From Wergo WER 60057:

The New Music Ensemble was founded by Howard Hersh at the Music Conservatory in San Francisco in 1969 with the support of a scholarship from the Ford Foundation. Its primary aim is to bridge the gap between contemporary music and the listener by vital and communicative performances. The Ensemble had some outstanding successes in the USA and in Europe during the first year of its existence. A three-week tour of Sweden and Norway is planned for 1971 plus a series of concerts in the USA, and film making, gospel music, theatre performances, and performances of "avant-garde" music of other epochs.

John Cage: Variations III with Solos. John Cage, born in Los Angeles, California, in 1912, studied under various teachers, including Arnold Schoenberg. In 1943 he moved to New York City. He was already writing works for "prepared piano" in 1938. Cage has probably had a greater influence on the music of later generations of composers than any other in the USA or in Europe. Variations III for voices and percussion with Solos is the third of the Variations, the first of which was written in 1958. The composition leaves plenty of scope for the interpreters as the material placed at their disposal by the composer can be put together as they wish. The "score" consists of six transparent sheets, one of which has dots of various sizes on it while the other five each have five lines on them. They are five sound parameters; the dots represent sound incidents whose character is determined in conjunction with the lined sheets.

Loren Rush: Nexus 16. Loren Rush was born at Point Richmond, California, in 1935. He studied in California and Europe. He received a scholarship to Rome in 1969. Nexus 16 was composed in 1965. Nexus means connection or interconnection, relationship.

Anestis Logothetis: Culmination. Anestis Logothetis was born in Burgas, Greece, in 1921. He studied art and music in Vienna, where he now lives. One aspect of his artistic talent is expressed in his graphic notations in which he has developed a personal system of musical symbols. They present the interpreter with a clear and directly understandable "sound picture". This kind of notation is also comprehensible to the layman as Logothetis' scores make visual sense even if the viewer has no musical training. "Culmination" is not instrumented. The material is distributed among the players; each of them then interprets the "picture" on each page of the score with his own instrument. Logothetis writes in this connection: "The choice of instruments is unlimited, so that new sources of sound can constantly develop, as can new ideas, in contrast to traditional sources of sound." This means that to the extent to which an ensemble mobilizes all its individual and collective means in order to perform the work it also at the same time reproduces its own unique conception, its own "collective personality".

Robert Moran: L'apres-midi du Dracoula. Robert Moran was born in Denver, Colorado, in 1937. He studied composition in California and Europe, and is now living in San Francisco, where he is Co-Director of the NEW MUSIC ENSEMBLE. In 1969 his composition "39 Minutes for 39 Automobiles" was performed in San Francisco. From the highest part of the town the full headlights of 39 cars shone down, switched on and off to the composers directions, and accompanied by the sound of their horns. Huge searchlights played on the town, and the lights of the city silhouetted against the sky were switched on and off; aircraft circled over the town. The sound of the horns was mixed with sounds from tapes, and was broadcast by two radio stations; the instructions and the visual effects were broadcast by television, and the audience at home was encouraged to participate. In 1970 "Silver and the Circle Messages" was performed for the first time in a large cathedral. For nearly thirty minutes came a slow sequence of ethereal chords; at the end a single bell sounded in the church tower high above the listeners. Moran himself writes in connection with L'apres-midi du Dracula: I first met the painter Robert Doxat in Vienna in 1963 ... I visited his flat in the 2nd District with friends. We walked up a stone stairway . . . while it rained outside. As I entered I knew that a magical event was taking place inside me. Robert showed me his wonderful drawings and pictures, scenes from the world of XamiXan. When I saw his drawing "The Afternoon of Dracula" I tried to reproduce the impression made by the drawing in musical terms."

Wergo Schallplatten GmbH, Mainz/Baden-Baden
Musikverlagc:
Cage: C. F. Peters, Frankfurt/New York
Rush: Editions Jobert, Paris
Logothetis: Edition Modern, München
Tonaufnahmen: Dezember 1970
San Francisco Conservatory of Music, San Francisco


From Wergo WER 60033:

John Cage: VARIATIONS I, FOR ANY KIND AND NUMBER OF INSTRUMENTS

Die "Variations I, for any kind and number of instruments" aus dem Jahre 1958 gehören zu den Kompositionen von John Cage, die dem Interpreten als Vorlage zu eigenen Realisationen dienen sollen. Sie sind auf sechs durchsichtigen Folien notiert, eine davon enthält dicke und dünne Punkte, einzelne Töne oder Akkorde darstellend, auf den fünf anderen sind Gerade, die sich kreuz und quer schneiden: sie definieren die Eigenschaften dieser Töne und Akkorde, ihre Höhenlage, ihre Lautstärke, ihre Dauer, den Zeitpunkt ihres Auftritts, ihre gegenseitigen Beziehungen. Eine der durchsichtigen Folien wird auf das Blatt mit den Punkten geworfen, und wie sie fällt, so sind die Punkte definiert. Jede Realisation dieser Musik fällt anders aus. Gerd Zacher hat mehrere Realisationen der "Variations" gespielt. Für diese Aufnahme wählte er eine aus dem Jahre 1967.

