ARCHIVE

Last week Laura Kuhn talked with Rob Haskins, an American musicologist, critic, performer, and old friend who serves as a Professor of Music at the University of New Hampshire, having joined the faculty in 2004. Haskins has written extensively about John Cage, and we spent virtually all of our time talking about his Anarchic Societies of Sounds: The Number Pieces of John Cage, a re-working of his doctoral dissertation published in 2009 by VDM Verlag, the first book devoted to the subject of Cage’s last series of works, the so-called “number pieces,” distinguished by their number titles and making use of Cage’s late-life, groundbreaking time-bracket notation. We chatted at such length, in fact, that we had no time at all for music, so this week we make up for it by simply listening to two works from the extraordinary 4-CD box set from Another Timbre (at178x4) entitled John Cage Number Pieces (2021). We listen first to Ten (1991), scored for violin, piano, cello, oboe, flute, viola, percussion, violin, clarinet, and trombone, in its entirety, followed by a lengthy excerpt from Eight (1991), scored for brass and woodwind instruments. These are subtle, sublime pieces, performed with meticulous attention and care by the celebrated ensemble Apartment House, just two from the total of 16 works that are featured on this box set. The set also includes a 44-page booklet containing extensive liner notes by Simon Reynell alongside the CDs housed in individual card wallets that sport original artwork by Arvinda Gray.