The orchestra played on, despite increasing competition from the other side of the footlights’. Calvin Tomkins points to the difficulties of performing in such disruptive circumstances, stopping just short of praising the musicians’ behaviour: ‘Midway through a group in the rear of the balcony stood up and tried to stop the performance with a sustained burst of applause and catcalls. Avakian attributed the disruption to stemming not from the musicians but entirely from the audience, perhaps in part a symptom of his considerable personal investment in the project. Avakian recorded the performance – and the concert as a whole – and this recording quickly became a landmark release, making available an overview of Cage’s music to a wide and international public for the first time. However, depictions of such behaviour are absent from the vivid description of the event provided by George Avakian (whose wife, Anahid Ajemian, was playing the first violin part). Many were hitting their music stands and laughing with each other’. The lively audience response was apparently matched by the behaviour of the thirteen musicians that comprised the ‘orchestra’ – seven strings, three woodwind and three brass, many of these doubling instruments – whose conduct was described by Cage as ‘foolish and unprofessional’ and who, according to composer and scholar Fredric Lieberman, ‘were not following what they had on the page. 1 (1952), Williams Mix (1952), and the Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1957–58). It has become notorious for the increasingly volatile reaction from the audience, who became ever more vocal and animated in the final part of the programme, which featured some of Cage’s more recent, chance-derived music: Music for Carillon no. The premiere performance of the Concert, at an expectant New York Town Hall on, formed the finale of a lengthy and varied programme surveying twenty-five years of Cage’s music. In doing so, it draws upon extensive interviews with, and performances by, the British ensemble Apartment House. This essay first outlines the historical evidence from the early performances, examining recordings and other documentation, and secondly considers the potentialities of the music and its conditions beyond those typically associated with early (and some later) recordings. By contrast, the interpretative methods of pianist David Tudor, who performed in both premieres, are upheld as the model par excellence of the rigorous, imaginative and intelligent responses Cage’s indeterminate music invites. The (bad) behaviour and interpretations of the orchestral musicians in both the world and European premiere performances have since formed the basis of a reactionary performance ideal, exemplifying the antithesis of the ego-less and disciplined approach Cage’s music is thought to require. The circumstances of the first performances of John Cage’s Concert for Piano and Orchestra are the stuff of Cage legend and are among the earliest instances of critical incidents leading to presumptions of a distinct, Cageian performance practice. She is co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Time in Music (forthcoming, 2020) and Material Cultures of Music Notation: New Perspectives on Musical Inscription (Routledge, forthcoming, 2020). Her work is published in Contemporary Music Review, Cultural Geographies, Music & Letters and Musicae Scientiae. His books New Music at Darmstadt, John Cage and David Tudor, and John Cage and Peter Yates are published by Cambridge University Press.Įmily Payne is a Lecturer in Music at the University of Leeds, having joined the department as a Postdoctoral Research Assistant on the AHRC-funded project, ‘John Cage and the Concert for Piano and Orchestra’ (2015–18). His musicological research has largely focussed on post-war music in Germany and the United States of America. Martin studied composition and musicology at the Universities of Durham and Cambridge and has also studied composition privately with Steve Martland, Chaya Czernowin, and Steven Kazuo Takasugi. He joined the staff at the University of Leeds in December 2009, having previously lectured at University College Cork and Lancaster University. Martin Iddon is a composer and musicologist. More details about Philip’s work and forthcoming events can be found at. As a performer, he places much emphasis on each concert being a unique event, designing imaginative programmes that provoke and suggest connections. He specialises in performing and in writing about new and experimental music, including both notated and improvised music. Philip Thomas is a Professor of Performance at the University of Huddersfield, having joined the institution in 2005. DOI: 10.32063/0506 Philip Thomas, Martin Iddon, Emily Payne
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