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

From Wembly Arena, 1982.

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

Our page announcing an upcoming realization of Project Finnegans Wake has been updated. The date and time will be set when about forty people  express interest. Sign up now by leaving a comment on this post or visit the project page for more information.

(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.

In the 1980s I spent a lot of time reading and thinking about Finnegans Wake by James Joyce, while, over the same period, listening to the music of John Cage and reading his books. The two came together in a few performance projects which, for a variety of reasons, have never been realized. They were published by the The Abiko Quarterly in the early 1990’s. Versions of both can be found on bend of bay’s “projects” page.

bend of bay is setting up a realization of Section II of Projects Finnegans Wake. This section calls for participants to read assigned sections of the text at a specific time.  The reading is performed at a location of the participant’s choosing. Participation doesn’t require any particular knowledge of Joyce or previous experience with Finnegans Wake. All that is required is interest in taking part in an event that attempts to bring Finnegans Wake to the world in as inclusive a manner as possible. Its premise is that Joyce meant the work to be read and enjoyed. Participants will also be asked to  provide some form of documentation of their performance by means of photographs, video or other recording. This should be submitted along with an indication of the location at which the reading took place.  Documentation will be made available on this web site.

The length of the passage assigned will depend on how many readers we line up.  If we had thirty readers the entire performance would take about thirty or fourty minutes.  If the initial performance is successful or interest is particularly strong, we may repeat it or move on to Section I.

If you are interested in participating, please leave a comment on this page.  As soon as I receive at least sixty expressions of interest, the date and time will be set and readers will be asked to confirm their availability along with an indication of where they will read. I chose sixty to account for the possibility of some having a change of heart or simply not being available at the appointed time.

Please note that comments will not be published so feel free to ask as many questions as you like.  You can also use bend of bay’s contact form or write info@bendofbay.org.

This page will be updated as details are finalized.

If you have never read Finnegans Wake, the full text is available here.

- apc

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Alarm Will Sound plays Michael Gordon’s Yo! Shakespeare

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

More on Jon Gibson

We have added a new section, Murals. Each mural was designed to be projected or installed on a wall of any size.

The selection available here will change from time to time.

For additional information on any mural, contact bend of bay.

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.

For more information on the Silence mailing list, please go to
https://list.mail.virginia.edu/mailman/listinfo/silence.