Freeman Etudes

"Freeman Etudes" are a set of etudes for solo violin composed by John Cage. Like the earlier "Etudes Australes" for piano, these works are incredibly complex, nearly impossible to perform, and represented for Cage the "practicality of the impossible" as an answer to the notion that resolving the world's political and social problems is impossible. [Cage, in a 1983 interview quoted in Pritchett 1994a.]

In 1977 Cage was approached by Betty Freeman, who asked him to compose a set of etudes for violinist Paul Zukofsky (who would, at around the same time, also help Cage with work on the violin transcription of "Cheap Imitation"). Cage decided to model the work on his earlier set of etudes for piano, "Etudes Australes". That work was a set of 32 etudes, 4 books of 8 etudes each, and composed using controlled chance by means of star charts and, as was usual for Cage, the "I Ching". Zukofsky asked Cage for music that would be notated in a conventional manner, which he assumed Cage was returning to in "Etudes Australes" [Cage, quoted in Kostelanetz 2003, 95.] , and as precise as possible. Cage understood the request literally and proceeded to create compositions which would have so many details that it would be almost impossible to perform them. An example from one of the more difficult etudes follows:

In 1980 Cage abandoned the cycle, partly because Zukofsky attested that the pieces were unplayable. The first seventeen etudes were completed, though, and Books I and II (Etudes 1-16) were published. Violinist Irvine Arditti expressed an interest in the work and, by summer 1988, was able to perform it at an even faster tempo than indicated in the score, thus proving that the music was, in fact playable. [Pritchett 1994a says "even faster than the three-second-per-measure tempo given as a probable maximum in the score", but Pritchett 1994b states on p. 265, "In the score of the "Freeman Etudes", Cage instructs the violinist to play 'as fast as virtuosity permits', and Arditti took that to mean 'as fast as possible', period."] Arditti continued to practice the etudes, aiming at an even faster speed, apparently misreading Cage's indication in the score to play every measure in "as short a time-length as his virtuosity permits", in which Cage simply meant that the duration is different for each performer. Inspired by the fact that the music is playable, Cage decided to complete the cycle, which he finally did in 1990 with the help of James Pritchett, who assisted the composer in reconstructing the method used to compose the works (which was required, because Cage himself forgot the details after 10 years of not working on the piece). [Pritchett 1994b, 265.]

Editions

* Edition Peters 66813 a/b/c/d. (c) 1981, 1992 by Henmar Press.

See also

* List of compositions by John Cage
* "Etudes Australes"
* "Etudes Boreales"

References

* Kostelanetz, Richard. 2003. "Conversing with Cage", 2nd edition. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-93791-4 (cloth) ISBN 0-415-93792-2 (pbk)
* Pritchett, James. 1994a. " [http://www.rosewhitemusic.com/cage/texts/freeman.html John Cage: Freeman Etudes] ", CD liner notes to: John Cage, "Freeman Etudes (Books 1 and 2)" (Irvine Arditti, violin), Mode 32. (Accessed 14 August 2008)
* Pritchett, James. 1994b. "The Completion of John Cage's "Freeman Etudes". "Perspectives of New Music" 32, no. 2 (Summer): 264–70.

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