Search - John [1] Cage, Tamas Veto, Ars Nova Ensemble :: Cage: The Choral Works I / Ars Nova, Veto

Cage: The Choral Works I / Ars Nova, Veto
John [1] Cage, Tamas Veto, Ars Nova Ensemble
Cage: The Choral Works I / Ars Nova, Veto
Genres: Folk, Special Interest, Pop, Classical
 
  •  Track Listings (10) - Disc #1

Spanning five decades, these vocal works by the eminent John Cage are widely variable in sound dynamics, energy level, and textual dynamics--even more so than Paul Hillier's spectacular Litany for the Whale. The earliest w...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: John [1] Cage, Tamas Veto, Ars Nova Ensemble
Title: Cage: The Choral Works I / Ars Nova, Veto
Members Wishing: 4
Total Copies: 0
Label: Mode
Release Date: 1/19/1999
Genres: Folk, Special Interest, Pop, Classical
Styles: Vocal Pop, Opera & Classical Vocal, Chamber Music, Historical Periods, Baroque (c.1600-1750), Sacred & Religious
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 764593007128

Synopsis

Amazon.com
Spanning five decades, these vocal works by the eminent John Cage are widely variable in sound dynamics, energy level, and textual dynamics--even more so than Paul Hillier's spectacular Litany for the Whale. The earliest work, Living Room Music, seems an early (composed in 1940) comment on the "cult of domesticity" that gathered steam in the U.S. during the 1950s. The piece transforms the home into a concatenation of musical instruments, none of them specified. Living Room's "percussion" provides a thumping, irregular nonpitched framework for voices moving rhythmically through spoken parts before the "Melody," played on a vaguely electronic keyboard. More tried-and-true vocal methods emerge too: especially on ear for EAR, which flowers from the higher registers downward, settling into a chant-like drone and then bursting into the tenor range and upward in singly syllabic lines. Four, in two versions, serves the same seamless end, ranging upward with piercing sheerness. Magnificence ensues with Five and the lengthy Hymns and Variations, which give off an endless ring with their long-toned takes on polyphony and subtle oscillations. The latter piece is Cage's 1979 riff on William Billings's 18th-century psalmody compendium and sounds delightfully assertive in rounding tones taken by each Ars Nova vocalist in turn, stretching density to its thinnest points without ever sounding thin. --Andrew Bartlett

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CD Reviews

Cage's vocal music is like gradations of pure spring water
Mark A. Leach | 04/13/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)

"John Cage was an incredibly prolific composer,creator, word assembler. He practically invented new genres,like performance art,conceptual music,lecture/music/performance and has even made significant contributions within the confines of traditional music genres. Like here with vocal music,he has numerous pieces in varying shapes,focus and expression. The Vocal Group Ars Nova are a devoted bunch to be doing Cage. I guess Cage is popular now. . But his vocal music is not for everyone. It is traditionally beautiful with a focus on simplicity and the pure vocal quality of the the voice with much sustained sound like ancient melos. He hated vibrato,something Marcel Duchamp, his mentor,only for strings. probable told him.Duchamp said it (violins) sounded like sewing machines. The best pieces here are those the last decade of Cage's life. He died in August,1992.I like the vocal purity in "Four"(1990) also "Four Solos"(1988). And also the fact that I can easily hear this piece played by any four instruments. There are also early excursions into Cage's "didn't- know- if it- was- theatre- music- yet- like pieces, as "Living Room Music" (1940) an early quasi-narrative for percussion and speech quartet. In Cage's vocal music don't expect to find a melody you can hum on the way to work. This music is pretty abstract."
Something we haven't heard before
Mark A. Leach | Columbia, South Carolina United States | 03/22/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a stunning release by an exceptionally talented group and conductor. Cage, though a great composer, depends upon his collaborators to make ideas work at their best. Here I think Cage would have been very pleased, in spite of himself. The wonderfully exciting performance of "Living Room Music" (really quite "catchy" in this performance), and the obvious care and consideration to the purely vocal pieces make this a most pleasurable recording. Very highly recommended."
Deeply Moving
Mark A. Leach | 04/27/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)

"The first time I heard a Cage choral work was in 1991, at the New England Conservatory's "Cage Fest." At one point there was a pause between pieces. People started fidgiting in their seats. The next thing I hear is a voice coming from above in the balcony. Since the NEC is a music school, I figured it was a student. Then another voice started to my left. A few seconds later more voices came in. By the end there was a chorus of some of the most melodious music I had ever heard. (How many times has the word "melodious" been applied to Cage? ). From that point on I was hooked. This album brings that piece (ear for EAR), along with a number of other wonderful pieces, to life."