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Evening Music

Thursday, August 30, 2007
  • cymbals

    Double Music

    By focusing on rhythm and timbre instead of melody, John Cage could make music out of just about anything. Tonight we sample his 1941 collaboration with Lou Harrison for percussion orchestra, "Double Music."

    24:33 on WNYC2: A John Cage Festival

John Cage and Lou Harrison's "Double Music"

Cage and Harrison used fairly traditional percussion instruments for this work, with the exception of brakedrums (an "instrument" that both composers were especially fond of). Using a predetermined number of measures and a mathematical "road map" as their guide, Harrison and Cage wrote their parts independently, with Cage writing the parts for players 1 and 3, and Harrison writing the parts for players 2 and 4.

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Robert Spano

Robert Spano

Conductor Robert Spano weighs in on how John Cage rescued the compositional process from hyper-intellectualism — and restored a sense of joy and wonder to music-making.

John Cage Festival

The Other MusiCircuses

Join us for 24:33, as WNYC's weekend overnight host Helga Davis guides us through 24 hours and 33 minutes of John Cage's recorded music, plus rare archival audio of interviews and live performances.

back to 24:33 — Listen on Demand
The Playful and Playable Cage: A WNYC Festival

John Cage Festival

The Voice of John Cage

Join us for 24:33, as WNYC's weekend overnight host Helga Davis guides us through 24 hours and 33 minutes of John Cage's recorded music, plus rare archival audio of interviews and live performances.

back to 24:33 — Listen on Demand
The Playful and Playable Cage: A WNYC Festival

John Cage Festival

Playful Moments of Collage and Caprice

Join us for 24:33, as WNYC's weekend overnight host Helga Davis guides us through 24 hours and 33 minutes of John Cage's recorded music, plus rare archival audio of interviews and live performances.

back to 24:33 — Listen on Demand
The Playful and Playable Cage: A WNYC Festival

John Cage Festival

In Search of Lost Sounds: John Cage Remembered

Join us for 24:33, as WNYC's weekend overnight host Helga Davis guides us through 24 hours and 33 minutes of John Cage's recorded music, plus rare archival audio of interviews and live performances.

back to 24:33 — Listen on Demand
The Playful and Playable Cage: A WNYC Festival

John Cage Festival

The Final Performance

Join us for 24:33, as WNYC's weekend overnight host Helga Davis guides us through 24 hours and 33 minutes of John Cage's recorded music, plus rare archival audio of interviews and live performances.

back to 24:33 — Listen on Demand
The Playful and Playable Cage: A WNYC Festival

John Cage Festival

Cage Clipped: The Many Faces of the Class Clown and Great Patriarch

Join us for 24:33, as WNYC's weekend overnight host Helga Davis guides us through 24 hours and 33 minutes of John Cage's recorded music, plus rare archival audio of interviews and live performances.

back to 24:33 — Listen on Demand
The Playful and Playable Cage: A WNYC Festival

The Mostly Mozart Festival on WNYC

Listen on Demand

This year's annual Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center is rife with sounds stretching the spectrum of Requiems, Metamorphoses, and Passions — including the American premiere of composer-in-residence Kaija Saariaho's tale of the sufferings of French mystic Simone Weil, who died of starvation in protest to the Nazi occupation of Paris in 1943.

Deerhoof/Metropolis Ensemble Live Webcast

Evening Music

WNYC and NPR Music team up to bring you this live webcast from the Prospect Park Bandshell, which pairs indie rock sensation Deerhoof with the progressive Metropolis Ensemble. Presented by Celebrate Brooklyn! and Wordless Music, and hosted by David Garland, the program features an ambitious re-imagining of Igor Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, The Rite: Remixed.

Related Links:
Video: Deerhoof fans perform leaked track for WNYC
View photos from the concert
Deerhoof on Spinning on Air (March 18, 2007)
NPR Music
Metropolis Ensemble
Deerhoof
Celebrate Brooklyn!
Wordless Music
Listen on Demand to more Wordless Music Concerts

Wordless Music

Concerts on Demand

WNYC presents web-exclusive concerts from the Wordless Music Series, hosted by Radio Lab's Jad Abumrad. Devoted to the desegregation of musical boundaries, Wordless Music pairs rock and electronic musicians with more traditional chamber and new music performers, to create an entirely new concert experience.

2008 American Music Festival

Listen on Demand

Hosts Terrance McKnight and David Garland curate the 68th annual American Music Festival, featuring "America's Classical Music." Guests include LD Brown a.k.a. Grey Reverend; acclaimed jazz pianist Jason Moran; composer and musicologist Gunther Schuller; culture critic John Rockwell; new music guru John Zorn, and Pulitzer prize-winning composer William Bolcom.