Cage Music of Changes
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: John Cage
Label: Wergo
Magazine Review Date: 8/1989
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 46
Mastering:
ADD
Catalogue Number: WER60099-50
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Music of Changes |
John Cage, Composer
Herbert Henck, Piano John Cage, Composer |
Composer or Director: John Cage
Label: Wergo
Magazine Review Date: 8/1989
Media Format: Vinyl
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
ADD
Catalogue Number: WER60099
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Music of Changes |
John Cage, Composer
Herbert Henck, Piano John Cage, Composer |
Author:
Music of Changes is regarded as a breakthrough piece in its use of chance operations based on the I Ching but it is by no means so radical in its anti-determinism as the notorious 4'33'' which appeared in the following year. However its musical surface was arrived at (see Cage's Silence; Marion Boyars: 1979, pages 57–9) it has very much the same kind of Darmstadt sound as European avant-gardists such as Goeyvaerts, Boulez and Stockhausen at precisely the same time, with a preponderance of extreme dynamics and registers. From the second book on there are occasional post-Cowell touches such as slamming the piano lid shut (I think Cage means the fall—to slam the actual lid would be a dramatic event indeed).
The technical difficulties of these pieces are not of the order of Boulez's or Stockhausen's, but they still take some sorting out, not least because of Cage's spidery orthography; and although faster tempos than Herbert Henck's are difficult to conceive, he is still a good 15 per cent slower than the scores specify (how Cage reconciles such manic activity with a quietist philosophy I have no idea). Apart from ducking an isolated instruction to scrape the string lengthwise, Henck is a dedicated and dexterous exponent, and he adds a perceptive short essay (as well as a rather embarrassingly truistic prose-poem).
The recording, from Radio Bremen in 1982, has a fairly quiet background; the instrument is somewhat metallic in quality, but never unacceptably so.'
The technical difficulties of these pieces are not of the order of Boulez's or Stockhausen's, but they still take some sorting out, not least because of Cage's spidery orthography; and although faster tempos than Herbert Henck's are difficult to conceive, he is still a good 15 per cent slower than the scores specify (how Cage reconciles such manic activity with a quietist philosophy I have no idea). Apart from ducking an isolated instruction to scrape the string lengthwise, Henck is a dedicated and dexterous exponent, and he adds a perceptive short essay (as well as a rather embarrassingly truistic prose-poem).
The recording, from Radio Bremen in 1982, has a fairly quiet background; the instrument is somewhat metallic in quality, but never unacceptably so.'
Cage Music of Changes
Cage Music of Changes
Discover the world's largest classical music catalogue with Presto Music.
Gramophone Digital Club
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Full website access
From £8.75 / month
Subscribe
Gramophone Full Club
- Print Edition
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Full website access
From £11.00 / month
Subscribe
If you are a library, university or other organisation that would be interested in an institutional subscription to Gramophone please click here for further information.