# Best Cage Work besides 4'33"



## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

No 4'33" jokes. I found Music of Changes interesting


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

His works for prepared piano.


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## lehnert (Apr 12, 2016)

I'm not a Cage specialist but I like his Root of an Unfocus:


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## Myriadi (Mar 6, 2016)

Pre-chance: Sonatas and Interludes, Six Melodies, String Quartet in Four Parts
Chance: too difficult to choose.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

I would agree with Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano. I think many people would be rather surprised to hear some piano works from his CD _In a Landscape_.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

I dunno about "best", but _In a Landscape_ and the vocal work _Five_ are gorgeous pieces of music.


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## Omicron9 (Oct 13, 2016)

Art Rock said:


> His works for prepared piano.


I was gonna say this, but you beat me to it. 

There is no "best" Cage (or any other's) work; only favorites. And in that spirit....

I'd also say his string quartets; practically unknown it seems. There is a recording of them; I want to say on DG by LaSalle, but can't be totally sure.

-09


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## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

Yep. The Sonatas & Interludes for Prepared piano are very good and very interesting.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

His works for prepared piano is the only set of compositions that are well regarded more broadly, so I would start with those.


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## tortkis (Jul 13, 2013)

Cage's compositions have so many varieties and it is really difficult to choose. Wikipedia nicely categorized his works in chronological order. These are some of my favorites in each period.

Apprenticeship period (1932-36) - I don't know much about this period. Quartet for percussion ensemble is good.
Modern dance, prepared piano, and the transition to chance (1937-51) - Sonatas and Interludes, but there are many great pieces, including very lyrical piano works and string quartet in four parts.
First chance works (1951-59) - Music of Changes
Happenings, theater (1959-68) - I am not so much a fan of happenings
Return to composition (1969-86) - Freeman Etudes, other etudes are excellent too, and works for voice
Number Pieces and other late works (1987-92) - One9 for sho, Twenty-Six for 26 violins


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I've spent some time listening to Cage. I have that 10-CD box set of the Complete Piano Music performed by Steffen Schleiermacher and I've worked my way through it. I often don't much care for what I hear from Cage, but at times he's intriguing and/or interesting. And at his best he's compelling.

Decades ago I chanced upon Cage's Concerto for Prepared Piano & Orchestra in Three Parts (on a Nonesuch LP along with the Lucas Foss Baroque Variations). This 1951 concerto remains for me a spellbinding work and I return to it often (on the original issue LP). There is also a less compelling Concert for Prepared Piano & Orchestra from 1957-58. Somehow to my ears it is not as astounding as the earlier work, but then Cage's music is meant to be fluid and any recording of it does it an injustice, in a sense. So perhaps a different intepretation of that Concert would please me moreso. I have only the recording on WERGO CD 6216-2.

That same WERGO disc presents a 41 minute version of one of my favorite Cage pieces: Atlas Eclipticalis (1961-62) for orchestra. Dim the lights, sit in your listening chair and go with the flow sometime with this spinning in your disc player. I return to this perhaps most often of the fair collection of Cage discs I have. Again, it is a work that will be different each time it is performed, so this recording is only a single rendition of music that has endless possibilities.

If you can't spare 41 minutes, there is a version of Atlas Eclipticalis, again for orchestra, that paces out at 14:19 and is performed by James Levine and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on Deutsche Grammophon disc 431 698-2 along with Elliott Carter's "Variations", Gunther Schuller's "Spectra", and Milton Babbitt's "Correspondences." An interesting disc of modern music, but the Cage piece may be the prize here.

So ... I recommend Atlas Eclipticalis. Cage wrote the piece using an astronomical atlas of star charts, placing score paper transparencies over the charts and turning the star positions into notes. Hey, if Beethoven would 'ave thought of it, he'd of done it, you can bet.

[video]https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwiWg5GXy4LTAhUEYyYKHUT0BmMQ3ywIHDAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dnk y14InylDM&usg=AFQjCNH7xfMtJoiLtCXm5FQr8FL_abGlOw&bvm=bv.151325232,d.eWE[/video]


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## Myriadi (Mar 6, 2016)

SONNET CLV said:


> I've spent some time listening to Cage. I have that 10-CD box set of the Complete Piano Music performed by Steffen Schleiermacher and I've worked my way through it. I often don't much care for what I hear from Cage, but at time he's intriguing and/or interesting. And at his best he's compelling.


