bend of bay features a changing selection of prose, poetry, images and other projects. It takes its name from the opening line of Finnegans Wake by James Joyce:
riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.
“How far my efforts agree with those of other philosophers I will not decide.
Indeed what I have here written makes no claim to novelty in points of detail; and therefore
I give no sources, because it is indifferent to me whether what I have thought has already
been thought before me by another.”
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.
John Cage’s 1960 performance of Water Walk on CBS TV’s I’ve Got a Secret. In this version, a union dispute prevented the radios from being plugged into the wall. Cage solves that problem during the performance by changing the score.
Click the image to read about this extraordinary piece of music. Pay particular attention to the text. This version was commissioned by Thomas Buckner and is included on Sign of the Times
bendof bay is pleased to provide server space and host the 1994-1999 archive of messages posted to Silence – The John Cage Mailing List. You can access the archive at http://www.bendofbay.org/silence.
If you have suggestions on a more efficient way of presenting the information in the archive, please let me know by leaving a comment on this post.
Some time ago, Ralph Lichtensteiger sent a message to SILENCE, the John Cage mailing list, requesting ”… stories about your experience with the phenomena of Silence and noise …”
The result is Silence/Stories, a print ready 66 page pdf file that includes the stories, images and bios of the contributors. Contributors represent a wide array of backgrounds. Some worked with John Cage. Others wrote about him, or used some of his methods and ideas in their own work. (Full disclosure – this post was written by a contributor, although not one of those referred to in the previous two sentences). Some stories include anecdotes or responses to John Cage, and others describe “Cage influenced listening.” You can downdoad the PDF here or here.
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.
