Skip to main content

Listening Report – John Cage: Water Walk

John Cage’s “Water Walk” was performed at a Television Show in 1960. The performance includes several objects that are known as ordinary household objects, such as a bathtub, or a cooking pot. John Cage also uses a different variation of a piano which is called “prepared piano”, a stopwatch, and a recording device.

The Water Walk shows similarities to a performance of classical music, played by an orchestra. While an orchestra contains a variety of instruments, the Water Walk by John Cage replaces the instruments and uses household items instead. Another similarity can be seen at the precise timing for the usage of the objects: Just like an Orchestra, John Cage follows a strict plan to have the objects create the sound at the right time and therefore be in the right order. The performer also possesses the role of the director, since he is in control of the objects and creates the right sound at the right time, just like a director in an orchestra tells the instrumentalists when to play and when to stop to create harmony between the sounds.

The beginning of the Water Walk contains the creation of a rather horrifying sound by the prepared piano, followed by sounds that are made by various objects. The disturbing feeling is being reinforced by the scenery of the Water Walk, since it can be seen as odd to see how different sounds are made by putting objects inside a glass, putting water from the bathtub into a water pitcher, or hitting the bathtub with a stick-like object while looking at the stopwatch for the right timing.

However, it can also be interesting to see what sounds are made by everyday objects that do not get the attention of listeners when they appear while being used in a household, due to their lack of specialty. Therefore, it can be assumed that everything can be seen as music if people draw their attention towards it.

During the performance of the Water Walk, laughter can be heard by the audience which means that the Water Walk was perceived as something that is humoristic and entertaining, rather than something that is artistic and intellectual like a performance in an orchestra. The Audience would have shown a rather silent and attentive reaction if the performance contains classical music. This leads to the assumption that John Cage’s “Water Walk” is meant to be a parody of classical music performances and orchestras.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more