Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival - radio programme transcripts (1)

Programme 1

The idea of this concert is to celebrate a concert that happened fifty years ago and so we thought this would be a good opportunity to celebrate cages music and key in to make sure this is a contemporary event and so we’ve commissioned six composers to write pieces, short pieces that are in response to John Cage’s piece for prepared piano called the Sonatas and Interludes.

In the 1940s, when John Cage moved to New York, he was hanging around with some of the greatest artists of the twentieth century who at that time where just in their prime, so people like Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Mark Rothco, Jackson Pollock, great names whose work you see in the greatest art galleries across the world. I think there was a real buzz at the time that anything was possible, particularly in America the focus of art had shifted from Paris in the first part of the century to New York where there really did seem to be exciting things happening.

The concert was organised by artists and it was mainly because I don’t think the musical establishment then, and possibly even now, really accepted John Cage as sort of part of that community. In about 1950 he used chance methods to try and get rid of his intervention in the music, to get rid of what he would term his ego so that his music simply allowed for anything to happen that chance perhaps dictated, but he used the I ching in combination with lots of tossing of coins which he would do endlessly. His music turned from being quite empty to often being quite filled and busy with sounds of alternately being entirely empty, as was his famous piece 4minutes 33seconds which is simply that length of time of silence so that he could hear absolutely anything, simply expecting and allowing anything to happen.

I simply love the sounds and I am sure that if I love the sounds then there are many other people like me who like the sounds that happen in this music, and you’ll find that in much of the chance music we play in this concert where maybe nothing changes for the whole duration. If you allow your ears to accept that you’ll find that everything changes and you just simply have to stop and listen. I guess that is something that’s quite unusual in today’s world where we’re so busy we don’t stop in life and 4minutes 33second of silence is a beautiful beautiful piece of music and when we do stop and listen then it’s a very beautiful experience.

Graham McKenzie: Festival Director. The idea of reclaiming John Cage’s 1958  concert was completely irresistible, and we’ve chosen this concert to close this years Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. The original concert was highly controversial and there was a real tension between the Cage supporters and other audience members, there was a lot of slow hand clapping and jeering. I think Apartment House will treat the music with a lot more respect.

Credits – Contributor: Phillip Thomas, University of Huddersfield lecturer and pianist, Music: John Cage Sonatas and Interludes Number Two played by Boris Berman. Festival shorts are produced by Beaumont Street Studios.