Stephen Drury

Great artists give free concerts at New England Conservatory—simply because they teach here.

Composer John Cage (1912–1992) paid attention to the 99% of sound that was not previously called "music." This even led him to explore what was previously thought of as "silence." Because he challenged existing notions of music in such a fundamental way, his ideas still provoke and inspire.

Cage visited New England Conservatory for a festival of his music in 1991. In 2012, we celebrate his centennial with performances by NEC's musicians here and around Boston.

Pianist Stephen Drury performs a program of solo piano works by John Cage that concludes with the virtuosic Etudes Australes, Book 3.

Relatively late in Cage's output, Etudes Australes (1974–75) consist of four books containing eight etudes apiece. The single tones and chords of the score are derived from the star charts of the title, i.e. the constellations of the southern latitudes in the Atlas Australis. All interpretive possibilities are unscored and are left to the performer to invent. The fact that a single pianist is performing "duets for two independent hands" increases the challenge of performing these works, which also are sequenced in increasing order of difficulty.

Other works on this all-Cage program come from the mid-1940s through the mid-'50s, when the composer was developing his signature ideas.

Prelude for Meditation (1944)
Cage is still noticeably under the influence of Satie in this early miniature for prepared piano.

In a Landscape (1948)
Using muted piano, Chinese cymbal, and two variable-speed turntables playing a frequency record and a constant note record, this is believed to be one of the earliest electroacoustic works ever composed.

from Music for Piano (1953–1956)
With this body of work, Cage began a series of giant steps to remove traces of intention or "authorship" from his works for piano. The random imperfections that occur in paper due to its organic source as fiber pulp became notation. Anywhere Cage could see an imperfection, he drew a note onto the score paper, fall where it may. All other performance decisions are left to the performer: duration and intervals between notes, how the note is struck by the performer, etc.

Solo from Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1957)
The parts of this Concert are inherently performably as solos or in other combinations, since there is no overall score. The piano part alone covers 63 score pages and uses 84 different notations and compositional techniques, with primacy given to chance operations, indeterminacy, and interpretive variety.

Not sure what this music sounds like? Listen to performances of Cage piano music from earlier this year by NEC students, coached by Drury, at NEC's InstantEncore channel.
February 6 concert | February 27 concert

Stephen Drury is also artistic director of NEC's Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice, an intensive week in June dedicated to the music of John Cage, Christian Wolff, and other challenging music of our time. It's not too late to register for this unique experience!