Etudes Australes

"Etudes Australes" is a set of etudes for piano solo by John Cage, composed in 1974–5 for Grete Sultan. It comprises 32 aleatoric pieces written using star charts as source material. The etudes, conceived as duets for two independent hands, are extremely difficult to play. They were followed by two more collections of similarly difficult works: "Freeman Etudes" for violin (1977–90) and "Etudes Boreales" (1978) for cello and/or piano.

History of composition

Cage wrote "Etudes Australes" for pianist and friend Grete Sultan, whom he knew since the early 1930s. [Revill 1993, 41.] When Cage found out Sultan was working on his "Music of Changes", a piece which involved hitting the piano with beaters and hands, he offered to write some new music for her, because to him "it didn't seem [right] that an aging lady should hit the piano" [Kostelanetz 2003, 91.] (Sultan turned 68 in 1974). Cage started working in January 1974 and finished the etudes in 1975.

The pieces are built on two basic ideas. The first is writing duets for independent hands, inspired by the way Sultan played. [Revill 1993, 247.] Cage made a catalogue of what triads, quatrads (four-note aggregates) and quintads (five-note aggregates) could be played by a single hand without the other assisting it; overall some 550 four- and five-note chords were available for each hand. The second idea was to use star charts as source material, as Cage had already done with the orchestral "Atlas Eclipticalis" in 1961 and with "Song Books" in 1970. [Nicholls 2002, 139.] This time Cage used the maps in "Atlas Australis", an atlas of the southern sky by Antonín Bečvář, which he acquired in Prague in 1964. [Cage, jacket notes for "Etudes Australes and Ryoanji" (New York: Mode 1/2).]

The process of composition ran as follows. First, Cage put a transparent strip of about three-quarter inch over the maps. The width of the strip limited the number of stars used. Within this width Cage was able to discern the twelve tones of the octave. Then through chance operations using the "I Ching", he transferred these tones to the available octaves for the left and right hands. The resulting notes reflect only the horizontal positions of the stars, and not all stars are used, because the maps used a variety of colors, and Cage's chance operations limited the choices every time to specific colors. In the end Cage would have a string of notes and ask the "I Ching" which of them are to remain single tones and which are to become parts of aggregates. In the first etude this question is answered by a single number, in the second by two numbers, etc. So as the etudes progress, there are more and more aggregates: in the first, most sounds are single tones, in the final, thirty-second etude, roughly half of the sounds are aggregates. The aggregates themselves were selected from the list of available aggregates, described above. [Descriptions of the method given in Kostelanetz 2003, 92, Nicholls 2002, 139, and also in Kostelanetz' jacket notes for "Etudes Australes for piano (Complete)", Wergo 60152/155. The latter are quoted in Dettmar 1992, 290.]

For Cage the resulting etudes represented certain political and social views. Collecting and using the aggregates for independent hands was particularly important, because according to Cage, it

permitted the writing of a music which was not based on harmony, but it permitted harmonies to enter into such a nonharmonic music. How could you express that in political terms? It would permit that attitude expressed socially. It would permit institutions or organizations, groups of people, to join together in a world which was not nationally divided. [Kostelanetz 2003, 91.]

Furthermore, the immense complexity of the music also had a social function. "I'm interested in the use of intelligence and the solution of impossible problems. And that’s what these Etudes [Australes] are all about" [Kostelanetz 2003, 298.] ; and the difficulty would ensure that "a performance would show that the impossible is not impossible." [Perloff and Junkerman 1994, 140.]

Reception

Grete Sultan was enthusiastic about the prospect of "Etudes Australes" [Cage 1979, 184.] and recorded the complete cycle in 1978 (books 1 and 2) and 1982 (books 3 and 4). Cage had received letters from virtuoso pianists from all over the world expressing interest in the etudes; examples include Marianne Schroeder [Cage 1996, 202.] and Roger Woodward. [Kostelanetz 2003, 135.] For violinist Paul Zukofsky "Etudes Australes" signalled Cage's return to conventional notation, and he commissioned the composer to write a similar cycle for the violin. [Kostelanetz 2003, 95.] Also, in 1978 Cage wrote a small set of etudes for piano or cello, "Etudes Boreales", which too utilized star charts as basic material.

European critic Heinz-Klaus Metzger was thrilled by the collection and told Cage that these etudes were composed not by Cage but by God, alluding to the stars from which the collection is derived. A New York Times critic made a similar observation, suggesting that if "Etudes Australes" were to last beyond Cage's life, they would do so because of the stars themselves. [Duckworth 1999, 25 (Cage quotes both critics).] Negative reviews included, for example, one by David Burge, pianist and piano professor at the Eastman School of Music. Reviewing the then recently published edition of "Etudes Australes" in 1977, Burge doubted the possibility of performance and wrote that "even if a performance were possible, [...] it would be more interesting to look at, rather than listen to, this music." [Burge 1977, 690–92.] Today, the work is still controversial. Washington Post staff writer Tim Page, writing 6 years after Cage's death, dismissed the work as "an interesting idea, but a lousy piece, as it would have had to be" [Page 1998.] , whereas a review of Steffen Schleiermacher's 2001 recording of the cycle in The Guardian is more neutral [Clements 2002.] and Jed Distler's review of the same record at Classics Today is very well-disposed towards the piece. [cite web |url=http://www.classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=5863 |publisher=Classics Today |title=John Cage: Complete Piano Music Vol.9 |accessdate=2008-06-27 ]

