The complete John Cage variations

Abstract

In consultation and with materials from the John Cage Trust, the New York State Library, and the Langlois Foundation, a recording of Cage's complete Variations was developed. The project was originated in 2012 to celebrate the composer’s centenary. The performances explored sonic, visual and interactive elements integrating vintage analog contemporary digital and realtime electronic technologies with live acoustic performers. The original works have been described as Composition Machines, providing materials to generate variable versions rather than a fixed score. Bespoke software and later an iPad app were developed to generate the scores and performances in realtime.

Over a 12 year period, the project brought together historical, musicological, computer science, collaborative and practice-led research. Arguably the recording of these creative works is the culmination of the project that resulted in a book of essays, 3 articles, an iPad app and 9 national and international performances, including contributions by over 30 cross-disciplinary collaborators. The project is a model of creative interrogation a key historical moment in the development of compositional thinking that was a precursor to generative, algorithmic and interactive music, site specific, spatial and multimedia performance, graphic notational, noise music, parametric thinking and conceptual art.

RAS ID

70299

Document Type

Original Creative Work

Date of Publication

2024

School

Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts

Publisher

Mode, NY.

Comments

Decibel. (2024). The Complete John Cage Variations [Album]. Mode, NY. https://decibelnewmusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-complete-john-cage-variations

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