John Cage
Essay
Program, P.2215
- Identifier
- P.2215
- Category
- New Music
- Date
- November 8, 2012 – January 12, 2013
- Description
-
John Cage Essay has been organized in concert with Cage 100 festival, a series of commemorative projects at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, the University of Victoria School of Music, and the Victoria Symphony Orchestra. Open Space marks the centenary of the birth of the influential 20th-century composer John Cage by reconstructing one of the great composer’s sound installations Essay.
Composer Christopher Butterfield has curated the Canadian premiere of Essay, a rarely mounted installation of thirty-six cassette recordings. Essay is one of Cage’s forays into “chance operations”, a technique that enabled the composter to investigate sound, music, literature as well as the realities and rewards of
the physical experience of sound. At its core Essay was based
on Cage’s re-reading and re-writing of Henry David Thoreau’s “Writings through the Essay: On the Duty of Civil Disobedience”. Critic Victoria Miguel observed, “Essay illuminates Cage’s sophisticated palate of techniques, ideas and references. Language has been transformed into its musical form, poetry, and abstracted to become pure sound.”
Cage’s former assistant, Andrew Culver (Montreal) will discuss
his involvement with Cage and Dr. Allan Antliff, Canada Research Chair in Art History at the University of Victoria, will discuss Cage’s anarchic leanings in conjunction with a public reception on Monday evening, November 19 at 7:00 p.m.Cage’s Anarchism:
Andrew Culver in discussion
with Dr. Allan Antliff November 19, 7 p.m.