Skip to main content

John Cage – Music for Carillon No.1 (1952)

 

John Cage’s “Music for Carillon No.1” is a short avant-garde musical piece that consists of unconventional rhythms as well as the melody, as if the artist is randomly playing the carillon bells. The unconventional use of the bells that is capsuled in four minute demonstrates the artist’s approach to the traditional ways of using the instruments. While carillons are often used in churches in a way slower and melodic rhythm which most people who have been in a town with church buildings might be familiar of; Cage’s performance for this piece is in quite the opposite way, more like questioning the traditional ways that only repeat each other for over centuries now.

My personal experience of “Music for Carillon No.1” is absolutely inconsistent and relatively elusive. I felt deeply uneasy with Cage’s use of bells, accompanied with forcing myself to be able to focus on the unconventional melody. I did not even get to be dragged in the mood of the piece because of zoning in and out. What comes to me so impressive that it could be exactly what John Cage aimed to experiment with his listeners. The unpredictability and the dark frighten people. The more we know and explore, the more we are comfortable. Therefore, the discomfort on the audience created through the application of unusual elements is very much common among avant-garde artists.

My take from that short but tough-to-listen-to music is that John Cage created a prime example of the approach embraced by some artists who prefer to cross the boundaries and limitations of certain instruments or genres. Life can be unpredictable and unexpected; therefore, the piece reminds us to reconsider our expectations from music as well as our expectations from life in general, while personally reminding me of ‘art imitates life’.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Listening Report on John Oswald: Plexure

 Sarah Kumar Dr. Bernd Herzogenrath The Future of (American) Music 06 Mar. 2023 Listening Report on John Oswald: Plexure According to John Oswald, “[a] plunderphone is a recognizable sonic quote, using the actual sound of something familiar which has already been recorded” (Lecture Slides 18). However, only if the source stays recognizable can it be called plunderphonics. In his album Plexure , several songs are played back and mixed together, thus creating a new sound. This is interesting because while the excerpts of songs that are used are recognizable or at least sound familiar to some degree, played backwards and mashed up as they are in Plexure , they create a new sound. Like on the cover of the album, on which a collage making up a man can be seen, the mixing of different songs played backwards gives a new feeling to something known. The way the songs are mixed makes them unintelligible. The meaning of the words of the original recordings are not able to be compr...

John Cage – Inlets

  This does not sound like music to me. Depending on the interpretation of different players or performers, this piece will always sound different. In this case, it sounds to me like someone is walking through a cave with water at the bottom, dragging their feet through it. Sometimes it sounds like water in a toilet bowl, especially when we hear the water in a bigger shell being swished around. These sounds are relaxing in the background, it is like a gentle stream of water. I just wonder what went through the head of the composer while writing this piece. But I guess he had some experimental ideas that are interesting to try out. Those shells are quite pretty, I have never seen such big ones that are not broken. I was surprised when something else happened towards the end of the piece. That tone which came out of the one shell was so clear, it sounded like a trumpet. I didn’t know that shells can sound like that. It was quite beautiful. It was a nice way to end the piece. I di...

William Basinski – The Disintegration Loops III

  The Disintegration Loops is a quartet of albums published in 2002 and 2003 by American avant-garde composer William Basinski. The pieces are made up of tape loop recordings that were played over time, with noise and crackles rising as the tape deteriorated. Basinski noticed this effect when attempting to convert his older recordings to digital format. The completion of the recordings coincided with the September 11, 2001 events, which Basinski witnessed and adds a deeper meaning to the composition. The composition is fascinating in many ways and makes the listener lose track of time. The tape loop recording had a very calming effect on me and put me in a trance-like state when I listened to it in its entirety. The tape loop is really soothing, so much so that I didn't even notice the loss of quality when I first listened to it. It makes you forget about time and allows you to really get into the piece capturing the calmness it exudes. You forget or don't really notice how i...