Search - John Cage :: Empty Words, Part III: Live Teatro Lyrico Di Milano, 2 Dec. 1977

John Cage
Empty Words, Part III: Live Teatro Lyrico Di Milano, 2 Dec. 1977
Genres: Dance & Electronic, Special Interest, Classical

Track Listings (4) - Disc #1
1. notAt evening right can see suited to the morning hour
2. s or past another thise and on ghth wouldhad
3. theAf perchgreathind and ten
4. ie thA h bath I c r t o no sn I er ts p rt oo s spwlae sbr

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CD Details

All Artists: John Cage
Title: Empty Words, Part III: Live Teatro Lyrico Di Milano, 2 Dec. 1977
Members Wishing: 2
Total Copies: 0
Label: Ampersand
Original Release Date: 1/1/2002
Re-Release Date: 11/23/2004
Album Type: Original recording remastered
Genres: Dance & Electronic, Special Interest, Classical
Styles: Techno, Chamber Music, Historical Periods, Classical (c.1770-1830)
Number of Discs: 2
SwapaCD Credits: 2
UPC: 646315300628

Synopsis

Product Description

(2-CD set) This is something of an epic in reverse: a diminutive vocal exercise divided into four distinct parts that gradually breaks down the writings on sound from Henry David Thoreau's Journal into pure vocalise. Disarticulated, distended and utterly transformed, Cage's recitation utterly abandons all connection to linguistic meaning and becomes pure aesthetic glossolalia. The nearly 3 hour performance documents Cage reading from the third part of Empty Words at Teatro Lirico in Milano during 1977 before an increasingly restless crowd of Italian students as it erupts into one of the great, if unnoticed, art riots of the last century.

CD Reviews

Five stars because it is impossible to rank

Marko Perkovic | Kyoto Japan | 04/07/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This one always makes me wonder about these two things...

1. Did he guess the audiences reaction would be what it is/was?

2.Who is listening to who?

Starting from the first question--its not really cage who does the performing on this cd--it is the audience reacting to his prompts(?). To give a brief description--Cage reads and reads some rather unconventional texts (Finnegans Wake or influenced by F.W) and the audience (Italian art students) get really agitated. Cage does not--he keeps reading and does not seem to notice/react to the chaos around him.

Brings us to the second question--who is the performer here? the angry art students? John Cage? Think of it as along the lines of 4'33--listening to whats around you. After all Cage says that a sound is a sound after all...

I can see this not being the most popular of his releases. I think its just fine."