Sie ist für eine mechanische Orgel im vollen Werk mit sämtlichen Koppeln konzipiert. Die Lautstärke wird dabei durch verschiedenen Druck auf die Tasten erzeugt. Im pianissimo wird die Taste nur den Bruchteil eines Millimeters niedergedrückt, so daß eben der erste Hauch in der Ansprache einer Pfeife zu hören ist. Alle anderen Stufen der Lautstärke werden durch balancierendes Spiel auf den Tasten gewonnen. Das wirkt sich wiederum auf die Tonhöhen aus und verändert sie in gewissem Umfang gleitend oder überblasend. Nur das fortissimo entspricht dem traditionellen Orgelansdilag. Manchmal hört man auch nur das gleichmäßige Pochen eines Tremulanten, der unabhängig von der laufenden Musik die Zeiteinteilung skandiert.

Verglichen mit der herkömmlichen Art, auf der Orgel zu spielen, birgt diese von Zacher entwickelte Technik des Balancierens auf den Tasten folgerichtig eingeplante Unsicherheitsfaktoren. Zunächst einmal sind Augenblicke, in denen eine Pfeife überbläst, oder ihr Luftstrom beim allmählichen Schließen des Ventils versagt, unvorhersehbar. Aber unvorhersehbar ist auch, wie der Organist muskulär und nervlich reagiert auf das soeben Gehörte, in dem ständigen Bestreben, die Vorlage zu verwirklichen und ihren Spielraum zu erfassen. Für den Hörer selbst bedeuten diese wechselseitig bedingten Aktionen ein zur Anteilnahme reizendes Spannungsmoment; er kann die Reaktion des Instruments nicht mehr von der des Spielers unterscheiden.


From Odyssey 32 160156:

In Solos for Voice 2 by John Cage, each singer is asked to make his own realization of the piece, using material, including sheets of transparent plastic, supplied by the composer. By superimposing certain sheets on others, the singer determines several aspects of his vocal part, including vowel and consonant sounds, dynamics, approximate pitch areas and time decisions. The electronic version of this work was developed by Gordon Mumma and David Tudor. The singers' sounds are picked up by several types of throat, lip and cup microphones, are fed into a complex configuration of electronic equipment and are then processed in real time during the performance.


From TIME Records 58003:

FONTANA MIX and ARIA by John Cage are two separate pieces, although capable of being performed simultaneously as has been done and recorded here. FONTANA MIX (1958) consists of several tapes which can be played simultaneously over different loudspeakers and, regarding its composition, it consists of several transparencies which may be placed upon each other in any way and can be read as indications for the production of such tapes. The production of the tapes follows partly the definition of electronic music, partly that of musique concrete, although one does not get further by this differentiation than by differentiating pianos, radios or whistles in Cage's piano music: nowhere is dualism Cage's aim. FONTANA MIX was the first comprehensive transposition of strictly experimental composition procedures-i.e. procedures of which the result is unforeseeable in the moment of their application- from instrumental or vocal music to tape music. Therefore the tapes do not claim to be final fixations of the musical oeuvre, but exist as potential versions of this oeuvre. With ARIA (1958) which can be sung, too, as one of the orchestral parts of Cage's Piano Concert, commences his newer vocal music which in respect to its vocal technique is partly anticipated in ARIA, whereas the compositional procedure remained that of the orchestral material of the Concert.

FONTANA MIX, incidentally, has been composed thanks to the autonomized procedure of one of the 84 notations used in the piano solo part of the Concert. The simultaneity of both pieces is established in the Piano Concert in which both theoretically are contained, in which they even practically could occur.

JOHN CAGE, born in Los Angeles in 1912 studied with Richard Buhlig, Adolph Weiss, Henry Cowell and Arnold Schoenberg. He has been a member of the faculty of the Cornish School in Seattle and of the School of Design in Chicago. He has written works for percussion instruments (AMORES and DOUBLE MUSIC written in conjunction with Lou Harrison have been released on Time Records Contemporary Sound Series 8000), compositions for the modern dance, prepared piano, magnetic tape, compositions by chance operations, indeterminacy of performance. His work brought him, in 1949, both a Guggenheim Fellowship and an award from the National Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1951, Mr. Cage organized a group to make music directly on magnetic tapes, producing in that way works by Christian Wolff, Morton Feldman, Earle Brown and himself. He has written for the Ballet Society, for the Donaueschinger Musiktage and for Merce Cunningham and Dance Company, of which he is musical director. He also composed the prize-winning score for Herbert Matter's film WORKS OF CALDER. His publisher is Peters Edition.

CATHY BERBERIAN was born in the United States of Armenian parents and began her artistic preparations in the theatre and ethnic dancing, and later in concerts, radio and television performances. Miss Berberian arrived in Europe in 1949 on a Fulbright scholarship, which enabled her to complete her vocal studies with Giorgina Del Vigo in Milan. Since 1953 she has appeared on European radio and in concerts in Europe, the United States and Canada. She is the wife of the composer Luciano Berio.