April 5, 1986 John Cage's "Ryoanji" at New Music America Houston
Robert Aitken, flute; Robert Black, double bass; James Fulkerson, trombone; Isabelle Ganz, soprano; James Ostryniec, oboe; Michael Pugliese, percussion
John Cage: Ryoanji
performed by Robert Black, James Fulkerson, Isabelle Ganz, James Ostryniec, and Michael Pugliese
https://www.lauriemcdonald.net/john-cage-from-new-music-america.html
New Music America, 1986 excerpt: John Cage's work "Ryoanji" 06:38; original running time 57:06, assisted by Bob Ball
When a handful of composers and musicians staged a week-long festival in New York in 1979, they had little idea how large an audience "new music" would attract. Thousands of people stood in line for hours for a chance to crowd into performances.
I presume this is from the Birmingham in England rather than Alabama, but I’d love to be proven wrong! The Birmingham Contemporary Music Group’s Stephen Meier offers an introduction:
Photo by Jin Hi Kim. (L. to R.) Robert Black, James Fulkerson, John Cage, Isabelle Ganz, Michael Pugliese, James Ostryniec. Michael’s caption: The person with all the cameras draping all over him is the very great Ben DeSoto. In the back on the extreme far left in the tan coat with raised sunglasses is Scott Sommers who was the producer of "The Avant Garde" radio program for KPFT 90.1 FM for more than 25 years
Michael Galbreth’s Facebook memories and Phil Krieg’s photos:
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A review of the out-of-print Mode Records album featuring Frances-Marie Uitti, Isabelle Ganz and Michael Pugliese, made in 1984. Review by Eugene Chadbourne, this plucked from the Soundohm site: https://www.soundohm.com/product/etudes-boreales-ryoanji
Very scarce John cage album released on Mode Records in the early eighties. This two-record set collects some terrific performances in solo and duo contexts and is also quite a fine welcome mat into the Cage . By comparing different versions of Etudes Boreales -- first piano solo, then cello solo, then combined -- much can be gleaned about the way this composer thinks, a endlessly interesting subject in itself. The individual players are virtuosos not only in playing but thinking as well, coming up with interpretations impacted by a sympathy of intellect with the composer himself and overlooking any potential for the type of cheap instrumental thrills Cage reviled. Frances-Marie Uitti is a cellist who has also made a name for herself in the free improvisation scene, the land of cheap thrills. Her performances have involved the introduction of a freaky playing style involving two bows at once. She seems to be completely in touch with where this composition is going at all times, even and best of all when it is going nowhere. Michael Pugliese is marvelously versatile, performing the previously mentioned composition on piano as both soloist and duo partner as well as performing on percussion behind mezzo- soprano Isabelle Ganz for a haunting version of the somewhat newer composition Ryoanji. The difference between piano and percussion is actually quite slight, expounded on at length in the composer's typically informative liner notes. Musically, this is Cage in his most well-traveled territory, dismantling the structure of his compositions through a series of analytical questions and allowing the I Ching to put it back together again. The players featured are among the cream of the crop in terms of Cage interpreters from the last two decades of the composer's life. Pugliese really puts it all together in terms of the piano's sonic heritage in the classical world, the overwhelmingly new and different sounds that come from inside the instrument itself in Cage's compositions, and the piano's actual status as a percussion instrument. Ganz should get a medal for singing more different types of glissandi than listeners probably thought existed”
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John Cage’s visual art is not as well known, but there were visual components to his Ryoanji; a quick look didn’t confirm for me whether these are merely being talked about or are actually housed at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. There are also a lot of findings to be had via the visual arts sites that excel in graphics that slow down my $400 computer…
From the website: https://www.nga.gov/features/yes-no-maybe/cage/ryo.html
Here, as well: https://sammlung.staedelmuseum.de/en/work/5-r7-where-r-ryoanji
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Other versions of Ryoanji:
Malcolm Goldstein’s version - voice transcribed for violin:
The wonderful Joelle Léandre accompanied by Ninh Lê Quan, Berlin 1995
A short student performance version by Tim Feeney and Liz Tonne. I presume “student” not only because of the visual, but also because it seems there’s a professor making use of the comments section!
Recorded in Yokohama 2018 with Yakushiji Noriko (voice) Unagami Nagisa (oboe) Aita Mizuki (percussion):
Bruce Collings, trombone; Dirk Rothbrust, percussion and Carl Rosman, clarinet from the series Montagskonzerte in Köln, Germany, 2018:
Audio only links on y2b: 2013 posting by "Nifhem Li Inti" of a version from People's Park in Lublin, China (link) - 2014 flute version by Pierre-Yves Artaud and Jean-Charles François (link) - Stefano Scodanibbio audio version from 2007 on Wergo; Dario Calderone, contrabass (link) - A 2016 version by Catherine Lee, oboe, John C. Savage, flute and Matt Hannafin, percussion. (link) - Katrin Zenz and Maxim Mankovski fromj a 2015 Naxos recording (link) - The Ives Ensemble from a 1994 recording (link)
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I’ve put these and other versions at the DJ Notdeadyet’s y2b channel under “1986 NMA Houston Spares” (slightly messy at the moment):
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmyw9E0_Jh8Z4tPXkLoDT4re5gw-9X-_k
