John Cage/Christian Wolff split release REPOST

John Cage/Christian Wolff - split release

I posted this LP a couple of years ago which was a gift from one of this blog's visitors. Apparently the link in the original post is dead. Since I managed to obtain a copy, I decided to use my copy for reposting as my copy from the original post is buried somewhere in my archive of CD-Rs. If you got this from the original post you may want to get it from this repost as liner notes and photos from the record jacket are included this time.


The title, CARTRIDGE MUSIC, derives from the use in its performance of "Cartridges," phonograph pick-ups into which needles are inserted for playing recordings. Contact microphones are also used. These latter are applied to chairs, tables, waste baskets, etc.; various suitable objects (toothpicks, matches, slinkies, piano wires, feathers, etc.) are inserted in the cartridges. Both the microphones and cartridges are connected to amplifiers which go to loud-speakers, the majority of the sounds produced being small and requiring amplification in order to be heard. The dials of the amplifiers affecting volume and tone are controlled by the performers.
...
The sounds which result are noises, some complex, others extremely simple such as amplifier feed-back, loud-speaker hum, etc. (All sounds, even those ordinarily thought to be undesirable, are accepted in this music.)
...
Following the suggestion of David Tudor, the recording is the superimposition of four performers by the two of us. This is within the spirit of the directions given which accompany the material supplied ("there may be any number of performers equal at least to the number of cartridges and not greater than twice the number of cartridges"), and it takes advantage of physical possibilities in a recording studio which are not available in concert performance. (John Cage)



These are performances that happen to have been recorded under very good conditions.

The three pieces are all written in such a way that no two performances are likely to be the same. The way the instruments coordinate and the fact that the players constantly have options of what to play (say, one of three pitches, any pitch at a fixed loudness, any loudness at a fixed timbre) brings this about. The coordination - how the players play together - is not, in turn, for the most part, related to fixed time, of a beat or of the clock. The players are given indications of when to play simultaneously, one immediately after the other, overlapping, or alone. A situation is indicated, but not when one is to enter into it, nor, necessarily, for how long one is in it. Durations of individual notes may be indicated as relatively short, long, or free, or they may be determined by the requirements of a situation. For example, it is indicated that two players play simultaneously for a free duration. One of the two, whoever decides to do so first (without prior agreement), starts to play. The other, hearing this, must join immediately. Both play. One of the two, whoever does so first, stops playing. The other must stop immediately. The sound may have come at any point of time and may have been of any duration, as the players played, either one of them deciding and the other according with the decision as he heard it, each at each juncture (beginning, alteration, and end) of the sound.

Each of the pieces are made up of parts of varying lengths which can be repeated any number of times: they will tend to be different at each repetition. The continuity of the parts within a piece, then, is up to the players. Each can decide to play where he can begin a part, and the others must follow. It may happen that the players lose their way when, for example, two start different parts simultaneously, or one starts a part (which he indicates by making the first sound in that part) and the other mistakes that sound for another. That is part of the piece. The players, once they are aware of what has happened, stop and make a new beginning. A piece lasts as long as the players wish to continue it. I chose performances that would fit on the record. (Christian Wolff)

Tracklisting:

Side A

1. John Cage - Cartridge Music {19:44}
John Cage and David Tudor - cartridges and contact microphones

Side B

1. Christian Wolff - Duo for Violinist and Pianist {5:04}
Kenji Kobayashi - violin, David Tudor - piano; composed in August 1961

2. Christian Wolff - Duet II {7:55}
Howard Hillyer - horn, David Tudor - piano; composed in January 1961

3. Christian Wolff - Summer {9:08}
Matthew Raimondi and Kenji Kobayashi - violins, Walter Trampler - viola, David Soyer - cello; composed in August 1961

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