“William Mix” by John Cage

The majority of the piece maintains a consist crowd of noises that occur in loop of what sounds like a rewinding of a recording of my childhood of mentally absorbing the world around me. The sounds in the foreground happen in glimpses, coming in and out, demanding your sudden attention as they do. Sounds of things being turned, blown, driven and shot past you; along with sounds of things being played and stated happen in these glimpses. As I am writing about what I am hearing and self-editing, I can hear my edits in the glimpses of noise. These glimpses of sounds are accompanied with a background sound of a group of people conversing audible as a murmur which remains the same until I tune in to pay closer attention, which is when certain phrases jump out, and it is not until then that they do. Towards the end of the piece, when a loud applause take over accompanied with someone shouting over the applause, it sounds like a celebration of normalcy and self-acceptance. Who could have thought this piece, as a sonorous object would signify in the bits of sound information it begins with; the self-discoveries and self-doubt found in one’s youth and end with the accomplishment of self-acceptance signified with the applause?

Williams Mix- John Cage

As the song begins, there is a unique wave of distorted sounds.   Between the white sound and what appears to be the tuning of a radio gives the song texture.  The texture comes from the variation of tones and pitches of those tones.  Some of the tones are a lot loader than other.  The song begins rather soft and then hits in some computer made high-pitched sounds, which seems to be the attempt to find a random station.  The reason it seems to be a radio being tuned is because there are voices, songs, talking, and noises with a pause (white noise) and static.  The complex and blunt tones come in and out and intensify as the song continues.  Even though there are many different radio stations of singing and talking, the structure of the tones are strung together, so even when there is the “white noise” you still remain involved with the tune.  Another focus I found was the use of frog noises.  They appear multiple times through out the piece.  Later on in the song, there is a sequence of clapping.  The clapping is a break from the radio tuning and signifies that this could be a performance.  There is a correlation between the voices through the radio and when the applause hits.   Men begin to yell “Bravo” over and over again and the clapping becomes a blur as a continuing sound.  Even when the applause is happening there is a variation in how it is produced.   What does the repetition of the structure of the song do to how some one may view the piece?  

Williams Mix- By John Cage 

Don't (Vessel Ripley) John Oswald

Rattling washboards tinkle and tell me “don’t.” Warbling Elvis sounds a little slow, piano slightly out of tune. Bicycle wheels with little tags on them and tons of missing spokes spinning around. Two Elvis’s sing together, and whoa whoa whoa. Delirious cacophony of Elvis telling me “don’t.” When is it in the song? Stuttering Elvis overlaps and feeds back on himself, piano attacks and silence. His plea accompanied by ever-more confusing conglomeration of melody and piano smashing. Speed of “accompaniment” faster than the slowed down “melody.” Why shouldn’t I, Elvis, and what are you going to do about it?

James Tenney - Collage #1

Alternations between medium-low tones and white noise act as introductory percussion as if setting the tempo for the piece. The tones slowly start to modulate in frequency, timbre and texture and still the white noise acts as a percussive cut-up of the tones. In this setting, the white noise, even with its breathy whisper, creates a larger presence and impact than the musical tones, which start to shimmer and undulate. High frequency vibrations are then added to the mix, giving the piece a frenetic feel, as if the listener is suffering from a mood disorder. The alternations between low and high frequencies, punctuated by a pure silence sprinkled throughout, continue to increase in speed. Suddenly, the schizophrenic tonal modulations give way to a breath or two of a 50s rock and roll tune followed by the static of the radio dial hovering between stations. The stations change to a new tune, but the dial cannot make up its mind; the sound is pulled back and forth along the radio index. We hear snippets of what appear to be different songs but a familiar feeling lingers after each change of the dial. The tunes are all Elvis Presley's "Blue Suede Shoes" played at different speeds. As Elvis' vocal registers continue to compete with each other, the musical tones come back into play, reverberating in an eerie, sci fi manner. As the different iterations of his emblematic song give way to a sonic landscape of pure tonal modulations and white noise - coming full circle to the beginning of the piece - one is prompted to wonder: which of these various characters, if any, is the real Elvis?

Williams Mix (Blog post 1)

Williams Mix by John Cage

The sound at the beginning starts with what appears to be a tuning radio. It flickers in and out for a while and then presents blurbs of other things, the most apparent being frog croaks and human voices. There is an inherent distortion over every noise, muddling the ability to discern individual sounds or their sources. Now accompanying the initial noises are other miscellaneous noises. There appears to be a technological and organic theme. All noises are either produced by a living thing or a piece of technology. Things are becoming quite cacophonous. Now they’ve backed off and are coming in irregular intervals. The radio overtone is still present and remains unfixed, always in flux. The voices of people continue to blurt out at random, almost as if they are trying to have a dysfunctional conversation with one another. Creaks, croaks, static and voices now continue to permeate the radio. It’s clear that this is the comfortable pattern that this composition aims to take. Now the sounds have ceased and have been replaced with enthusiastic applause. Passionate “bravos” can be heard. The applause appears to decompose into what is now an opposite reaction. Boos and hollering have replaced the joyous applause of before, but the applause quickly returns to create a confused and mixed reaction. I do wonder… how does Cage feel about this composition of his? Does that chaotic combination of applause and booing imply anything about how he feels regarding his work?

All Cut Up

Sounds come in as a mans voice, as it speaks it is replaced by another voice, talking about the ideas behind the idea of the entire song. Coming up from behind him is a growing wane of a women's voice. The sound continues to evolve to another song  and so forth. Each transition comes after the injection of new materials, filling the space entirely. Each time it changes the sound comes in loud and full as if cutting in the middle of the song. More speech cuts in for transitions and mixes of two different sounds begin to cut together, the basic beat or rhythm continuing the entire time. Each song seems to have a similar drum type beat and symbols each time slightly different in execution but the sound seems to be driven back while the 'original' or main sound, singing and more harmonic instruments, come forward. It surprising how well each sound melts together and it cut together to make it feel like one continuous piece.Why were the sounds that were used chosen and what if they had been used differently? How would the sounds chosen change the intended message or idea?

Aphex Twin's Remote Orchestra

A very interesting new project from Aphex Twin, particularly in light of our conversations about his relationship to the early electronic avant-garde, electronic music and its relationship to the traditions of orchestral composition, and so on.


Original Creators Project article.