Cage: The Works for Percussion I

I'd argue that no other Cage percussion disc reconnects us with the shock of how Cage questioned every cliche about music, and why people should want to create it, as powerfully. — Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2011 More…

Release Date: 1st Aug 2011
Catalogue No: MOD-DVD-229
Label: Mode
Series: The Complete John Cage Edition

Gramophone Magazine

Awards Issue 2011

Editor's Choice

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Cage: Credo in Us

CCM Percussion Ensemble
James Culley

Cage: Imaginary Landscapes 1-5

CCM Percussion Ensemble
James Culley

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CAGE ON ORIGINAL INSTRUMENTS!

The first modern recording to utilise Cage’s specified 78-rpm test tone records played on variable-speed phono turntables and 78-rpm records Cage’s percussion works are among his most historically important. After 42 Volumes in Mode’s Cage Edition, Mode is releasing the first volume dedicated to his percussion music.

Percussion Group Cincinnati is particularly respected for its knowledge of and experience with the entire range of Cage’s music, having made tours and festival appearances with him on a number of occasions in Europe and in America, and having had pieces created by Cage especially for the Group.

Volume 1 consists of the complete Imaginary Landscapes 1-5 (1939-52) and Credo in Us (1942). Some of these works’ revolutionary features include the use of radios and phonograph recordings — anticipating the concept of sampling. The actual records and turntable specified in the score were located and used for this recording.

Reviews

Awards Issue 2011

I'd argue that no other Cage percussion disc reconnects us with the shock of how Cage questioned every cliche about music, and why people should want to create it, as powerfully.

28th July 2011

The realisations of these pieces by the Cincinatti Percussion Group are both imaginative and often distinctly tongue-in-cheek; there are two versions of No 5 here, for instance, one using jazz recordings from the early 1950s, when the piece was written, the other using only recordings of Cage's own music.

29th July 2011

Despite the title, this 43rd volume of Mode's John Cage Edition focuses more on his early experiments with radios, tape and turntables...The results are, literally, hit and miss, but absorbing.

Cage: The Works for Percussion I

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