Lenox — Was John Cage the nakedest emperor of all time? A pretentious, tone-deaf poser? Or was he the most influential composer of the 20th century? The answer depends on whom you ask. On Sunday, Aug. 4, fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center wrestled with these questions by producing sounds — at various locations in and around the Linde Center for Music and Learning — according to instructions in Mr. Cage’s score to “Song Books,” a collection of “90 solos for voice, voice with electronics, and theatrical action with and without electronics.”
Sunday’s bemused audience was invited to wander betwixt, around and between the performers as they dispatched their parts (or jumped in place or reclined on the floor or brushed up on their moves for the Ministry of Silly Walks). Innumerable singers, pianists, cellists, violinists and other musicians stood or milled about (with and without music stands), including two fellows who made their assigned sounds by riding around in a clattering wagon. Several percussionists played conventional instruments as well as objects that appear to have been picked up off the ground or out of a dumpster. (Percussionists will bang on just about anything.)
The works that John Cage produced after 1951 are aleatoric (one or more compositional elements are left to chance). But there’s little chance that many of Cage’s pieces will seem musical to most listeners. (Even Arnold Schoenberg classified Cage as an inventor, not a composer.) Aleatoric works are more likely to be interesting than beautiful. They leave many listeners feeling befuddled, if not defrauded. Leonard Bernstein to the rescue: The man could explain chess to a drunken chimpanzee.
Bernstein talked about aleatoric music in a 1964 television broadcast that included a discussion of John Cage’s works. Its true significance, he said, lies in “the identification of the performers with the creative act, the participation by the orchestra in the actual composing of music.” Participation by the orchestra. Bingo. This is the key to understanding everything that occurred on Sunday at the Linde Center. It was about involving the TMC fellows in the creative process in a way that doesn’t often occur in performances of the standard repertory but is likely to occur in performances of the 2019 Festival of Contemporary Music.
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Sunday’s “Song Books” presentation was curated by soprano Tony Arnold and pianist Stephen Drury.
