A Mirthful John Cage Centennial Celebration with The Esoterics

John Cage fans, rejoice! This month marks the hundredth anniversary of the legendary composer’s birth, kicking off Cage centennial events throughout the country. Born on September 5, 1912, the experimental composer made an indelible impact on the cultural landscape of the 20th century.

Everyone seems to be hosting a John Cage birthday celebration this month, from major symphony orchestras to the New York Mycological Society. (Unfamiliar with mycology? It’s the study of mushrooms. Cage was an avid mycologist who amassed a large mushroom collection and occasionally referenced his love for the fungi in his musical compositions).

Last weekend, Seattle-based vocal ensemble The Esoterics hosted an ambitious Cage tribute of their own, featuring three performances of works from Cage’s Songbook (1958-1970) along with several of the composer’s Number Pieces. The concerts were held at churches around the city, with shows in the Capitol Hill, Queen Anne, and West Seattle neighborhoods.

I attended the Sunday afternoon performance at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in West Seattle, which provides a lovely acoustic atmosphere for a choral concert. However, this event was far from an typical choir performance. Half musical compositions, half performance art pieces, Cage’s short works blend virtuosic vocal techniques with a healthy dose of postmodern randomness and absurdity.

As audience members trickled in to the sanctuary before the performance, they were greeted by the spectacle of four singers clustered on the steps leading up to the dais, each acting very strangely. One singer was in the midst of what seemed like a yoga workout. Another was making car noises while pretending to drive. The other two seemed to be practicing a strange vocal exercise while untangling a ball of yarn.

No one had actually lost their marbles — this was simply a performance of Four6, one of Cage’s Number Pieces. Composed in 1990, near the end of the composer’s life, the work requires a quartet of performers to select a sequence of sounds from a list. Each sound is paired with an accompanying action which must be carried out while the performer is making the sound. The score instructs the four performers when to switch between sounds.

This pre-concert performance set the tone for the rest of the show. Led by director Eric Banks, The Esoterics maintained an atmosphere that was light-hearted and humorous, but interspersed with moments of profound beauty and virtuosity. During much of the performance, the thirty-member ensemble stood in a tight semi-circle around the audience, enabling the crowd to experience the action up close. The overall result was a concert that was fascinating and fun for its entire ninety-minute duration, even without an intermission break.

I sat next to a trio of young girls who remained captivated and engaged throughout the performance, giggling at the humorous parts and responding to invitations to interact with the singers. This is no small feat — those who have brought young children to classical music concerts know the difficulties of keeping restless kids quiet and interested in an atmosphere that requires silence and attention. Parents, take note: Children and century avant-garde classical music concerts make for a winning combination.

Much of the concert was devoted to performances of songs from Cage’s Songbook (1958-1970). This set of 92 short pieces for voice is a veritable grab-bag of vocal gymnastics, absurdist actions, bizarre texts, and plain old comedy. The Esoterics performed 42 of the 92 songs at Sunday’s concert (the rest require electronics). Some of the pieces were definitely more song-like than others.

Several songs involved texts set to music, including excerpts “from various books on mushrooms”, newspaper headlines from September 1970, and quotes from Henry David Thoreau’s Essay on Civil Disobedience. Others were more reminiscent of performance art than musical works. Song #26 consists of a singer playing a game of solitaire. #71 requires the sol0ist to “sketch a card or note in ink”. A handful of songs instruct the performers to leave the auditorium and return after a brief interval.

Not all of the Songbook (1958-1970) pieces are steeped in absurd hilarity. Some are charming, some meditative, and some clever. The most beautiful performances of the afternoon involved the entire ensemble. For these pieces, Banks traversed the semi-circle of performers, stopping in front of each singer to assign them a pitch to sing and hold. As he made his way around the circle, adding voices to the mix, the aural texture grew increasingly complex and layered. The process was reminiscent of lighting a row of candles to illuminate a dark room.

The concert was rounded out with a full-ensemble performance of two other Number Pieces, Five and Four2. Both of these featured long, drawn-out pitches in different voices. The excitement and beauty of these pieces is found in the tension and dissonances that occur when the pitches overlap in different ways.

The Esoterics aren’t the only ensemble in town celebrating John Cage’s life and works. Next month, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) teams up with members of the Seattle Symphony for a concert of 20th century music, including Cage’s Variations III. In early November, Seattle Modern Orchestra presents a John Cage Festival, featuring a multimedia documentary about the composer as well as performances of several of Cage’s works, including the Concerto for Prepared Piano and Chamber Orchestra.