JOHN CAGE
The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts presents
weekend The Ten Thousand Things SoÂŻ Percussion
We Are All Going in Different Directions September 20 and September 21, 2014 Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY fishercenter.bard.edu 1
program one
The Ten Thousand Things The Ten Thousand Things is a descriptive title applied by musicologist James Pritchett to a grand project initiated by John Cage in 1953 involving the composition of independent pieces for various media, each bearing a number title, each capable of being played alone or together with any number of the others. Such an open work could be added to constantly, and since the performing ensemble would not be fixed at any time, Cage’s composition remains perpetually “in progress.” Our program brings together five of these pieces, spanning the years 1953 to 1956, into a chance-determined musical collage, cast into a 90-minute program: 59 V” for a String Player (1953), 45’ for a Speaker (1954), 31’ 57.9864” for a Pianist (1954), 26’ 1.1499” for a String Player (1955), and 27’ 10.554” for a Percussionist (1956). Theater Two Saturday, September 20 at 8 pm Preconcert talk at 7 pm Running time for this performance is 90 minutes, without intermission. Performers Marka Gustavsson, viola; Laura Kuhn, voice; Garry Kvistad, percussion; Robert Martin, cello; Adam Tendler, piano; James Pritchett, preconcert speaker program notes “ From time to time ideas came for my next work which as I see it will be a large work which will always be in progress and will never be finished; at the same time any part of it will be able to be performed once I have begun.” This was John Cage in May 1953, excitedly describing his new project, a perpetual work in progress. His plan was to build this large piece up out of short, 100-measure units of music. These very short elements could be for any kind of musician. Over time, the overall work would grow into a diverse collection of musical fragments that could be combined in any way. His master plan was to build up to an even larger structure of 100 of these 100-measure units, or 10,000 measures total. This reminded him of the Asian expression “the ten thousand things,” an image representing the diversity of the universe. Cage liked this connection, and in his notes he occasionally referred to the project as “the ten thousand things.” The first pieces to be composed were for a string player, six short works written in the summer of 1953. He titled the pieces using their durations: 1’ 5 V” for a string player, etc. In 1954, Cage composed two larger works for piano, with 28 units in each piece: 31’ 57.9864” for a pianist and 34’ 46.776” for a pianist. In 1955, he added to the string player music, making 26’ 1.1499” for a string player, and in 1956 he wrote 27’ 10.554” for a percussionist. He wrote a lecture using the same structure and a similar method of creation: 45’ for a speaker. He also composed fragments for a singer and for magnetic tape, but these never came to fruition. These pieces share a vision of inclusion and complexity. Cage used elaborate methods involving chance operations to explore the full range of musical possibilities for each player. Every detail was carefully itemized and measured. Because Cage thought in terms of actions rather than objects, the pieces were deliberately indicated as being “for a string player,” “for a pianist,” “for a percussionist”—not “for stringed instrument,” “for piano,” or “for percussion.” The notation was action oriented: the scores for pianists include graphic notations of the precise distance, speed, and force of attack for every note. 2 John Cage Weekend
These pieces all appear as separate items in John Cage’s catalogue, but they are all really parts of this large project, which we conveniently call The Ten Thousand Things. Cage indicated that a performer can choose any number of the units for a performance, freely arrange them in time, and perform them simultaneously with any other pieces in the series. Tonight’s performance includes all five works performed simultaneously. They have been arranged by chance to fit within a 90-minute span. Cage moved on to other projects after 1956. He was too devoted to change and new ideas to spend his life working on a single piece, even one as expansive, open-ended, and wildly heterogeneous as The Ten Thousand Things. This music is not easy to listen to, with its bristling, uncompromising complexity, and its lack of any stable points of reference. We can take Cage’s advice from 45’ for a Speaker: “The thing to do is to keep the head alert but empty. Things come to pass, arising, and disappearing. There can then be no consideration of error. Things are always going wrong.” —James Pritchett
program two so¯ percussion and branches present
We Are All Going in Different Directions Credo in US (1942)
John Cage (1912–92)
Needles (2010)
So¯ Percussion/Matmos
First Construction (in Metal) (1939) Featuring the Bard Percussion Studio
John Cage
Quartet for Percussion, from She Is Asleep (1943)
John Cage
Use (2009)
Cenk Ergün (b. 1977)
Six Melodies for Violin and Keyboard (1950) Erica Kiesewetter, violin Frank Corliss, piano
John Cage
18’12”, a simultaneous performance of Cage works Inlets (Improvisation II) (1977) 0’00” (4’33” No. 2) (1962) Cartridge Music (1960) 45’ for a Speaker (1954) Child of Tree (1975)
John Cage
24 x 24 (2011) with special guests
Jason Treuting (b. 1977)
Third Construction (1941)
John Cage
Sosnoff Theater Sunday, September 21 at 3 pm Running time for this performance is exactly 91 minutes, without intermission.
