There is a persistent misunderstanding that John Cage was more of a philosopher than a composer. Ever since his teacher Schönberg once added that he was more of an inventor than a composer, a legend has arisen that Cage's works were more of a demonstration of his radically innovative theories than isolated pieces of music. But Cage's revolutionary ideas about the use of silence and coincidence in
… music were not just some aesthetic test balloons, but essential components of what was in fact a remarkably systematic view of composing. Central to this is the attention to the musical value of all sounds, the great weight of the preparatory phase of composing (with Cage determining by chance what is going to happen) and an almost religiously rigorous search for the essential characteristics of what music is (or can be). Those elements recur in almost all of Cage's pieces and their very large number demonstrates that Cage was primarily a composer. Typical of his great activity as a writer of (instead of: thinker about) music are the many pieces from his last years, which have only one number as their title. That number only indicates the number of players. Sometimes it is followed by a superscript written number, but that is not a reference to exponentiation, but a simple indication that this is the second or third piece for five players. On this CD The Barton Workshop plays the five 'Fives' by Cage (so 5, 52 to 55). With the first, the choice of occupation is left to the performers; here is a version for five clarinets. The other versions are for althobo, two clarinets, bass clarinet and timpani (52) or trombone and string quartet (53). The compositional process is identical in all works. Each player is given a number of notes, accompanied by a starting and ending margin: they can start playing that note within a certain period of time and stop playing within a specified period. Thus, these works are still quite recognizable in different versions, while at the same time they provide a large margin of freedom. When listened to they turn out to be remarkably subdued pieces of music, which involuntarily evoke the impression of a personal 'Spätstil' - a closing period in which composers write remarkably calm, introverted music, such as Beethoven and Shostakovich. This shows once again that, despite his groundbreaking originality, Cage was in some ways a composer like anyone else. The performance of the Barton Workshop specialized in this type of repertoire is of good quality. (JvG) The performance of the Barton Workshop specialized in this type of repertoire is of good quality. (JvG) The performance of the Barton Workshop specialized in this type of repertoire is of good quality. (JvG)more
