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Posted

I wonder if they will play Cage's "Cartridge Music"?

In case you have never heard this work performed, it basically consists of live phonograph cartridges being dragged acros the floor (and various things) by any number of people. It has nothing to do with music, but a lot to do with cartridges.

In the early 1960s, not long after Cage "composed" this work, I was running a radio station in New York City. My Music Director, John Corigliano, scheduled "Cartridge Music" for one of our morning concerts (7 AM, if I recall right) and the phones immediately lit up. People wanted to know what was wrong with our transmitter and when we would be back on the air.

That morning, I called John into my office and told him that I thought it was not a good idea to schedule a piece like that in the morning when people were just waking up. He gave me an argument and I didn't buy it. Finally, John said that he was quitting his job and that it was something he had contemplated doing for quite some time, because he wanted to collect unemployment and write a piano concerto.

The humor in that did not escape me, so I readily agreed (who wants to stand in the way of art?). Unfortunately, the unemployment office gave John a hard time, so I volunteered to speak on his behalf at a hearing. In an admittedly planned approach, we told these bureaucrats that artistic differences had made this an untenable situation and that they would understand that if they had any experience working in a creative environment. I don't think they knew what were talking about, but John received his unemployment. In the late 1960s, I received a recording of John's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra.

Albeit somewhat circuitously, John Cage's "Cartridge Music" led to a piano concerto that I still enjoy. John, as many will know, went on to compose prolifically and garner an Oscar and a Pulitzer Prize--among other honors.

So, is/was Cage's "Cartridge Music" included in KCR's program?

Or did they go off the air? :rolleyes:

Posted (edited)

You're probably referring to the absolutely beautiful Time Records recording

that was released in '62. Cartridge Music was composed in July of '60

and the '62 recording features Cage with the extraordinary pianist David Tudor.

BTW: three works on the other side of the LP feature the wonderful composer Christian Wolff

who, finally these days, is getting the attention he and his work deserves (and while he's still alive - I might add!)

I came to the KCR broadcast late, I believe, and so I have just heard only piano works.

I think the complete Sonatas and Interludes will be broadcast now.

Edited by rostasi
Posted

They're playing Cage on WPRB right now, but I know it's not the whole program. 8:30-11am.

And then there's:

24 Hours and 33 Minutes

The Playful and Playable Cage: A WNYC Festival

Airs September 5 at noon until September 6 at 12:33PM on WNYC2

Posted

oin us for 24:33, as WNYC's weekend overnight host Helga Davis guides us through 24 hours and 33 minutes of John Cage's recorded music, plus rare archival audio of interviews and live performances.

Wednesday, September 5th, 2007

12:00PM—1:00PM

Cage's Gift: An Unprepared World Meets the Prepared Piano

* WNYC's New Sounds (May 2000): Various recordings of the seminal "Sonatas and Interludes."

* Americathon at Merkin Hall (Feb 1983): WNYC Mesostic.

1:00PM—2:00PM

Cage unCaged: A Cross-section of his Output

* WNYC Archives: Summerstage (July 1992): Joan La Barbara sings "A Flower"

* John Cage performs "Dance" at the prepared piano.

* "Indeterminancy: Part 3" (John Cage, speech and David Tudor, music)

* "Jazz Study"

* "In a Landscape"

* "Suite for Toy Piano"

2:00PM—3:00PM

1992: The Final Moments, 1992

* WNYC's Around New York (July 1992): John Schaefer interviews John Cage and pianist Michael Torre.

* WNYC Archives: Summerstage (July 1992): Joan La Barbara sings "Forever and Sunsmell"; "The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs," and "Nowth upon Nacht"

3:00PM—4:00PM

Noise vs. Sound

* The MTT Files: Noise vs. Sound and the Legacy of John Cage

* "First Construction" (in Metal)

* "Second Construction"

* Wall-to-Wall John Cage at Symphony Space (March 1982): "Third Construction"

* "She is Asleep"

4:00PM—5:00PM

The Magic of Four

* "Four2," for 4-part voices

* "Four5," for saxophone ensemble

* "Four3" for piano(s), rainsticks, and violin/oscillator

5:00PM—6:00PM

Operation Opera: John Cage and Leonard Lopate

* New York & Company (July 1988): Leonard Lopate talks with John Cage.