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Performers So¯ Percussion: Eric Beach, Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, Jason Treuting With guests: Joan Retallack, Erica Kiesewetter, Frank Corliss; students in the Bard Music Program: Ani Ivry-Block ’15, Nina Ryser ’15; Bard Percussion Studio: Jonathan Collazo ’18, David Degge (Percussion Fellow), Petra Elek ’16, Samuel Gohl ’19, Christopher Gunnell ’17, Benjamin Malinski ’18, Daniel Matei ’19, Meilin Wei ’19, Zihan Yi ’16 About Branches Branches is a multiyear partnership between the Fisher Center, The Bard College Conservatory of Music, and the John Cage Trust to highlight So¯ Percussion’s integration into the artistic and academic community of Bard College. So¯ Percussion performances and residency at The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College is supported in part by New Music USA, made possible by annual program support and/ or endowment gifts from New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Helen F. Whitaker Fund, Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust. Additional support for Branches is provided by Garry and Diane Kvistad, The Woodstock Chimes Fund, New Albion, and the John Cage Trust.
program notes John Cage’s artistic legacy is formidable. His innovations and accomplishments are truly staggering: he wrote some of the first electric/ acoustic hybrid music; the first significant body of percussion music; the first music for turntables; invented the prepared piano; and had a huge impact in the fields of dance, visual art, theater, and critical theory. Somehow Cage’s prolific output seems not to overshadow but rather to spur creativity in others. He certainly deserves surveys, tributes, and concert portraits during the centenary of his birth, but So¯ Percussion wanted to honor him by allowing his work and spirit to infuse our own. We have chosen some of our favorite Cage pieces to present in this celebration concert, the first of our new project called Branches at Bard College and The Bard College Conservatory of Music. We believe that although they are historical in fact, each is stunningly present and even prophetic. The pieces are woven in with new music, some by our close friends and some of our own creation. Credo in US (1942) was Cage’s first collaboration with the dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham. It was originally a dance drama satirizing middle-class dysfunction and blind patriotism in the midst of World War II. The use of random radio and record samples means that no two performances are exactly the same. Needles (2010) came out of So¯ Percussion’s collaboration with Matmos, an experimental music duo. It was not a particularly exotic experiment for Matmos, which has conjured music from almost every imaginable sound source. The idea of using amplified cactus comes from Cage’s Child of Tree. As so often happens, improvisation and play yielded a more structured piece. Needles appears on our 2010 collaborative album Treasure State. First Construction (In Metal) (1939), first performed in Seattle, opens with an explosive Joycean thunderclap of four “thundersheets” struck in unison. To organize the sextet, Cage used his “micromacro4 John Cage Weekend
cosmic” rhythmic structure, a form he invented to insure that the smallest parts (phrases) of a work were proportionally related to the largest (sections) by using a single governing number. Quartet for Percussion (1943) is one of the quietest works ever written for percussion. It is orchestrated for 12 tom-toms played with fingers. Use (2009)—use friction use gravity use pizzicato use pulse use pattern use tremolo use rolls use sustain use silence use intuition with caution Six Melodies for Violin and Keyboard (1950) is one of Cage’s compositions that comprises melodic lines without accompaniment. It is a work often compared with Cage’s String Quartet in Four Parts (1949–50), composed just prior to the Quartet and utilizing the same gamut of sounds. In fact, Cage refers to it in a letter to Pierre Boulez (May 22, 1951) as a “postscript” to the Quartet. Inlets (1977) asks the performers to improvise using gurgling sounds of water in conch shells. It also utilizes the sounds of burning pine cones and a lone blown conch shell. 0’0” (1962) consists of a single instruction: “In a situation provided with maximum amplification (no feedback), perform a disciplined action.” In Cartridge Music (1960), the performers make parts by layering transparencies with dots and circles over sheets with irregular shapes. Students Nina Ryser and Ani Ivry-Block’s realization was prepared together with composer Marina Rosenfeld, visiting assistant professor of music; faculty, Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts. 45’ for a Speaker (1954) is a text that appears in Silence, Cage’s seminal collection of writings and pieces. It is written to be performed in precisely 45 minutes, and constitutes a collage of earlier lectures. Child of Tree (Improvisation II) (1975) is a solo percussion piece. Cage’s indeterminate score consists of directions to aid the performer’s realization, including notes on how to select the 10 instruments made from plant material (e.g., cacti, a pod rattle from a Mexican poinciana tree, branches, leaves, bark, etc.) and determine the sequence and duration of the various sonic events. The performer then improvises the work using a stopwatch to remain within the designated time frame. 