Your critique should include the following elements: How do pieces written earlier in time sound different from pieces written later in time?
Copyright by James Pritchett. Originally we had in mind what you might call an imaginary beauty, a process of basic emptiness with just a few things arising in it. And then when we actually set to work, a kind of avalanche came about which corresponded not at all with that beauty which had seemed to appear to us as an objective.
Where do we go then? Well what we do is go straight on; that way lies, no doubt, a revelation. I had no idea this was going to happen.
I did have an idea something else would happen. Ideas are one thing and what happens another.
And what are we doing? It was an unusual idea for a museum show, since the whole purpose for visiting one is to witness things of beauty or interest.
People do not go to a museum to look at blank walls, to walk through empty galleries. Without any context, visitors would have been quite baffled by this, perhaps thinking that they had taken a wrong turn, that someone made a mistake, or for those who like adventure that a daring theft had taken place.
But these visitors would have known that this is an exhibition about John Cage, and hence the empty room would make sense. It is not surprising that this piece would attract the kind of attention that it has. To begin with, it is a compelling dramatic gesture.
At its first performance, virtuoso pianist David Tudor sat at the piano, opened the keyboard lid, and sat silently for thirty seconds. He then closed the lid. He reopened it, and then sat silently again for a full two minutes and twenty-three seconds.
He then closed and reopened the lid one more time, sitting silently this time for one minute and forty seconds. He then closed the lid and walked off stage. With the right kind of performer, such an event can be riveting, and Tudor was absolutely the right kind of performer, possessing an understated mastery of the instrument and a seriousness of purpose that was palpable to everyone in attendance.
Part of what makes the drama so compelling is the utter simplicity of the concept. The composer creates nothing at all. The performer goes on stage and does nothing.
The audience witnesses this very basic act, the act of sitting still and being quiet. All this takes place in a Western concert hall setting, lending a historical and artistic gravity to the proceedings that begs us to put this act into some kind of weighty context, fraught with importance. The piece can be difficult for audiences just as the empty room in the exhibition might have been.
Sitting quietly for any length of time is not something to which people are accustomed in Western culture in general, much less in a concert hall setting. That tensions will arise, with controversy and notoriety following, is only natural. Confronted with the silence, in a setting we cannot control, and where we do not expect this kind of event, we might have any of a number of responses: What did Cage mean when he made this piece?
How are we supposed to take this music? Noise — For someone traveling through the early parts of this exhibition, or for someone otherwise familiar only with the early works of John Cage, the appearance of the silent piece may be puzzling.
Indeed, Cage in his early days as a composer promoted the antithesis of silence:Essay outlining exercises with answers evolution of international law essay ending an essay your family tree public services essay unit Chinese essay writing with outline sample mother and daughters essay affections organized crime essay and terrorism professional english essay writing pdf (tips essay bi) essay on travel to space diaries history essay conclusion name.
The piano has long been a valuable member of American families. The instrument has been around since the 's and is still popular today as people own them for the enjoyment of music as well as the eye pleasing elegance of the furniture itself.3/5(4).
Essay on the biography of Ludwig van Beethoven. Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer who is considered to be one of the greatest musicians of all time.
He was born in Bonn. Beethoven’s father’s harsh discipline and alcoholism made his childhood and adolescence difficult. After his mother’s death, at the age of 18, he [ ].
Commentary – Piano and Drums by Gabriel Okra In Gabriel Okra’s poem, “Plano and Drums”. Okra expresses his feelings and thoughts of a primitive society in contrast to a western society.
Sba user id | The revelation of the devotion of a college applicant to music in her life. |
Being an African himself, and having studied in a western society, the poem reflects the confusion in his emotions as well as the loss.
UK Essays Essay Paper on Musical Performance The “Stokes Mitchell shows his versatility” music review by Linda Laban, the Boston Globe correspondent, is a review of Brian Stokes Mitchell’s performance on the stage of Sanders Theatre on Friday night.
This essay was written for the catalog of the exhibition “John Cage and Experimental Art: The Anarchy of Silence” at the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona.