Cage, John (Ulrich Krieger)

A Cage Of Saxophones Vols. 3 & 4 - Indeterminancy [2 CDs]

Label: Mode Country: USA

"Ulrich Krieger completes his A Cage of Saxophones survey of Cage's works composed for, or which can be played on any instrument or instruments.

For this volume, Krieger combines works specifically composed for saxophone with works of no specified instrumentation that are suited for saxophones and winds.

Most of these are "indeterminate"works, which require the performer to create the realization based on materials supplied by Cage. In some situations, Krieger used Cage's compositional "tools" to create his own parallel works.

The set includes the only available recording of "Party Pieces", composed in collaboration with Henry Cowell, Lou Harrison and Virgil Thomson. In "Party Pieces", one composer would write a bar of music plus two notes, folded the paper at the bar, passing it to the next composer, who would use the two notes as a base for continuing the composition. Composed for any melody or keyboard instruments, Krieger has made a realization for saxophone quartet.

Ulrich Krieger

Ulrich Krieger has lived and worked in Berlin since 1983. He is known for his work in contemporary composed and freely improvised music and as a composer of electronic music and chamber music. Recently he has concentrated on his old neglected passion: the frayed experimental edges of contemporary pop culture.

He has worked with Lou Reed, LaMonte Young, Phill Niblock, Lee Ranaldo, Alan Licht, David First, Mario Bertoncini, John Duncan, Merzbow, DJ Olive, Christian Marclay, John White, Ensemble United Berlin, Ensemble Modern, Berlin Philharmonic, Seth Josel, Soldier String Quartet, and others. He has received many awards including fellowships for composers from the "Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg," the Deutsche Studienzentrum Venedig e.V., the Akademie der Künste Berlin, the "Meet-the-Composer" Forum, New York, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Darmstädter Ferienkurse für Neue Musik. He lived in New York for a long time and was "composer-in-residence" in Los Angeles, Rome, Venice and Bologna for several months respectively. He studied saxophone, composition and electronic music at the Universität der Künste in Berlin and the Manhattan School of Music in New York and taught himself to play the Didjeridu. His concerts have led him through Europe, America and Asia. Several CDs document his manifold musical activities. He became a member of the faculty of composition at the California Institute for the Arts in 2007."-Mode Records

Read more about this item

At The Squid's Ear!