Day 351: John Cage—HPSCHD
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day
351 — John Cage—HPSCHD
18-Jul-1972
(Tue.)
TRANSCRIPT
John Cage and David Tudor
BERLIN
Went swimming again at Olympic pool. Good way to
relax.
Train ticket to Munich. Very expensive. $20 [66 DM].
At this rate, I’ll go home tomorrow.
The big concert.
Cage—HPSCHD
If I never saw a “happening,” I never saw a
happening—but this was a happening!
In the beautiful, modern, Philharmonic Hall, it took
place.
Slides (mostly abstract and space); films (mostly
space); around four harpsichordists playing; 52 tape
recorders; and a grand piano intertwined with record
playing.
All this going on at once, and governed by chance.
It is certainly an environment and the audience is
free to do anything around the area. One person felt
free enough to throw up.
It is a fascinating idea, interesting and sometimes
stimulating. But I always look at the result. Biggest
problem—all of this variety produces a result, which
essentially lacks variety. That is, variety in terms
of perception. After three hours, I was really out of
it. The only time the pace was altered was in the Big
Salle with concert piano—because here, only one thing
was going on. The other room was too much.
Cage was walking around, supervising, etc.
Sort of wild. I still don’t believe it.
For me, I like the concept of freedom, but I can only
appreciate the result for a short while. Rather, a
short while of the result.
John Chowning—Computer composer
Gave a lecture on his work at Stanford U., Cal.
Fascinating. His concepts of “dimension” in
music—room, tone color, etc.
I like it because he thinks in terms of results and
perception. His music has more in it. He is a
musician. Really knows his stuff.
Would love to find out about possibilities of going
there.
REFLECTIONS
John
Cage—HPSCHD. This was
the big finale and final concert of the week-long
avant-garde music festival in Berlin. It was in
Philharmonic Hall and occupied the entire venue. I
mention the instrumentation of the piece—four
harpsichords (thus, the name), piano, many tape
recorders, abstract slides, films and such. The piano
was located in the concert hall, and that was the
most concert-like setting. Otherwise, you walked
around experiencing the multimedia “happening.” As
you walked around, you were walking through and
in-and-about a live, musical texture. Sort of like
walking within a composition. I remember the textures
and music changing, the spatial effect of the event,
and as you walked the visual environment changing as
well. You might hear some electronic music coming out
of a tape recorder and speaker near you, then as you
went somewhere else, other sounds came into being.
All of this was governed, or ungoverned, by chance.
Aleatoric music. Cage was walking around during the
piece as well. You have to give Cage credit, this was
a unique and amazing event and musical experience.
The opening photo is of John Cage and David Tudor
from a concert on Day 345.
Berlin Philharmonic Hall
I
like it. I actually
love the idea of these multimedia events and their
intent and effect. The idea of walking
within
a
composition intrigues me. The music and visuals are
like a giant texture that is changing and evolving
(like much of music). After a while, though, the
effect of the piece seems to again become “the same.”
There becomes a lack of direction and focus, with
little movement or dramatic tension-release. My mild
youthful complaining is probably just my desire for
some type of emotion within music (tension-release).
I enjoyed HPSCHD. It was a happening, it was a
multimedia event, it was a one in a lifetime
experience. Thanks, John Cage.
Jr.
high school “happening.” An aside.
In 1976, when teaching middle school, my students put
on a sort of “mini-happening” 1-hour program for the
entire school. A one-hour concert in the auditorium
with abstract and historical slides, student-made
movies, modern dance, electronic and musique concrète
student compositions, and historical narrative based
on the U.S. Bicentennial. The student body was amazed
and quiet. The student composers and filmmakers had a
sense of pride and accomplishment rarely achieved in
schools. See, Mr. Cage, I was influenced by you and
my Viennese composer, Dieter Kaufmann. (See pictures
below.)
Student Nancy at the Electrocomp 101
synthesizer
Student Bill creating musique concrète
John Chowning. I
remember this lecture. It was probably before the
concert. Chowning was a composer working with
computer music at Stanford University. What I
remember was his concepts of perception and the
placement of sound in space using speakers placed
around the auditorium. He presented examples where
the sound came from front, back, sides, slightly
behind you, even above you. I remember being amazed
and impressed. (This was before any type of surround
sound.) Volume, spatial direction (panning), depth
perception (dry vs. reverb) created this spatial
placement and was all done within the computer, not
with external processing and twisting knobs. Nice.
Relaxation
and stress. A bit of
swimming during the day for relaxation, this time at
Olympic pool (from the Berlin Olympics in 1932). My
stress comes from purchasing an expensive train
ticket to Munich. I guess I am determined to see a
bit more of Munich during the summertime. Last I was
there, was the dead of winter.
John
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