John Cage: Piano Music

Cage visited New England Conservatory for a festival of his music in 1991. In 2012, we celebrate his centennial with performances by NEC's musicians here and elsewhere in Boston.Cage.88@100

Under the rubric of "Cage.88@100," NEC's piano department chair Bruce Brubaker and project director Stephen Drury bring together piano students from the entire spectrum of NEC's teaching studios for tonight's concert and concerts on February 6 and 27.

Stephen Drury's work with Cage during the composer's lifetime included the 1991 NEC visit, premiering the solo part of Cage's 101 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and commissioning new work from Cage. Drury has coached students for these performances and has prepared the piano used in the February 27 performance of Sonatas and Interludes.

Two Pieces for Piano (1935) performed by Eric Zhang, a student of Veronica Jochum
Marked "slowly" and "quite fast," these early works use the 12-tone row without "playing by the rules" of serialism in any other way.

Bacchanale (1940) performed on prepared piano by Grace Kim, a student of Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, with dancer Helena Froelich
Cage's first work for prepared piano, like much of his music from this time it was written for dancers, which Cage typically did using percussion instruments. Since the performance space was too small for an ensemble of this size, he turned the piano itself into a percussion ensemble with the addition of weather-stripping, pieces of rubber, screws and bolts, placed between the strings.

Jazz Study (1942?) performed by Hanna Lee, a student of Veronica Jochum
Cage did not remember writing this piece. What do you think?

Experiences I (1945) performed by Weiyu Zhu, a student of Gabriel Chodos, and Konrad Binienda, a student of Wha Kyung Byun
Written using only the white keys, this work's simplicity is evocative of Cage's early fascination with the music of Eric Satie, seen also in the latest work on this program.

Dream (1948) performed by Young In Lee, a student of Gabriel Chodos
Written for Merce Cunningham's dance, this follows the rhythmic structure of Cunningham's choreography.

Music of Changes, Part I (1951) performed by JeeHae Ahn, a student of Wha Kyung Byun
Cage's first composition using chance operations (assisted by the I Ching), and precisely notated for specific actions beyond striking the keys of the piano, this draws richly on sounds beyond the piano's conventional repertoire without actually being a "prepared piano" piece.

Seven Haiku (1951-52) performed by Steven Gordon, a student of Bruce Brubaker and Fred Hersch
An extension of the charts prepared for Music of Changes, this applies the same musical material to smaller, haiku-like units in which silence plays an important part.

Winter Music (1957) performed by Hewen Ma, a student of Wha Kyung Byun, and Emely Phelps, a student of Stephen Drury and Vivian Hornik Weilerstein
Going far beyond chance operations into indeterminacy, this score allows an extremely variable number of simultaneous performers using material that can be sequenced in any way. "All the traditional dimensions of music are by intention free, free, free," writes Cage expert Richard Kostelanetz.

Swinging (1989) performed by Alexander Zhu, a student of Randall Hodgkinson
Very late in life, Cage intended to write a large suite responding to Satie's Sports et divertissements, but completed only this single example.

photo of Merce Cunningham at Black Mountain College in 1948 by Hazel Larsen Archer, collection of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts / Jerome Robbins Dance Division