6:00PM—7:00PM

Kaleidoscope Cage: Short Works

* Featuring "Solo for Voice 1"; "4 Solos for Voice"; "Ear for EAR"; "A Room"; "Ad Lib"; "Triple-Paced No.1"; "Triple-Paced No.2," and "Chess Pieces"

7:00PM—8:00PM

Tim Page and John Cage

* Excerpted from the seminal Meet the Composer series

8:00PM—11:00PM

cAgeless Classics

* Interviews and Tributes:

Merce Cunningham, choreographer

Margaret Leng Tan, pianist

Joan La Barbara, singer

Meredith Monk, composer

Robert Spano, conductor (from WNYC's American Music Festival, May 2007)

* Vocal Music and Vocalizations:

WNYC's New Sounds Live (November 1991): Benefit Concert for EAR Magazine with John Cage: "Haikus"

WNYC Archives: Summerstage (July 1992): Joan La Barbara singing "A Flower" and "Sonnekus"

"A Chant with Claps" for voice

* Music for Prepared Piano:

"Tossed as it is Untroubled (Meditation)"; "The Perilous Night"; "Totem Ancestor"; "Our Spring Will Come," and "Spontaneous Earth"

* Music for Unprepared Piano:

"Dream"

* Music for Percussion Ensemble: "Living Room Music"; "Double Music" (with Lou Harrison), and "Imaginary Landscape No. 2"

* Music for Chamber Ensemble:

WNYC Archives: Arditti String Quartet at the Kaufman Cultural Center (February 1992): "String Quartet in 4 Parts"

"6 Short Inventions for Seven Instruments"

"Sonata for 2 Voices"

11:00PM—12:00MID

The Radical Simplicity of John Cage

* New Sounds (Sept 2005): "The Radical Simplicity of John Cage" (featuring "In a Landscape" and "Dream")

Thursday, September 6th, 2007

12:00AM—2:30AM†

Expansion of the Sound Universe

* Back-to-back versions of "Credo in Us," from Wall-to-Wall John Cage at Symphony Space (March 1982) and from the WNYC Archives: Americathon at Merkin Hall (Feb 1983)

* "Music for Carillon No. 1"

* "Williams Mix"

* Concerto for Piano and Orchestra

* "Europeras 4"

* "Hymns and Variations" for amplified voices

2:30AM—4:00AM†

Roaratorio and James Joyce

* "Laughtears": Klaus Schöning interviews John Cage

* "Roaratorio, an Irish Circus on Finnegan's Wake: Part 1"

* "Reading Through Finnegan's Wake: Parts 3 & 4"

4:00AM—5:00AM†

The Unearthed John Cage Concerts: Strings, Conch Shells and Fire

* WNYC Archives: Rockland Country Performance with John Cage (ca. 1955): 34'46.776"

* Wall-to-Wall John Cage at Symphony Space(March 1982): "Inlets"

5:00AM—6:00AM

Chamber Ensemblance

* "Six"

* "Five"

* "Fourteen"

6:00AM—7:00AM

Prepared Piano Revisited and John Cage Speaks

* WNYC's Soundcheck (July 2002): : Prepared Piano with veteran Cage proponent Margaret Leng Tan

* "Composition in Retrospect," read by John Cage

7:00AM—8:00AM

The Other MusiCircuses

* "Apartment House 1776," mixed-media event

* Reprise of back-to-back versions of "Credo in Us," from Wall-to-Wall John Cage at Symphony Space (March 1982) and from the WNYC Archives: Americathon at Merkin Hall (Feb 1983)

8:00AM—9:00AM

The Voice of John Cage

* Cologne/New York New Music/Neue Musik Marathon with John Schaefer (1989 at The Kitchen): "What You Say," with John Cage, speaker

* John Cage and Morton Feldman in Conversation (1966-1967 on WBAI Radio in New York)

* "Series re Morris Graves" with John Cage, speaker (Introduction and Excerpt)

* "Indeterminancy: Part 4" (John Cage, speech and David Tudor, music)

9:00AM—10:00AM

Playful Moments of Collage and Caprice

* WNYC Archives: Summerstage (July 1992): reprise of Joan La Barbara singing "Sonnekus2"

* "Daughters of the Lonesome Isle"

* "6 Melodies for Violin and Keyboard"

10:00AM—11:00AM

In Search of Lost Sounds: John Cage Remembered

* WNYC's Soundcheck (Sept 2002): "Remembering John Cage"

* "Fads and Fancies in the Academy"

11:00AM—12:00PM

The Final Performance

* WNYC Archives: WNYC Summerstage (July 1992): Joan La Barbara sings; John Cage's last public performance in "Four6"

* "The City Wears a Slouch Hat" (a radio play): Excerpts

12:00PM—12:33PM

Cage Clipped: The Many Faces of the Class Clown and Great Patriarch

* "24:33, A John Cage Festival": Interviews and Tributes

Posted

Thanks for this info too!

It'd be nice if they use CDs

of performances rather than

the old, very used, LPs

that were used on KCR yesterday.

I know, I know. NYC seems to be mostly archival recordings (many of which I heard the first time around!)

Posted

I know, I know. NYC seems to be mostly archival recordings (many of which I heard the first time around!)
Yes, the interviews are wonderful to hear in some way. John has to explain yet again and again his ideas,

but it's always a delight to hear him talk. I'm listening to an interviewer now who's asking pretty much the right questions,

but he's clearly not too comfortable with silence on the radio - :D Often, he cuts Cage off before he's able to complete his statement(s).

Anyway, I miss his voice and this is a real delight.

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