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Buying the CD
- On the CD:
- Track 5
- Contact
- comma@artswire.org
Song Books
Given two or more singers, each should make an independent
program, not fitted or related in a predetermined way to
anyone else's program. Any resultant silence in a program
is not to be feared. Simply perform as you had intended
to, before you knew what would happen.
-- John Cage (from John Cage: Writer, p. 96
John Cage composed the 90 solos for voice that
comprise the Song Books in 1970, dedicating the
work to Cathy Berberian and Simone Rist. The solos
encompass a wide range of the styles and methods
cage used during his career, utilizing star charts,
the I Ching, transparent overlays of maps and images,
and a vast array of graphic notations.
Comma has focused much of its work on John Cage's
compositions. The first joint performance by members
of the group (before its current incarnation as Comma)
was at AtlantiCAGE ninety-seven85: A
Birthday Circus for John Cage, at which they performed
Cage's Four6 with Douglas Cohen, and
individually and simultaneously performed Cage's
Songs for CW, One5, and
Variations 2. Recent
performances have included Cage's Eight Whiskus,
Sonnekus2,
Sixty Two Mesostics re: Merce Cunningham,
and One7.
