John Cage: Choral Works

Featuring

Sigvards Kļava
Latvian Radio Choir
John Cage

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Compositional Technique

John Cage's 'number pieces,' like Five, Four 2, and Four 6 on this album, are titled by the number of performers and feature simple materials with unpredictable timing within 'time brackets.'

Composition History

John Cage wrote only two compositions specifically for chorus: Hymns and Variations (1979) and Four 2 (1990), both of which are featured on this album.

Composer's Artistic Vision

John Cage, an avant-garde composer, was notoriously hostile to harmony in music, once telling Arnold Schoenberg that he would devote his life to 'beating his head against that wall'.

Performer Biography

Sigvards Kļava, the conductor on this album, has been the music director of the Latvian Radio Choir since 1992 and is a multiple winner of the Latvian Grand Music Award.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Towards the end of his life, John Cage found a new approach to harmony in his 'number pieces,' calling the naturally arising vertical structures 'anarchic harmony.'

Compositional Technique

For Hymns and Variations, John Cage transformed two traditional choral pieces by early American composer William Billings using a method of subtraction and extension to remove harmonic tonality.

Performer Biography

The Latvian Radio Choir, featured on this album, is an award-winning ensemble that encourages composers to write new music challenging the capabilities of the human voice.