Skip to main content

John Cage - Water Walk

John Cage's music "Water Walk" was originally performed in 1960. The use of commonplace things as instruments makes the work distinctive. A bathtub, a rubber duck, a radio, and other objects are required by the score. A fun and experimental atmosphere that questions conventional ideas of music is the final result.

I found myself listening to "Water Walk" and felt both curious and amused. Seeing how Cage used these seemingly insignificant things into a well-resolved musical composition was intriguing. Particularly intriguing were the noises of the rubber duck and bathtub, which gave the music a unique “texture” that I had never heard before.

Nevertheless, there were also times when the noises were startling and discordant, which gave me a somewhat uneasy feeling. It seems as though Cage was consciously attempting to subvert my preconceived notions of what music ought to sound like. While this was first difficult, I discovered that as the composition developed, I started to be more receptive to these unusual noises.

The way "Water Walk" blurred the lines between music and performance art was one of the things that really grabbed me about it. It was nearly as fascinating to see the performers work with the various objects as it was to hear the sounds they were making. It appeared as though the performance piece invited the audience to watch and take part in addition to listening.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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...

Pauline Oliveros – The Goddard in the Dan Harpole Cistern

  After watching Dan Harpole's film of Goddard in the Cistern, one is struck by how creepy the location appears and feels. In the light, you can just make out a lengthy ladder leading down into a concrete-walled area. It's absolutely dark, with only the top hatch and a small lamp providing lighting. This sequence accounts for a significant portion of the plot. Three persons are seen climbing up and down the ladder, which might be regarded the music piece's official start. Additionally, while the name "Dan Harpole Cistern" suggests a vast space, it appears to be a homemade video. A hum and other vocal noises travel across the room, bouncing off the walls. The women's voices generate a hum that contributes to the room's unique feel. The beautiful singing is interrupted by metal fragments falling on the floor. One would ask how much thought went into the sounds, given that the majority of them appear to be chosen at random. The emphasis is not on making sound...

John Luther Adams – Drums Of Fire, Drums Of Stone

  The track begins with a thunderstorm, where you can hear the thunder and rain. This is followed by a very lively part with drum sounds that captured me directly and also let me drum along in my mind. I felt directly transported to a movie scene in which warriors beat on huge drums in the middle of a thunderstorm to announce the arrival of their leader.   Starting at 1:20, the beat of the drums changes and more beats are added. Strikingly, each time the beat of the drums changes, there is a brief pause in which only the sounds of the thunderstorm, or whatever the sounds are supposed to represent, can be heard. The use of the drums makes it a very energetic piece, reminiscent of fight scenes in movies, but it could also be used to prepare for an important competition for top athletes. Just before the sixth minute, however, it takes on a somber note, and the tension in the piece seems to build, like a countdown in a movie where something exciting is about to happen, ending with...