Earle Brown: Four Systems (1954)
John Cage: Music for Amplified Toy Pianos (1960)
John Cage: Music for Carillon 1 - 3 (1952/54)
Christian Wolff: Edges (1968)
Gentle Fire: Richard Bernas, Hugh Davies, Graham Hearn, Stuart Jones, Michael Robinson
Engineers: Allan Parsons & Stuart Eltham
A milestone of electro-acoustic music from this legendary British ensemble. The group, and each of its members for himself, were pioneering in the fields of live-electronics, instrument construction and collective composition. Also closely associated with the experimental work of Stockhausen in the early 70s, they were one of the groups playing in "Sternklang").
This record features a selection of graphic scores from three of the four composers of the New York School. It is remarkable how each of the pieces on this album unfolds in its own sound world.
"Edges" by Christian Wolff is just one page of loosely arranged symbols and words, to be (not) played in rather unusual ways. Here's the instructions for the performance:
The score for Cage's "Music for Amplified Toy Pianos" is a collection of transparent sheets with dots, small circles, a line and a grid. Superimposing the sheets, the performers are instructed to read the markings as predefined categories of sound events, in relation to the grid which provides the dimensions of pitch/sound (vertical) and time (horizontal). A single reading of the score material may look like this:
Enjoy electro-sonic beauty: (1)
