John Cage does not leap to mind as the composer most likely to attract
crowds to a festival needing to recoup the losses of previous years, but the
Perth International Arts Festival made the late American maverick one of its
musical leitmotifs for 2002, with five major works by Cage (authorship being a
fluid concept in his case) planned, including a staging of his 1982 radio play
Alphabet. Two of the events were planned as conventional concerts,
if in unconventional venues; the other two are more in the nature of, in the
parlance of Cage's heyday, "happenings."
Musicircus
Friday 25 January 2002
Perth Cultural Centre, Perth
PIAF's opening event was
constructed around the creation of a Musicircus, based on similar events mounted
by Cage in the 1960s, and "following the guidelines of the John Cage Trust." It
was staged in the Perth Cultural Centre, a precinct of the city where an open
space is surrounded by the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, the Art Galllery
of Western Australia (above), the Western Australian Museum and the Alexander
Library. Performers of a wild variety of styles were deployed in different parts
of these venerable institutions and on a stage in the open square between them. A printed guide was available to suggest how to
negotiate the various offerings, both generally and in an all-too-specific form (e.g.,
Transcendental Conch Shell Band – 6:69 pm – Museum –
"Human Evolution"; Vasek School of Violins and Strings – 7:04 pm
– Art Gallery Centenary Gallery).
It was
obvious what was intended: one would follow the overall plan from spot to
spot and experience an aural kaleidoscope of musical offerings in diverse forms and styles; alternatively,
one could study the plan closely and identify pieces one particularly
wanted to hear and take oneself to that spot at that time. However, as none
of the performers seemed to be running on schedule, this latter course was impossible. The former experience just didn't seem to work. One went from place to place as indicated, and perhaps heard performers in one gallery, but in the next there might be a group of musicians lounging
around or tuning up or eating takeaway food, or there might be no one at all. It
must be said that both the styles and the quality of the performers covered a
wide range. The promised "sonic collage of different musics for all to
experience" was more like a scrapbook from which many of the pieces had fallen
out.
The other "happening" should be more reliable. Roaratorio, described by PIAF brochures as "Cage's translation of James Joyce's 628-page novel [Finnegans Wake] into sound for tape, live instruments and voice," is being offered from 6–17 February as a sound installation (curated by composer Mikel Rouse) arranged throughout the Swan Bells Belltower (left), Perth's newest landmark.
Sadly, one of the (relatively) conventional concerts — and one of the more anticipated classical music events of the Festival — had to be abandoned. Cage's Etudes Australis, a collection of pieces for piano consisting of single tones and chords derived from the star charts of the Atlas Australis, was planned for 30 January at the Perth Observatory; it was cancelled when pianist Roger Woodward injured a wrist a few days previously.
Cage: Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano
Joanna Macgregor
(piano) (including preparation)
Sunday 27 January 2002
Annalakshmi Temple of Fine Arts Restaurant,
Perth
Far more successful was Joanna
Macgregor's concert at (yes, you read the name correctly) the Annalakshmi Temple of
Fine Arts Restaurant. Written between 1946 and 1948, the Sonatas and
Interludes require a piano prepared by placing on its strings objects like metal screws,
erasers and bits of plastic, so that the timbre and even pitch of
the notes are altered. The collection consists of 16 sonatas interspersed with four interludes,
the latter tending to be more rhythmic and the former more
contemplative in effect. In composing these works Cage drew on Hindu aesthetic
theory, happily reflected in the carvings and hangings decorating the
venue.
Macgregor introduced the work, suggesting that the audience should enter a "dreamlike state," and inviting its members to come up after the performance and inspect the piano and the first page of the score, which indicates the preparations.
This is clearly a work Macgregor knows well, and she played it with a great deal of emotional commitment, but also with incisive control, clearly differentiating the mood-states embedded in the different movements and exploiting the many effects brought about by the "preparation." One of the delights of the performance was the unexpected nature of many of these effects emanating from an ordinary-seeming grand piano. At different times, particularly in Sonatas XII, XIV and XV, there was a marked similarity to Southeast Asian gamelan music, both in the quality of the sound and in the placement of the notes. In the Second Interlude, the bass notes stood forth with plangent authority; at other times, the right hand predominated with light fingered arpeggios. Macgregor managed to convey the overall architecture of the whole, so that it felt like an integrated work rather than just a series of quirky pieces.
While perhaps not lapsing into the suggested dream state, the audience
was captivated, and the performance was greeted with enthusiastic applause.
Many took advantage of the invitation to inspect the piano and score, and
Macgregor stayed to answer questions, revealing that she carried out the piano
preparation herself, which takes anything from two to four hours. The venue
being what it was, Indian food was also on offer, lending a festive air to the
occasion.