24 x 24 (2011) is an homage to Cage’s Third Construction, which is built in 24 sections of 24 measures each. We are inspired by Cage’s idea that a piece made of time durations allows room for all kinds of noise. In this case, drones are a central element of the piece. Third Construction (1941) is one of Cage’s most often performed works: a densely constructed, astonishingly inventive piece of chamber music that calls on the performers to choose tin cans, pod rattles, cowbells, and a number of other instruments. It is symmetrically structured in 24 sections of 24 measures each, a solution to the vexing problem of how to organize music without harmony, as well as the inspiration behind our own 24 x 24 on this program. —Adam Sliwinski
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Who’s Who The Ten Thousand Things Marka Gustavsson, a dedicated chamber musician, has been a frequent guest artist of chamber music festivals the world over. In 1999, she joined the Colorado Quartet, with which she has played numerous concerts including Bartók, Schubert, and Beethoven cycles and also recorded both traditional and contemporary repertoire, from Beethoven’s complete quartets on Parnassus Records to Laura Kaminsky’s Transformations. Highlights of recent seasons include premiering a viola concerto by Harold Farberman; teaching in the Young Adult Program at Yellow Barn, in Vermont; completing a Beethoven quartet cycle at Virginia Tech; and collaborating with Tamar Muskal and Lucy Shelton on Music of Our Time at Symphony Space in New York City. Gustavsson is visiting assistant professor of music at The Bard College Conservatory of Music, where she oversees the chamber music program and performs as a member of the Bardian Ensemble. Laura Kuhn began working with John Cage in New York City in 1986 on projects that included his six “mesostic” lectures for Harvard University as holder of the Charles Eliot Norton Chair in Poetry and his first full-scale opera, Europeras 1 & 2, for the Frankfurt Opera House. Upon his death in 1992, she helped to found the John Cage Trust, which she continues to serve as executive director. In 2007, the John Cage Trust joined the ranks of Bard College, where Kuhn became the first John Cage Professor of Performance Arts. She is currently preparing The John Cage Correspondence Collection for publication by Wesleyan University Press. Garry Kvistad is founder and CEO of Woodstock Percussion, Inc., makers of Woodstock Chimes, distributed worldwide. He has performed and recorded with Steve Reich and Musicians since 1980, and was one of 18 musicians to win a Grammy Award for Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians for Nonesuch Records. He tours and records with NEXUS, the internationally renowned, Canada-based chamber music ensemble. He has a B.M. from Oberlin Conservatory of Music and an M.M. from Northern Illinois University where, in 1993, he received its Distinguished Alumni Award. His Balinese Gong Kebyar Gamelan ensemble, Giri Mekar, formed in 1987, is on loan at Bard College, where Kvistad currently serves as percussion program adviser. Robert Martin, cellist, is founding director of the Bard Conservatory, artistic codirector of the Bard Music Festival, and vice president for academic affairs of Bard College. He studied cello at the Curtis Institute of Music with Leonard Rose and Orlando Cole, and liberal arts at Haverford College. During his doctoral studies in philosophy at Yale University, he was principal cellist of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and cellist of the Group for Contemporary Music, then at Columbia University. After receiving his Ph.D., he pursued a dual career in music and philosophy, including 10 years as cellist of the Sequoia String Quartet and, later, assistant dean of humanities at the University of California, Los Angeles. He came to Bard College in 1994, served from 1999 to 2004 as president of Chamber Music America, and in 2013 joined the board of the John Cage Trust. James Pritchett was one of the first musicologists to deal with John Cage’s music on its own terms—as music. His research presented the first clear documentation of Cage’s chance operations of the 1950s. Pritchett is the author of The Music of John Cage (Cambridge University Press, 1992), the first critical study of the whole of Cage’s work. Pritchett is married to composer Frances White, and they have collaborated on various works, currently a series with music and text inspired by the fairy tale “The Princess in the Chest” from Andrew Lang’s The Pink Fairy Book. Read more of his writing on music at the website The piano in my life (rosewhitemusic.com/piano).