Your Wergo disc is an excellent production, but the Schleiermacher recordings are rather bad. With the fully notated pieces I've noticed that very frequently he plays things wrong, timings and notes alike. For Cage's piano works, if you're ever in the mood, maybe try Drury, Joste, Liebner, or the few things Cage and/or Tudor have recorded themselves.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Myriadi said:


> Your Wergo disc is an excellent production, but the Schleiermacher recordings are rather bad. With the fully notated pieces I've noticed that very frequently he plays things wrong, timings and notes alike. For Cage's piano works, if you're ever in the mood, maybe try Drury, Joste, Liebner, or the few things Cage and/or Tudor have recorded themselves.


That's odd. I never noticed the mistakes and wrong notes in these Cage piano pieces. Shame on me. My ears must be better atuned to Mozart and Beethoven, 'cause I do occasionally catch mistakes here and there in performances of their music.

Then again, is it possible to have a wrong note in a Cage work? After all, Cage was open to random, outside sounds that interpolated themselves into his musical pieces. And he allowed much to chance (accident) and performer decisions. I almost suspect that it is as legitimate to Cage's way of thinking that the performer chooses _not _to play the piece as to play it, either decision being a_ performance_ of the piece. This is, after all, the fellow who said: "Ideas are one thing and what happens is another," and "If you develop an ear for sounds that are musical it is like developing an ego. You begin to refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience." He also said this: "As far as consistency of thought goes, I prefer inconsistency," and "A 'mistake' is beside the point, for once anything happens it authentically is," and, finally, "Whether I make them or not, there are always sounds to be heard and all of them are excellent."

Well, not finally. Cage also said this: "If my work is accepted, I must move on to the point where it is not."

Is there really a right way or wrong way to perform a Cage work? I wonder.


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## tortkis (Jul 13, 2013)

I believe Cage disliked a musician's taste or cliche sneaking into the performance of a musical piece. I guess he might have accepted unintentional mistakes or accidents. I read that Cage was very specific about the right way of performance of his pieces. I am not saying listeners should follow his judgements, though.

For example, Crismani's performance of Études Australes sounds almost romantic, very different from Sultan's or Liebner's. Although I am not sure, I suspect there are large differences from the score, which are probably from his purposeful interpretation. I am very curious what Cage would have said about the Crismani's rendition. (Personally, I like it as well as other pianists' recordings.)


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

mmsbls said:


> I would agree with Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano. I think many people would be rather surprised to hear some piano works from his CD _In a Landscape_.


Can someone recommend a recording for those who wish to explore?


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## Myriadi (Mar 6, 2016)

SONNET CLV said:


> That's odd. I never noticed the mistakes and wrong notes in these Cage piano pieces. Shame on me. My ears must be better atuned to Mozart and Beethoven, 'cause I do occasionally catch mistakes here and there in performances of their music.


I like to follow the score when listening to music, and I have some Cage scores, that's all.



SONNET CLV said:


> Then again, is it possible to have a wrong note in a Cage work? After all, Cage was open to random, outside sounds that interpolated themselves into his musical pieces.


tortkis beat me to it. I've read quite a few books on/by Cage; I'm pretty sure he would not want a performer's personal preferences/stylistic mannerisms to get in the way of the music. After all, the fully notated pieces were composed so that they would actually exclude anything other than chance governing the sounds, so you have to remain faithful to the score if you want the result to really be chance-derived. (Not sure if this is making sense, but it's hard for me to think in English at this late hour, and after a full day of unpleasant pranks... Anyway, tortkis put it way better than I could.)


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## Myriadi (Mar 6, 2016)

Triplets said:


> Can someone recommend a recording for those who wish to explore?


mmsbls already mentioned the _In a Landscape_ CD by Drury, but if you're referring to the _Sonatas and Interludes_, I like the versions by Tilbury and Vandre, and the old Berman recording on Naxos isn't bad at all, if a bit dry.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Second Construction

He could make good music when he wanted to.


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