Back in time

I thought it’d be a good following to the post about Rotators; John Cage performing his brilliant “Water Walk” composition on NBC in 1960.

From johncage.info:
“The materials required are all related to water. Some examples: Bath tub, toy fish, grand piano, pressure cooker where steam is being released, ice cubes and an electric mixer to crush them, rubber duck, goose whistle, 5 radios, etc.
The score consists of a list of properties, a floorplan showing the the placements of instruments and objects, thrre pages with a timeline (one minute each) with descriptions and pictographic notations of occurence of events and a list of notes “regarding some of the actions to be made in the order of occurence” (from score). Timings are not accurate: “Start watch and then time actions as closely as possible to their appearance in the score” (from score).”

Well, I don’t really see how a grand piano can be related to water, but that’s fine with me.

And I can’t resist posting this video of Frank Zappa showing Steve Allen how to play bicycle. It was in 1963, Zappa was 22 years old. Search “Frank Zappa bicycle” on YouTube for seeing the whole show.

Leave a Comment