Sculptures Musicales, Fifty-Five, Eighty-Three, Eighty [Limited Edition]

John Cage (Composer), Chance Operations Collective of Kalamazoo (Orchestra), Prague Winds (Orchestra), Christina Fong (Performer), Karen Krummel (Performer), Michael Crawford (Performer), Glenn Freeman (Performer) | Format: DVD Audio

Product Details

• Performer: Christina Fong, Karen Krummel, Michael Crawford, Glenn Freeman
• Orchestra: Chance Operations Collective of Kalamazoo, Prague Winds
• Composer: John Cage
• DVD Audio (January 2, 2008)
• Please Note: This is a DVD-Audio disc which is playable on most DVD players as well as all DVD-Audio players. Click here for additional information regarding compatibility.
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Limited Edition
• Label: OgreOgress productions
• ASIN: B001NDCSSK
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #426,686 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Review

... in Sculptures Musicales, the listener is confronted with unusual blocks of sound and blocks of unusually absolute silence. The blocks of sound have a machine-like quality, with deep industrial rumbles, and repeated nuances which might be percussion instruments, or might be some heavy Jean Tinguely-like apparatus generating its own patterns. This is one of those pieces which stimulates the inner-eye, provoking mobile portraits of different shapes and sensations of movement - slow and lumbering, sometimes rattling and seemingly on the point of breakdown, sometimes threatening in their grinding advance, or at times lightened by the more playful elements of distantly perceived musical toys. Looking for parallels, it can be like being stuck in the engine room housed in the bowels of some vast and noisy ship, or transported into the power house which runs some bizarre fairground ride - the sound of chimes and pipe organs in the final moments of the work leaking through into a dark and greasy subterranean generator. For all these imaginative flights of fantasy, these are real 'sound objects', objective and dispassionate. They're like big boxes of noise, to which soundproofed doors are opened and shut by turns, and we all know the power of curiosity which can be exerted by doors in boxes.

Twenty-Six with Twenty-Nine ... Sustained notes characterise the work, the compositional technique consisting of flexible time brackets which contain single notes played only once. This results in a drawn-out but constantly shifting clusters or chord formations in the strings, the rumble of extended timpani rolls, and textural content provided by the swish of one or more protracted 'notes' from cymbals or metal objects played by the percussionists.Twenty-Six with Twenty-Nine generates an atmosphere of almost unbearable intensity. The seemingly endless string notes create a collective tonality or a-tonality which simultaneously 'exists' without an apparent direction, but also moves inexorably through changes where the function of voices and the nature of their sonority and context are eternally shifting. If you've heard Glenn Branca's Symphony No.3 you might have some idea of the string textures involved, but even this provides little preparation for the sheer monumental single-mindedness of purpose which drives this work.

Twenty-Six with Twenty-Eight and Twenty-Nine (1991) ... As this new release reveals, this a significant work which shows Cage to be something of a master when it comes to monolithic works on a vast sonic canvas. The extended notes from the wind players affect the sonorities in the piece as one would expect, but surprisingly I don't find they truly heighten the intensity of the music. It is still the strings which hold onto mastery of those dramatically long, horizontal lines. The winds warm the sound and create other worlds and some dramatic moments within its landscape, but the colour of the sky is still string, and all light reflects from the hues in that sky.

Eighty ... Not having a conductor shouldn't really be a problem for most musicians these days, but I do find it remarkable that this piece has never been performed before. ... this is another fascinating work, though without the sheer nerve-stretching power of the other pieces. Here, the instruments emerge from periods of silence playing unison notes. This may not sound interesting, but the interaction of multiple instruments on the same tone creates its own spectrum of colour in terms of sonority and overtones. Sometimes it almost sounds as if an ethereal vocal chorus is emerging from the sonic texture.

... another valuable disc from OgreOgress, and a significant contribution to our awareness of John Cage as one of those remarkable and unique figures of 20th century music, the like of which we are unlikely to see again. --Dominy Clements, MusicWeb, October, 2009

Product Description

Fifteenth in a series with previously unreleased works by well-known composers, this 121-minute 96kHz|24bit Audio DVD features the world premiere recordings of John Cage's Sculptures Musicales, Twenty Six with Twenty-Eight, Twenty-Six with Twenty-Eight & Twenty-Nine and Eighty.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cage and Duchamp, August 28, 2009

By 

violamom - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sculptures Musicales, Fifty-Five, Eighty-Three, Eighty (DVD Audio)

Great, clear recording. Great musicians. Would like a little more information stated about the pieces. The quote from John Cage is great and fits the cover picture. Would prefer it in cd format so I can have it playing in rooms other than where my tv is! Thanks for providing John Cage's music!