tructure

"Etudes Australes" comprise 32 etudes grouped in four books of 8 etudes each. The pieces are arranged in order of complexity of the materials—single tones and aggregates—involved, from simple (etude 1, single tones) to complex (etude 32, potentially half single tones, other half aggregates). The music is written down on four staves, two for each hand; the hands are forbidden to assist each other. There are no barlines, and no traditional note values. Instead, there are just two types of notes: closed and open circles, the latter are to be held as long as possible. The chords are sometimes written with a stem; and tone clusters appear in later etudes, notated using vertical bars. Also, each etude includes several keys that are to be depressed prior to playing, and held down using a rubber wedge.Richard Kostelanetz. Jacket notes for "Etudes Australes for piano (Complete)", Wergo 60152/155.]

The pieces are notoriously difficult to play. The performer has to learn a specific technique to play "duets for two independent hands" (which even involves a particular sitting position [Kostelanetz 2003, 135.] ); also, because both hands' ranges cover almost the entire keyboard, the hands are continually crossing. [Kostelanetz 2003, 91.] There are no tempi specified, no dynamics and no pedal indications; all of these are left to the performer to decide on. To facilitate matters somewhat, every etude occupies exactly two pages of the score, so there is no need to turn the page.

Editions

* Edition Peters 6816 a/b/c/d. (c) 1975 by Henmar Press. As of 2008, the score is only available for hire. [cite web |url=http://www.editionpeters.com/php/stock_info.php?section=music&pno=EP6816A/B |publisher=Edition Peters |title=Etudes Australes (Books I and II) |accessdate=2008-05-28 cite web |url=http://www.editionpeters.com/php/stock_info.php?section=music&pno=EP6816C/D |publisher=Edition Peters |title=Etudes Australes (Books III and IV) |accessdate=2008-05-28 ]

Recordings

Although individual etudes have appeared on compilations, the complete cycle has only been recorded three times. This section lists, in chronological order, only the complete recordings. Years of recording are given, not years of release. Catalogue numbers are indicated for the latest available CD versions. For the complete discography with reissues and partial recordings listed, see the link to the John Cage database below.

* Grete Sultan – 1978–82, cite web |url=http://www.wergo.de/shop/en_UK/products/show,93504.html |publisher=Wergo WER 61522 |title=Etudes Australes (complete) |accessdate=2008-05-28
* Claudio Crismani – 1994–96, cite web |url=http://www.recordsinternational.com/archive/RICatalogFeb98.html |publisher=Prestige 13 |title=John Cage: Etudes Australes |accessdate=2008-05-28
* Steffen Schleiermacher – 2001, cite web |url=http://www.mdg.de/titel/0795.htm |publisher=MDG 613 0795-2 |title=John Cage: Complete Piano Music Vol. 9 |accessdate=2008-05-28 (3CD, part of "John Cage: Complete Piano Works" 18CD series)

References

* Burge, David. 1977. Review of "Etudes Australes", Books 1-2; 3-4 by John Cage". "Notes", second series 33, no. 3 (March): 690–92.
* Cage, John. 1979. "Empty Words: Writings '73-'78". Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 0819560676
* Cage, John. 1996. "Musicage: Cage Muses on Words, Art, Music", edited by Joan Retallack. Hanover, NH, and London: University Press of New England for Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 0819552852 (pbk); reprinted Hanover, NH:University Press of New England, 1997. ISBN 0819563110
* Clements, Andrew. 2002. " [http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2002/aug/02/classicalmusicandopera.artsfeatures1 Cage: Etudes Australes (Steffen Schleiermacher DG Scene (three CDs))] ". "The Guardian" (2 August).
* Dettmar, Kevin J. H. 1992. "'Working in Accord with Obstacles': A Postmodern Perspective on Joyce's 'Mythical Method'". In "Rereading the New: A Backward Glance at Modernism", edited by Kevin J. H. Dettmar, 277–296. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0472102907
* Duckworth, William. 1999. "Talking Music: Conversations with John Cage, Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, and 5 Generations of American Experimental Composers". Perseus Books Group. ISBN 0306808935
* Kostelanetz, Richard. 2003. "Conversing with John Cage". New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-93792-2
* Nicholls, David. 2002. "The Cambridge Companion to John Cage". Cambridge Companions to Music. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521783488 (cloth) ISBN 0521789680 (pbk)
* Page, Tim. 1998. " [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/music/features/cage0816.htm American Composers: John Cage: The Avatar of Avant] ". "Washington Post" (16 August).
* Perloff, Marjorie, and Charles Junkerman. 1994. "John Cage: Composed in America". Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226660567 (cloth) ISBN 0226660575 (pbk)
* Revill, David. 1993. "The Roaring Silence: John Cage – a Life". Arcade Publishing. ISBN-10: 1559702206, ISBN-13: 978-1559702201

Notes

External links

* [http://johncage.info/workscage/etudesaustrales.html "Etudes Australes" data sheet] and [http://johncage.info/cdlabels/discographylist3.html#etu74 discography] at the John Cage database
* [http://homepage1.nifty.com/iberia/score_cage.htm Examples from Cage scores, including two excerpts from two etudes from "Etudes Australes"] jp icon