a special curved bow
which was developed by Michael Bach. This bow was fashionable
for a time amongst some players of J.S. Bach who wanted to re-create
his multiple-stopping in an entirely literal way. The extended
techniques of the cello and its sometimes unearthly flageolet
sounds take 108 into a different place of expression,
creating some remarkable effects. The periodic focus on a solo
line and its interaction with the large ensemble turn what was
a relatively passive experience into something with a different
kind of intensity.
108 can also be combined with One9
for sho, or, as with this recording Two3
for sho and conch-shells, a piece already encountered on these
pages (see review).
Two3 is another work with
flexible time-brackets, providing limits and a framework to
the number of times each player contributes. The sho is an exotic,
reedy-sounding bamboo organ blown by mouth, and the conch shells
contain water produce noise through the bubbles which are created
by tipping them. These latter sounds are infrequent but very
surprising when they do occur, amplified as they are. This combination
creates yet another experience, with the high, coolly objective
tones of the sho entirely in contrast to the orchestral instruments,
but mixing in a fascinating way with the percussion. Cage doesn’t
specify the individual percussion instruments to be used in
the orchestra, but there is an indication that they should be
very resonant, and their tones extended by being played with
bows or in ‘tremolo’. The overtones of solo and percussion together
is a unique and rather special sound. Neither the sho nor the
conch shell noises ‘fit’ with the orchestra as such, but in
opposition to the way the solo cello can blend with the orchestra
as well as rise from within it, the exotic combination of Two3
and 108 results in a more extreme concerto grosso
relationship.
I have to admit to having something of a dual response to this
recording. Glenn Freemann’s players and his production is very
good, and I have no complaints about the way these works are
presented – on the contrary, it’s a unique privilege to have
such a trilogy together in a single span. At a basic level,
my brain is saying ‘what if this weren’t John Cage? What if
it was a student concert at some Conservatoire? Wouldn’t we
all be sitting there and thinking too long.’ The reason
I say this is that, with only combinations of single notes of
greater or lesser extent, there is a bottom-line uniformity
which might legitimately be described as ultimately somewhat
dreary. This is only one rather narrow point of view however,
and as I mentioned at the beginning, as with all of these number
piece recordings one has to suspend all expectations of conventional
musical development. The more time passes with this music, the
more it seems to slow down. The entire programme is like the
eternal winding down of some vast sonic clock: a Foucault pendulum
which moves almost imperceptibly, but which sings against the
air at times with a monumental weight of expression. This disc
is one which contains some truly magical moments, and as an
entirety is a work of art in its own right. The last section,
deep into track 6 and from two hours and onwards on the total
timing is quite a clincher in this regard, with the entry of
the orchestra after an extended sho solo creating something
as expressive as anything in 20th century music.
If you can suspend all prejudice, open your mind, lose your
pressing day to day concerns and free your spirit, this recording
will indeed take you to places beyond imagining.
Dominy Clements
Chance Philharmonic 
[128:54] 
