From Striking 12, GrooveLily’s musical take on New Year’s Eve and The Little Match Girl.

Good short introduction to the opera, with highlights. From the DVD, Absolute Wilson. 

In 2007, Lou Reed performed his 1973 album Berlin at St. Ann’s in Brooklyn. One of the encores was this stunning rendition of the Velvet Underground’s Candy Says, featuring Antony.

Compare to the orignal:

From a show at CBGB in 1975. A pure version.

From Wembly Arena, 1982.

Cornelius Cardew is making a small resurgence.  Richard Gott has contributed this lengthy review-essay in the the March 12, 2009 issue of The London Review of Books. The essay provides a very good summary of Cardew’s life and work, from his early improvisational works, through the Scratch Orchestra and on to his rather sad, late, Maoist period.  Cardew lived a rich and influential life, which, after reading Gott’s piece you can explore more fully in John Tilbury’s  biography, Cornelius Cardew: A Life Unfinished.   Then listen to mode records new release of The QUaX Ensemble’s 1967 Prague performance of Treatiseto round out your Cardew experience.

John Cale was a guest on the game show, I’ve Got A Secret, in 1963. This predates the foundation of the The Velvet Underground by a couple of years. Cale’s secret was his participation in the first full length performance of Eric Satie’s Vexations on September 9, 1963. Appearing with Cale on the program was the only person who remained for the entire 18 hour, 40 minute show.

John Cage organized this concert and mentioned it in a number of interviews. Also appearing were David Tudor and others.

The clip includes Cale playing the three lines comprising the basis of Vexations

John Cage’s 1969 collection of musical manuscripts, Notations, is now available as a pdf file from ubuweb. Download.

Cage’s preface:

Notations - Preface by John Cage

(Libretto For An Opera In Two Acts)

Cast: Messenger, Yanxu, Guocheng, Mother, The Official, workmen, fieldworkers, police and other officials

Act I

Scene I - March. Yanxu in the fields.

Trouble back home. Yanxu leaves the fields, arrives home. Police block the door.

Scene II – Yanxu’s House

Guocheng breaks one of the bars of his cage, crawls out, beats his mother with the bar, killing her. He returns to the cage.

Act II

Scene I – A Room in Yanxu’s house.

Officials repair the cage and lock Guocheng inside.

Scene II – Outside Yanxu’s house.

The Official confirms Guocheng returned to the cage on his own.

A member of bend of bay recently participated in a recording of John McDonough’s John Cage tribute “Landscape Under Construction.”  This recording will be part of “The Radio Pieces,” a two CD set forthcoming from mode records. In addition to Landscape Under Construction, the set will include Radio Music, Imaginary Landscape #4, and world premiere recordings of Speech and WBAI.

Landscape Under Construction is performed using boom boxes. In this particular realization, all CDs were performances released as part of mode records’ Complete John Cage Edition. Performers were given a score which generally contained instructions as to when to start or pause the CD, or raise or lower the volume. Some parts required more decisions on the performer’s part or prior preperation. A clock served as conductor.

More pictures from the session can be found on this Flikr page by vidiot, from which this image was taken.