The Highs, Bones and Sultriness of a later John Cage
I always thought that it is not easy to begin listening to John Cage, but it is always easy to continuing listening. He pushes our reaction to sound; suspense to make us wonder where will this take us or when will it even start? Look inward or listen inward, to transcend as you sit on the edge of your seat or lay on a cloud in the sky. Eight in Number Pieces is a good example.
The sounds, dialogues and gatherings of the wind instrument ensembles of these pieces call to the listener. When I first read the album cover and began listening to the recording, I thought this piece had inspiration from an “apartment house”: doorbells, alarm clocks. Later I read that the group of musicians call themselves Apartment House---and then read that they chose their name from John Cages’ Bicentennial Composition Apartment House 1776.**
The new release of Number Pieces by John Cage performed by Apartment House brings forth something classic -- performing the last compositions from the 20th c. artist-- and at the same time: embracing the intrinsically experimental fruit of the source.
The performances are imbedded in suspension and spaces of one note merging with sublime harmonies. The sounds emitted by the instruments are drawn out as long as if musician is speaking to the next player. The flutes, oboes or clarinets can be sirenic, while French horns and other bass mediums act as balancing, meditation centered “Oms”. I am guided through the trumpet highs, the altonic bones and then lead off to bridges of a flute’s sultriness and more often the exceptional versatility of bass clarinet (Heather Roche). The Eight (part one and part two) are grand soundscapes, which provoke every corner and pattern of my time-place-experience environment to absorb exploration. I fell in and out of a calming trance, while listening. Alarms lead to anarchic chords of reflection. One is exposed to extended harkening, reminiscent of the mechanics of an urban loudness, like a trumpet’s brashness. In contrast the humanness in the minimal fluttering of a flute’s voice in its closing breath. I do not mean exhaustion but a timbre waiting for a response.
The title EIGHT denotes how many instruments can be played. Definitive of all these Number pieces is that the numbers mean just this: how many instruments can be played, sometimes naming them, other times leaving it for the performers to decide. It has been written that the group Apartment House listened to all previous recordings of the Number Pieces to fine tune how they wanted to perform these compositions—what Cage called his beautiful scores. No bars or conductors necessary but directions or parameters. The performance is contained through a stop watch and brackets denoting when one sound vehicle enters, leaves or overlaps with another. *
Embrace these pieces. The notes and harmonies open the ears, eyes and mind to embrace new dimensions.
PCL. 12-2021
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