Output details

John Cage: Etudes Boreales

Research content/process:

In this project, Knoop explores one of Cage’s most extensive works for piano and/or violoncello. Two versions of the work emerged from the project: one for solo piano and one for piano and cello (with Friedrich Gauwerky [whose solo performance of 10’40.3’ should be discounted from assessment]). The history of Etudes Boréales is marked by the refusal of the original dedicatees to perform the work because it was unplayable, and by its reputation as the apogee of experimentalist virtuosity. Cage was clear that he was aiming to approach the limits of what is playable, and the understanding and communication of those limits underpinned the entire project. Meeting the objective of reaching those limits, and Cage’s other aim for the work – to give ‘an instance of the practicality of the impossible’ – were the fundamental research questions in the project. Methods for the performance of Etudes Boréales differed for the two versions but were governed by a score that matched the highly-precise to the sketched free elements. In both versions, Knoop was required to develop specific percussive skills that relied not only on conventional approaches to the keyboard – touch, timbre, weight, attack and decay – but also that exploited other parts of the piano as a percussion instrument. These techniques then had to be honed and mapped onto the particular instrument chosen for the recording. In the version for piano and cello, Knoop had to work with Gauwerky to assemble a performing score that co-ordinated both artists' efforts, and that also clearly differentiated the duo version of the piece from the one for solo piano. The project also required significant technical research in collaboration with an instrument technician to render the piano suitable for the work.