James Pritchett: Writings on John Cage (and others)

This site contains a selection of my writings, mostly about the music of composer John Cage, but also about other music, and some original poetry of mine.

What's new

• I'm digging into the archives here and adding some older texts that I just never got around to converting to HTML. First up: the notes for Cage's Five³.
• I just added the notes I wrote for the new Mode Records release Centre Bridge, electroacoustic works by Frances White. This is the first CD devoted to Frances' works, which are remarkable and unique. Highly recommended!
• I added a page of information about me, for those who are interested. I also added a page with contact information.
• I just added the notes I wrote for the new Mode Records 2-CD release of Cage's shorter works for prepared piano (Mode 180-181). This recording by Philipp Vandré is an excellent companion to Vandré's earlier release of Cage's Sonatas and interludes (also on Mode).
• This site is now hosted by Rose White Music, the website for composer Frances White.
• I improved the web layout for my text The old rose reader to help people orient themselves. I also added a short explanatory text about this work.

Table of contents

The following is a table of contents to the site:

• Music: John Cage
  • List of works
  • Specific pieces
  • General
• Other music
• On writing about music
• Poems & other texts
• About me
• Contact me

Music: John Cage

List of works

This is a chronological listing of all the completed musical works of John Cage. HTML

Specific pieces

• The story of "The city wears a slouch hat". This is the text that accompanies the recording available on Mode Records. It is an account of the history of Cage's score for Kenneth Patchen's radio play. HTML PDF
• Cage and the prepared piano: a twelve-year history in six parts. This is the text that accompanies the recording "John Cage: Complete Short Works for Prepared Piano" from Mode Records. It is a history of Cage's shorter solo works for prepared piano, almost all of them written for dancers. HTML
• Six views of the "Sonatas and Interludes". This is the text that accompanies the recording available on Mode Records. As the title says, it presents six different perspectives on Cage's well-known early masterpiece. HTML PDF
• The Ten Thousand Things. This is the chapter from my dissertation (The use of chance techniques in the music of John Cage, 1950-1956) that deals with the "time length" pieces of 1953-1956. It is reproduced here without the figures (for which I would need scans and permissions), but otherwise intact. (I hope to put all of my dissertation online at some point, time permitting). HTML
• Notes on Winter music/Atlas eclipticalis and 103. This is the text that accompanies the recording of these works as conducted by Petr Kotik, available on Asphodel Records. HTML
• Variations II. See under Other music below.
• Imitations/transformations This text concerns Cage's Harmonies and Cheap imitation. It accompanies the recording of these works available from Mode Records. HTML
• Freeman etudes. This combines the two texts that accompany the two volumes of the recording available on Mode Records. The first part is a general discussion of the work; the second part is an account of the completion of this work after a lengthy hiatus. HTML
• "Instead of separation, a sense of space". This text accompanied an installation of Cage's "Essay" in Berlin in 1993. HTML PDF
• On "Europeras 3 & 4". This is the text that accompanies the recording available on Mode Records. It is in two parts, one for each opera. Each part consists of several sections dealing with a different aspect, view, or impression of the work. HTML
• About continuity and Cage's Five³. This is the text that accompanies the recording available on Mode Records HTML
• One⁸. This is the text that accompanies the recording available on Mode Records. HTML

General

• "Something like a hidden glimmering": John Cage and recorded sound. This is a study of John Cage's use of recorded sound in his music. It suggests a spiritual perspective on the subject rather than a narrowly technical one. PDF
• Introduction to "The music of John Cage". This is the introduction from my book on Cage's music, available from Cambridge University Press (and which can be ordered from amazon.com). The introduction presents my argument that Cage must be considered first and foremost as a composer, not as a philosopher. HTML
• Choral music: a timeline. This is the text accompanies the recording from Mode Records. It presents views of a collection of Cage choral works in the context of a historical chronology. HTML

Other music

• Frances White: Centre Bridge This is the text that accompanies the CD of electroacoustic works by Frances White available on Mode Records. It deals with the idea of transformation in White's work. HTML
• Profile of Frances White This is a profile of Frances White that I wrote for "Array", the journal of the International Computer Music Association. HTML
• David Tudor's realization of Cage's Variations II This essay documents the method Tudor used in his version of Variations II for amplified piano. It is based on my work with the Tudor manuscripts at the Getty Research Institute. HTML PDF (hosted at Getty Research Institute)
• Walls of sound. This is the text that accompanies Ulrich Krieger's recording available on O.O. Discs. It presents a background of text about unity and constant sound, coupled with short foreground texts about the specific works on the recording. PDF
• On Bach and the curved bow. This is the text that accompanies Michael Bach's recording of J. S. Bach's solo cello suites on Mode Records. The performer uses a curved cello bow which allows him to play the three- and four-note chords without arpeggiation. My text considers the significance and historical implications of the curved bow in the performance of Bach's music. HTML
• Richard Strauss: Melodramas. This text accompanies the recording of two Strauss melodramas ("Enoch Arden" and "The castle by the sea") on Mode Records. The text is primarily concerned with a presentation of the medium of the melodrama in a critical perspective. HTML

On writing about music

• Alternatives to explanation. This is a brief text that suggests ways to avoid the trap in writing about music of explaining what happens. HTML

Poems & other texts

• The Old Rose Reader. Written to accompany Frances White's composition for violin and electronic sound. For the composition, an animated text video was made. HTML
• Birdwing (for Frances). Written to accompany Frances White's composition for shakuhachi and tape HTML
• While listening to the waves (at Island Beach). Written to accompany Frances White's composition for erhu, zheng, xiao, and pipa. HTML