7.30pm, September 19 2024 at Monash University – the first Melbourne presentation of Inland Lake by Lionel Marchetti, and premiere of an accompanying film by Karl Ockelford).
8pm, September 21, 2024 at Tempo Rubato – the Melbourne premiere of The Complete John Cage Variations Project performance and book launch.
In this article, artistic director of Decibel Cat Hope discusses the rationale for programming what would seem to be two contrasting programs during Decibel’s only visit to Melbourne this year.
At first listen, John Cage, radical American composer of the mid 20th century, and Lionel Marchetti, who continues the French music concrete tradition, could not be further apart. At least conceptually, you would think they have opposing approaches to music after listening to Decibel’s recordings of the Complete Variations and Inland Lake.
John Cage (in bell) and performer David Tudor, who performed many of the Variations series.
Cage’s music is confronting, often confounding – a ‘beguiling set of contradictions’. You could say Cage is the composer who turned music conceptual – and this is supported by an entire book on the Variations, a collection co-edited by myself and Decibel member Lindsay Vickery. Indeed, the Variations, a set of 8 works written between 1957-79, explore a range of possibility for music’s conception and performance. The set contains the first multi media presentation (Variations V), the first live spatial performance (Variations IV) and a range of approaches to both composer, and performer, indeterminacy. Most engage some notion of music notation – and Decibel’s interpretation of these scores is projected during the performance. The only exceptoins are Variations V, VII and VIII – which whilst published by Peters Edition – are in turn a text report, a poem of sorts, and a scribbled page of thoughts.
A still from the film made for Inland Lake by Karl Ockelford, that will be premiered in this Melbourne presentation.
Marchetti, on the other hand, does not create or demand any notation. Or rather, the notation is transformed – because it is the electronic track – or ‘partition concrete’ – in Inland Lake (2019). His works are also indeterminate to some extent. The performers move between pre-agreed sections and sonic palettes, guiding each other with their own sound worlds according to key moments in the partition concrete. This is a kind of ‘electro-acoustic ambient’ music, where it is often difficult to discern the acoustic from the recorded sound. Where Cage is conceptual and pointy, Marchetti’s music is dreamy and flowing.
Yet both these composers are musical explorers who hand a large chunk of creative autonomy to the performers. Marchetti goes further, releasing the ‘partition concrete’ independently form the complete work with acoustic musicians. Cage invites the performers to assemble the score pieces – cutting pages, dropping and measuring them, or explore the meaning of his notes and bespoke symbols. Marchetti devises ideas with the performers that stay remarkably in tact after multiple performances. Either way, a significant amount of preparation goes into the assemblage of these works, with wonderful results that Decibel work to ensure sound fresh to today’s audiences.
Decibel scores for John Cage Variations on exhibition at the Canberra Contemporary Art Space.
These two performance programs really show Decibel at its best. Our ability to follow sound as the cohesive force for navigating the structure of a work – applying unique listening methods as a way of unfolding music performance, and a more cerebral, and almost tongue in cheek dedication to one of the early pioneers of contemporary musical thought.
Who incidentally also inspired our concert wear. I hope to see you there.
A very early photo of Decibel, taken in 2009, showing the classic suit and tie outfits, inspired by John Cage and his collaborators performance attire in the 1950s.
Cat Hope is the artistic director of Decibel, and performs in both these programs as a flute performer.
You can find tickets for the Marchetti program here, and the Cage program here.