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Adam Tendler first made national headlines with America 88x50, the 50-state recital tour he organized from the front seat of his Hyundai and the subject of his book, 88x50: A Memoir of Sexual Discovery, Modern Music, and the United States of America, a 2014 Kirkus Indie Book of the Month. His memorized performances of Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes have included a solo appearance at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City and a recital in the “John Cage at 100” festival at Symphony Space, listed by New York magazine as one of its Top 10 Classical Music Performances of 2012. Tendler has been called “an exuberantly expressive pianist [who] vividly displayed his enthusiasm for every phrase” by the Los Angeles Times, a “maverick pianist” by the New Yorker, and a “modern-music evangelist” by Time Out New York. We Are All Going in Different Directions Before coming to the Bard Conservatory, where he serves as associate director, director of admission, and director of the Postgraduate Collaborative Piano Fellowship program, pianist Frank Corliss was the director of music at the Walnut Hill School for the Arts and a staff pianist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. Corliss has worked as a musical assistant for Yo-Yo Ma to prepare new works for performance and recording, including concertos by Elliott Carter, Tan Dun, John Harbison, Leon Kirchner, Christopher Rouse, and John Williams. Corliss can be heard on Ma’s Grammy Award–winning Sony disc Soul of the Tango, as well as the Koch International disc of music by Elliott Carter. Violinist Erica Kiesewetter is director of orchestral studies at the Bard Conservatory and visiting associate professor of music at Bard College. A graduate of The Juilliard School, where she studied with Ivan Galamian, she also studied with Charles Castleman, Joyce Robbins, Emanuel Vardi, and Robert Mann. She appears on more than a dozen chamber music albums and 150 American Symphony Orchestra iTunes downloads. Joan Retallack, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor Emeritus of Humanities at Bard College, is the author of eight books of poetry, including Procedural Elegies/ Western Civ Cont’d, an Artforum Best Book of 2010, and numerous critical studies, including MUSICAGE: John Cage in Conversation with Joan Retallack (1996), which won the America Award in Belles-Lettres. Her other awards include a Lannan Foundation Poetry Grant (1998–99), National Endowment for the Arts funding for an artist’s book (1995–96), and the Columbia Book Award for Errata Suite (1994). For over a decade, So¯ Percussion has redefined the modern percussion ensemble as a flexible, omnivorous entity, pushing its voice to the forefront of American musical culture. Praised by the New Yorker for its “exhilarating blend of precision and anarchy, rigor and bedlam,” the group’s activities range from commissioning new works by notable composers (Steve Reich, David Lang, Steve Mackey), to the members’ own music, to creative collaborations with many different types of artists. So¯ Percussion has released 16 albums, many on the Cantaloupe Music label. So¯ Percussion would like to thank Pearl/Adams instruments, Zildjian cymbals, Vic Firth drumsticks, Remo drumheads, Black Swamp Percussion, and Estey Organ for their sponsorship. So¯ Percussion thanks the following organizations for their support of We Are All Going in Different Directions: National Endowment for the Arts, Art Works; New York State Council on the Arts; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Performing Ensembles Program; and Meet the Composer, Cary New Music Performance Fund. Counter Clock Designed by: Sam Tarakajian
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About The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, an environment for world-class artistic presentation in the Hudson Valley, was designed by Frank Gehry and opened in 2003. Risk-taking performances and provocative programs take place in the 800-seat Sosnoff Theater, a proscenium-arch space, and in the 220-seat Theater Two, which features a flexible seating configuration. The Center is home to Bard College’s Theater & Performance and Dance Programs, and host to two annual summer festivals: SummerScape, which offers opera, dance, theater, operetta, film, and cabaret; and the Bard Music Festival, which celebrated its 25th year in August with “Schubert and His World.” The 2015 festival will be devoted to Carlos Chávez. The Center bears the name of the late Richard B. Fisher, the former chair of Bard College’s Board of Trustees. This magnificent building is a tribute to his vision and leadership. The outstanding arts events that take place here would not be possible without the contributions made by the Friends of the Fisher Center. We are grateful for their support and welcome all donations. About Bard College Founded in 1860, Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, is an independent, nonsectarian, residential, coeducational college offering a four-year B.A. program in the liberal arts and sciences and a five-year B.A./B.S. degree in economics and finance. The Bard College Conservatory of Music offers a five-year program in which students pursue a dual degree—a B.Music and a B.A. in a field other than music—and offers an M.Music in vocal arts and in conducting. Bard also bestows an M.Music degree at Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Bard and its affiliated institutions also grant the following degrees: A.A. at Bard High School Early College, a public school with campuses in New York City, Cleveland, and Newark, New Jersey; A.A. and B.A. at Bard College at Simon’s Rock: The Early College, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and through the Bard Prison Initiative at six correctional institutions in New York State; M.A. in curatorial studies, M.S. in economic theory and policy, and M.S. in environmental policy and in climate science and policy at the Annandale campus; M.F.A. and M.A.T. at multiple campuses; M.B.A. in sustainability in New York City; and M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in the decorative arts, design history, and material culture at the Bard Graduate Center in Manhattan. Internationally, Bard confers dual B.A. degrees at the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, St. Petersburg State University, Russia (Smolny College); American University of Central Asia in Kyrgyzstan; and Bard College Berlin: A Liberal Arts University; as well as dual B.A. and M.A.T. degrees at Al-Quds University in the West Bank. Bard offers nearly 50 academic programs in four divisions. Total enrollment for Bard College and its affiliates is approximately 5,000 students. The undergraduate College has an enrollment of more than 1,900 and a student-to-faculty ratio of 10:1. For more information about Bard College, visit www.bard.edu.
The Fall 2014 season is made possible in part through the generous support of the Board of The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College and the Friends of the Fisher Center, as well as grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Photo of John Cage: Guido Harari