VOTD 4/14/2023

 American Composers Orchestra with Dennis Russell Davies: Cage/Wuorinen (CRI)

Purchased at Jerry's Records

Another great find for $3 out of the Duquesne University collection. I recalled, when I picked this out of the box, that I saw a performance of the John Cage piece ("The Seasons") with the Pittsburgh Symphony many years ago. Then I recalled that I saw Cage give a talk about the piece pre-concert. And further then, I recalled that I'm pretty sure it was Dennis Russell Davies conducting.

The piece stems from Cage's experiences composing for the prepared piano, similarly to his String Quartet in Four Parts from approximately the same era. First of all, there's more structure given to units of time and rhythm than pitches. Cage quoted himself talking to his mentor Schoenberg, saying he had no feel for harmony. 

Given that units of time are structured, the other thing about composing for prepared piano is this: when you strike a single key, sometimes an aggregate of notes/pitches/sounds happens. You can't really define it as a chord in a traditional sense, if you're placing a penny between the three strings of a piano struck with one key. Larger events occur out of combinations of notes and sounds, one following another. 

During his talk, Cage mentioned that Lou Harrison helped him with the orchestration. After the performance, the piece seemed un-Cage like in its occasional lushness. Jason Gibbs, a doctoral composition student at the time, simply said, "I like that piece." And you know what? It is a good work. It fills a spot in the Cage body of work that is unique. 

The performance on record of that work, and the Wuorinen "Two Part Symphony", were from a single concert in December 1978. It's funny to see both names on a single release. Another recollection: the tributes came pouring in when John Cage died, mostly glowing. But Charles Wuorinen, ever the cranky serialist, was less than enthusiastic. I'd probably have to dig deep to find the exact quotes, but he was complaining how people said Cage taught them to listen, which he said was, I think the exact word was "bullshit." 

There's plenty to criticize in Cage's work. The timed number pieces, much of what he did in his later years, are intermittently interesting. His anti-jazz statements border on, if not cross over into racism. (This is not an original claim on my part, it is something Anthony Braxton said.) 

I like some of Wuorinen's music for its energy. But I have a basic criticism of his music that I think of most serialist music: it can be interesting moment-to-moment, but doesn't necessarily "go" anywhere. This work is very active, shifts constantly, is tightly orchestrated, moves swiftly. But does it add up to anything? Not especially. At least if Cage's work doesn't "move," it does so intentionally. And I don't mean to sound like I dislike the Wuorinen work. I just find his "high tower" attitude to border on comical. There's a point at which all his methods, his finely-honed techniques, are more essential than inspiration and "feeling" the music.

A friend of mine was working on a Wuorinen piece for oboe. He decided to give Charles a phone call to ask about some points on the work. The friend reached him, and found Wuorinen to be unfriendly and short with him. I'll give Wuorinen the benefit of the doubt, that anyone can have a shitty day and not want to be bothered by some college student bugging him about some old work of his. But does this influence the way I hear Wuorinen's work? Not really, but it does fill out a larger picture of what he was like. It adds up to, what makes you think you're so important?