A letter from
Jonathan Hiam
Curator, American Music Collection and
The Rodgers and Hammerstein
Archives of Recorded Sound
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
The John Cage Centennial is upon us. To celebrate Cage’s legacy, The New York Public Library will soon launch John Cage Unbound – A Living Archive, an online multimedia resource devoted to the life and work of America’s most influential composer. In partnership with the John Cage Trust and C.F. Peters, John Cage Unbound will feature select digital images of Cage’s music manuscripts, correspondence, programs, photographs, and ephemera drawn from the vast holdings of NYPL’s Music Division. The centerpiece of the project, however, will be a rich video archive of John Cage interpretation with a special emphasis on the preparation and performance of Cage’s work.

This is where you come in. NYPL hopes that you, your colleagues, students, and peers will contribute to the archive by uploading your own videos (which can be quite informal and short) of Cage performances to the site. The videos will be integrated into the archive for public access with the intent to document the variety of interpretive practices Cage’s work inspires and indeed demands.

For those of you who are leading or participating in coursework this Spring that may include John Cage, contributing to John Cage Unbound would be an ideal project. Any works by Cage are welcome and the staff of the NYPL Music Division are ready to offer you guidance if you need it, be it technical, logistical, or simply suggestions as to what works might be appropriate for you.

We do hope, however, that your videos will favor the process of creating the work over the performance. We believe such documentation will offer the public the greatest insight into the challenges and rewards that come with performing Cage’s music.

As you can see in the So Percussion sample video attached, the musicians’
narration provides this insight into their interpretation. The second video–a performance of 4’33” at the US-Mexico border–demonstrates how “simple” a video recording might be.

*So Percussion*

*Anta Project*

If you are interested in participating, please contact me at jonathanhiam@nypl.org
Jonathan Hiam
Curator, American Music Collection and
The Rodgers and Hammerstein
Archives of Recorded Sound
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
40 Lincoln Center Plaza
New York, NY 10023-7498
p (212) 870-1677
f (212) 870-1794

Steve Reich wins Pulitzer for Double Sextet
Tom Huizenga NPR 4/20/09

and

Steve Reich: Minimalism In The Mainstream
NPR 4/20/09

2009 Grawemeyer Award Announced

“The Lost Art of Letter Writing, a four-movement concerto for violin and orchestra by Australian composer Brett Dean, has earned the 2009 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition.”

‘Chasing Light’: Music Made For 50 States
By Jeff Lunden
NPR’s All Things Considered, November 3, 2008

“It isn’t every day that a small community orchestra gets to play a new work by a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer [Joseph Schwantner]. But that’s what’s happening now — and over the course of the next year and a half — in all 50 states. First up was the Reno Chamber Orchestra.”

A thought-provoking article about the language of music from the perspective of different musical camps, from the blog of Minnesota Orchestra violist Sam Bergman.

“In yesterday’s post, I talked a bit about conductors and arrangers who “speak the language” of orchestra musicians, and how important that can be to the success of a non-classical orchestra performance. And that got me thinking back to an uncomfortable experience I had several years ago, during one of the early years of our Composers’ Institute.”

Philip Glass: Complex Minimalist
NPR Morning Edition October 3, 2008

“The music of Phillip Glass elicits an array of opinions. Some love it; some don’t. Some just don’t get it. When he sat down to talk with Morning Edition host Renee Montagne about a new 10-CD retrospective of his work, he said that last reaction was true of some of his early music.”