Bird Cage.(Review)

John Cage: Bird Cage

Compact disc, 2000, EMF CD 013; available from Electronic Music Foundation, 116 North Lake Avenue, Albany, New York 12206, USA; telephone (518) 434-4110; fax (518) 434-0308; electronic mail emf@emf.org; World Wide Web www.cdemusic.org

One day in 1972, John Cage was en route to the Walnut Street Bookstore in downtown Philadelphia when he discovered a bar called The Bird Cage. From this establishment, he procured a beer coaster that featured an attractive design of the name of the bar in the shape of a bird cage. What would for most composers seem a rather pedestrian situation became for Mr. Cage inspiration for a new piece.

Constructed over the course of less than a week in Albany, New York, with the aid of Joel Chadabe, Bird Cage, for twelve tapes, is a work intended as an installation for "a space in which people are free to move and birds to fly." The work was constructed from a number of source tapes, which fell under three categories: bird sounds that Mr. Cage "had recorded in aviaries during the previous two weeks;" a recording of Mr. Cage singing his work Mureau (which is based on the writings of Henry David Thoreau); and recordings of environmental sounds, including the brushing of teeth, someone blowing their nose, typing, water sounds, etc. The composer reported that he included the recording of himself singing Mureau to make "the birds seem less ridiculous." By and large, the quality of these source recordings is not very good, which makes for some distorted moments in the completed piece.

Mr. Cage used chance procedures to instruct the assemblage of these source recordings into twelve "submasters." He then applied chance 1procedures to determine the manner in which these submasters would be processed, using filters, ring modulation, and other equipment. As Mr. Chadabe reports, "Sometimes John would say something like, `that's absurd.' Sometimes we would all laugh. Sometimes we were delighted."